sawbones

I've been by twice. Nice store, with very nice set-up for fish and likable, no pressure proprietor with good knowledge base and experience. I liked the fish selection, and all looked very healthy. Prices were moderate - no giveaways, but definitely lower than the nearest neighbor. I plan to do some business there.

I've knocked pieces or pulled them off about 5 times, mostly on accident. I've either pushed the piece into a hole or rubberbanded it to a rock, and it has taken off from there. They need lots of food and flow. And I've noticed they are resistant to stings by anemones. Algae growth on red and orange sponges seems to hurt them some, but I think the answer is not less light but more flow. I haven't seen any algae grow on the blue ones.

Karen, I have quite a bit of blue "haliclona" sponge. I'd trade 2" of mine for 1" of your hot pink. Looks like this: http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/productDeta...252&cid=264 and grew from a piece I bought from the old "Austin Aquariums" on the day before the sale cancelled by power outage almost 2 years ago. I feed a lot and it's spreading fairly well.

Do you feed him some nori? He and any Tangs would love it. Some say plenty of algae in the diet calms the plant-eaters. Mine like calerpa, cheato, and nori. I think too much nori raises phosphates, though.

Flame Hawkfish are generally considered to be the least aggressive of the hawks. I've had one for about 2 years and never once seen him pick at a snail or small crab or shrimp. Copperbanded butterflies need mysis before leaving the store, but have the added benefit of aptsia control. They can sometimes be hard on tube worms, but mine has left most of those alone since picking a little on each one's introduction - I have 3 coco worms and 2 feather dusters in with mine. I also have 5 pipefish in with about 30 other big eaters, but they seem to get their share, especially if I add "arctipods" and cyclops, or if I feed them at the same time as the others get pellets or nori or mini-mysis. Most of my big eaters (tangs, foxface, butterflies, wrasses) don't bother much with the arctipods, so they stay in the water column much longer, allowing the pipes to get a lot. I would second the candy hogfish as well, though. Pretty, and active, and well-behaved.

Flame Hawkfish, Copperbanded Butterfly, shrimp goby/ pistol pair, Bangai cardinal pair, pipefish - ask Rufus at Deep Blue which ones.

Trap her. It's worked for me 8 for 8. I have a trap you can borrow if you want to drive to NW Austin. I used to borrow one from Austin Aquariums, but it was missing recently when I needed it. It works best on the greediest fish and the meanest, but anything that's healthy can be caught.

I have lots of starfish: 2 orange serpents, 1 reddish/ purple serpent, 1 brown banded serpent, 1 "caribbean" serpent, 1 green and white harlequin serpent, 1 green brittle star, 1 blue linkia, 1 red small fromia, and a sand-sifter, as well as countless asterinas and hundreds or more tiny brittle hitchhikers. But the best of all have been 2 black and yellow brittles I got from Steve at Horizon. They never hide, and remain high on my rocks and out in the open, cleaning their respective territories better than any others. He gets them in fairly frequently, but I haven't seen quite the same ones elsewhere - except in the Shimek "Invertebrates" book, where there is a very nice example. I certainly agree with the other posters regarding mechanical cleaning and flow, etc, but I gotta recommend these guys - They've been working away for 15 - 20 months.

Joe, I'd like to have one. I'll try to reach you tomorrow. -Bob F