The inwall 380 starfire reborn - Page 5

Sparkss · #**101** 10/11/2007, 09:30 AM

Thanks for the link Chris, going to read up on his thread now. But from your post I would say that you are in favor of adding the anthias ?

I had read about male bartletts getting aggressive towards other fish, usually smaller, more passive fish. And we have several smaller fish (firefish, neones, fairy wrasses, etc). I even read once about a male bartlett pestering a tomini tang (go figure). I was told that those instances are typically people adding smaller, passive fish after the bartletts are established. And that in smaller tanks than ours, with not as many places to hide and stake out territories. Aside from that the idea of a large group like that is really enticing

chris wright · #**102** 10/12/2007, 07:05 AM

I was just helping out on the tangs, as I have been following Chucks thread.

I know nothing about the bartletts mate sorry

, but it sounds like a nice idea. Very nice fish, but I like the tangs more. Just a personal thing especially after seeing Chuck's collection

Looking foward to your decision, as I can expect the research and decision to be an interesting read.

Cheers

Chris

Bax · #**103** 10/12/2007, 08:12 AM

I do not currently have anthias, but plan to keep lyertails in my 220 when it is established. And if they work out hopefully some Bartletts as well. So, FWIW, looking at your aquascape, with its low broad structure and lots of open swimming area in the upper half of the water column, I think a few anthias would be very happy in you tank. Your current fish are generally peaceful overall. I could not resist them in a tank over 200 g in size. They are one of the reasons I got the 220 (anthias and angels

)

Sparkss · #**104** 10/12/2007, 10:50 AM

Thanks for the feedback Chris and Bax. I have been waffling back and forth on the bartletts, but part of that was due to bad information on the fish from an online vendor. They listed the fish max size as 5.5" - 6", 10 of which would be too much for our tank (for my tastes). But I spoke to the collector and he said that he had never seen one over 3". Alot of the subsequent research sources all confirmed the 3" max size, and I assume that max size is for the males, which should typically only be one or two. So a school of 2.5" fish with one or two 3"+ would look pretty nice in our tank and even though anthias are heavy eaters, I don't forsee any bioload issues due to our current filtration setup.

The kicker is that I was going to go with the anthias as part of another order, and that order has been cut, so I don't know if there is room to add in the anthias or not. I have sent a message to the shipper to see if we can add them in or not

. I will let you all know how it turns out. If we are able to make it happen then we will have them by tomorrow afternoon.

On that note we are picking up a trio of pyramids, a couple of potters leopard wrasses and a pair of algae blennies (istiblennius zebra)

The potters leopard is a fish that is a delicate shipper and one that we have been trying to get in to survive for some time, but not yet in this new tank. Hopefully we will have better luck this time (is there an emoticon for crossing fingers ?)

EDIT : I almost forgot that the other main reason promtping a swing back towards stocking the anthias is our 3 month old daughter. She was cooing and aahing in front of the tank last evening. She had always shown interest in the tank, usually from a distance, but last night was the first time she showed direct interest in the fish themselves, laughing when some of them swam close by. So that prompted a renewed interest in schooling, brightly colored fish.

mrcrab · #**105** 10/12/2007, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sparkss
I almost forgot that the other main reason promtping a swing back towards stocking the anthias is our 3 month old daughter. She was cooing and aahing in front of the tank last evening. She had always shown interest in the tank, usually from a distance, but last night was the first time she showed direct interest in the fish themselves, laughing when some of them swam close by. So that prompted a renewed interest in schooling, brightly colored fish.

OMG...3 months old and she already has Daddy wrapped around her little finger!

jnarowe · #**106** 10/12/2007, 11:24 AM

Can I have a Crosshatch Trigger daddy...PLEEEEEASE?

Sparkss · #**107** 10/12/2007, 11:38 AM

LOL @ Jonathan

and yea, she has me wrapped already

, can you blame me ?

This picture is two weeks old. She was talking to the camera

(she likes to be photographed *sigh*).

jnarowe · #**108** 10/12/2007, 11:55 AM

She's a doll Tom. You are in so much trouble.

Sparkss · #**109** 10/12/2007, 11:58 AM

yea, no kidding

spazz · #**110** 10/12/2007, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sparkss
LOL @ Jonathan

and yea, she has me wrapped already , can you blame me ?
This picture is two weeks old. She was talking to the camera (she likes to be photographed *sigh*).

WOW its a pink mermaid! i have never seen one of those. cool!
what fish store did you find her in????
ha ha ha ha ha ha

Sparkss · #**111** 10/12/2007, 01:54 PM

I haven't had the chance to give you a call Scott, but I pretty much have the skimmer dialed in now (but I won't wall it tuned yet). I was able to turn the air valve to fully open without major turbeulence in the cone now, so I would say we are well on our way to having the new body "slimed" and broken in

. Over the last couple of days we were getting 1" of pretty strong skimmate in the collection cup every 24 hours. I added the O3 yesterday afternoon and now after 20 hours we are sitting on about 1.5" of skimmate in the cup. I have not seen any change in the ORP but it may be that I am running the O3 pretty low. (under 100 mg w/ no air drier, so maybe 50 mg, give or take ?). I wanted to add the O3, or at least the air itself, during the tuning. The pump we use to push the O3 is not huge, but I didn't want to tune skimmer (air and water valve) to just before the point of cavitation and have the O3 air pump be enough to push it over the edge (I know, it should run that close to the cavitation point anyways, but *stuff* happens and I wanted to take the O3 air pump volume into consideration during the skimmer tuning). Well, long story short after I got the air pump hooked up and running I just couldn't stop myself from turning on the O3

.

I don't know if it was the O3, extra air or just a normal breakin progression, but the additional skimmate in the cup this morning was very nice to see

.

chris wright · #**112** 10/14/2007, 01:44 AM

G'day Tom,

I stumbled onto this thread last night and thought you might be interested. Its about bartlett's in captivity, I didn't get into it, but thought it might help.

bartlett anthias

Cheers

Chris.

Sparkss · #**113** 10/14/2007, 02:40 AM

Thanks Chris. I will read up on that thread in the morning. In the mean time I wanted to post some updates about our fish additions (and we did end up putting the bartletts in.. hope we won't regret it later

).

Here is one quite heavy and very full shipping box

Here is everyong in two 5 gallon buckets getting drip acclimated

Sparkss · #**114** 10/14/2007, 02:53 AM

I goofed and left the ATO on (w/ the kalk reactor hooked to it) while I drip acclimated. The drop in water level was jus enough to trigger the ATO and as luck would have it the kalk stirrer pump came up just as all of this was happening. So we ended up with a cloudy tank (but not a big deal. no PH spikes or anything, just crappier than normal pictures). So I only took a few for now

Two of the potters leopards took up residence in the corner with our red tailed tamarin. They seemed to be the best of friends, which at first we mistook as aggression by the tamarin

The 3 pyramids stuck pretty close together after we added them

They eventually came out from the "cave" and were swimming around the front and middle of the tank, together, quite a bit.

Sparkss · #**115** 10/14/2007, 03:00 AM

and here are the Bartletts in the tank

Everyone got fed with the nectar of the fish gods, Arcti-pods. I stopped at an LFS up in Sac on the way to pick up the fish so they all got uber fresh food

. Everyone appeared to be eating just fine, which was reassuring to see soo soon after shipping and acclimation.

There was some aggression from our ornate wrasse (Xmas wrasse) towards one of the potters leopard wrasses. Which is odd since both hail from Hawaii. So we shut the lights off soon after adding everyone to try and help curb the aggression. Tomorrow will be an interesting day for everyone

.

Even with the lights off we could easily see the trio of pyramids swimming around and the anthias stayed close to the front of the glass. As time progressed they formed an ever tighter shoal. (if that is the right word).

More picts tomorrow after the lights come on

Oh, and we picked up a frag of sunset monti, ice-fire true echinata and pink lemonade. So it was a good frag day as well

chris wright · #**116** 10/14/2007, 03:01 AM

Sooooo cool.

I can't wait to see the pics once the fish have all settled in. A very nice assortment of fish that will no doubt will be an enjoyment to watch.

Cheers

Chris

Sparkss · #**117** 10/14/2007, 03:07 AM

Last note before I head off to bed is that between the anthias and butterflies it has really livened up the tank quite a bit. My wife even commented that it looks like some pictures you see in books now

. So far I am definitely happy with our decisions.

Two of the potters leopards appear to be a couple/pair. I will need to watch the ornate tomorrow and fish him out if he becomes trouble. I have been trying to get a potters wrasse to survive shipping for a long time, not to mention what a pair would mean to us, so the ornate had better watch out. He would lose that vote if it ever came down to "him or them"

Sparkss · #**118** 10/14/2007, 11:49 AM

here is a shot this morning, approx 20 mins after the actinics came on. It is not an FTS, nor is it a perfect shot due to ambient light from outside and tghe fact that the only lights in the tank are actinic, but I think it represents the amount os activity and color in the tank now well enough

The knees on the bottom left of the picture are my wife propped up in front of the tank on a tall barstool type chair, watching the new fish

No sign of the wrasses yet (new or existing), but they typically don't come out until an hour or so after lights on. I am really hoping to not have to deal with the ornate, but only time will tell.

asnatlas · #**119** 10/14/2007, 12:59 PM

Where did you get your Butterflies ??

jnarowe · #**120** 10/14/2007, 01:02 PM

anthias look great. no QT eh? You're a brave man!

clekchau · #**121** 10/14/2007, 01:04 PM

beautiful

Sparkss · #**122** 10/14/2007, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by asnatlas
Where did you get your Butterflies ??

From a collector in Hawaii. I also saw them available on LiveAquaria last week.

Sparkss · #**123** 10/14/2007, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jnarowe
anthias look great. no QT eh? You're a brave man!

I know the person we got them from and he is good about QTing before we got them. I didn't ask specifics, but he has had these for a while now and I also know that he runs some pretty heavy chemicals in his systems. But you are right, we took a chance with them.

Sparkss · #**124** 10/14/2007, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by clekchau
beautiful

Thanks. Hopefully they will all still look as good in a week

. Aside from the fish we are finally, I think, starting to get a handle on our general water quality issues (not so much suspended particulate in the water column these days). Each day it seems a little clearer, which is reassuring

invincible569 · #**125** 10/14/2007, 02:41 PM

Looking great! You will love those pyramids! They are very active.