Cthulukelele's hodgepodge softy and anemone 120g

OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I think it's actually splitting into 3 lol. Also my largest anthias has realllyyyy started to progress to male
20230202_182240.jpg
20230202_172251.jpg
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Some changes. My lfs had a very healthy looking and eating banded possum wrasse, so I pulled the trigger. It has been a bucket list fish. Very cryptic so far but eating and exploring. Most fish completely ignore them. I also added a little barnacle cluster as decoration. I'm trying out dosing chaetogro once a week. It has exploded chaeto growth, but also have a bit of gha as well with it. May get one spot foxface sooner rather than later now
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Big update. Learned my green clown goby is a girl. Laid eggs on my toadstool lol.
20230207_184910.jpg


Here's the added barnacle cluster and the proud new unfertilized momma
20230207_185116.jpg


Also here is new yellow banded possum wrasse! Eating frozen, a teensy bit of flake, and pod hunting through the rocks. Mostly left alone and getting settled. Seems happy.
20230207_185040.jpg
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I really enjoy watching the possum wrasse a lot. They are just all over the tank hunting and exploring. Absolutely stunning watching the way it just sort of ufo glides around the rockwork. I think it already knows the pathing through my rockwork better than any other fish in my tank after only 4 days. What a fascinating creature. Still a little scared of me but improving.
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey there! Just stumbled across your build thread and will be following. It looks like you have a nice mix of different fish, may I know how long you’ve had them?

Any aggression between your pair of Anthias? Thanks!
So the fish I've had most of them for between 6 months and 1 month. Anthias probably a month and a half. There's definitely aggression, but not like when they were deciding who the male was. Nothing that seems dangerous to the female's health. The watchman goby I've had for 4 1/2 years. Had a horrible crash about a year ago after a week long power outage and spent 6 months correcting water parameters before adding new fish as I didn't want to break down the tank.
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey there! Just stumbled across your build thread and will be following. It looks like you have a nice mix of different fish, may I know how long you’ve had them?

Any aggression between your pair of Anthias? Thanks!
I did buy 3, but I lost the runt to uronema. Also thanks for checking out my build! Also the male anthias is arguably more mean to my flasher wrasse than my female anthias.
 

X-37B

Fight the Good Fight
View Badges
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
9,011
Reaction score
15,632
Location
Outer Limits
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I take lots of photos. Everyone complains that they're ugly. :zany-face:
Some just like to complain.
I use a lens kit on my android. Best $30 I have spent in this hobby in a long time.
I use the IceCap lens kit.
 

tbrown

Nominated Cronie Intern - Might be failing?
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2019
Messages
48,466
Reaction score
101,500
Location
Peoria, AZ
Rating - 100%
2   0   0
Some just like to complain.
I use a lens kit on my android. Best $30 I have spent in this hobby in a long time.
I use the IceCap lens kit.
I just use manual mode. They're not bad, just a bad camera.
IMG_20230129_184051849.jpg

Definitely lots of blue without the lens but I run super heavy blue so it's almost accurate to what I see. Kinda grainy though.
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey there! Just stumbled across your build thread and will be following. It looks like you have a nice mix of different fish, may I know how long you’ve had them?

Any aggression between your pair of Anthias? Thanks!
Also if you were curious and because want to here's a current list of beefs in the tank:

The tomini tang is not a huge fan of the lawnmower blenny. He will occasionally chase the blenny away if it perches on top of "their" rock. Generally though, they aren't interacting. It happens only if lawnmower perches and tries to clean a specific rock

The biggest butthead is the male lyretail, but it's not real aggression. He just swoops to assert dominance. He does it worst to the flasher wrasse (who mostly sticks to the left side of the tank now because of it but will still roam some), female lyretail, and midas blenny. The latter 2 are reasonable as it's the biological niche they exist in and neither seem to mind. The hierarch is Def male lyretail -> female lyretail -> midas blenny

Aside from those beefs the tank is essentially 100% free from squabbling.

Previous beefs:

Lawnmower blenny used to hate green clown goby. He would go over and gently bite her whenever he darted for food then just lay next to them intimidating them. Ironically the very mild aggression from the tomini tang was enough to divert this behavior (honestly my preference as the tomini is less mean to the lawnmower than the lawnmower was to the green clown goby).

The talbots damsel was NOT a fan of the pygmy angel when I added them like 3 months ago. If the angel tried to swim around the left side of the tank there was serious head butting (the worst head butting since the crash). Damsel would aggressively bite angels side and leave bite marks. They were similar size at the time. As pygmy is now larger, aggression is essentially 0 since an altercation I witnessed where damsel was trying to be rude and the now much bigger and established angel straight divebombed the damsel and damaged a scale. Since then they don't even look at each other usually and will even swim together when the angel is in the damsels turf. Fish are funny like that

Royal gramma didn't love the cleaner goby when it was added. Similar body shape and close to snack sized is my guess. After a few weeks gramma doesn't seem to mind them anymore but will still push them away if they get near its hole.

Damsel also didn't like the possum wrasse the first day as the damsels turf includes the best cave in the tank which the possum wanted. Similar situation to angel and damsel but surprisingly the possum wrasse checked the damsel much quicker than the angel. Maybe the second or 3rd time the damsel came up to be rude and show dominance the possum wrasse started pecking at the damsel and since then no problems.

Tomini tang and damsel didn't love where the yellow watchman and pistol shrimp set up their home, but that was a short lived squabble and the 2 of them eventually capitulated when they realized it doesn't really explore outside that small area.

There's my fish beef retrospective! Lol
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Never enough photos, lol.
Lol I agree. This time around I decided I didn't want to set up any dosing, so I'm running soft corals and nems. Starting to restock some coral again finally! Will enjoy watching my little swamp grow while I check in on your sps lighting experiment lol
 

tbrown

Nominated Cronie Intern - Might be failing?
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2019
Messages
48,466
Reaction score
101,500
Location
Peoria, AZ
Rating - 100%
2   0   0
Also if you were curious and because want to here's a current list of beefs in the tank:

The tomini tang is not a huge fan of the lawnmower blenny. He will occasionally chase the blenny away if it perches on top of "their" rock. Generally though, they aren't interacting. It happens only if lawnmower perches and tries to clean a specific rock

The biggest butthead is the male lyretail, but it's not real aggression. He just swoops to assert dominance. He does it worst to the flasher wrasse (who mostly sticks to the left side of the tank now because of it but will still roam some), female lyretail, and midas blenny. The latter 2 are reasonable as it's the biological niche they exist in and neither seem to mind. The hierarch is Def male lyretail -> female lyretail -> midas blenny

Aside from those beefs the tank is essentially 100% free from squabbling.

Previous beefs:

Lawnmower blenny used to hate green clown goby. He would go over and gently bite her whenever he darted for food then just lay next to them intimidating them. Ironically the very mild aggression from the tomini tang was enough to divert this behavior (honestly my preference as the tomini is less mean to the lawnmower than the lawnmower was to the green clown goby).

The talbots damsel was NOT a fan of the pygmy angel when I added them like 3 months ago. If the angel tried to swim around the left side of the tank there was serious head butting (the worst head butting since the crash). Damsel would aggressively bite angels side and leave bite marks. They were similar size at the time. As pygmy is now larger, aggression is essentially 0 since an altercation I witnessed where damsel was trying to be rude and the now much bigger and established angel straight divebombed the damsel and damaged a scale. Since then they don't even look at each other usually and will even swim together when the angel is in the damsels turf. Fish are funny like that

Royal gramma didn't love the cleaner goby when it was added. Similar body shape and close to snack sized is my guess. After a few weeks gramma doesn't seem to mind them anymore but will still push them away if they get near its hole.

Damsel also didn't like the possum wrasse the first day as the damsels turf includes the best cave in the tank which the possum wanted. Similar situation to angel and damsel but surprisingly the possum wrasse checked the damsel much quicker than the angel. Maybe the second or 3rd time the damsel came up to be rude and show dominance the possum wrasse started pecking at the damsel and since then no problems.

Tomini tang and damsel didn't love where the yellow watchman and pistol shrimp set up their home, but that was a short lived squabble and the 2 of them eventually capitulated when they realized it doesn't really explore outside that small area.

There's my fish beef retrospective! Lol
Interesting... My Tomini chases both the Starry and Lawnmower, the Starry chases the Lawnmower, and the Lawnmower dug a cave under the GSP island and likes to hang out with me at the front of the tank. The only other minor agression is the PJs and Bangaii chasing each other around occasionally but there's a total of 7 of them. All 3 of my clowns are great together, the Chromis hangs out with the Tomini and my Springeri Damselfish don't chase anything or each other. My Hector's Goby will flare at my Striped Fang Blenny occasionally but they don't ever go after each other. Most of the time everything is just swimming in the current.
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Interesting... My Tomini chases both the Starry and Lawnmower, the Starry chases the Lawnmower, and the Lawnmower dug a cave under the GSP island and likes to hang out with me at the front of the tank. The only other minor agression is the PJs and Bangaii chasing each other around occasionally but there's a total of 7 of them. All 3 of my clowns are great together, the Chromis hangs out with the Tomini and my Springeri Damselfish don't chase anything or each other. My Hector's Goby will flare at my Striped Fang Blenny occasionally but they don't ever go after each other. Most of the time everything is just swimming in the current.
My understanding is that since salarias blennies and bristletooth tangs both have scraping mouths, they view each other as competition.
 

tbrown

Nominated Cronie Intern - Might be failing?
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2019
Messages
48,466
Reaction score
101,500
Location
Peoria, AZ
Rating - 100%
2   0   0
My understanding is that since salarias blennies and bristletooth tangs both have scraping mouths, they view each other as competition.
I think it's true for most fish. Food competition is true often in species of planktonic angels like the Lamarck's Angel and Wrasses like Flashers and Fairies for the same reason.
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I think it's true for most fish. Food competition is true often in species of planktonic angels like the Lamarck's Angel and Wrasses like Flashers and Fairies for the same reason.
And it makes sense that the anthias bother the wrasse as theyre both planktivores
 

Soren

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 2, 2020
Messages
2,313
Reaction score
8,443
Location
Illinois, USA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've been missing a lot not having checked out your build thread! Now I'm finally here.
Tank looks great and you have several life forms I am particularly fond of: large toadstool, Tomini tang, royal gramma, cleaner goby, Midas blenny (especially blue!), Rhodactis mushroom, urchin (forget the species, but I think yours is the same type at the top of my list), to name a few!

Do you have any plans still for adding a foxface rabbitfish? Hopefully you can find one at reasonable price soon.
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've been missing a lot not having checked out your build thread! Now I'm finally here.
Tank looks great and you have several life forms I am particularly fond of: large toadstool, Tomini tang, royal gramma, cleaner goby, Midas blenny (especially blue!), Rhodactis mushroom, urchin (forget the species, but I think yours is the same type at the top of my list), to name a few!

Do you have any plans still for adding a foxface rabbitfish? Hopefully you can find one at reasonable price soon.
Thank you! Yes! My hope is a lfs will have a small one spot on stocking day tomorrow!

I love all my urchins. The biggest eater is the shortspine urchin, but he sleeps all day. The tuxedo is incredibly nimble and gets into a lot of crevices, and the pincushion is almost 4-5 inches across so absolutely clear cuts in a straight line.

The hope is the one spot will fill the last hole in my cleaning crew for minor bits of hair algae as well as just generally bring a last dash of activity and color with a different body shape. I've also heard once established they make great "peacemaker" fish given their poisonous spines and relatively large adult size.

Also the next addition today is 3 different gorgonian frags. Going to hopefully fill out the top portion of the tank with gorgs
 
OP
OP
Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Messages
2,770
Reaction score
5,420
Location
Durham, North Carolina
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've been missing a lot not having checked out your build thread! Now I'm finally here.
Tank looks great and you have several life forms I am particularly fond of: large toadstool, Tomini tang, royal gramma, cleaner goby, Midas blenny (especially blue!), Rhodactis mushroom, urchin (forget the species, but I think yours is the same type at the top of my list), to name a few!

Do you have any plans still for adding a foxface rabbitfish? Hopefully you can find one at reasonable price soon.
It makes sense that we have similar taste in stocking given how much I liked your build also lol
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 68 37.4%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 61 33.5%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.7%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 15.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
Back
Top