That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

In the interest of science, Dave asked me to post some biology/aquatics breakthroughs recently discovered here at That Fish Place. We hope that the information provided allows other aquarists and scientists to continue what we’ve started.
Thanks, Melissa

It all started with our recent shipment of Blue-Tipped Acropora, Acropora sp. For those readers not familiar with coral, this is one of the most easily recognizable, most beautiful corals in the aquatics trade. Unlike most corals in the trade, these were asexually reproduced and shipped here from a local coral greenhouse. Upon arrival, we began our normal quarantine process; placing the frags in an aquarium containing conditions identical to the display tank they would eventually inhabit. Remarkably, right from the beginning we started noticing differences in this batch…. click here to read the rest of the story and view pictures.

Welcome back Mellisa, I hope that you enjoy this general article about Triggerfish. These are facinating, beautiful, and fun fish to keep in your marine aquarium.

Triggerfish

Triggers are with out a doubt some of the most aggressive saltwater fish available to hobbiest. They are carnivores and will eat any small tank-mates. Triggers usually aren’t very picky when it comes to food. They should be fed shrimp, scallops, krill as well as meaty pellets. Triggers should be housed in a large tank 100 gal or more. Larger wrasses, groupers, eels, and large angels are acceptable tank-mates. Most triggers are not reef safe and will chomp on corals, eat crustaceans, as well redecorate the tank upsetting corals and live rock. Use extreme care when placing heaters and power head cords inside the tank. Triggers tend to be very curious and may nibble on the cord causing harm to themselves as well as other tank mates. An aquarist must use caution when working in the tank to avoid being bitten.

In the store we sell several different species of triggers. Some are very aggressive and should be kept alone while others are fairly docile and may be kept in a reef tank with caution.

One of my favorite triggers is the Queen trigger (Balistes vetula). What can I say, I love my queens (Queen angels and Queen triggers). Queen triggers are gorgeous but don’t let their attractiveness fool you. They are very aggressive and get very large which may be part of the reason this fish is not seen all that often in the trade.

The Fuscus trigger (Pseudobalistes fusco), Clown trigger (Balistoides conspicillum), and Undulated trigger (Balistoides undulatus) are also very aggressive triggers but are commonly seen in the trade. These triggers are very attractive and will add character to any predatory tank, just make sure other tank-mates are established and will be tough enough to hold their own.

There are a few triggers that are considered “reef safe” with caution since they are mainly planktivorous. While these “reef safe” triggers do not eat coral, they will most likely eat hermit crabs and shrimp, so be prepared for this behavior if you try them in your reef.

Some triggers in this category include Blue Jaw triggers (Xanthichthys auromarginatus), Sargassum triggers (Xanthichthys ringens), Pink Tail triggers (Melichthys vidula) and Niger triggers. These triggers appear to be less aggressive and are commonly seen in the trade.

I hope that you enjoyed Mellisa’s article. Until next blog,
Dave

I would like to welcome back Melissa Leiter, One of our staff Marine Biologists here at That Fish Place. Melissa has a species profile for one of the thousands of fish here in our fish room.

Welcome Melissa,

The Splendid dottyback, Pseudochromis splendens, is a spectacular fish with its bluish gray stripped body and brilliant yellow tail. They tend to be bullies or down right nasty if they are housed with smaller docile fish. They do best if kept with other larger semi-aggressive fish in a large tank, or kept by themselves in a smaller tank. They definitely don’t need “friends” to be happy.

Something cool about dottybacks in general, including the splendid dottyback, is that they are all hermaphrodites meaning theoretically if you add 2 of the same species you should get a male female pair as long as they don’t kill each in the process of deciding dominance. Splendid dottybacks adjust to captive life very well, and in fact, are one of the few marine fish species that have been succesfully raised in captivity. Splendid Dottybacks will accept many foods including mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, formula 1, formula 2, even flakes and pellets. They are far from “picky” eaters.

They may also hunt down and eat those annoying bristle worms and flat worms to keep those populations under control. So if you are looking for a small hard headed fish that has the attitude of an angry trigger from time to time then the splendid dottyback is the fish for you!

~Melissa

Thanks Melissa, Psuedochromis are one of my favorite types of marine fish. They have alot of attitude in a little package, and are alot of fun to keep.

Until next blog,

Dave

Most of you have probably heard of the Horse Whisperer, and some of you are familiar with the dog whisperer as well. How about the Coral Whisperer? While he may never get a movie made about him, or his own cable television show, Mitch Carl of the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha Nebraska is being recognized for his ability to successfully raise Elkhorn Corals in captivity. I came across an article posted on the Omaha World Review website dubbing Mitch Carl as “The Coral Whisperer” for his ability to raise corals from wild captured eggs and sperm, where many others have had less success.

As part of an international research project which is studying sexual coral reproduction (SECORE), Carl and the Henry Doorly Zoo were one of many facilities that took part in the ongoing project, and received wild harvested Elkhorn coral eggs and sperm to try and raise in captivity. According to the article, 500,000 embryos were collected and distributed, of those only 1,100 were still alive after 3 months; these were Mitch Carl’s corals. As techniques have improved in subsequent harvests, survival rates have dramatically increased since the initial collection. Last year Carl was able to keep 75% on his embryos alive, other facilities involved in the project were still unable to achieve more than a 50% success rate. This is where the legend of the Coral whisperer comes from.

This project is of significance because of the coral species at the heart of the project. Elkhorn Coral is vital to natural reef systems throughout the world. It is not only one of the skeleton building corals that build foundations of the world reefs. The heavily branching Elkhorn coral provides habitat for many fish and other animals, as well as providing shorelines with a barrier from storm and wave action. Some estimates put destruction of the worlds Elkhorn Coral, mostly from human related activities, as high as 90%, and Elkhorn Coral is now an endangered species.

Most coral farming is done using asexual reproduction or cloning, taking small pieces or “frags” from a parent colony and allowing it to grow. This process is repeated time after time, and results in many copies of the original. Coral Farming using this “fraging” method produces coral that is adapted to captive environments, and thrives in aquarium conditions. This process works well for corals that are intended for aquarium or zoo use; however it is not a good method of reproduction for coral that is for reintroduction to the wild. These corals have been in captivity for many generations, and have adapted for unnatural conditions. Asexual reproduction is slow, and there is also the risk of introducing unwanted elements back into natural habitats.

Researchers hope that a viable sexual reproduction strategy can be reached, this will allow for “wild” corals to be grown in captivity in huge numbers, then be reintroduced back to the reefs where the eggs and sperm were collected. The hope is that these corals can be grown in coastal regions, where the eggs were collected, so that conditions can be matched as closely as possible to where they will be “planted” on the reef. Successful sexual reproduction of corals would also be of great value to the aquarium trade, the more captive raised corals become available, the less impact the hobby will have on natural reefs, as well as potentially lowering cost with the ability to mass produce corals sexually.

I hope you enjoyed this story. You can get more inforation about the SECORE project at www.secore.org

Until next blog

Dave