Snappy

Mine would eat live or frozen food. Depending on your setup, you might try a frozen silverside. Get one large enough that the puffer needs 5 minutes to finish devouring it, and the tangs can finish the seaweed simultaneously. Ive found that there is zero controlling a fishes healthy appetite. The healthiest fish I've ever had have been the most aggressive eaters. If he eats too much, get him in a tank with similar dieting fish. Otherwise, put more food in and make sure skimmer can keep up. Im unaware of anything that might make it eat more slowly.

Not actual picture. Actual Barnum and bailey starfish is too rare for me to find a photo of online 😔

I’m in search of the ever elusive Barnum and Bailey starfish. I’m aware that they can reproduce up to once per month! They are certainly not inexpensive to say the least, but I figured if we got enough people in on a group buy and we got one, we could rotate it monthly among the group until we each have one. Each member of the group buy participates in a lottery to see who gets it first run. Each member of the group buy also agrees that only one Barnum and Bailey starfish may be held per member until all members of group buy have attained at least one. Since there could be 2 by this time next month, 4 the following month and 8 at the end of the 3rd month, it should prove a worthy group buy. This is likely the most vibrantly coloured starfish yet discovered. They are known to be extremely resilient to parameter fluctuations, making them ideal for beginner and advanced reefers. I’d gotten word in March that there would be one available April. If we start this foolproof plan this April it would be guaranteed May payday! Who’s comin with me!?!

Very cool build. My tank would probable be better if I had done an insert like that and planned it better, but I bought it used and running and made due with impromptu reefscaping. Whats the Galaxy for? Is that another reefer hobby?

Ugh, I had it on my calendar for Sunday and not Saturday. Logged in to look for updates and realized it started an hour ago. I think I’m in line for a PAR meter, and will reluctantly need to pass my place in line onto anyone who had the proper date on the calendar for March 😮

Your lighting doesn’t look consistent in your pictures. Not sure if it still captures the colours of your coral change or not, but I note a couple inconsistencies that might come into play: the top picture has a light orange coloured (montipora?) coral and the lower picture shows the same one in red. The purple coralline algae on bottom left looks light purple, lower picture it’s black. Is it possible that your lighting has changed? also, I’m not as experienced, but wondered if having multiple corals of the same species but different sub species would tend to change another’s colours?

I had a fuzzy angler fish the size of a billiards ball for about a year. They can eat prey their own body size apparently. I’d gotten a green wolf eel in the same tank for about a month or two. All seemed fine the first month or two until one morning I’d woken up and found my wolf eel missing and my angler had doubled in size. The angler was so big it was leaning sideways and looked about to burst. I never weighed them, but would have theorized the eel to have been the same size even a fraction larger. Most of the fish in the aquarium ate frozen food. The angler fish can be a bit tricky. I needed to progress from live food, to skewering a silverside and making it move about the aquarium in a swimming motion to entice the angler to eat. If it didn’t move, he wouldn’t eat it.

I’ve been holding out for a nice pair of clowns..... are you coming to the gathering this month?

They can turn back female?

Update: anthias no longer hiding behind rock. Now hiding behind water fan or magnetic scrub pad. Appears that it's the least drama of the 4. The other 3 get to be some aggressive drama queens come feeding time and this 4th hider just seems too passive to join in their shenanigans. It is very healthy, just likely needs a bigger tank or one with less aggressive alpha male. It would be easy to net as it hides in the top corner of aquarium now as pictured. I want to see how the remaining 3 do on their own. Hopefully they mellow out a bit with one less. If not, I'll likely need to downsize to 2 anthias before long. Im open to trades and offers. Main goal is happy healthy fish for all PS update just while writing this post and the male chased it out of the corner and harassed it. The other 2 females quickly joined in. I'm afraid this fish may not survive more than a few more days. It is a bit thinner than the others. No visible parasites or blemishes other than a tail fin getting a bite mark during scuffles.

What did your bonsai cost? Some are $240 and that’s a bit out of my budget.... Bonsai is a cool space adding shape. I also like the magnetic frag plug idea. I think between the two, I can add much more corals and colour to my 28 cube. Thanks guys

My anthias have one of the 4 behaving oddly the last few weeks. One seems to permanently hide in the cave. He still eats and breathes fine. Takes a real bit of movement to stay on the side of the cave wall in the fashion it does. I think mine is a runner up male hiding from alpha male. Not positive. Yours looks similar to mine, but also a little different. Hope it make it through.

I’ve got 4 bartletts anthias and after the dominate male grew large the 2nd male hides permanently. He still actively feeds, colour is bright, and appears healthy but I think the tank is too small for the 4 of them. I’m looking to trade one, possibly 2 out. The male is double the size of the others now. The male and at least one female usually roam the tank, often all 3. All 4 used to school together for the first couple months, but once the dominate male doubled in size, the schooling dynamics changed. At the top of my list that I’m wanting to trade for are fancy clownfish. I also like the bright red starfish and clams (though I’ve never had a clam before.) I have very little of any room for more frags or corals. The only likely coral I’m after would be a rainbow acan. I live in Salem but would be willing to bring the fish to one of the meetings if it is a reputable club member. Thanks

It is hiding in back and has a cleaner shrimp and other couple anthias in the way when I try to take pics, but here is the best 2 of the 10 I took just now. Only 2 can I even tell what it's a pic of.

He is going to be really difficult to get a picture of. I may try today, but he hides in the back of the cave where the iPhone reaches him the least. Other 3 fish are protective for some reason too. Whenever I try to look too closely at the hider wrasse, the other 3 get in the way and block my view. I’d wondered if it is possible that the hiding wrasse is actually about to lay eggs, or maybe even laid eggs already. The big male of the group turned male months ago, so it might be possible.

It’s in my 28. I think it’s possible that the hiding one turned male and was outcast from the group as one had already turned male earlier and is nearly double the size of the others by now. I’m really considering giving up the 4th wheel if I can find a good home for him.

I have 4 bartletts anthias purchased 3 months ago. A couple weeks ago one started to stay put in the back where it normally sleeps. It still eats at eating time, but never goes more than 6 inches away from it hiding spot. Is this a mating thing?

Yes, thanks for hosting Brian. Wonderful host. Learned lots. Nice pics and recap Bert. Very successful all around. Gooooo reeeef!

Lots of great ideas for the simplistic approach. Does anyone have experience with artificial rock style shelves? I have a frag rack currently that is a simple, interchangeable design. I'm considering the long term applications of a more permanent frag shelf. Perhaps "frag" shelf wouldnt be the term anymore. I'm considering the idea of having a rock looking shelf that gets encrusted with corals. Tunze makes one. Kind of spendy though. Perhaps someone here has or knows someone who has experience with gluing small reef shelves onto the back of the aquarium? I've also seen many showcase aquariums with LARGE monti caps and such growing right on the tank. Main thing here is that for this season of life, a 28 gallon cube is all thats in my cards. Without being able to upsize gallons or add an extra tank, I'm trying to suffice my reefer addictions in my current situation.

I’ve only got a few aiptasia, but would happily take a single berghia to get rid of them. They are hidden in rock work where zapping them is tricky. I’m in Salem, but would grab one on a group buy if we could work out transportation logistics so I’m not driving an hour for a $5-10 nudibranch. Thanks for post, great idea. Would be awesome if someone had an aiptasia tank to breed them in for the locals.

I’m wanting to add a little more frag real estate to my tank in the 28 gallon cube. Adding more rock to the main base is not ideal for a few spacing reasons, so I’m considering the magnetic inserts or frag racks. I have a 9 plug rack now that is fine, but it’s plain plastic. I’ve seen the rock looking frag shelves online and considered them. Does anyone have much experience or recommendations with them? Is magnetic rack the way to go, or would one consider using reef glue to adhere one to the back of the aquarium is inside the overflow? Does anyone have experience gluing corals or frags to the aquarium walls? thanks

Thanks for having us/me over. Very cool to see your display tank. The jaguar cichlid was fun to watch. Pizza and beer were great, interesting conversations were had, and I walked away with some wonderful frags from your “basesump” (basement turned into a sump). I think we all learned a bit there. Not sure if I was inspired by your Jaguar cichlid/kraken, but realizing I had an hour to spare before closing and it was only a mile out of my way, stopped by All Things Aquariums in wilsonville. Found a great looking leapard wrasse that needed to come home with me. Very pretty fish and fun to watch swim. Apparently, they burrow. This one decided the watchman goby pistol shrimp lair would be a good place to take slumber. Took him 3 seconds at night time to swim in and scurry out all the sand and rock and bury himself in with them before they could object. Several loud pistol shrimp clicks happened, but they all emerged alive today. He kind of reminds me of the attitude of your jaguar fish in that it is fearless. Goes after other things. Doesn’t attack, but certainly makes sure that everyone in his block knows he’s not to be trifled with. Not sure if it’s too early to start, but I’ve got ideas for next months frag swap. I’ve got a small frag of Australia red lava chalice that has a nice growth ring around it finally and should be of a more tradable size by next month. I have some blue cactus coral pavona (few frags), and an assortment of mushrooms (not nearly as rare as yours). Mushrooms aren’t very big. I’d have brought them with me yesterday but didn’t find them until I got home last night and had to reorganize the reefscape.

I have a water fan in the tank already. Sorry

Pm sent, if you still have tank active at all

Ordered it online, and it takes 9 days to arrive, only cost $12 at least. Ace tried to sell me an expensive, elaborate work around because they didn’t have the proper part.