I went to my LFS and boght....

blackjacktang

Active Member
Pic #1 is a sponge but I do not know what kind
Pic #2 is my new Bicolor dottyback
Pic #3 is my new Zoadathid (I think that is what it is called)
And Pic #4 is my new Sun coral.
All this together costed my $135.

 

jonthefishguy

Active Member
I see two problems with your purchase. First, how did you introduce the sponge into your tank. Reason for my question is they are not to be exposed to air, not even for a second. Now the issues. Most reefs/ reef tanks are nutrient poor which most corals require. The problem with adding sponge is that they require nutrient rich water conditions to thrive. You can spot feed that sponge, however that particular sponge isnt very hardy anyways. Second, the sun polyps you have dont like light and therefor need to be placed out of the light. In the wild, they are found in darker areas such as under ledges, rock caves, in between rocks were light does not hit them. Third, your dottyback is one of the most aggressive dottybacks out there in the market. It likes to eat small shrimp and will become beligerant to tank mates larger than them. To them size doesnt matter. They will fight very aggressively....
Also, you need to spot feed that suncoral as well, usually at night when all the polyps are extended. They as well as the sponge do require constant feeding as well as strong water flow.....
 

blackjacktang

Active Member
Originally Posted by jonthefishguy
I see two problems with your purchase. First, how did you introduce the sponge into your tank. Reason for my question is they are not to be exposed to air, not even for a second. Now the issues. Most reefs/ reef tanks are nutrient poor which most corals require. The problem with adding sponge is that they require nutrient rich water conditions to thrive. You can spot feed that sponge, however that particular sponge isnt very hardy anyways. Second, the sun polyps you have dont like light and therefor need to be placed out of the light. In the wild, they are found in darker areas such as under ledges, rock caves, in between rocks were light does not hit them. Third, your dottyback is one of the most aggressive dottybacks out there in the market. It likes to eat small shrimp and will become beligerant to tank mates larger than them. To them size doesnt matter. They will fight very aggressively....
Also, you need to spot feed that suncoral as well, usually at night when all the polyps are extended. They as well as the sponge do require constant feeding as well as strong water flow.....
Wow! you know alot. For my sponge i acclimated him for 20 min. and put him in the tank without being exposed to air. Also I put Calcium, Strontium, molybdium, Iodine and DT'S Phyto plankton. My dotty back seems fine right now, but will he kill any other of my fish like my sixline wrasse, blue tang, Jawfish, or my clownfish?
 

saltn00b

Active Member
in addition to what jon said, that suncoral is in pretty bad shape. it has a substantial amount of tissue loss, as that pretty pink color should be a matt covering the entire rock, connecting all of the polyps. it will need a lot of attention and TLC. look into placing a bowl over it and squirting in some cyclopeeze to stimulate the polyps for 30 mins, then individually feed the polyps mysid. they dont necessarilly dislike light, they are just not photosynthetic, so in the well-lit areas in the wild, the faster growing photo corals easily outcompete this coral. i have seen it happy out in the open and in less lit areas, its just a matter of feeding it, and not letting shrimps steal their food.
 

notsonoob

Member
The only thing my bi-color dottyback such as he has chases (or allows to be chased) is a yellow tail damsal. If you have a yellow tang and he'll keep that guy hiding in the rocks.
I have the same with a mandrin, bullet goby, fire fish goby and a diamond goby...and I only see him chase a yellowtail.
At least that explains where my pepperment shrimp went to...
Not that I would have kept him anymore anyway.
 

jonthefishguy

Active Member
Only reason I didnt mention the condition of the polyps, is I didnt know if it was DIAPHANA or Faulkneri. Diaphana has more of a brownish tissue while the other has an orange tissue. But either way, it looks in bad shape. I would also note that I see other coral skeletons in the pictures and they look fairly new. Are they? Did you recently lose coral?
I just read your last post. You have four fish all after the same food requirements. What size is your tank? Just because your dottyback is just chasing the damsel doesnt mean he wont start on the others. I say it was a bad purchase regardless.....
 

notsonoob

Member
I've had them all for about 6 months.
The yellow tang lets him know who's the boss.
And nobody is going to whack the yellow tang

Problem is that my wife wanted a royal gramma, but the fish store gave her that before she realized what happened he was already in the tank.
It was decided that he stays as my wife wouldn't stand for another tank nuke for a little fish.
The point I was making it that even though he is territorial, every fish is different, if it turns out the fish is a pain he will have to take it out
Fuge and a tri-monthly dose of copods to seed the tank for the mandrin there Johhny. no-worries.
 

n8ball2013

Member
We have a dottyback would you like the list of fish he has whacked
3 clowns
3 jawfish
coral beauty
6 line wrasse
flasher wrasse
green chromis
pygmy angel
Im sure that there is more but thats all I can think of right now. he may be beautiful but he is a mean sob.
 

notsonoob

Member
Wow.
mean little guy.
Ours probably has emporer angel juvie flashbacks.
We had one for a while that chased everything around the tank. Nice looking but very, very, mean. My wife wanted him and put him in the tank, I wanted to take them back, but was outvoted and overruled...

Then he turned mean about three weeks later. He started out chasing the dottyback, then EVERYTHING smaller than him.
I'm just wondering how that little fish whacked those others.
I've got a nice fat female Ocellaris Clown that also rules the tank. Even chased my wife out of it....
If I had to bet, the clown would take out the dottyback
Hmmm., I'll keep en eye on em' though.
 

blackjacktang

Active Member
My tank size is 60 gallons and yes I boght them yesterday. I do not know what happened to the polyp coral.
Also will my dottyback kill my other fish?
 

zphreak

New Member
I'm trying to trap my bi-color right now. I don't want to pull the rock out to catch the mean little b@$t@rd. I picked up a peppermint shrimp and the bi-color thought it was feeding time right before the shrimp even got to the sand.
 
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