OP
OP
WarEaglesReef
Active Member
Long time, no update! A lot has gone on since the last time I dropped in to talk about my tank.
First off I caught and sold my kole tang. As she established her territory she just got way too aggressive towards all the other fish in the tank and was just harassing my clowns near non-stop. So she had to go. I miss her zooming around the tank all day, but I certainly don't miss the stress she put on the other fish. She went to a great home with another local reefer and he tells me she is doing great in her new home and getting along with everyone well. The tank is very peaceful now, but also feels empty! Taking my time to decide what I want to add next. Thinking maybe a wrasse or a coral beauty angel.
My starry blenny has found a new favorite place to perch. He weaves himself into my leather coral and chills out there swaying in the current watching over everything. My leather hasn't been so happy about that, but deals with it ok for the most part.
A couple weeks ago was my one year anniversary with my clowns and rainford goby! Love those three fish. Looking back at pics from when I first got them, man have they grown a lot. My rainford has bloomed into a very outgoing fish in this larger tank, always out and about instead of sticking to his cave like he used to in my nano tank. My female clown has fallen in love with my Aussie gold torch which I'm hoping to change. I moved it right next to my much larger purple torch in the hopes that she'll switch to that one as I don't quite mind as much if that one is a bit irritated. She will still occasionally rest on the anemone I got them, but it's still a bit too small for her to really host.
And now for my biggest news...my banggais are now successfully breeding! Early last month I noticed them doing the signature dance and the next day the male stopped accepting food as he had a mouth full of eggs. Not the clearest photo, but you can see that here.
They had mated successfully once before, but he swallowed the eggs about a week later. This time however he decided to keep them the entire time and then some. I got a small 2.5 gallon tank and started hatching baby brine shrimp on day 18 just in case he decided to spit them out early (everything I read said that they release the fry at around 19-21 days after breeding) but he definitely had other plans. I fed the first couple batches of brine shrimp to the tank (which the clowns LOVED) as he still refused to let his babies out of his mouth. I tried to catch him to keep him in a separate tank to release the babies but he was having none of that so I gave up as I didn't want to stress him out too much. I picked up a couple spikey fake aquarium plant decorations to mimic long spine urchins so that when he spit them out hopefully they would find them and have a place to stay safe from all of the predators in the tank. Yesterday morning at 29 days after breeding I woke up to find one lone survivor inside one of the little plants! I'm not sure if there were others that just got eaten, or if this was the only one that the male kept alive on his first go round but I was super excited regardless.
I was able to cut the bottom off a two liter bottle and place that down around the fake plant to contain the baby if he decided to leave the plant and then lift both up and out of the tank while keeping the suuuuper tiny little baby safe inside. I transferred him to a little floating breeder box that I have suction cupped to the front side of the tank with his fake plant and he's been doing fabulous ever since. It's the perfect size for him to hang out inside and feel protected while still letting me get a good look at him. Not too shabby for a $1 find at petsmart.
Occasionally he'll get comfortable enough to come out of the plant and explore his little safe habitat. He's less than a centimeter long and just adorable as can be. I've been feeding him several times a day, a mix of live baby brine shrimp and frozen baby brine soaked in selcon. I'm not sure how much of it he's eating, but he did have quite a chubby little pot belly after feeding this morning, so I'm confident he's at least finding some of it as he explores. Here's a little gif of him out and about yesterday.
I'm pretty sure the male had one more in his mouth still yesterday because he was still refusing food, but this morning he finally ate so I think we're all done now. Curious to see if there will be other babies in the tank that I've just missed as they're so tiny. I left the second fake plant in the main display just in case on the off chance there is one and it finds it as a good place to hide. Super happy that I sexed my cardinal pair correctly so that I could experience this process. So cool! Hoping as they continue to mature I'll get some bigger clutches of eggs, but one for the first try is awesome.
And finally here's an overall shot from early January just before I sold the tang (need to get a new one with my new corals!) and a side shot from just before the baby banggai arrived.
Reefstock is coming up at the end of this month, so I think there will be some rearranging going on to make room for whatever I choose to bring home from there. Thinking I will get rid of the giant rock of xenia as it really has become more of a weed and find a way to bunch my euphyllia corals together to free up some space (aside from the torches as they're ***** mean and get their own corner of the tank.). Also considering adding a bit more rock above the little acan garden in the center further back to maybe make some room for some branching sps.
First off I caught and sold my kole tang. As she established her territory she just got way too aggressive towards all the other fish in the tank and was just harassing my clowns near non-stop. So she had to go. I miss her zooming around the tank all day, but I certainly don't miss the stress she put on the other fish. She went to a great home with another local reefer and he tells me she is doing great in her new home and getting along with everyone well. The tank is very peaceful now, but also feels empty! Taking my time to decide what I want to add next. Thinking maybe a wrasse or a coral beauty angel.
My starry blenny has found a new favorite place to perch. He weaves himself into my leather coral and chills out there swaying in the current watching over everything. My leather hasn't been so happy about that, but deals with it ok for the most part.
A couple weeks ago was my one year anniversary with my clowns and rainford goby! Love those three fish. Looking back at pics from when I first got them, man have they grown a lot. My rainford has bloomed into a very outgoing fish in this larger tank, always out and about instead of sticking to his cave like he used to in my nano tank. My female clown has fallen in love with my Aussie gold torch which I'm hoping to change. I moved it right next to my much larger purple torch in the hopes that she'll switch to that one as I don't quite mind as much if that one is a bit irritated. She will still occasionally rest on the anemone I got them, but it's still a bit too small for her to really host.
And now for my biggest news...my banggais are now successfully breeding! Early last month I noticed them doing the signature dance and the next day the male stopped accepting food as he had a mouth full of eggs. Not the clearest photo, but you can see that here.
They had mated successfully once before, but he swallowed the eggs about a week later. This time however he decided to keep them the entire time and then some. I got a small 2.5 gallon tank and started hatching baby brine shrimp on day 18 just in case he decided to spit them out early (everything I read said that they release the fry at around 19-21 days after breeding) but he definitely had other plans. I fed the first couple batches of brine shrimp to the tank (which the clowns LOVED) as he still refused to let his babies out of his mouth. I tried to catch him to keep him in a separate tank to release the babies but he was having none of that so I gave up as I didn't want to stress him out too much. I picked up a couple spikey fake aquarium plant decorations to mimic long spine urchins so that when he spit them out hopefully they would find them and have a place to stay safe from all of the predators in the tank. Yesterday morning at 29 days after breeding I woke up to find one lone survivor inside one of the little plants! I'm not sure if there were others that just got eaten, or if this was the only one that the male kept alive on his first go round but I was super excited regardless.
I was able to cut the bottom off a two liter bottle and place that down around the fake plant to contain the baby if he decided to leave the plant and then lift both up and out of the tank while keeping the suuuuper tiny little baby safe inside. I transferred him to a little floating breeder box that I have suction cupped to the front side of the tank with his fake plant and he's been doing fabulous ever since. It's the perfect size for him to hang out inside and feel protected while still letting me get a good look at him. Not too shabby for a $1 find at petsmart.
Occasionally he'll get comfortable enough to come out of the plant and explore his little safe habitat. He's less than a centimeter long and just adorable as can be. I've been feeding him several times a day, a mix of live baby brine shrimp and frozen baby brine soaked in selcon. I'm not sure how much of it he's eating, but he did have quite a chubby little pot belly after feeding this morning, so I'm confident he's at least finding some of it as he explores. Here's a little gif of him out and about yesterday.
I'm pretty sure the male had one more in his mouth still yesterday because he was still refusing food, but this morning he finally ate so I think we're all done now. Curious to see if there will be other babies in the tank that I've just missed as they're so tiny. I left the second fake plant in the main display just in case on the off chance there is one and it finds it as a good place to hide. Super happy that I sexed my cardinal pair correctly so that I could experience this process. So cool! Hoping as they continue to mature I'll get some bigger clutches of eggs, but one for the first try is awesome.
And finally here's an overall shot from early January just before I sold the tang (need to get a new one with my new corals!) and a side shot from just before the baby banggai arrived.
Reefstock is coming up at the end of this month, so I think there will be some rearranging going on to make room for whatever I choose to bring home from there. Thinking I will get rid of the giant rock of xenia as it really has become more of a weed and find a way to bunch my euphyllia corals together to free up some space (aside from the torches as they're ***** mean and get their own corner of the tank.). Also considering adding a bit more rock above the little acan garden in the center further back to maybe make some room for some branching sps.
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