First fish in...

[sammy33]

After 8 months of nothing in my 125g except a few snails and a couple hermits I finally put the first fish and corals in. I have beed adding corals over the last few weeks and this fish (9 of them actually) about 2 days ago.

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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Orange Stripe Cardinal (Apogon cyanasomai</em>)</span>)

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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Schooling</span>

Next I will begin moving my anemone, then Percula Clowns, Tang, Goby etc. and then more of the corals from my other tanks. It realllly is starting to look like a reef! :fish:

 

[jgoal55]

Sam, thats awesome, congrats!!!

looks great, that plus the canopy lift and you have by far one of the best tanks I've seen.....

you're gonna have to put yourself up for tour of the tanks.....just not in june because Im traveling too much.

 

[sammy33]

I really want a Mandarin in this tank and have encouraged copepods to grow in my system just to insure a large natural food source. Here is a pic of a section of the overflow box with a bunch of pods munching on algae:

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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Lotsa pods</span>

The longer ones are amphipods (gamarus shrimp) and the smaller "dots" are copepods. I think this will help to keep a Mandarin happy. The Cardinal fish may munch on these as well.

 

[siege]

what is the coral behind the cardinal?

 

[sammy33]

siege;45295 wrote: what is the coral behind the cardinal?

Moon Coral (Favia)

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Sammy, be watchful of the group of cardinals- I have heard that they start out a happy family, but will eventually get aggressive with one another and kill each other off. Cardinals are goofy like that, scholl will happily school while other are more territorial. But, this is just word of mouth, heresay. By the way, are you sure that is not a goniastra coral?

 

[jeep9783]

what did u do to get the population up?

 

[tsciarini]

jeep9783;45322 wrote: what did u do to get the population up?

sammy33;45289 wrote: 8 months of nothing in my 125g except a few snails and a couple hermits

:yes:

 

[jmaneyapanda]

 

[sammy33]

jmaneyapanda;45320 wrote: Sammy, be watchful of the group of cardinals- I have heard that they start out a happy family, but will eventually get aggressive with one another and kill each other off. Cardinals are goofy like that, scholl will happily school while other are more territorial. But, this is just word of mouth, heresay.

By the way, are you sure that is not a goniastra coral?

I have heard that about these Orange Line and other Cardinals as well. I am going to give it a shot though. I think a lot of the agression comes when a pair forms and they have too much competition for food. I overfeed (way too much) so I am hoping to keep this to a minimum.

I am pretty sure that coral is a Favia Closed Brain (Moon Coral). The Goniastrea are similar but don't usually have the bright fluorescing pigments like the Favia corals.

 

[showtime305]

Very nice Sam.

 

[sammy33]

jeep9783;45322 wrote: what did u do to get the population up?

As Tony pointed out the really long cycle/maturing time with no higher predators present helped grow the pod population. I also fed phytoplankton and zooplankton about twice a week during this time. I also have a 30 gallon refugium on the system to help the pods grow.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

sammy33;45359 wrote: I have heard that about these Orange Line and other Cardinals as well. I am going to give it a shot though. I think a lot of the agression comes when a pair forms and they have too much competition for food. I overfeed (way too much) so I am hoping to keep this to a minimum.

I am pretty sure that coral is a Favia Closed Brain (Moon Coral). The Goniastrea are similar but don't usually have the bright fluorescing pigments like the Favia corals.

Sammy, I would agree this agression would likely occur after pairs form, but I think food competition has little to do with it. I think pair forming animals do not tolerate "competition" to their pair bonding, which is where the aggression comes from. This is just my theory, though. At any rate, good luck.

 

[sammy33]

jmaneyapanda;45373 wrote: Sammy, I would agree this agression would likely occur after pairs form, but I think food competition has little to do with it. I think pair forming animals do not tolerate "competition" to their pair bonding, which is where the aggression comes from. This is just my theory, though. At any rate, good luck.

jmaneyapanda - Good discussion.

I my post above I really meant to say "pairs form or (not and) food competition"</em>. I have seen those threads on RC on the Orange Line Cardinal behavior (pair agression). I think the other focus of this sort of maternal aggression may be territorial. Having a reef with large open space may offer some comfort to fish that feel territorial. I did two separate reef structures with open space all around.

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Maybe this will offer some sort of divisional territory for fishes in my tank? I can't control when pairs form (thats nature :love: ) but can only hope to reduce hunger agression and give fish seperate areas to congregate in.

I apreciate the compliments from everyone. I have been excessively patient with this aquarium and it is exciting to see it come together and have it start looking like reef.