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[vitz]

this camera doesn't seem to do well w/actinic lighting, but here's the pb cruising, about 5 min away from getting fed some nice frozen foods-'red carnivore' from H2O life, and mini-mysis:

[vitz]

one of the frozen food clumps begins to tumble around and break-up above an increasingly excited tang

after about 10 minutes, the actinics will be off, and the rest of the mysis will go to the lps's

[vitz]

sometime last nite the aussie scoly took a tumble into the acanth (the acanth won)

since i needed to re-scape some minor stuff and make sure the scoly won't fumble again and get done in altogether, i bit the bullet-took out the digi, razor'd out the capnella, and made some minor switches/swaps

some shots will follow over the upcoming days-here's the 'new' center:

[vitz]

i pulled the digi, cut out the capnella (both are holding in the sump), and yet again re-arranged a few things

i think the visual lines/flow are better, and more in keeping w/my original desire to 'theme' the tank more around 'carpeting' the rock profile than vertically growing corals-that and the temp issues this system presently has, plus my lack of interest in sps corals in general, pretty much means there won't be any placed here for awhile, if at all

some individual tonga 'bullseye' shrooms, and a few actinodiscus ('regular') shrooms have also been added, and are acclimating to the rock structure

some of the corals have recently been stung by the acanth due to some 'midnite tumbling', and some are a tad irritated from just being moved/brushed against, but here's a new pic of the arrangement that's (almost, maybe ) done :

[vitz]

here's a great shot of the powder blue side grazing, some nice cyano in the front due to a lazy PO4 management week on a heavy nutrient system, and the sea hare's tuchas

[vitz]

i just plain ol' lub my starcki, so i'll show it off as often as i can

of all the 'nicer looking' dams-it has quite abit of more darkly colored subtle beauty in addition to the 'flash' of bright color so typical of dams like the 'gregories' under the right light, and at the proper angles, there are blues within blues

[The Escaped Ape]

Very pretty! How is it aggression wise Vitz?

[vitz]

they have little tolerance for each other

(RANT ALERT)

(at least, they will try to tear each other to shreds upon arrival-they are one of the many fish that are kept in individual-and comfortably sized- 'cups' due to the HUGE holding constraints all importers/wholesalers have - the amount of space that would be needed to house what amounts to sometimes thousands of 'a-hole' personality type small fish that MUST be kept seperated from each other is simply not cost effective/a losing proposition, economically

it also does the fish absolutely NO harm-i can attest to this for the professional record for tens of species and tens of thousands of individual fish over a period of close to 3 years, looking at EACH ONE daily, and being responsible for the feeding (i've been pretty much the defacto feeding 'micro-manager', (for good or bad) here for over 2 yrs now, heh

i only mention the cup thing as it's relevant to the starcki, and it seems like the best opportunity to rebuff/rebuke a statement i'd read by some other poster about jawfish and cups in the ind forum-i think it was some nonsense whine about what a cruel thing it was, or some such, when they were totally ignorant about just how wonderfully fish can do in one when done properly-

I AM NOT REFERING TO STEVE'S PROPER AND CORRECT OBSERVATIVE STATEMENT ABOUT THE RUBBED TAIL ISSUE - that's a classic result of doing things IMproperly-i think it was a response by someone to that relay from steve,who obviously has no experience with the subject -iirc

there are also other applications for cupping, or using inverted baskets as a type of 'cup' (basically any container used to isolate a fish from the larger (spatial) environment of the whole tank to a localized one, is what they both do, heh, - that can fix many ailments certain fish land with often due to previous holding or shipping causes/issues...

i'm sure most hobbyists aren't aware of how many of various species of puffers land with floatation issues-they arrive with fully inflated air bladders and are unable to deflate themselves for awhile-usually because they cannot position their mouths/bodies properly in the water column to expel the gas-why that is i don't know (yet) could be the inability to orient themselvs for the gas to vent the way it has to, maybe they're simply too fubar'd from the shipping/collecting ordeals to engage a 'burp' reflex,-i don't know (yet )

what we do know is that if they aren't kept fully submerged-they will either drown in air (gills head kept bobbing above the water surface, or their belly will get completely knackered from air exposure over a period of HOURS)....so they get either cupped or placed into inverted baskets (some use spaghetti collanders-different shapes, same idea )


cupping large amounts of small fish like starckis and many other 'exotic' dams, clowns, gobies, etc etc is often the best thing that can happen to them at one point in their life/custody chain, however long that point may be

END OF RANT


other than that, i've found them to be one of the most 'communal minded' of all the dams-not ever overly aggressive to tankmates, but holds its ground to anything that can't swallow it

it's the only fish that will push the pb away when its had enough of the tang's
pvert attempts at playing king of the hill (it's almost like watching a small dog making it clear to the larger it's willing to choke the larger to death with its body, just to force a tie )

edit:

while i've never tried it, i'd imagine a compatible pair might be possible....

if their behavior is anything like the gregorys (i don't know if the starcki is one or not, atm), it should be possible-either way, having spawned gregories before i might do some digging and see if i can play around with these, and place new pair of pink skunks i've been planning on as a replacement for the original pair in the sump

alternatively, i'm considering placing the pb in the sump eventually, as it's less obstructed, and will allow it longer cruises at higher speeds (it can race around the skimmer in the tub's center all day long for all i care




dear lord i nearly completely hijacked my own thread

[The Escaped Ape]

And what a hijack! That's what the internet is made for.

Lots of good info there Vitz, including a lot I wasn't expecting, so thank you!.

[vitz]

a couple of shots of the starcki from above at weird angles-there's a constant upwelling from underneath/through the stack i forgot to take into account when focusing..... this is with the 55 watt pc actinic only

[The Escaped Ape]

Really nice shots! Particularly the first - looks like it was taken on a reef.

[vitz]

heh thx

i'm waiting for nico to be in the area so someone can take shots that show what the damn thing really looks like

[vitz]

so i was watching the starcki try to intimidate the tang for awhile, and decided to provide some all too lacking tropical cyclone effects,like lightning, and played w/the flash .....

[vitz]

some powder blue/starcki shots taken on the 6th...

[vitz]

...

[MartinE]

So will the Starcki stay that coloration, or is it one of the damsels that is pretty in its juvinile form and then gets ugly?

[vitz]

yes, and no

[vitz]

a teaser 'night' shot of the gramma hovering over the new stack, re-arranged over this past weekend-zoa colonies were split up,moved/spread around more, some new ones added, plus a coral or two-full tank shots to hopefully follow tomorrow

[vitz]

the new stack

[vitz]

closer-ups of the top left