Christi's 85 gallon reef

Discussion in 'New Tank Builds' started by LJC6780, Apr 9, 2017.

  1. Unless someone is selling as a pair your playing an odds game. Another reason to buy several. I've had one successful clutch. Only a couple survived.

    I was never able to get any of my cardinals to eat anything other than frozen food.

    I'll repeat myself too. They really are happiest with rockscape to get out of the light. Very timid and easily outcompeted for food. Though they are popular, peaceful, and rather easy to breed, proper environment should be considered.

    You may also want to consider a long tentacle urchin. The urchin is a home for the babies.
     
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  2. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    I plan to have a quarantine tank set up soon.

    Also, thoughts on quarantining a second clown. Since they seem to turn to female rather quickly after being alone, I'm not thinking I'll be able to quarantine very long. Should I go for a couple days to a week and treat prophylacticly during that time rather than doing an extended quarantine of like 4-6 weeks?
     
  3. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    Interesting information! I'm now hesitating on buying the whole group all at once because honestly, I just can't afford it right now.

    I do have lots of rock work and several arches and overhangs or large rocks with space underneath.

    I guess I'll ultimately have to do some more research.
     
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  4. Accurate info is sometimes difficult to obtain. The usual way is to click on a fish profile and read their care instructions. For the most part this ensures the fish can be sustained and kept alive and that's okay. Allowing a species to thrive and resume more natural instincts and behavior is totally different.

    I don't want to dissuade you from cardinals, that just happens to be 'one' fish I know a little bit about. At the end of the day there is nothing natural about a glass box. :)
     
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  5. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    I can totally agree with you on the glass box!
     
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  6. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    Well I picked up a couple banggai cardinals tonight. We went to petco and they had a tank full and they all looked great and were about $10 cheaper than the LFS and are still maricultured. I'm not sure why such the price difference but I went ahead and grabbed some. I looked up how to sex them and I am pretty sure I have a M/F pair. They have also been swimming close together, almost schooling with each other. I think I'm going to go the route of seeing if they spawn and raising the babies and see where it goes.

    And let me just say, always test the bag water for Salinity and ph because sometimes I forget and just start acclimating but tonight I'm glad I checked because it was 1.030!!! (I'm going to call them tomorrow and let them know it was so high!) I added a few squirts of RO water to drop it slowly and then just increased the level on the QT up to about 1.028 and plan to add a cup of RO water here and here over the next couple days to dilute it down to normal. I've been keeping tanks at 1.025 and I have recently calibrated my refractometer to some 35ppt solution. It was less than .001 off.

    Anyway. I watched these guys for a while and took some pics. I just love them already! Now to decide on how long to keep them in quarantine before introducing them to the display!

    IMG_1295.JPG IMG_1298.JPG
     
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  7. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    Oh, I forgot to mention I grabbed a lawnmower blenny the other day too. He's in a different tank for the moment. Once I lower the salinity in the cardinal tank I'll move him and his chosen rock over. He's cute. I don't have a pic yet though.
     
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  8. Can't go wrong with blennys and cardinals!
     
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  9. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    So far Benny the Blenny has been pretty shy, staying tucked in a hole in the rock. I haven't seen home come out and munch on any of the algae in the holding tank so I've been adding a piece of seaweed on a clip for him and the tang. The tang is being rehomed today though, so maybe he will come out more.
     
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  10. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Going down on salinity is not nearly the issue that going up is. The way you handled it was great. I would have probably acclimated until the bag water got to about 1.028 and introduced them to my normal salinity.

    When you order online from anyone but Divers Den it's a little more difficult because they all ship at low salinity from 1.017 to 1.019. In that case I call the supplier to see what they ship at, adjust my QT to that. When the fish arrives I take a needle and extract a small amount of water by inserting the needle below the water line and putting a piece of tape over the hole when I pull the needle out. That way I can check the salinity to make sure they told me right. This is important because the minute you open the bag the pH in the water starts to rise which causes the ammonium (less toxic form of ammonia) to convert back to ammonia. I never acclimate a shipped fish for more than 15-20 minutes due to this.

    With fish from your LFS you have a lot more time since they aren't in the bag long enough to produce a lot of ammonia on the way home.

    Educate us on how to sex Bangai! I was actually considering some and it would be great to be able to sex them.
     
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  11. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    Well so far I'm planning on just buying them locally but I'll keep that in mind for if I do! Also, could you just give them a squirt of Prime to neutralize the ammonia when you open the bag?

    So from what I'd read previously I was under the impression you really couldn't tell male from female unless a male was carrying eggs in his mouth. But standing at the pet store, Laurie asked me how to tell and after I said you really couldn't, I decided to check the google! Lol

    I found a couple links. The first had actual photos with no explanation and there was even a comment that it made it so clear what to look for as I'm standing there with a dumbfounded look as I have no clue what I'm looking at! So I checked another link. Apparently when you examine the vent (with your phone flashlight up against the glass looking at tiny fish!) the male will have 2 tiny points while the female has sort of an indent and 1 tiny point. I'll link the two. The second was a drawing that was very specific that made the photos make a lot more sense.

    Seems like I read somewhere also, that the males were usually bigger and females smaller but I've done a lot of reading lately and could very well be mixing up my facts there!

    Photos
    http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?m=72814

    Drawing
    http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?543415-Sexing-Bangaii-Cardinals
     
  12. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    And after reading the comments on the drawing one, I'm totally unsure what I have! lol here's hoping it's a M/F! Either way, they get along well! (At least for now!)
     
  13. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    OK I'm going to the store as soon as they open and see if I can tell the difference!

    You can use Prime or Amquel, but how much do you use? Hard to guestimate the volume in the bag. As long as you are within 0.002-0.003 temp acclimate and introduce. I've been doing this for years without any problems and the experts on all of the fish forums are pretty well in agreement with doing it that way.
     
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  14. Should be able to sex if old enough
     
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  15. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    So I decided to turn on the white lights and take some pics of my corals tonight. Thought I'd post some.

    IMG_1344.JPG IMG_1346.JPG IMG_1347.JPG IMG_1354.JPG IMG_1357.JPG IMG_1356.JPG IMG_1361.JPG IMG_1433.JPG IMG_1434.JPG IMG_1435.JPG
     
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  16. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

  17. Great pics!
     
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  18. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

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    LJC6780 Grouper

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    LJC6780 Grouper

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