Another Tank On The Way!!

[Lorna]

I thought that I had read somewhere that the blue spiny lobster is not fish safe.....and that they tend to have a liking to fishies.....hmmmmm.....otherwise I think it sounds great. Also, the copperbands I thought are hard to keep fed as they tend to have malnutrition issues. I almost got one when I thought I had the nasty isopods as I hear that is what they like to eat. Then I read somewhere that they are hard to keep in a tank that hasn't been established for a long time with a sump full of pods........

 

[FishGeek]

Thanks again Lorna. Well Copperbands can be difficult to get to feed the first time but at my LFS they will feed the fish for you if you ask to see if they are eating and they will also hold the fish for you should it not eat until it does or you say otherwise. And as far as we had read and been told (one of the guys at our LFS is a Marine Biologist and previously worked at an aquarium taking care of SW ) the Lobster should be fine with larger fish.

 

[wayne]

I wouldn't believe that - lobsters are carnivores, and don't live on fresh air and love.
Yes copperbands are tricky, and also fussy on water quality. They are nice tho'. The antennata is going to be a lot of fish for that tank , and the mess it will make will give you some water quality problems in my opinion. Leopard wrasses can be tricky too.
if you don't have a good growth of the right algae lawnmowers are great fish, but I would likely get a different blenny if I didn't have algae issues.

I would keep planning , looking

 

[Lorna]

Of course not meaning to rain on your parade. I have been pouring over books and researching the corals I want to add......One would think it would be easy to find a good plan, much like you find for gardens.....there are lots of plans out there for gardens and what is this if not a garden of living corals. Some plans would be nice to give one a ground work to start with.......maybe I should start a plan site......only difference is it would need to be three dimensional......height as well as horizontal..

 

[wayne]

Actually due to the fact that mixing different corals is always tricky (different enviromental needs, alleopathy, room for growth) aquascaping reefs is a black art very few people master. Frankly most reefs all look the same, like a vegetable stall covered with little frags of different colours , types. The really impressive tanks are those where a ew corals have been selected and grown over a period of a few years to give some degree of continuity and structure

 

[Lorna]

ahhh exactly the look that I am hoping to attain over a period of years. Much like a perrenial garden. I think a few well placed healthy additions is better than a hodge podge. I am trying to keep everything to one geographical area too......