Chappys 90 (...just got real!)

Unfortunately I think this fish was too malnourished and has given up. He was up against the powerhead this morning in pretty bad shape
At least I have a chance to find an actual midas blenny now I guess. Will make sure its looking healthier and eating to start with next time I think.

 

Has been a realllly long time since I've updated. Have still be lurking alot but havent been organised enough to get a whole post together.
Alot has gone on, but in the end the tank hasnt changed much.

...chapter 1.
I unfortunatly lost the leopard wrasse to starvation. I thought I'd tried quite hard to get him to eat and he just wasnt interested in anything, so that loss was unpleasant.
I got a coral beauty which was cool, and then the week after added a half black angel. Wanted to add them both at the same time to avoid aggression but a week apart seemed close enough to try. There was no noticable aggression, but the half black nipped and devoured what little pieces of coral were in the tank, a few colourful zoas and a formerly happy looking scolly (everything except the few brown zoa heads! and shrooms).
I figured he would have to be removed eventually but since I dont have a chiller yet and on our way into summer there won't be any major coral adds for a while yet so decided he could stay until things change.
The next addition was the coolest baby Kole Tang I've ever seen! He ate pellets and frozen, but I say was because he lasted less than a week I couldnt work out what happened to him, he seemed fine and then just stopped showing up for food one morning and that was it.
That was almost it. Was starting to wonder how much $$ I could get for whole setup, tho still visiting the LFS on a regular basis.
Luckily there was always something new and exciting to look at each trip to keep me interested. One such thing was a baby Purple Tang. Couldnt have been more hesitant after the unexplained loss of the Kole, but... have you seen a baby Purple Tang?! seriously cool!
A long week or 2 of procrastinating and they were bagging one up for me
First few minutes he was in my tank the Coral Beauty had a few nips at him. Which wasnt totally unexpected so I added extra food like the LFS suggested. A short time later the tang showed signs of ich. Then noticed the Half Black was also having a few goes at him.
More food.
The food worked for a little while but they'd still chase him around. More food.
It wasn't constant, but it was one or the other every few mins or so and they eventually must have gotten full and stopped noticing the food all together. The tang was visibly (and understandably) distressed.
I'm not sure how much these go for everywhere else, but this tang was more than double the cost of the Kole, and that was the most expensive inhabitant in my tank, also, have you seen a baby Purple Tang?!?! So I wasn't very keen on loosing the little fella.
Maybe it would have subsided eventually, but I wasn't going to sleep worrying about what I might wake up to the next day. The half black had to go before adding coral later anyway, so it was decided both angels were now going to depart early. (I might make a horrible parent one day being able to choose my new favourite in less than a night :/ lol). Used egg crate to seperate everyone in the tank (hoping to reduce further stress to the tang) and the angels quickly found their way to different sections of the sump and back to LFS the next day.
So after all that, I have the Purple Tang and the Original Labouti Wrasse!
The Labouti never showed any aggression to any of those fish and the Tang has been following him around like a lost puppy dog since he was added, maybe hoping for some protection. I might be imagining it but the wrasse seems to have better color after removing the angels so maybe hes a bit happier too now.

I really need to post more ofter because that turned into a novel haha. sorry I didnt take more picture to keep it interesting, but all the frustration took the joy out of my tank. I'm starting to find my groove again as things are back in shape.
The Kole is now being blamed on the killer angels and I really want to carefully try another one so keeping an eye out.
The only issue with the Purple tang is that its not eating nori and might be why he looks a little beat up on one side? Am persisting to add it, soaked in garlic/entice/whatever else but feeding formular 2 pellets to try get him onto greens. loves NLS pellets and shrimp tho so isnt starving at least.

enough chat, heres a couple pics for anyone that made it this far...





oh, theres some GHA or bryopsis. Doesnt seem to be growing so havent worried about it, might try pulling it out sometime.
Coralline is growing, hoping purple will overpower the green on the backwall.
The scolly the Half Black ate looks to be growing back. Thought it was a goner.
And my rockwork managed to look pretty similar after chasing the 2 fish out. Was worried about that, but worked out ok.
Will try and even out the textics ratio next post :

 

Thanks for the update, chappy! (even tho it sounds like a mixture of frustration and excitement at the same time... Sorry about the losses..)

Congrats on the coralline! It's weird that my coralline stopped growing. The params are stable, but the new rocks have no spots of any coralline after 2 months!
My juvie hippo tang wasnt eating nori either when I first got him, heck he wasnt interested in any food so the wife made garlic flavored flakes and he couldnt resist. Now he eats anything including his own poop. LOL

Anyways, keep more pics coming!!!

 

Sorry to hear about the fish trials Chappy! . It stinks but we have all killed a few fish in this hobby. I have a baby kole tang too. He is a frisky little bugger stands up toy sailfin and yellow even though they are twice his side. You will need that extra moxy in a fish you put with your purple. That purple tang will always be king of the tank once he gets big enough. Woot long post... Now I am not feeling so bad though it's been forever since I was on here and longer since I updated my tank thread made me not feel quite as guilty as I'm sure my post will be equally as long!
Best!
Heidi

 

Wow, thanks for pushing through all that guys! hope you had an intermission or something to break up all the reading.
Will try and even things out a bit this post, only good news this time

KING! my awesome new add (gf's new favourite, possibly mine too )

crazy how quick he can change colour going into camouflage mode

FTS. Doesnt seem as messy to me as it looks in this photo :-/


Everyone seems happy and havent noticed any hint of aggression. They even posed for this pic...

and this one...

Purple Tang seems to have most of his color back.

Have been adding vita-chem to their food, not sure its directly resposible but definitly can't be hurting anything.
He quite often follows the laboutei around like a lost puppy dog, might have bonded or something when the angels were picking on them.

The fairy wrasse is quite skittish and hides from most sudden movements etc, and so far the Tang usually follows his lead. So I'm working on the theory the tang might end up similar in temperment to the wrasse and possibly more peaceful than usual. Will test that theory if I find another Kole.
And the Laboutei


oh a quick pic of the scolly that seems to be bouncing back extremely well. Thought it was a goner.

sure do wish it was a little prettier haha.

 

Those are sharp images, Chappy! (I love my Nikon as well 8)) Glad to hear everything is back on track!

 

Oh cool, I thought it would have lost the exif data when cropping it in paint (high-tech right?)
Thanks! Havent had it long enough to know how to use it properly but seems to work out surprisingly well sometimes, very fun toy for the tank.

Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

 

;DTrying to keep the pic content up, but do have a couple questions.

Will start with the new Kole Tang

Pretty sure the last one I got unfortunately fell victim to the 2 dwarf angels without me seeing it. I still think they are an awesome fish so want to try one last time. Although this one is also a juvi, its still alot bigger than the last one and is eating very well.
The problem was always going to be the purple tang. Hes been in there a few weeks now and must be getting a little established. They have been fighting a bit as expected, but have been distracting them as much as possible with food. They seem to be almost perfectly matched in size so I imagine that must help a little, but the Purple Tang is clearly winning this battle.
After 3 or so days, this is whats left of the Kole... both sides of him look beat up about the same

The fighting seems to be subsiding but is still the occasional scrap.
Will the Kole Tang be able to heal from this and will it be possible if they still have the occasional scuffle?
Although it looks as if it would be incredibly painful, he seems in very good spirits and continues happily around the tang just taking a dive or 2 when he has to. Is still eating like a champ.
Is there anything I can get to help him heal faster? am adding vita-chem to frozen food once a day when I'm not stuck at work.
This could be completely wrong BUT, would getting a red line cleaner shrimp help to keep him clean so it doesnt get nasty? These shrimp are ~$100 over here for some reason :-/ so its a little different to throwing an extra $20 in the tank, but could probably get one or 2 this weekend if it will actually help any?

Oh, I rescaped one side of the tank a little bit. The purple seemed to claim the right side the least and the Kole didnt mind it there so I mixed it up a little and it seems to have worked in giving him someone to hang with a little less interruption.



I'm very attached to my scape now, but I think as long as this stays stable I might actually like it better than it was.

Apart from all that, the rest of the tank seems to be good news

I had to move over a couple zoas that were getting eaten by pods in my nano

Not quite the colours I'd like to aim for in this tank but still kinda cool. They dont push names for them as much here so I dont know what theyre called.

I also splurged a little excessively and got my first intentional piece for this tank! Doesnt quite look like it in the pic but its actually a green bubble

gf mentioned wanting a bubble after seeing one somewhere. I thought in my mind that I'd rather get something different to the usual pink bubble and saw a couple greens on google. Not long after, the LFS happens to get a few in! kind of meant to be I guess.

Originally, I wasnt going to get any corals until I had a chiller as its starting to get quite hot here. So a big thanks goes out to my LFS and mastercard today for hooking me up ;D

Probably wont get plumbed til the weekend but the fan across the top is keeping up ok for now.

Oh, I had the lights off a little longer yesterday and today, but turned them on when I can home from work early today, and saw this little fella!


Must have been hiding out in the live rock I guess. That stuff is a constant source of surprised, luckily none of them have been horrible surprises yet.

Might also order my heatsink soon and try get the first half of my led running before the end of the year.

exciting times ;D

ps. sorry about the average quality pics, just wanted to get them up to get opinions on how the Kole might go

 

Tank's looking great, you're getting a lot more coralline! I see more and more purple, nice! Congrats on the adds as well.

When I added a juvie hippo tang, the sailfin went NUTS on him. So I freaked out and set up the time-out tank and the sailfin had been in it for good 3 weeks. I fed the hippo very well, fattened him up, changed the scape and whatnot to reset their territory. When I put the sailfin back from time-out tank, they seemed to be ok first, but next morning, he was swiping him again. So I let them be this time, turned out, they get along in a half day! Now they are minding their own business, sharing the same clip, doing great basically.

As for the cleaner shrimp, I have two in my tank, and sorry they cost so much down there. I really dont know the benefit of them as a healer of wounded, but my sailfin gets pale in color when he is being cleaned by them: as if he's really enjoying it and relaxed.

I am re-building LED soon as well. Waiting for the parts I ordered during the Black Friday sale.

 

Thanks exactly!
It hard to tell if its getting more purple or not sometimes but looking back at some pics its certainly been coming along. So far im very happy with it, but im nervously waiting for it to transform into the purple monster everyone keeps talking about.
I considered putting the purple tang in time out but they seem to have sorted themselves out fairly well. I kept the food up, and even tried a mirror for a little bit (might make a post about that little episode). After about 3 days (exactly what my lfs suggested if remember correctly ), they've started to get along just about fine. The kole looks to be healing up already.
The cleaner shrimp medic probably was a little ambitious thinking lol, but think I'll still get a couple later on. Maybe I should try breeding some to make up for their cost.
Look forward to checking out your led build for some tips. Very excited about starting mine. Thought about getting in on that sale but the heatsink seemed a more vital purchase to make first.