Tank birthday, 47+ years

Paulie069 · Mar 11, 2020

Paul B said:
29 year old Fireclown with eggs.

My new guy.

That’s a pretty fish

Paul B · Mar 11, 2020

My Wife's Doctor is 15 miles west of here. There is nothing out here on eastern Long Island but 3 of them there.

Paul B · Mar 11, 2020

I took another video. About half of the fish are hiding but I have a lot of those types of fish. Not seen here is a
Hippo tang, bluestripe pipefish, mandarin, 2nd sunburst anthius, 2nd possum wrasse, 2nd watchman gobi, 2 gecko gobies, 2 rainsford gobies, green clown gobi, 2nd striped cardinal, 2 six line wrasses. 5 fish that I have no idea what they are and an arrow crab.

I took this to show a natural tank. You can see tufts of hair algae, cyano, aiptasia, asternia stars, dead corals and Godzilla larvae.
The 29 year old fire clowns are tending their eggs as they lay them every few days.

Tank now is all NSW taken right from the surf with nothing added and nothing has ever been quarantined, medicated, dipped, de-wormed or anything else.

User1 · Mar 11, 2020

Thanks for sharing. 0:32 mark I see a bi-color blenny. Personable fish - great to have. At least that is what it looked like to me. And at 1:51 I see some sort of neon dottyback or similar pseduochromis. Of course see everything else you mentioned.

Hope all is well with you and yours!

Paul B · Mar 11, 2020

Saf, Thanks for dropping by. I can never get even most of the fish out at the same time and many of them just never come out. The Gecko gobies I have never seen an entire fish so I may have 1 or 2, I can't tell. The same with the possum wrasses. I had 2 of them but they are so secretive that I have never seen both of them and they look exactly the same. 6 line wrasses also. There is a matting pair of watchman gobies but they are usually both at the entrance of their cave.

I designed this tank so that almost the entire reef structure is raised off the bottom an inch or two and in there is all interconnecting caves/tunnels so fish can and do hide for months.

It's not so good for me, but great for the fish because I know they don't want to see my ugly mug every day.
I also only buy the more odd, unusual fish and they tend to be secretive.

This new guy is at the very beginning at the right in the back, you can hardly see him but he is behind that black fish that I forget what it is.

This guy is hard to photograph but stays in the front in the montipora.

The Hippo was still sleeping and doesn't get up until about 9:00.

I am not sure where this guy is.

I forgot about the big decorator crab. He only comes out at night.

Hiding

Hiding.

The female is hiding, she hunts on the back glass

I could probably go on.

User1 · Mar 11, 2020

Paul B said:
Saf, Thanks for dropping by. I can never get even most of the fish out at the same time and many of them just never come out. The Gecko gobies I have never seen an entire fish so I may have 1 or 2, I can't tell. The same with the possum wrasses. I had 2 of them but they are so secretive that I have never seen both of them and they look exactly the same. 6 line wrasses also. There is a matting pair of watchman gobies but they are usually both at the entrance of their cave.

I designed this tank so that almost the entire reef structure is raised off the bottom an inch or two and in there is all interconnecting caves/tunnels so fish can and do hide for months.

It's not so good for me, but great for the fish because I know they don't want to see my ugly mug every day.
I also only buy the more odd, unusual fish and they tend to be secretive.

This new guy is at the very beginning at the right in the back, you can hardly see him but he is behind that black fish that I forget what it is.

This guy is hard to photograph but stays in the front in the montipora.

The Hippo was still sleeping and doesn't get up until about 9:00.

I am not sure where this guy is.

I forgot about the big decorator crab. He only comes out at night.

Hiding

Hiding.

The female is hiding, she hunts on the back glass

I could probably go on.

Thanks Paul. yeah - as I watched the video I was able to see a lot of fish actually so was crossing off what I saw on your list

. I love the possum wrasses and hope to add one in a year or two. Still waiting for my tank to mature and corals to grow out before I add anything else.

I like the way it is set up but you probably already know that because I've said it before

. Or at least hope I did. Natural is hard to replicate but I think that is one of the key elements when setting up a tank. For whatever reason what seems to stick in my mind is pick a reef type or bio type and build around it rather than trying to force coral and or fish that may not be natural to the surrounding. No idea if there is any truth to that...

Thanks again for the video. I enjoyed it.

Paul B · Mar 11, 2020

I strive for natural looking and don't really like to clean or organized. I want tufts of algae, cyano and things like that. I also leave dead corals in there as it is normal on a reef to have all of that stuff.

Remember I only re set this tank up here an year and a half ago. I am happy the way it filled in so quickly even though I had to break all my corals off the rocks to move the tank 60 miles here in vats.

I built out of cement a large structure to hold up the reef before I moved. I tried to get almost everything up off the gravel and I succeeded for the most part as I can look under the structure to the back almost everywhere.
That is very important to the fish because as you know, if you can see them, they can see you.

That is also a huge problem people don't realize if they quarantine because they want to be able to see the fish. Fish hate that and let you know by getting sick. As I always say, it is us making the fish sick, they are fine when we get them and only need a secure place to live and proper food.
Look at the stuff growing here. I think this was in the Caribbean. Not very clean, but natural.

This was the Florida Keys.

Hawaii

Look at the gunk growing around this spotted Moray in Hawaii.

I try to mimic that in my tank and I think I have succeeded. It is needed for fish health.

User1 · Mar 11, 2020

Paul B said:
I strive for natural looking and don't really like to clean or organized. I want tufts of algae, cyano and things like that. I also leave dead corals in there as it is normal on a reef to have all of that stuff.

Remember I only re set this tank up here an year and a half ago. I am happy the way it filled in so quickly even though I had to break all my corals off the rocks to move the tank 60 miles here in vats.

I built out of cement a large structure to hold up the reef before I moved. I tried to get almost everything up off the gravel and I succeeded for the most part as I can look under the structure to the back almost everywhere.
That is very important to the fish because as you know, if you can see them, they can see you.

That is also a huge problem people don't realize if they quarantine because they want to be able to see the fish. Fish hate that and let you know by getting sick. As I always say, it is us making the fish sick, they are fine when we get them and only need a secure place to live and proper food.
Look at the stuff growing here. I think this was in the Caribbean. Not very clean, but natural.

This was the Florida Keys.

Hawaii

Look at the gunk growing around this spotted Moray in Hawaii.

I try to mimic that in my tank and I think I have succeeded. It is needed for fish health.

100% agree

Katrina71 · Mar 11, 2020

I like the natural look also. The ocean never looks pristine.

atoll · Mar 11, 2020

saf1 said:
100% agree

Is what I strive to achieve and you know it's not really so difficult. I tried this minimalist reefscape but it just doesn't appear natural. I was offered more live rock FOC by a nice lady so I obliged her kindness. It came from her sump so its currently white but that will change. The fish will feel more secure which equals less stress, less stress happy, diseases free fish.

fishybizzness · Mar 12, 2020

As I've said before, I also strive to have my tank look as close to the reefs I I snorkel on regularly. Anything else looks fake to me and is not very pleasing to my eyes!

oceans garden aquaculture · Mar 12, 2020

This is one of the coolest threads I've ever read. What an amazing accomplishment!

Victoria M · Mar 12, 2020

Look, the problem with your natural tanks is not the cyano, the algae and the ich. It is the the distinct lack of Disney! My fish dont like plain ole PVC either. They enjoy and benefit from the black, red and yellow. and BOWS always improve the ambiance.