Stenopus Hispidus
-
Posts
203 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Posts posted by Stenopus Hispidus
-
-
-
Great tank! Graceful jellos...Enjoy
-
Not easy. Once it your tank, you probably won't see it again as it flips itself into darkness behind your tank. They will get there somehow and if that's not bad enough, you probably need to culture plankton to satisfy its exacting dietary requirements. Toughie
-
Gorgeous!
-
Yup. Same here. Started the reefing hobby in '87. I had to go through the hard way and learn from deaths and casualties and of course...lotsa $$$. I still remembered bleaching and collecting fresh coral skeletons off my tank and even had a display cabinet showcasing all the different species of corals I kept (like trophies) until the collection grew beyond human management and "trophy value" lost its appeal as it was too easily attainable!
Things really start to take a turn when I cut strings and went independent. To hell with local LFS info. Learnt to take them with a pinch of salt. Brought in specialised books from overseas and mugged. Acquired skimmer and chiller when no LFS had even the slightest inkling what these things are. Internet was not yet so well established then and home computers were not up to scratch to surf the net. I still remembered I had an Atari 800 with that huge monster of a floppy. Other than handle word processing for my school projects, it was nothing but a gaming machine. Played my first game - Space invaders then went on to Ultima 1. After that, upgraded to an Acer with Intel 286 16 Mhz complete with a 1200 bnp modem and it was like WOW!Can surf net oredi...but now...yeah! sure! Don't know how I did it but I still dragged myself at that speed (prob. due to a compulsive thirst for info which the local arena cannot satisfy), soaking info from aquaria.rec where hot shots like Bob Goemans and Craig Bingman were there at that time.
All my NS pay went into the hobby and got them back as coral skeletons. My initial experience was fraught with agony, pain, tears and I hope no one else have to re-live this.
-
Tanzy,
How about we fix the exchange tentatively at 11/1/2003 @ 11 am? OK with you?
Please PM me your add so that I can bag it and take a slow morning drive to your place for some rejuvenation...
BTW, your acro is gorgeous!
AT,
Lemme check whether there is still room for fragging cos I still owe Phang a frag for exhange when his main tank is up and going. Like to have a look at his system too.
You are not in a hurry right? I hope so. Anyway, I am still waiting a chance to get to my main tank for an assessment. If there is any room for fragging, I can pass you when I pay you a visit. Will keep you updated here
Amazing! How did you manage to get permit for installing a 400 watter? Did you give your wifey a shiny little stone this Christmas, Santa?
Robe,
Did ya say "Sky Blue" staghorn?
Think you can post a pic of it?
Chanbi,
Never lose hope on your Acro. cos anything can happen. Its the biggest attraction of this species of coral.
Finally, like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! Don't forget your love ones...and I don't mean your corals!
-
Hi Tanzy,
Your horn coral frag is ready. Could you pick any Saturday morning in Jan so that I can hand over to you and have a look at your tank at the same time. Like to see your high tech gizmos!
-
KS
Posted on Dec 20 2002, 11:32 AM
Em, i heard soft coral would benefit from Antinic light, how true is that?
im speaking in term of soft coral in general, not xenia
Oh and i agree on xenia been delicate, they're known for bad transporter, and they're the first that died in my tank after 8hours of
poweroutrage.
They dont do well in tank with carbon too i heard.
CKS,
You have 8 hour power outage? I had that too, not just once but 3 times...leaving me with an organic swill of a tank when I came back from work. Sick!! This is an expensive problem man!!
-
Hi Phang,
There is a wealth of info stating that soft corals release toxic compounds such as terpenoids and sarcophine to deter predators upon provocation (direct release). Then there was another more potent study that suggest that these compounds are also released into the water as a way of maintaining living space & prevent encroachment by other corals by retarding their growth while the toxin releasing colony clears the path and takes over the space (indirect release).
On the other hand, hard corals accomplish the same objective of colony expansion through conquering and self defence mainly by contact, using their sweeper tentacles laden with nematocysts or throwing out mesenterial filaments to "digest" their enemies and create space for their expansion. While there are reports that hard coral do secrete their own brand of toxin, the general view seems to suggest that in a tank with a diversity of soft and hard corals, hard corals are the first to succumb in a chemical warfare of sorts possibly due to the advantage had by soft corals through their indirect means…poisoning the water the hard corals live in...and they don't even have to come in contact with the hard corals.
That's why there are some SPS loving people who are weary of keeping soft corals esp. leathers and zooanthids for fear that their inclusion might result in the slower growth of their SPS corals, if at all. In either case, your situation seems to be an anomaly where hard corals dominate over soft. Wonder if anyone have any reference material to this situation so that I can soak it in but I guess the whole issue at this point is still moot. I have been keeping soft and hard corals together for quite some years now and don't seem to face any difficulties so far. Both category of corals still grow anyway. Question is...at what rate? My hard coral growth although evident could have been slowed down somewhat but I can't answer that as I never had a pure hard coral tank or a pure soft coral tank experience before to know what the standard growth rate is like. Wonder if there are any purist around?
Not too sure whether the toxic compounds produced will accumulate or break down over time. Don't think there's any studies done on this yet. Nevertheless, if you do suspect that your water has been intoxicated, here are some steps you can take to alleviate the situation. You may use it as a combi for better effect.
- Increase/renew your chemical filter (A.carbon, resins, etc)
- Get a good & efficient skimmer to export out the toxic compound
- Take the good 'ol advice - change your water…the more the merrier, and last but not least,
- Due to the chemical nature of these toxic compounds, ozone should render them susceptible to destruction (M.Paletta)
MV3i,
Strontium is supposedly required in the calcification process of hard corals as it was found present to some extent in the calcium skeleton of all hard corals. Its application is more on hard corals although I personally find dosing it controversial. Iodine is more of a requirement for soft corals.
-
I leave them in my tank to clear up waste. After all these years I don't see any harm in them actually other than their pesky habit of bulldozing corals down. But if you secure your corals well, then...
-
NormanH,
You might want to try going to Kiddie Palace or some baby department in a shopping centre and get a baby nasal cleaner. It comes with a tube and a big rubber pump behind. Its small & short making it agile and easy to manuevre underwater and the oversize pump can deliver a good powerful squirt. If you need to extend it to reach some difficult nooks and cranies, you might just be able to modify it by jamming a straw/tubing in but that's up to your DIY ingenuity. Doesn't come with any measurement marking though. Leave that job to the syringe.
-
NormanH,
You might want to try going to Kiddie Palace or some baby department in a shopping centre and get a baby nasal cleaner. It comes with a tube and a big rubber pump behind. Its small & short making it agile and easy to manuevre underwater and the oversize pump can deliver a good powerful squirt. If you need to extend it to reach some difficult nooks and cranies, you might just be able to modify it by jamming a straw/tubing in but that's up to your DIY ingenuity. Doesn't come with any measurement marking though. Leave that job to the syringe.
-
Kelstorm,
If you wish to get the trap, go with Bawater's suggestion. I paid $23 for mine at Aquamart. Kena ketuk.
AT,
You are right. Food morsels does get through at the bottom. Good suggestion to put the transparent plastic cover. Never thought of it.
Saw your trapped Leopard Blenny. Very cute.Ah...yes another function of the trap is to use it as a quarantine to acclimatize a fish to the tank's water before releasing it into the main tank with the lifting of the trap door. Useful gadget.
Jinners,
I do not think there's a smaller one.
-
Last one
-
One more.
-
I have been reading a spate of posts about catching fishes lately. Everytime the net goes in, the fishes disappear. Need to get that bully out of the tank filled to the brim with LR and corals? Need to catch that bugger who suddenly develop a taste for your precious clams? Short of de-reefing your tank, here's a trap that works. I have used it to catch my tomato clown, bicolor cherub and flame angel all within a span of 1 week. Piece of cake.
All you need is to put the trap into your tank, get the trap door opened, drop in some frozen mysid/bs as bait into the trap from the opening above and wait. It took only a few seconds for my bold clown to take the bait and voila, first day and one fish is out. Bicolour cherub and flame angel were more weary of the intruding box…eyeing it with suspicion at a distance. Fine with me. Left the box there with trap door open for days 2 and 3 without event. Day 4, feed again. Hungry, the Flame angel made a dash in for a morsel. Morsel it got but freedom it lost. Open the top trap door, net it out and into my friend's tank it goes. The din left bicolour shocked and went into hiding. Day 5, trap remains dormant. Day 6, tried my luck again. Bicolour saw the mysid in the trap but was hesitating, eyeing slowly at the edges of the mouth into the trap while seductively ###### mysid floated around inside it. Somehow, something in him snap and he went for it and that was it. LFS it goes.
My mission accomplished, I took the trap out, washed it, dried it and stored it. Now my tank is as lonely as can be and I didn't break my back catching them.
A few things to note:
A. The trap is quite big. I am away from my tank now so I can't measure it but if memory serves me right, I think its 25X15X15cm. This implies that it:
- may not be able to fit a 2ft Nanos packed heavily with LR and corals.
- while it may be able to handle fishes 4" in size easily, bigger fishes may feel it too claustrophobic or rather too "trap like" to even bother entering it. Don't know about this bcos my fishes are considered small. Maybe those who have caught bigger fishes with this trap would like to comment on this.
B. Trap is effective if the fish you are trapping takes the food that you give. Otherwise, you will find cobwebs getting in between your fingers and the trapdoor. I guess part of the reason I had it easy was because my fishes are matured and have been with me for like…4 years+. Clown even takes food from my fingers and allow stroking.
Additionally, I have another method to catch fishes, ie, to turn on the lights of the tank after a couple of hours in complete darkness. In a while, you might see groggy low metabolic half sleeping fishes floating out of their crevices as if cyanide intoxicated. Zoom in steadily and net them there and then as they won't be as dextrous as they were in daytime. This method is not fail safe though. Depends on the target fish straying out of its sleep hole. I have ever caught some fishes in this way.
Finally, I like to urge everyone to consider humane methods in dealing with unwanted fishes.
Below are some pix of the trap described.
-
Oh boy...Harlequin, there's always a more humane way to handle the problem of unwanted fishes. Think of those alternatives before flushing healthy specimens down the toilet bowl.
Not being a TP here but I think if there were any right now, a fracas will be ignited. -
I've seen HL sells something similar to the Seaswirl. Not shaped in the same way but works in the same principle. Interested parties might want to check it out.
-
Thanks, will let you know of my visit via PM.
There is already fast growth in my acros -
Yeah, another thing that made my mouth gape was that the TP expect tangs to be fed till their belly bulge bec in nature they relentlessly graze. If that is the case, my ammonia/nitrite/nitrate level will rock & algae will bloom out of control. Its always in nature this, in nature that...someone forgot to remind them that they are in a hobby concerning miniature reef keeping. They are simply in the wrong site.
I like to come down and have a look at your tank sometime in January cos I am quite tied up in work for the year end the same reason I could not make it for the gathering as much as I liked to. Anyhow, I will let you know 1 week in advance before I come. Would that be OK? Hope its not too much of an inconvenience.
I notice some acro in your tank. How long have you had them? Fabulous! Acros are my next move at SPS but can't seem to find them around.
-
Hahaha...golly be, you are so creative.
I am not a tang police lah. As a matter of fact, I do find their practices ridiculous and laughable comparing nature with captive breeding is completely off level ground. Geez...500 gal per tank? That literally rules everyone out.
BTW, whats that dark piece on the left hand side of your fox? Is it a encrusting sponge of some kind?
-
Stunning tank! Too bad I didn't see it in person. You must have got your muscles all in the right places by now setting that one up. I am interested in the survivability of the blue sponge through phytoplankton feeding. Hope to be able to check with you on the progress of the sponge a couple of months later. I have ever kept that before (without feeding) and they lasted about 5 months before disintegrating slowly for another month. Due to my lack of success with this sponge, I have stopped buying it altogether. You might have more success with it or make it lasts considerably longer which I am really interested to know.
Your tank have quite some depth there. With your clams on the sand bed, do you find it a chore to reposition them when they go rolly polly every now and then or are they already attached to a rock at its base and anchored into your sandbed.
Nice anthias and tangs too.
I see you have 3 tangs (PT, YT, PB). Tang Police recommends 1 per 500 gal as in the wild they do not turn much and every pasture that they graze on is a new pasture. Hence, you need to have high volumes for their upkeep otherwise it will be considered cruelty to animals.
You are hereby guilty of breaching tang law
#1 - tank is less than 500 gal
#2 - you have too many tangs. Ideally you should have none!
A court injunction will be issued to you to surrender all your tangs to Underwater world who have a much bigger tank with grazing patches and where they can swim straight or along curve glass without seemingly having to make a 180 degree turn.
Furthermore, you scuba dive. Regret to say that it supplies the necessary mens rea to convict you for the crime of cruelty. You will be sentenced to serve 2 yrs CWO at SPCA with monitored probation to come home every night to feed the remaining fishes before reporting back to SPCA at 2359 sharp.
jus j/k:P
-
Tanzy Posted on Dec 3 2002, 02:14 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've got a couple of books but if I lent them to you will you return them? Most people just forget or can't be bothered to return my books.
Thought it was just me. So it seems even you have this problem too. I have lost a couple of books in this way and these people are no longer contactable. Now I have Reef Notes Vol. 2-4 without Vol. 1!! Also, I have a archive of every single FAMA magazine all the way from '96 till now and a few months are missing. Its really heart breaking. Another case concerns my Coral Reef Aquarium Vol1. by Svein A Fossa. It was returned to me in a water stained and dog eared condition. Duh! How irresponsible.
Hope you don't mind my rants. Its been pent up for far too long. Kinda intererested in getting No. 8. Can you tell me more? How do you find it in terms of value of content, pictures (qty and qlty) and understandability?
-
Exactly! What I did for mine was to buy a small magnet algae scrubber, silicone the powerhead bracket (minus all the suckers) to one side of it and let it set for a day or two. After that, stick it into the tank.
Few advantages;
You can have a more stable and lasting hold on your powerhead.
You can make adjustments to the position of the powerhead (left right up down) without having to get your hands wet.
It can be "Quick detached" for cleaning. No need to pry at the suckers to get them to loosen.
Sentosa Underwater World
in General Reefkeeping_
Posted
3rd of 6