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Congrats on the eggs Duncan. Dottybacks are captive raised commercially overseas for the pet trade, so it may be worth attempting to search some info to assist you to try to raise them. Keep us posted!

It's not worthless, it's actually highly prized and worth a lot of money.

In the end market forces tend to prevail. Once wild stuff is few enough to be expensive to catch, the price of captive raised will become more competitive. Normally in any business the bottom line tends to be money, rather than laws, ethics, or whatever. Just hope not to much damage to wild reefs is done before that happens. Probably some species of fish will never be captive raised. But corals are another story, there is almost nothing in my tank that is not aquacultured by at least one generation removed from the wild stock.

Mussel is the best. To get one I used to have, I used a long bit of wire bent into a hook at the end, with a bit of mussel on it. Coaxed him out, and let him wrap around it, lifted him out, easy as. The interesting thing is the hunting instinct of these things is so strong that even when I had him dangling out of the water he would not let go, had to prize him off.

Actually what was shown on that program WAS the ethical company. Not near as bad as some countries where they use cyanide, and even dynamite. Another incentive for aquaculture, yes?

That sounds like a really cool tank Neopole. Any chance of us seeing a photo?

Just a point about nanos, it can be done, and it is cheaper, but they can be a hassle. Reason I say this is I once had a 60L nano. The problem is that most of the corals etc you put in very quickly outgrow this size tank. A lot of corals cannot touch each other or even be too close, or they will try to poison each other. It just became a constant problem trying to keep stuff apart. If your choice is 60 or 100 litre, go with the 100. However, you will probably eventually tire of that and go bigger anyway. To equipment, filtration is a whole lot different in saltwater aquaria. Don't use external filters or undergravel or anything like that. You just need 1 1/4 lbs liverock per gallon of water, and powerheads for circulation. The circulation should be around 20 times the volume of your tank per hour, the bacteria in the liverock filter the water. Going without a skimmer is possible, but not such a good idea. To learn more about protein skimmers, do a search on google. You will also need more lighting than a typical fw tank, and will need to investigate some form of phosphate control.

That's to hot to handle??? Well how hot does it have to be? Never been to the "hot" area, thought it was politics, sex, etc.

Had to share this, incredible story... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 034383.stm

Brian I've had a business problem come up, I'll be out of town this weekend and will not be able to pass on the frags, sorry about that.

Very Cool!

Hey Brian you still in touch with Warren? He was going to get an anemone from me, maybe I could send it with seahorsemad. Howsabout you help me out annd call him & see if he still wants it? If he doesn't, no worries, I've got a waiting list. Also, there's that elephant slug for you if you still want it, again no worries if you don't.

Calvin - Where to start... I think you posted because there is algae starting and you don't want the tank to get messed up. Algae is related to water quality, and water quality is at the crux of keeping a good aquarium. But there is so much to learn/know, it's impossible to put it all in one post. One important thing is phosphate control. Every time you feed, some phosphate is added to the tank, and you must have a means in place to remove the phosphate. Phosphate fuels the algae and also harms the tank in other ways. Much of keeping a successful tank revolves around keeping phosphate at the correct level. Keep the levels right and algae will not be a problem. I'd recommend going to this site http://reefcentral.com/ and using their search engine to search the word phosphate. But it's a huge subject. You will not get it all sorted in 5 minutes, rather, it will take weeks or months of reading before you have enough knowledge to implement a good plan for phosphate control. Others here will have more to add also, but from me anyway, Good Luck!

What actually is that Fay, a LTA or what?

Not sure, but could it be some type of sun coral?

Here's the traditional Australian method http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... ost3688247

If you drop a PM to Briananemone, I think he can put you in touch with a guy who is succesfully raising clowns.

Quote - "most growth will come via traditional tropical people moving across...." Well let's hope so, it would be good for the hobby. Just that our average per capita income is lower than the US, could be a hindrance, however many prices are trending down, so, we'll see.

Good one Skuzza, just hope it's still there when you go back though. Just one thought, an open weave type bag may be best to allow any larger type crud to wash out. Read a study done by Hagen on several of the nitrogen reducing bacteria, they can operate in a fairly wide range of temperature, just they will be quicker at around 27 28 or so degrees, but will still function at lower temperatures. The pores of "dead and dried" liverock are filled with tiny organics that need to be cured, even if the rock may appear clean. Agreed about the other livestock though, did get a few crabs, starfish etc which I endevoured to remove, also got a smattering of coraline which I was happy about.

Hi Ira, I think maybe I did not quite explain properly in my first post what I did with the rock. Marine rock is a little different to fresh water rock in that before use, if it is not cured already, it has to be cured. What this entails basically is leaving it in salt water for 6 -8 weeks for all the organic matter to be "cycled", or in other words break down, and the full complement of nitrogen cycle bacteria to be established in the pores in the rock. Even if the rock already looks clean, this has to be done before the rock can be safely used in an established tank. So I departed from the norm of doing it in a tank, and instead did it in a rock pool, leaving it there for around 10 weeks. After that, I felt the rock was cured to a better standard than would have happened with the traditional "in tank" method, as it was washed with clean water throughout the process, and would have accumulated a lower than normal level of phosphates. ( I think, anyway) Apologies if you already knew all that, just wasn't sure.

Quote " I will have to check rock pools more closely in the future!" Yes, that was my other concern. Would anybody who knew what it was find it! However, it blended in surprisingly, I don't think anybody would have given it a second glance

This is something I tried worked so well I thought I'd share. A little over 2 months ago I got a bunch of dried rock, which needed curing, but it had a lot of dried crap on it, and I did not want it "stewing in it's own juice" and loading with phosphate, so I took it down to Milford beach and dumped it in a pre - selected deep, clean, rock pool. Covered it over with large boulders to hold it down. Sweated a bit during that big blow we had, thought it might get washed away, but went back 3 days ago & got it, right where I left it. It's now in my frag setup, smells sweet, perfectly clean and white, and no ammonia or nitrate has showed. Just got a few "looks" from 2 old ladies who wondered why I was taking a wheelbarrow of rocks to the beach. Oh well, at least they didn't call the cops.

How long it takes depends entirely on how much calcium and dkh your tank is consuming. So as you have a newish tank, calcium and dkh should be measured weekly so you can see if these levels are moving in the direction you want. Also, over time as your sps, coraline, and other calcium needing organisms increase, you will also have to increase the amount you are supplementing to the tank. If the reactor cannot keep up, you could do this by additionally adding kalk, or a 2 part mix.

kh and calcium move up or down together, so a good reactor media will make both kh and calcium in the correct balance. Therefore, if your calcium is already where you want it, the way to increase kh without affecting calcium would be to add a seperate kh supplement such as baking soda until your kh is where you want it. Thereafter maintain both with your reactor. Here is a good read http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/r ... /index.htm and http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

Xenia have been touted, but compete with other corals for some of the same nutrients. Macroalgae is an excellent way to do it, although what we have available in NZ are the caulerpas, which work but have some problems. The best macroalgae, chaetomorpha, is not available here.