[copps]

I'm back from a couple of weeks in South America and am happy to say all is well, including each of the seven dwarfs .

Originally posted by triggerfish1976
Copps,

Great full tank shots. Most of the praise you get is for the fish that you maintain but I must say that you have one of the nicest overall tanks (fish and SPS) on RC. It is almost Japanese tank like (very minimalistic and clean) and I can only hope to have a tank that looks as good as yours someday.

Thanks bud... I like to keep my glass scraped clean of algae... even the back. Some people say it isn't natural, but everytime I see reefs in the wild there is never a coralline encrusted wall behind them... The black back gives the illusion that you're looking over the other side of the reef, not at a wall... Things have grown in quite a bit since this pic and I'll update soon with more photos... I am just as serious about my corals as I am my fish, but I find myself in this forum more than the coral ones for one reason or another...

Originally posted by Hattie B
Pffttt.. The corals of course and you could gift me a couple of those fish.

And I decided if I could keep any I would keep the D. arcuatus.
although of course I can't...

D. arcuatus is actually now officially known as Apolemichthys arcuatus. I've had mine for what will be a year in April and I'm looking into getting a second smaller one. Like conspiculatus angels the pricing goes up on these as they get smaller, but they've become more attainable. Most of these go to Japan, and they like the smaller ones not only due to their ability to adapt, but because of their generally smaller systems which brings the price up even more. Wholesale prices for the "skunks", the little <2" guys, is similar to retail pricing for larger individuals...

Originally posted by fishsoldseprtly
John, I myself had a school of Apogon cyanosoma and after a while they killed each other as well. I was pretty surprised to see that.

Well its nice to see that you have all those angels from Frank. I was actually speaking to Charles D. just a couple of weeks ago and we actually brought you up and we talked a little bit about you helping with the fundraiser for the new set up for the Waikiki Aquarium. We also brought up that my LFS gets a lot of rare fish and the owner asked me if I wanted a Resplended x Fisheri Hybrid, and I asked him where he was getting these because I only knew of one guy that actually breeds these guys.

I encourage all clubs out there to do what we did. I had the idea for an auction and donated some corals to it. We hoped to raise $500 to get recognized on the donor wall, and the final amount ended up being $1995! Chip in guys!

It was no secret that Frank wholesales many of his fish to Quality Marine, which is where Liveaquaria gets their fish from and so has the hybrids available. Any LFS can get them. There are two available still at LA, and Frank's done selling them, so unless some magically grow up in my refugium these are the last you'll probably ever see for sale!

Originally posted by slojmn
John, I saw those butterflies in Scott's book as well as the Tinkeri's and liked both. I wonder how these guys compare to the Tinkeri's? Clearly the pyramid's look to be pretty reef safe in your tank, not sure about the Tinkeri's though. Would love to be able to keep some sweet butterflies in a reef.

BTW, Congrats on TOTM over in your neck of the woods .

Thanks Alicia. I've heard varying reports about the tinkeri complex (a subgenus of Chaetodon called Roa) regarding their "reef-safeness". I've not kept them in my reef, so I cannot comment. One of the things that is commonly mistaken though is that many of the "reefsafe" butterflies and angels will prey on sick, stressed, or dieing corals and many people blame the fish. It reminds me of when people would come into the LFS I worked at in high school saying their pleco ate their fish, when in reality their fish died and their pleco was opportunistically feeding on the body in the morning... This is VERY common and so I always take comments of "nonreef-safeness" with a grain of salt...

Check out this Tinker's hybrid recently caught in Hawaii... I believe it's crossed with C. ephippium and is the first record of this cross...

Originally posted by Philwd
If I only had a better idea if Frank will be back in the next couple years...

Not even he is sure when exactly he'll be back, but rest assured he will be back, or he won't hear the end of it from me!

There is no doubt the price has creeped up on the interruptus partially because Frank is not producing captive ones anymore. They are regularly available from a few of the major wholesaler's in LA, so if you have a good reputation with your LFS you could get a much better deal than the prices being talked about above.

On the topic of Hawaii, I'm working on acquiring Pseudanthias hawaiiensis. I saw these in person back in October when I dove Niihau, the furthest NW island of the main Hawaiian Islands. They were originally classified as a subspecies of P. ventralis, but they apparently adapt well if collected correctly. I saw these at around 130 feet as the divemaster banged on her tank to get me up from the depths They're gorgeous and occur much deeper in the other islands. I put a shot of the site also. They were scattered in the ledges shown... I also saw many bandit angels there...







Lastly, for those of you near the DC area, I'm giving a talk at our local club meeting on rare angels in March. More info can be found in this RC thread...

Oh and Robie... welcome back bud! See you soon!

Copps