Perseverance Reef

Fishy888 · Nov 22, 2023

My friend was finally able to catch the lunare wrasse. He’s in my system now and seems to be doing well so far.

I think he’s already picked out a territory. He’s about a year and a half years old so he has a long life ahead of him. He’s about 4 inches long so about Dory’s length. She’s been chasing him when he comes to her side of the tank. He’s appropriated the bommie on the right hand side of the display.

The wrasse comes from the same place Dory was rescued from. My friend did a great job with him and I will continue that level of care. He ate when I fed the tank and he’ll get another feeding before “sundown”.

So far he’s been getting along with the other fish but he’s young yet. I’m going to keep enough invertebrates in the sump so that they form self sustaining colonies. I’m also going to keep a snail colony in the sump/fuge too.

The fish I have so far are semi aggressive to aggressive now and I’m going to stick to that theme. My next fish may end up being a dottyback. They’re beautiful and will hold their own. I may not be able to keep shrimp or clams but I can keep nems and corals of all kinds with them. Some of the most aggressive fish are some of the most beautiful!

Fishy888 · Nov 23, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you’re having a great day and that you enjoy lots of turkey and sides.

Fish Styx · Nov 23, 2023

Fishy888 said:
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you’re having a great day and that you enjoy lots of turkey and sides.

Same to 'ya!

tbrown · Nov 23, 2023

No turkey, plenty of sides! Happy Thanksgiving!

Fishy888 · Nov 23, 2023

The turkey (lunare wrasse, who will probably become a turkey in a couple of years) has been accepted by the other denizens of Perseverance Reef.

Sorry for the blur. The glass needs to be scraped. At least I can do my tank maintenance in between other tasks I need to get done this afternoon.

So it’s not every year one gets a turkey of a fish on turkey day (eve). He’s going to get called Turkey even if he doesn’t become a real turkey to his fellow denizens of the deep.

Fishy888 · Nov 24, 2023

So a few observations. Turkey has indeed established himself in the reef. He’ll get sand in his mouth, swim around a bit, then spit it out. He picks at the rocks, and he’ll flash on them, which they do when hunting. He’s got a decent appetite but he loves foraging so he doesn’t eat as much as Dory does at feeding time. Dory also forages some, just not to the extent Turkey does.

So far he’s not messing with the hermits or tube worms. He’s not even eating bristle worms. He might be eating baby bristle worms though. I'm sure he’s going for my pods too. I have nice colonies of both bristle worms and pods so I’m not worried about him eating them all.

Turkey has a lot of blue on his underside and dorsally. The picture doesn’t show just how much blue he has.

I finally got the front glass scraped today. Things are looking much better in the display now. I’ll get more pictures tomorrow when the lights are back on.

Fishy888 · Nov 24, 2023

So far all my animals are doing well, unless you’re a clear to yellow colored micro duster or amphipod in the display lol. He’s going for them now. I can tell by the broken tubes and one other tube with no worm. Strangely Turkey has left my red micro dusters alone. They’re my favorites out of the bunch so I’m glad for that. I have some in the sump too so they won’t all be gone regardless. He’s also left my Hawaiian feather duster alone so far.

I’m not sure if Turkey will bother with copepods or not but as small as they are he’d need thousands just to fill his hollow tooth. Thankfully I have enough pods in the sump that they won’t totally go extinct in the DT. I have a feeling they’ll go back to only coming out under cover of darkness in the display tank.

I’m not too worried at this point about losing all my diversity given the trends I’ve noticed. I realize a time is coming when I’ll need to be however it won’t be for a number of years yet. I mean, At this point he hasn’t even touched my dorvilleidae worms which he should easily be able to eat, much less regular baby bristle worms. I’d think he’d need to be able to take prey of that size before he takes larger prey.

All of that said I love the Turkey. His colors are more vibrant. He eats like a champ and is very active. He shows no interest in corals. More than any other fish so far in this reef he’s helping Dory to be less timid and more active than she’s been since I’ve had her. Eventually I’ll add some other fish too, hopefully before he goes super male ad decides to eat the eyes out of new additions. If worst comes to worst I’d sump him, add the new fish or fishes, then add him back. We’ll see how that goes since it’ll be a while before I get more fish.

Dory is still growing nicely. All my other fish are doing quite nicely.

My corals are all doing well. The digis are both doing well. My green digi is encrusting over the glue and onto the rock itself. The purple digi is also growing like a weed. My reverse Superman coral is starting to encrust more and has gotten more red but it’s still more brown than I’d like. My soft corals are all doing well. I got two new frags. I know one is devil’s hand and the other might be as well or it may be another finger leather. So far they’re doing well.

Fish Styx · Nov 24, 2023

Fishy888 said:
So far all my animals are doing well, unless you’re a clear to yellow colored micro duster or amphipod in the display lol. He’s going for them now. I can tell by the broken tubes and one other tube with no worm. Strangely Turkey has left my red micro dusters alone. They’re my favorites out of the bunch so I’m glad for that. I have some in the sump too so they won’t all be gone regardless. He’s also left my Hawaiian feather duster alone so far.

I’m not sure if Turkey will bother with copepods or not but as small as they are he’d need thousands just to fill his hollow tooth. Thankfully I have enough pods in the sump that they won’t totally go extinct in the DT. I have a feeling they’ll go back to only coming out under cover of darkness in the display tank.

I’m not too worried at this point about losing all my diversity given the trends I’ve noticed. I realize a time is coming when I’ll need to be however it won’t be for a number of years yet. I mean, At this point he hasn’t even touched my dorvilleidae worms which he should easily be able to eat, much less regular baby bristle worms. I’d think he’d need to be able to take prey of that size before he takes larger prey.

All of that said I love the Turkey. His colors are more vibrant. He eats like a champ and is very active. He shows no interest in corals. More than any other fish so far in this reef he’s helping Dory to be less timid and more active than she’s been since I’ve had her. Eventually I’ll add some other fish too, hopefully before he goes super male ad decides to eat the eyes out of new additions. If worst comes to worst I’d sump him, add the new fish or fishes, then add him back. We’ll see how that goes since it’ll be a while before I get more fish.

Dory is still growing nicely. All my other fish are doing quite nicely.

My corals are all doing well. The digis are both doing well. My green digi is encrusting over the glue and onto the rock itself. The purple digi is also growing like a weed. My reverse Superman coral is starting to encrust more and has gotten more red but it’s still more brown than I’d like. My soft corals are all doing well. I got two new frags. I know one is devil’s hand and the other might be as well or it may be another finger leather. So far they’re doing well.

I love that you named him "Turkey".

Fishy888 · Nov 24, 2023

Fish Styx said:
I love that you named him "Turkey".

It fits perfectly. In a good way since Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. If he tries to eat the eyes out of my fish and the like, then it would be in a bad way. In all seriousness though I have high hopes for him. I think that he’ll actually be a fairly model citizen as long as I don’t go too crazy on any inverts I can’t culture myself.

Fishy888 · Nov 27, 2023

The order for the trochus snails got put in this evening. They should get to my friend’s house within a couple of days. They’ll be overnighted once the order is processed of course.

Well Kathy didn’t like the name Turkey. She wants his name to be Pepper. He is indeed a fish with a spicy personality. He’ll probably get called both names lol.

He’s doing great so far though. I know he’s eating pods but since eating one micro duster and ripping the tube of another off its rock a couple of days ago, he hasn’t eaten anymore. He’s shown no interest in the hermits yet either. I’ll be watching for that though.

Turkey’s starting to fill out more. His stomach was sunken when I got him but it’s started filling in. He eats well, but unlike Dory he gets full faster and gets hungry faster so he definitely needs the pods too. Dory eats pods too but not nearly as much as Turkey. She eats much more frozen food than Turkey though and stays full much longer. I feed three times a day, sometimes four or sometimes two but mostly three.

Dory continues to grow nicely too. She seems more happy lately too. I think Turkey is a big help to Dory.

Mschmidt · Nov 27, 2023

Glad to hear turkey au poivre is doing well, and improving dory's life. It's nice to have friends.

tbrown · Nov 27, 2023

You have a refugium section in your sump or a HOB refugium? I'd dump a half gallon or gallon of pods in there. A ton will make it into the tank but enough should stay in the Fuge and start populating.

Fishy888 · Nov 27, 2023

tbrown said:
You have a refugium section in your sump or a HOB refugium? I'd dump a half gallon or gallon of pods in there. A ton will make it into the tank but enough should stay in the Fuge and start populating.

I have a sump/fuge. It’s 75 gallons. I have some chaeto and GHA in there but I need to add some rocks. I have a colony of pods down there, and I’m going to add micro dusters, snails, and other critters as well.

I’m planning on adding more though. I’m going to culture some pods and the like in another tank.

Fishy888 · Nov 28, 2023

Today was picture day at Perseverance Reef. Here is my green digi. It’s starting to grow thicker and to make new growth tips once again.

Here’s the purple digi. It’s also growing thicker and growing longer.

I no sooner clean the digitatas than it grows back. Thankfully I’m getting the snails before long.

Here’s the reverse Superman, which is more pale than I’d like but is definitely better than a couple of months ago.

Here’s an image of Turkey aka Pepper.

I got one of Dory and the newest damsel too.

Fishy888 · Nov 29, 2023

The trochus snails have arrived. So far they’re doing well.

I put two of them in the DT and eight in the sump. I want to make sure my hermits play well with these two and I want to safeguard any eggs they may lay.

The wrasse hasn’t bothered them but he’s still small. I’ll be watching things with him. He shouldn’t grow big enough to eat trochus snails for at least a couple of years but I’ll still be vigilant.

fishguy242 · Nov 29, 2023

tectis snails, pretty much same as trochus ,but will work during day too...

Fishy888 · Nov 29, 2023

fishguy242 said:
tectis snails, pretty much same as trochus ,but will work during day too...

I’ll look into them too. Thank you!

tbrown · Nov 30, 2023

Fishy888 said:
The trochus snails have arrived. So far they’re doing well.

I put two of them in the DT and eight in the sump. I want to make sure my hermits play well with these two and I want to safeguard any eggs they may lay.

The wrasse hasn’t bothered them but he’s still small. I’ll be watching things with him. He shouldn’t grow big enough to eat trochus snails for at least a couple of years but I’ll still be vigilant.

I don't think Trochus actually lay eggs, they just kinda have a mass spawning event into the water column.