lduncan

Not too sure, but i think the the size, and availability would play a role, plus the fact that any coral is more likely to be stressed already in an aquarium, as opposed to it's natural environment. Layton

I don't know for sure, but I still think that they live in them, which stresses them until they die. Layton

Various reports on reefcentral say that people have lost acro's due to this gobies "nesting" habbits in sps. Layton

Nope. They can kill acros. Layton

True, but I have a general idea of what's in Steve's tank. Layton

everything looks spot on. Shouldn't take long for it to colour up in those conditions, I'd give it a month. Got to be up early to get all my work done! There's just too much at the moment. Commerce students don't know the meaning of work! Nothing like finally getting a project working at 4 am the going home for a shower and coming back at 8am for the inspection! Layton

I use zeovit to mount frags now, with a bit of superglue. Layton

Hey steve. Some acros will take months to show colour, especially wild colonies. I have not doubt the one you brought will colour up given time. What are you water parameters like. The key to colouration is zero nitrate. Layton

They look like gold striped maroon clowns to me. Can't see the male though. Layton

I'm looking at something like this, cause some of my acro's are growing very fast now. I'm always trimming my leathers (one in particular) and just throwing them away. They are too difficult to attach to a rock. I have several frags If your interested? All kind of small at the moment, but in a month they should be a good size. Three different kinds. Five fluorescent yellow, one or two metallic green, one tricolor (all acro's). Hopefully I will have a male bangaii soon as well. Then I can start breeding them. Layton

That's right. They are just a colour morph of the ocellaris clowns. ORA breed them in the States. Layton

I'm pretty sure that those clownfish are a different species. I don't recall the name, but i'm almost certain they are not percula's Layton

I think the colour of corals would change with temperature. As pies said, their metabolism is increased at higher temperature, so their energy demands would be higher. So maybe in high nutrient water they would increase their zooxanth... populations to make additional food for them, turning them brown. In low nutrient, the xooxanth... growth is limited by the nutrients in the water, and can't grow to the same density? Just a thought. Layton

Seasonal variation is not limited to the four "Seasons" as we know them. It is a much broader term applied to many things with a regular cycle... Like the phases of the moon, weather patterns (El nino, La nina)etc. Layton

You're wrong because they are NOT too stupid to notice otherwise. They obviously do notice. Layton

Wrong. Fish are very sensitive small seasonal changes it temperature. Raising my tank temp by 2 degrees is enough to trigger my bangaii's to produce eggs. They stop when the temperature drops again. Corals again are subject to seasonal changes, spawning is linked to the phases of the moon. Layton

Pies - just because it's a natural occurrence, doesn't mean that it's in anyway beneficial, or in fact that corals (or any other animal) has evolved to cope well in situations such as this. Coral reefs do bleach. Maybe these water temp swings are relatively recent occurrences in the wild, and corals are still in evolutionary catch up. Layton

Trust me 4 degree temperature swings are not good for your tank. Layton

So true. Not wanting to start up the zeovit thing again (I know i'm right!) but it appears all the hype about zeovit has been hitting the States over the last few months. Some of the threads are really quite pathetic, I'm well and truely sick of it. It's not the best (or only) way to achieve the results everyone is looking for in a reef tank. Layton

You'd be surprise just how inexpensive it is to implement this in an electric circuit. (only a few cents more in component costs). I would be very surprised if your controller did not work on this principle. IF it doesn't then you will get massive swings in temp. Layton

I'll let you know. Got to negotiate a deal with a company I work for down here. It won't be for a couple of months though. Layton

In a couple of months (once uni has finished for the year) I'm going to completely redo my site reefcentral.co.nz to include this sort of stuff, along with (hopefully) plenty of space for people to upload their pics. Maybe a profile page for peoples tanks. with image gallery. If anyone wants contribute some content of any type, send it to me: [email protected], and I'll hopefully include it in the update (unless it's crap ;-) ) Layton

No they won't. Controllers are for that very purpose, reducing erratic temperature swings. Contrary to what most people think, controllers (good ones) don't just switch the heater on when the water temperature reaches a set minimum value, or off when it hits a set max value. They look at how fast the temperature is changing, the accumulated error (difference between your set point and the actual water temperature) over time, as well as the current water temperature, to determine when to turn on and off the heater. Layton

Yip, the encrusting species often come with the christmas tree worms as well. Hardly ever come in ChCh though. The importers down here don't like importing "SPS" corals, which is a shame. Cool pics Pies, that acro looks really nice! Layton

Mine has died. One arm started rotting, and the rest soon followed. Don't know what caused the initial infection. I have some fairly large crabs in my tank, so may be them? Layton