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[Matt_]

Ah, are those some ventralis I see? How are those doing for you?

Uh, yes. I didn't intend on getting those in the shot. There are 2 females and a male. All 3 are accepting capelin eggs, frozen mysis, cyclops, and baby brine. I also feed them all day long on a drip of live brine enriched with Selco and phytoplankton. I removed my fairy wrasse before adding them. All seem to be doing well. No apparent swim bladder issues. I QT'd them (in a much larger tank) for 6 weeks and fortunately they did not show signs of any disease.

They are incredibly skittish. During QT the only way to observe them was to feed, stand back from the tank about 15 feet, and then wait about 10 minutes. The firefish, goby, and pipefish seem to have made them feel a bit more secure but they still spend most of the day tucked in the rockwork as you see them in this photo. Lights on/off don't seem to make them any more bold one way or the other.

Fingers crossed, check in a year from now. I would not recommend them to anyone unless they were at home to feed their tank all day every day. Ideally they should have food available at all times, lower temperature around 72-75 degrees, dim lighting, and incredibly peaceful tankmates. Firefish, dartfish, most gobies, etc.

[Matt_]

Tiny update--added another Trimma caudomaculatum that I found at a LFS today. It immediately found the other one and they swim together. Not much else to report. The ventralis are slowly getting bolder. Nice big bellies, good looking colors. The helfrich's and janss' pipefish still look good.