I was asked about my cuc by a fellow aquarist and told him about my two lovely urchins. I have two tuxedo (or pincushion urchins) in my reef who just wander around eating all kinds of algae including coralline algae. He was concerned about this but the coralline algae grows back as fast as it is eaten. The urchins are fascinating, covering themselves in all kinds of things including small hermit crabs!! I have to pull these off on occasion. They don't do any harm to corals or other inverts and are ignored by the fish. I think they are a brilliant addition to any reef tank.
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I added a small female mithrax crab (Mithraculus sculptus) and three small red legged hermit crabs to continue to develop my cuc which had, over time, become depleted. within minutes of being introduced to my little reef set up my H. timorensis was picking up one of the hermits and tossing it around. She didn't try to eat it just appeared to play with it! Will need to keep an eye on this.
My small wrasse collection seems to be sorting itself out. The Halichoeres timorensis seems to be happy with the smaller Halichoeres melanurus and both swim and feed happily. The only signs of aggression are from my Paracheilinus mccoskeri chasing the Cirrhilabrus solorensis. I am not sure why this is as the P. mccoskeri is the smaller fish. They are both plankton feeders but apart from that I have no idea. They lived peacefully together until the changes involved in removing the tomato clowns. I introduced this little banded serpent star to my reef in 2012. The body was about the size of my thumbnail and each leg was maybe 7 to 8cms long. It spends most of its time hanging around under the rocks on the base of the aquarium waving an arm or two in the air when I feed the tank. I very rarely see the whole animal, until yesterday evening! It went walkabout before lights out and wow is it big! I reckon the body disc is probably 2.5cms with its arms (legs?) stretching at least 12-15 cms either side! It look so much bigger than I had thought. I am hoping all the other creatures on my reef are safe from this beast. I love having him in there but think I will need to keep an eye on him. Well there I was doing some research for the new wrasse pages on this site when up popped this picture on a commercial website. I thought that it looked very familiar. I checked my computer images and there it was on my hard drive. It was my McCosker's Flasher wrasse taken in my aquarium by my camera!! What a cheek I thought. But then I thought well if a commercial site is using photographs off my site then they must be pretty good. Felt flattered! So I continued doing my research and guess what? I found this photograph of mine on a different site! And then on a third site my lovely Ornate Leopard Wrasse. Saves the commercial guys from having good fish in their own aquariums I suppose. After seeing my new little H melanurus put through the wringer since being introduced into my reef I decided to invest in an acclimatisation box. The theory being the new fish, after drip acclimatisation over at least a couple of hours can then be placed into my new transparent box. Here the existing fish in the reef get to see what is going on and hopefully can decided on the new pecking order without too much aggression and stress for the new fish. I intend to place any new fish in the box for two to three days within the aquarium and watch how the fish interact before introducing the newcomer. I have never done this before so it will be interesting to see what happens. Worth trying to get a lovely mixed collection of wrasse. My little H melanurus seems to be settling down. She is swimming around more openly without interference from the other fish so fingers crossed she will now be ok. Have found my new H. melanorus hiding away in the weir! How it managed that is a feat in itself but when I reintroduced it to the tank there was a real problem with my much larger H timorensis. She is becoming the top dog in the reef but I think there may be a bigger issue. My juvenile H. melanorus has very similar colouring to my H. timorensis. This could be a real issue. as my H. timorensis is at least twice the size. Will have to await developments.
I am trying some new food in my reef and it seems to be going down a treat with my wrasse. It comes in a tin and is provided by Aquarium Systems. Called A la Carte I tried the Artemia brine Shrimp and found my fish really liked it. I find it much more convenient than frozen foods and less messy in the aquarium. I am now trying their cyclops. Hoping the wrasse will enjoy this but will also provide for some of my corals...hopefully!
Still no sign of my new little wrasse. The worst thing about adding a new wrasse to the tank, particularly Halichoeres wrasse is that they can disappear into the sandbed for days. My new H melanurus was swimming around happily taking Artemisia on her first evening but I have not seen her since. Fingers crossed and patience needed.
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AuthorI have always enjoyed keeping fish and began this website when doing the research before setting up my own modest reef. I couldn't find this type of site so decided to make my own. Archives
December 2020
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