Suggestions on my 2nd fish?

[notatallhappygolucky]

Now that my bicolor blenny has come out of it's shell I'm considering a 2nd fish for a friend or something to keep him occupied. I like the bicolor anglefish if I could find a small one, or a blackray shrimp goby.

Any suggestions? I'd also like to pick up a hammer or torch coral today. I may be jumping the gun on adding a second fish - I don't want either of them to jump out and I don't have a canopy yet.

[reefermike1]

i know angels have a reputation for nipping at certain corals, cant go wrong with a percula imo

[notatallhappygolucky]

I've been trying to steer away from the clowns.

blackray shrimp goby:

[Fly Guy]

hes awesome..........

[reefermike1]

that is a cool lookin fish

[notatallhappygolucky]

thanks guys. Now if I can find one.

I have another question about feeding. I've been feeding about a third of a cube per day to the blenny (once per day) and I think the ideal size for this one fish would be 1/9th of a cube 3 times per day. It's funny to watch him eat - he'll dart halfway across the tank now for a bite & he's much less reclusive He bites @ the microalgae on the glass inbetween bites o mysis. I don't want to add another fish and have him be forced into his caves.

so far I've been just slicing the frozen mysis & plopping it in to the tank. I was wondering if any of you had some sort of mini-collander that could be used to rinse/thaw the frozen & then put the thawed food directly into the tank.

Would stainless contaminate the food &/or water? Any suggestions on the next frozen food to mix in for variety? I was thinking of small chunks of scallops too..

[dobejazz]

I use a tea bag strainer to rinse the food it seems to work well

[notatallhappygolucky]

TY dj!

I picked up a blackray shrimp goby & a neon star polyp rock, along with some new frozen (seafood blend) cubes & flake. The new little fishy is hiding under the LR right now - he dove into the sand @ the LFS when the worker went @ it with the net.

I hope he's not a jumper.

[stang5_o2002]

How about a six line wrasse or a flasher
wrasse of some sort?

[ChrisPrusha]

He may indeed be a jumper...do you have a lid?

Great fish, btw!

[notatallhappygolucky]

not yet. Here's what I'm planning - it'll just extend the sides of the tank & should still allow for plenty of oxygenation and hopefully will contain the light a little better:



oh yeah, it'll just be an acrylic box that sits over the lip of the tank like a hood with an open top.

The little bugger is hiding out behind &/or under the LR in a corner. The blenny is out a little more, hopefully not claiming the entire tank. I hope he hasn't been spoiled too much by having the tank to himself. If they chase I'm afraid one may jump.

I'm not sure on the acclimation thing on this one. The LFS water was @ 1.022, I lowered the tank from 1.025+ to 1.024+. I floated the bag for about 1/2 hour, added ~5 oz tank water to the bag, floated another 10 minutes or so, then drained the bag & dumped in the fish.

The neon/green star frag (size between tennis & baseball) has about 20% of polyps extended.

I also added a queen conch snail which I think is safe.

The blenny tooka vent & you could see the mysis eyes still in it . I think I must've fed him a little too much this morning.

[Geoff]

depending on the corals in the tank, straining the food may not be a good idea. certain corals and other filter feeders can only eat certain sized food. straining the food could eliminate this food source. the size variability is what makes frozen foods so good. they are able to feed the entire tank with just one feeding.

G~

[notatallhappygolucky]

hey geoff. ~90% of the polyps are now open on my one & only coral. I have it on the bottom of the tank in one of the lower flow areas of my tank (29g w/ 42X turnover) and the polyps are moving around a bit. The invert book says they like med-high flow or won't prosper, has zooanthelle, and can benefit from supplemental feeding. Tank is @ ~4.48 watts per gallon.

The algae isn't too bad but that's one reason I thought filtering the frozen food was a good idea - I seem to remember that the binders in the food were high in phosphates. I remove the stringy cyano (black & green) by using the siphon hose (flare end removed). I start the siphon then plug the out end with a finger, position the end over the algae & it sucks it right off.

[notatallhappygolucky]

before I did the 15% WC today while I was blowing off the LR I stirred up some sand with the PH. I really mixed it up (the sand) with the PH. Any problems with doing this in a new SSB? I know there's a denitrifying area in DSBs, not so sure on the SSB.... anyway I figured so long as I didn't have the DN layer I wouldn't polute the system with this method.