That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Your reef tank may be immaculate except for a rusty-brown dusting of diatomic algae on your substrate. Tired of siphoning just to have the diatoms come right back? Relatively inexpensive and highly efficient, a sand-sifting sea cucumber may be the solution you’re seeking.

There are many species of sea cucumber available in the aquarium hobby. They get their name from their elongated, cylindrical body shape. Some are colorful, some are not, some are smooth, while others appear knobby or textured. Some are filter feeders that cling to the glass, waiting for food to come to them in the water flow. There are three specific types of sand sifters that are commonly offered which do a really great job cleaning up your sand. All of them belong to the genus Holothuria and they are very efficient at what they do.  Read More »

Hello, Sam here with another small fish profile.  Fish from the group of known as the basslets are mostly small, solitary species that are great candidates for smaller tanks.  These fish are related to the much larger basses.  Two species of fish that I particularly enjoy from this group of fish are the Chalk basslet (Serranus tortugarum) and the Tobacco Basslet (Serranus tabacarius).  Both of these fish are found in the Caribbean and are normally imported around 3 inches in length. Read More »

After Jose’s blog in May about some of our coworker’s mishaps and misadventures, I’ve been badgered and teased (again) about what we refer to around here as “the eel incident”, one of my own prize foibles that Jose had forgotten when he wrote his blog. Since he wants to tell all of you anyway, here it is in my words….

Along the back wall of our fish room, we have two large coral tanks side-by-side. Now they are coral tanks, but at the time of this incident, we used them for particularly large or aggressive saltwater fish. In the smaller tank on the right, we had a green moray eel affectionally known as Captain who was about three feet long. The other tank had another eel that was about four feet long and was from the old incarnation of our 700 gallon display tank where it used to live with a huge Bumblebee Grouper named Buzz. That eel wasn’t named, so I’ll refer to it as eel B. Read More »

This week I would like to take a look at another annoying pest in the reef tank, the zoanthid eating nudibranch.  The zoanthid eating nudibranch is much like the soft coral eating nudibranch in both body shape and difficulty to find and eliminate.  The zoanthid eaters usually belongs to the famliy Aeolidia.  They are built much the same as the soft coral eating nudibranch, with cerata or finger-like growths that grow on their dorsal side.  These growths allow them to blend with the zoanthids, making them difficult to see as they feed on your polyps.  These nudis are usually small, ranging in size from 1 millimeter to 1 centimeter in length, which also makes them very difficult to detect and remove from polyp colonies.  They tend to hang on to the underside of the polyp and remain hidden.  Read More »

Hello again everyone! Craig here again, and in my last blog I talked about some of the biggest of the freshwater fish to be kept in home aquariums. In this blog, I will go over some of the big saltwater fish found in the hobby. Without a doubt, there are very large fish that call the sea their home. Some of these mammoth fish are being kept by hobbyists. With all the challenges of keeping a marine tank in tip-top condition, adding a giant fish to the mix can present dedicated fish keepers some challenges.

Large fish can be intimidating not only for their size, but their ferocious looks, too. Moray Eels are certainly some of the most intimidating. Their snake-like bodies and gaping mouths often cause people to get squeamish. One species, Gymnothorax favagineus, the Honeycomb Moray, is one of the most beautiful. Also known as the Tessellated Moray, this is one impressive fish. Able to reach a size of over 6 feet in length in the wild, this is definitely a giant. Boasting a beautiful white body with black splotches, there are few morays that are as attractive. In some individuals the dorsal takes on a yellow hue.  Read More »