75g w/ 33g frag tank system

I heard back from reefhotspot regarding the dead fish and the misleading listing. Everything has been sorted out and I appreciate their customer service, in the end I couldn't have asked for better handling of a less than ideal situation. They have decided to delist the confusing listing, at least for now while they decide what the best solution is.

I'm quite happy with the outcome, ultimately. They have lived up to their reputation for good customer service.

 

The tank is actually making quite a turnaround with the green algae in the last week, there are just one or two patches of algae left, most of it has been visibly dying off, turning white and getting thinner and disappearing.

I just turned on the CO2 for my calcium reactor last night with all the coral in there. Here's the reactor pH. Pretty obvious to see where the CO2 got turned on and it looks like it's taking about 60-90 minutes to cycle from the high mark to the low mark which sounds nice to me, it's not switching on/off too much.



It's being controlled by the AC3 right now. I set it to 10 seconds per CO2 bubble (the slowest rate on the regulator) at about 6psi, with about 30-35mL of effluent a minute. I'm trying to start out slow but I'm just kind of winging it after re-reading a couple articles about control last night.
Here's the AC3 program I'm running right now for CO2 control.
If pH2 > 06.75 Then CO2 ON
If pH2 < 06.60 Then CO2 OFF
If pH2 > 08.60 Then CO2 OFF
If pH < 07.81 Then CO2 OFF
Max Change 003 M Then CO2 OFF

I'll be testing alkalinity often for the next couple weeks to keep an eye on the performance, might have to do some tweaking to the params. I'm aiming for 8dkh and 420-450 calcium.

 

I got my order from Vivid yesterday, 2 female McCoskers wrasses, a tricolor acro prostrata frag and a blue/green acro tenuis frag. I got the coral to bump the order up to get free shipping, and they're nice frags as well.

The fish looked very healthy and active in the bags. Everything was packed well I thought although not as well as from LiveAquaria/Diver's Den. It was adequate I thought.

Once I got the fish in the tank though the existing McCoskers took a severe disliking to mainly one of the newcomers. They really started going at it which worried me. Both of them were flashing like crazy and showing some amazing colors. This worried me because I thought maybe I had gotten a male by mistake again (I'm a little gunshy I guess).
I trapped the existing fish and put him in the acclimation box and the two fought it out through the acrylic all the rest of the day that I saw. I even covered the tank with a towel to dry and darken it up as much as possible but it didn't help.

I emailed Shaun at Vivid about it and he actually called me to discuss the situation. He assured me that he was very confident that I received females and that he would make sure I was satisfied with the situation however it ends up. In conjunction with Vivid's refund policy this really did a lot to put me at ease.

He suggested that I let the fish out of the acclimation container late at night and let the fish wake up in the morning together and go through their dominance bit naturally. Of course I have to go to work today so I'm hoping they're all still happy and alive by the time I get home. If one is really getting beaten up I will definitely separate them again, but I'm hoping it won't come to that. I'm hoping it's mostly for show, just asserting dominance and nobody will receive any real damage other than a bruised ego.

Funny thing, I didn't actually dump the fish out of the acclimation box last night. I just slid the top off of it, when I took the blanket off the tank this morning all the fish were swimming around pretty happily outside the acclimation box. But for some reason as soon as I took the blanket off the existing fish went right back into the box into the corner where he slept. Then he started freaking out like he forgot the lid was off. It was pretty hilarious, he just swam right in there on his own and then tried to get out the bottom of the container even though the top was wide open! Silly fish. So I dumped him out of the container and removed it and then they all went back to their routines.

There were a couple spats between the two during the half hour or so I could watch them before work but nothing too serious. I fed the tank and the two new fish didn't take a lot of interest in the food although I think they both ate a little bit, they were mostly just hovering in a corner of the tank, but that's normal I think for new fish, especially with the dominant guy controlling most of the tank and going after the mysis with gusto.

So hopefully they all can work it out. I left the lights out today again although the room is still pretty bright even with the shades down. We'll see!

 

All the McCoskers are still alive, so far.

The male is really being a pain to the females though, he doesn't let them come out into the open, he just chases them back into the corners they've adopted as home by the surface of the water on either sides of the overflow box on the tank. They do all sleep together in the rocks though so I think that's a good sign.

The females most of the time are so pale they are almost white although occasionally one will muster up some courage and change to a slightly darker shade for a while and come slightly out of the corner but then the male will go chase them back and they pale up again.

I only turned the lights on for an hour yesterday when I got home from work because one of the females looked like she was having a rough time, gasping at the surface of the water in her corner. After I turned the lights off the male's aggression seemed to lessen some, I think possibly because it was harder for him to see the female in the corner she was in.

They are still swimming fine and have no nips in their fins or anything that I can tell so I'm guessing they're still doing fine, just stressed. I made sure they all ate this morning, I think they all got something to eat yesterday as well but couldn't be sure because it was so chaotic when I dumped the mysis in, fish flying everywhere chasing stuff down.

I'm hoping this is just how they do it, having never witnessed this display of dominance before I have no idea what to expect, and I couldn't find any good amount of info on pairing them up or breeding them etc.

So, I think so far so good. We'll see if they all end up ultimately getting along.

 

The McCoskers are getting along better. The male isn't constantly chasing the females around, just occasionally so that's a relief. There is one female who doesn't seem to be falling in line as quickly but the male is harassing that one more than the other so maybe she's just being difficult. Hopefully he can handle it.

The male's colors are very nice with all of the aggression that's been going on, but I haven't been able to get a good picture yet, it's pretty difficult.

 

Good to hear that the McCosker's are getting along better. I'm not sure if you posted this yet but do you have an idea for what you want for a final stocking list? Also, will this be a mixed reef or SPS dominant?

 

My final stock list will look something like this.
Pair of Yashia gobies w/ pistol
Trio of McCoskers
Either one of the larger fairy wrasses or a pair of the smaller ones, maybe a C. Lineatus or C. Labouti or maybe a pair of C. Lubbocki
Tomini tang (although I'm reconsidering this potentially in favor of another wrasse or pair depending how the McCoskers turn out )

It will be a mixed reef but lots of SPS hopefully.

 

I'm noticing some new behavior tonight, it's pretty interesting. Well hopefully it's behavior and not part of some illness.

The submissive female (not the uppity one) has been doing these displays all day. She pales up and does a few varieties of these displays. I'm assuming they are a show of submission and potentially part of a mating ritual but I really have no idea. Anyone else out there seen anything similar in other wrasses maybe?

One display she will pale her colors until her fins are translucent and her whole body is almost white. Then she will curl her body up and just flutter her pectoral fins, sometimes she will swim in a few spirals like this. Sometimes she does a "stall" in the middle and flares all her fins but doesn't move at all, just freezes in the curled up position for a second or two and lets the current drift her around a little bit, then she snaps out of it and goes back about her business.

Another display she will pale up and flare her fins and straighten her body and orient her body almost vertically so she's looking almost straight up. Then she will flutter her pectoral fins staying in place, still fluttering, or sometimes drifting slightly. She also does a "stall" version of this too, sometimes drifting so her body is horizontal.

The second, uppity, female did a moderate version of this once or twice today too that I saw so I'm guessing that is a good sign that she's giving up on dominance and will eventually pair up with the male as well.

I've never seen anything like it before. I think it's pretty cool.

 

Nice, I like it. I vote pair of C. lubbocki.

 

I like the idea of a lubbocki pair as well but we'll see. There are at least 2 color variations that they come in I believe, and I know I'm not a fan of at least one so trying to get a pair of the desireable coloration might be tricky. Although with fairy wrasses having the possibility of bidirectional hermaphroditism it might be easier to do although I don't know if I want to rely on that if I can help it.

A couple interesting links I've run across today that I'll keep here for future reference and if anyone else is interested.

C. jordani spawning in a tank.
Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - Aquarium Fish: The flame fairy wrasse with observations on spawning

Wrasse breeding trial:
Seafish. Resources. Publications.

MOFIB breeding/spawning overview:
Marine Ornamental Fish & Invert Breeders Association &bull; View topic - Wrasses - Labridae - Breeding/Spawning Overview

C. lubbocki male coloration from Bali/Indonesia and from the Philippines:
Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - Rarities underwater
I'm not as much a fan of the Philippines coloration.