Is there a better feeling in all of aquariumdom...?

[bnord]

Than setting up a 15G desk tank with softies and LPS and waiting for months to find the 2-3 just right fish for it - then seeing the tiniest most intricately patterned leopard wrasse you ever have seen that will fit just perfect for a year or so, holding it in observation tank, adding it to the 15 and watching it adjust, floating like a grass blade on the gentle currents while it picks at the rocks for 2-3 days, then forgetting to put the lid back on one night while glass cleaning, then not seeing it the next day, and desperately searching the desk and ground realizing you are an idiot because you know wrasses jump, and you know your wife's f'n cat would have picked it up, but also knowing they will burrow, and still watching it for almost a week and resigning yourself to having blown it, you dope, and then, just now, seeing it mimicking a leaf picking at pods....

if your have a better feeling, would love to hear it and share the joy cuz I'm doing a little happy dance right now!

But I am still a dope - smile

 

[i cant think]

Than setting up a 15G desk tank with softies and LPS and waiting for months to find the 2-3 just right fish for it - then seeing the tiniest most intricately patterned leopard wrasse you ever have seen that will fit just perfect for a year or so, holding it in observation tank, adding it to the 15 and watching it adjust, floating like a grass blade on the gentle currents while it picks at the rocks for 2-3 days, then forgetting to put the lid back on one night while glass cleaning, then not seeing it the next day, and desperately searching the desk and ground realizing you are an idiot because you know wrasses jump, and you know your wife's f'n cat would have picked it up, but also knowing they will burrow, and still watching it for almost a week and resigning yourself to having blown it, you dope, and then, just now, seeing it mimicking a leaf picking at pods....

if your have a better feeling, would love to hear it and share the joy cuz I'm doing a little happy dance right now!

But I am still a dope - smile

I totally get that feeling!
I had my Naoko fairy wrasse make it into the sump of my Red Sea max nano. I had no idea and thought it jumped and I’d never find it… One final check around the tank and my gut feeling was to lift out the ATO and check. I saw thick flicker of red, thought it was just the heater then saw a blue shine. This was around 4 hours after a water change, when I tell you that wrasse gives me a shock when doing a water change that’s an understatement. This fish survived 4 hours in a sump and is still with me I think almost a year later.

I also have the same feeling with adding new fish to any tank, when they vanish (I had this feeling with a pair of Trimma tevegae) and don’t come out until the lights dim it is the worst feeling especially if you have no clue of where they went.


Got any photos of that Leopard? I love mine - around 9 months ago I got a Blue Star as a 0.5 inch juvenile (Probably smaller) and she is now around an inch in my Red Sea max nano and is with 8 other fish.

 

[blaxsun]

Adding a wild mandarin dragonet, having it hide in the rocks for a few days and not really eating much, completely disappear for over a week and then finally spotting it dart out from the rocks to eat frozen food of all things. This feeling is then tempered by the realization that I've adopted a "rock mandarin", and that he will almost certainly not be on display for viewing. +1 for happy/healthy fish (and no copepod restocking), -1 for phantom fish.

 

[homer1475]

Than setting up a 15G desk tank with softies and LPS and waiting for months to find the 2-3 just right fish for it - then seeing the tiniest most intricately patterned leopard wrasse you ever have seen that will fit just perfect for a year or so, holding it in observation tank, adding it to the 15 and watching it adjust, floating like a grass blade on the gentle currents while it picks at the rocks for 2-3 days, then forgetting to put the lid back on one night while glass cleaning, then not seeing it the next day, and desperately searching the desk and ground realizing you are an idiot because you know wrasses jump, and you know your wife's f'n cat would have picked it up, but also knowing they will burrow, and still watching it for almost a week and resigning yourself to having blown it, you dope, and then, just now, seeing it mimicking a leaf picking at pods....

if your have a better feeling, would love to hear it and share the joy cuz I'm doing a little happy dance right now!

But I am still a dope - smile

Been there, done that.

Ive had a wrasse hide for as much as 3 weeks. Chalked it up to dead(even stirred up the sandbed to see if it was still hiding, no dice). Came home one day, and it was out, picking at the rocks and in perfect health!

 

[homer1475]

Adding a wild mandarin dragonet, having it hide in the rocks for a few days and not really eating much, completely disappear for over a week and then finally spotting it dart out from the rocks to eat frozen food of all things. This feeling is then tempered by the realization that I've adopted a "rock mandarin", and that he will almost certainly not be on display for viewing. +1 for happy/healthy fish (and no copepod restocking), -1 for phantom fish.

I have 2.....

Unless I sit and watch the tank for like 20 minutes solid, I never see either one.

Only time I ever really see them, is when they are sleeping. They have chose to sleep right dead center of my rockwork on the sand. I see both of them sleeping together every morning when I go to work.

Yes a showpiece fish, but not one you will likely see very often.

 

[bnord]

I totally get that feeling!
I had my Naoko fairy wrasse make it into the sump of my Red Sea max nano. I had no idea and thought it jumped and I’d never find it… One final check around the tank and my gut feeling was to lift out the ATO and check. I saw thick flicker of red, thought it was just the heater then saw a blue shine. This was around 4 hours after a water change, when I tell you that wrasse gives me a shock when doing a water change that’s an understatement. This fish survived 4 hours in a sump and is still with me I think almost a year later.

I also have the same feeling with adding new fish to any tank, when they vanish (I had this feeling with a pair of Trimma tevegae) and don’t come out until the lights dim it is the worst feeling especially if you have no clue of where they went.


Got any photos of that Leopard? I love mine - around 9 months ago I got a Blue Star as a 0.5 inch juvenile (Probably smaller) and she is now around an inch in my Red Sea max nano and is with 8 other fish.

HA! had a sexy shrimp end up on the middle media chamber of this same 15 - tried to catch it for months - never did

And have been trying for the shot worth sharing and will continue to do so...

 

[i cant think]

The naoko is an escape artist and the biggest reason I constantly do a fin count - Going to be even worse now I have 9 fish with 3 being more nocturnal!
These guys have given me the biggest scare so far, they went in and vanished instantly then don’t come out until the lights start to dim or it’s early in the morning.

Here’s the original post I think a few hours or the next morning after I got the naoko out.

So earlier I did a full water change, the pumps and everything. My naoko decided that when I took the returning flow part out he squeezed into the gap and through the grid he went, all the way to the bottom of the sump.
2-3 hours later and I realise he hasn’t shown up (I didn’t know he had gone to the sump) so I kept watching the tank for another hour or so and he still didn’t show. I left the lights for for around 1 hour then turned them on again to see if he would have thought it was a new day. Still no appearance of the wrasse and that’s when I knew something was wrong. I looked all over the floor and in ever crevice I know he sleeps in. He was nowhere, so then I wait around 2 hours later and my gut thinks to check in the back sump again with a torch. I did it and a stream of red shows up, I then went to get a net and bucket, empty everything out of the sump (Over the span of like 10 minutes) then the wrasse is just gone, I looked at the other side of the sump and red was there, eventually after a lot of back and forth S, I took out the top piece and the over flow. I finally got him around 10 minutes ago and he is not sleeping back in the crevice with the yasha goby. I named him sump wrasse because he survived around 6-7 hours in a sump with a heater on the bottom (Where he stayed around) and I have yet to see burn marks which was shocking to me.
I’m unsure if he will live however he did come out of stress colours after a minute or so in the corner of the DT so he probably will.

 

[bnord]

Finally got a passable pic of the little guy…

 

[i cant think]

Finally got a passable pic of the little guy…

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a Meleagris with that patterning, must be extremely young.
I think this is the only photo I have of my Blue star with the juvenile colours at their most.

 

[bnord]

Nice - looks like a gem

yeah, it was love at first sight, had been holding the tank fishless for some time - waiting
the bullseye in the mid body is more pronounced in life, and equal on both sides
Love how at this size it floats mimic of a leaf

 

[ilikefish69]

Finally got a passable pic of the little guy…

That is the type of coral i had back in 2012 in a biocube when they were all the rage. What is it called? I love it, and the fish is awesome too.

 

[bnord]

That is the type of coral i had back in 2012 in a biocube when they were all the rage. What is it called? I love it, and the fish is awesome too.

Thanks. - it is a mushroom that the LFS had that was all shrunk up and stressed out and he gave it to me and 2- months of gentle light and voila….

 

[i cant think]

That is the type of coral i had back in 2012 in a biocube when they were all the rage. What is it called? I love it, and the fish is awesome too.

Looks like a Florida ricordea