Pairing up Chelmon rostratus

[Martyn]

Hi.
I have a 1500g connect 16 tank sps coral propagation system set up in my garage.
I have been having problem getting rid of aiptasia's of a few types I have tried many of the things recommended peps kalk in many methods and a few other things with out to much success.
I thought if I got a Chelmon rostratus and put it into one of the tanks that has frags in I could place a few aiptasia infested rocks into this tank and if eaten remove the rocks back to the other tanks and add a few more rocks etc.

The tank size is 72"x30"x15"H it has a 1" depth aragamax sand bed with at the moment 200 2" discs with a selection of SPS corals growing on them a few sand area's free of frags with ten pieces of liverock positioned so that the Chelmon rostratus can swim in amongst the rocks.
The tank has a lot of water movement and turbulence and the ends have lower water movement and lighting is 3 BLV 400w HQI MH 10k 4" above the water surface.

Water parameters or very good temps range depending on summer or winter between 26C to 29C There is a high diversity of critter infauna natural plankton etc.

The Chelmon rostratus has been in this tank for 2 weeks it has been eating the naturals critters in the tank plus I have fed it mysis shrimp brine shrimp it has been eatening the tube fan worms and has just started on the aiptasia and is very bold now and not timid as it was the first week.

I feed golden pearls and brineshimp to my frags and stock corals as well but this is when the lights are out
I also from time to time grow my own phytoplankton and rotifers and brine shrimp to give extra live food for the corals.
There is also good diversity of algae's mainly different turfs on the rocks.
I also have spiralina and and mixed flake and pellets that I feed my Centropyge loriculus and Zebrasoma xanthurum which are in my lounge tank which is 52"x24"x30"H.

Sorry for the long intro my question's are.
(1) Is this a good environment for this fish.
(2) Could I add a second Chelmon rostratus to this tank or would they fight can they be paired up how do you get male and female if they did not get along I have 15 other tanks I could put one into one of these.

(3) Any tips of the best way to care long term for Chelmon rostratus.

(4) Is there any chance I could add a Chelmon rostratus to the lounge SPS coral aquarium which is 52"x24"x30"H and the fish are Centropyge loriculus and Zebrasoma xanthurum been in there for nearly three years.
Or would there be too much problems with this due to territory but they never venture to the top half of the tank.

Thanks for any advice.

I am new too keeping fish except for the two I have had for 3 years and feel I would like too keep a few more than two fish now
as I have learned a little about corals I can now learn more about keeping fish and even attempt too breed some I wish :)

Martyn.

[FMarini]

Hi:
I can address a few of your points, but also give you my experiences w/ these copperbanded butterflies.
So i have NO idea if this is a great enviroment for CBB. It seems that your fish is currently happy and eating. If you read scott micheals report on these fish, he claims they are reef safe; do not bother softies, but occasionlly nip at SPS, polyps, eat polychete worms and infauna. Food types recommended are mussels and clams cracked, opened and fed on the halfshell. Lastly marine fish/invert flesh.
He also claims they are aggressive toward con-specifics unless partnered w/ a M/F. Unfortunately i have been unable to find any info on determining sexes on these fish. So w/out a good sexing guide i would NOT take the chance.

So I have a med sized CBB in my FO. It was a gift of a friend who couldn't get it to feed. Consequently i found that this fish would only eat frozen mysis shrimp for the first 10days and now eats everything. Flake, pellets, meaty food etc are its mainstay. According to S Michaels if you can get these fish to eat they are a long lived species.
I found him/her(?) to be a good tankmate, no problem w/ any fish harassment, but is the brunt of my Annularis's aggression. So far for me this fish has done very well in competing for food and appears to be a great tankmate.
I checked fishbase, and the breeders registry for sexing info...w/ no luck
maybe do a google or metacrawler search.
I have no experience in compatability issue w/ dwarf angels and these fish
Not sure if this helps any
frank

[billsreef]

Hi Martyn,

I've got an old copy of Threshers "Reproduction in Reef Fish". According to Thresher the butterflies show no external dimorphism between the sexes. This would leave you with the old method of putting a group together and see who pairs off. Of course you could do it on a fish by fish basis till you end up with an acceptable pair and few extras for your other tanks ;)

[Martyn]

Hi Frank
Thanks for giving me your insight in your experiences with this fish and the info from S Michaels (only got S Michaels pocketExpert guide at the moment page 199).

As to the copperBand in the tank at the moment I can see that he feeds on little critters in the live rock he also feeds on the smaller aiptasia and he is very hyper active around a live rock as soon as I take some of the cleaned rock out and replace with more aiptasia infested live rock he is at it striaght away.
I also squirt in mysid and brine shrimp into the holes in the live rock and have noticed he chases the pods in the tank and eats them too but with 15 other tanks the pod population is kept up.
I have not tried any flake yet but will and other foods it would be cool to get him to feed from my hand as he is not frightened of me and just gets on with hoovering around the rocks when I am working in the tank his in and often comes close to my hand as if investigating on what I am upto so he may start to feed from my hand :D
As to the SPS I have not seen him so far peck at any.
And I have searched everywhere for info on determining sexes and how they go about being males and females on these fish with not any luck so far :( but I ll keep looking and asking.


Hi Bill
Try a fish one at a time.
I think this is the only way to try I will get one try it if no luck move it try a couple more different ones if no luck Then I may give up ;)
Have to wait and see but I guess even if two get along I can not be sure they are male and female.
Thanks for your idea and info you found.

I ll keep you posted on what happens with introducing a second fish.
It a shame there was no feed back posts to Brians thread.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6413

Highest Regards to both of you.
Martyn.

PS
I Emailed Bob Fenner a few days ago I posted him my post in this thread his replys to sections where this.
[Worth trying]
(1) Is this a good environment for this fish.
[Yes, sounds fine]

[Your system is large enough where two would likely be fine]
[Yes... if the current fishes "give the Chelmon a chance", don't attack it
outright, it should acclimate to this system much as the one in your coral
farm]

[lophius]

I don't know whether this helps or not (probably not), but i have seen pairs of CBB's in the Wild. Size difference seemed to be the key ... of course the problem was that they appeared to be full grown with one fish in all pairs that I saw being between 25 to 30% bigger than the other. Might be an idea if you can find some big ones ???

[Martyn]

Hi again.

Thanks lophius
Interesting observation.

Does anyone know about or have read about sexing fish by there eyes ?.

Martyn.