Flashy Fins

The handheld one will be available sooner, and you can always sign back up to borrow the USB meter if you find the handheld not to your liking for some reason.

Those who've borrowed the handheld meter have been happy with it, but probably this reason:

Added you to the list. You'll need to be a paid forum member to borrow when the time comes.

@Paratore, which model did you want to borrow? The handheld meter is currently available. The USB meter has a couple of people ahead of you.

And in a school, too! Guess it's detention for me!

Welcome! Nice hammer coral there.

Big thanks to Bert for always taking pics at the meetings! Your posts are great even for those of us who were there, because it helps put names to faces after we're home and realize we forgot to catch names while chatting with people. Congratulations to Roy & Jim for being the top scoring members of Bert's super advanced trivia quiz! Those guys both scored 80%, if I recall correctly. Couple of smarty pants in the house!

It was so fun seeing everyone! And yes, I do love playing Price Is Right model with those raffle items, can't deny it! I'll toss another picture into the mix. This is Zoolander, myself, and Albertareef, clearly all quite pleased with the shindig! Maybe it was my big lotto win that had me so excited! (For those not there, I scored lottery tickets in the white elephant exchange. Thought I won $5, but I actually won $9! I will soon forget all your names now that I'm a bigshot lotto winner!)

Nice finds! Need to get my butt over there. To all the shops, actually!

I think the last time I was at Kennedy School, I was in that very room for a party. This is going to be a blast!

@badxgillen I read that too fast and thought you said tie and tank top. Quite the mental picture!

Got my sequin sweater washed and ready! Shopping for white elephant gift tonight. READY TO PARTY!

You can view the wait list at the end of the first post in this thread. It is up to date, and both meters will likely be returned at the holiday party, although a few people are ahead of you in line.

There aren't many people waiting, but one of the meters being out in Corvallis and the holidays have slowed the turnaround down a bit. Still, we've managed to get through a lot of loans in 2017! Most people who wanted to borrow have done so already.

Done.

@Emerald525, there will be a charge for raffle tickets, correct? Can you remind everyone of the cost? No charge to come and enjoy the food, white elephant exchange (just bring a wrapped gift), trivia (prizes for the winners), frag swapping (recommend arranging trades beforehand), and socializing. Everyone who shows will get a free raffle ticket for the Moloko’s gift card drawing (3 winners).

Apparently, also known as Mesothorax hogfish. That sounds like a disease you’d hear late-night commercials about, telling you to call a lawyer now!

Split-level, Eclipse, and Coral hogfish are all the same fish. No end to common names, but I’ll take that over learning Latin. I can see how reef lighting would make the deep color look purple or blue, but it will change as it gets older, like Exodus showed. Liveaquaria also has a nice picture showing juvie and adult color forms.

Fish nerd bells are ringing! @Exodus is correct, split-level hogfish (or Eclipse hogfish, as I know it; same creature). They’re not blue, as the lighting suggests, but burgundy and yellow. Gets huge and will eat your inverts, as well as smaller fish once it’s large enough, although the pointy little face of a juvie is hard to resist! Cuban hogfish is my fave, but the Eclipse is a good hog, too.

I have the USB meter right now. No response from nanoreefer32, so I’m skipping ahead. Sent you a PM.

Try feeding peas. Easy to use frozen by removing the skin and breaking into tiny pieces, so the wrasse can swallow it. Just a few should clear up gas, if that's all it is. If that doesn't work, you may need to vent with a needle. Not for the nervous hand, but if you dare, you should find this video helpful. It's unlikely to come to that, so don't freak out too much yet.

Looks like autocorrect had a field day! I think I’m more of a spoon...

Everyone on this forum is welcome! Bring the family (there will be pizza!), cash for any raffles you’d like to enter (tickets are cheap and the prizes are stellar!), and a wrapped gift if you’d like to participate in the white elephant exchange (it’s optional, but really fun!).

Just bring a wrapped gift worth about $10. (No one will complain if you go over that, but it's a good price point most can afford.) Reef related, reef themed, or not - whatever you think will be popular with the crowd/feel like giving. We usually limit how many times any particular gift can be stolen when we're playing. Bring a gift and leave with a different gift is the idea.

Welcome! Looks like you’re off to a good start. It stinks when a fish disappears. Unfortunately, the mandarin most likely starved and was quickly cleaned up by your invert crew. I used to keep dragonets (mandarin and ruby red) in the same size tank, but it got to be a pain breeding enough food for them. Even mandarins trained to eat frozen will struggle to get enough to eat in tanks under 100 gallons, sometimes larger. They’re copepod monsters with insatiable appetites. If you want to give it another go, look up breeding methods for tisbe copepods (important to get this specific type) and set up a breeding station. Mine was a series of 1-gallon jugs with airlines that I fed phytoplankton and crushed fish food. Harvesting was the only task I found to be a pain, but even that wasn’t really hard, just more of a job without much joy in the way of copepods not being nearly as pretty to look at as the critters in my tank. I might give it another try this winter, as mandarins are one of my favorite fish and helped convinced me I had to have a saltwater tank. It’s also good to get into the habit of quarantining fish early on. Reef2reef has great information in that regard in their fish disease forums. You may not have any problems now, but the more fish you add, the greater the risk. Good luck!