CaptainBob

it's really sad that everything I liked about Austin that led me to move here less than a year ago is in the process of getting pushed out by over privileged Californians and legislated against by inept officials... If this garbage keeps up for very long I'll probably just kiss the states goodbye and move back across the pond, I'm really starting to miss living in the UK more than I like living in Austin

naming corals is silly. it's all marketing, nothing more. That being said, slapping a fancy name on a frag you're selling is a great way to get more for it from someone who doesn't know what they're doing... it's generally profitable however ethically questionable. Fancy bettas are an even better example of this, if you look on aquabid any betta with a higher than average display of metallic pigment gets called a "dragon" and green "dragons" with a heavy red wash are called "armadillos" for whatever reason. Fish with white heads are "monsters" Some breeders are selling red bicolors (one of the least desirable color traits by show standards) as "firehawks" "blood sapphires" or any other inane made up name they come up with just to make a fish that's worthless by breed standards seem appealing to a novice who doesn't know any better. This doesn't make them bad fish, but if you bring the offspring from your 50 dollar "firehawk" pair to a betta show, you'll have a hard time placing in the competition to put it gently.

depends on the species of stomatopod you have, some species will stress out and will likely die without a DSB, but most rockdwelling species couldn't care less if there was sand or not.

Actually we explained that it would be illegal in more ways that any of us knew to cite... and we suggested he try his luck at Zookeeper up the road. not to get off topic but the 92 was sold before I was able to pick it up, probably for the best though, I really do have too many tanks.

that's almost as good as the strung out dude who came into aquatek and demanded we order him a panda.

he may very well leave most of them alone, just be aware that they may be eaten, and plan on replacing them accordingly, or if that doesn't sound like something you want to deal with, replacing the toby with a more invert-friendly fish wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

I smell another new recruit to the mantis cult... They're actually supereasy to care for, and can be taught to take frozen food very easily, I think there's a good pic of my G. chiragra in my gallery, we have two large specimens of this same speciea available at Aquatek too, the ones we have at work are darker, because they're both about ready to molt, they just need quieter tanks without kids running by banging on them all day to get comfortable, molt, and start showing their colors. They change color with every molt and their coloration varies by depth and light. Welcome to the board man.

razorblades, siphons, and scrubbing pads

I think the young man who helped you was our new guy Danny, he's still got a lot to learn about salt, but it's never a bad idea to get a second opinion from another worker if one guy doesn't sound too sure of what he's saying. I have seen them do very well in reef tanks without disturbing anything, but by the same token I've also heard of people who have had their favorite corals eaten by a toby who spontaneously manifested a taste for cnidarian prey. They fall into a category between being marginally safe and totally unpredictable, for that reason I avoid them in my own reefs.

way to be a jackass dude, really. As you can imagine I don't get paid very much and want to stay in this hobby, so FYI I intended to jump on this deal and use the tank myself, if it's still available when I move into my new apartment on Tuesday. I'm not sure why you get off assuming I just plan to resell this system via consignment when Lurker knows full well that he could have done that himself, but it's bloody insulting. I take time out of my day to participate in this group to show the commitment my shop has to bettering the hobby on a local level, and you up and give me flack for it. It's discouraging for me to see this kind of distrust of a locally owned fish shop hanging on nothing but it's good reputation. moral of the story- Show your fish dude some respect, he's got a hard job, it doesn't pay well, and he handles your fish, so at least try to be congenial with him.

i told you yesterday dude, if you can hold up until tuesday night 450 works for me

you could be thinking of H. capensis, barbouri are definitely a tropical species. good luck finding your horses though, you might also want to give oceanrider.com a look.

that regal angel leaves all your tasty looking SPS alone? you're both lucky and brave.

we have a theme for September yet?

we sell sponge prefilters at aquatek, they fit easily onto most makes of powerhead intakes, if you have aquaclear powerheads we stock the aquaclear brand prefilters also if you don't want a generic model.

are you skimming your system a lot? I find that systems that are overskimmed tend to remove a lot of the food sources for pods and mysids.

brine shrimp will live indefinitely in water the same salinity as your tank, they'll be eaten or minced by a powerhead before they expire for any other reason.

you could do a little turbo snail, but even a tiny snail is going to be a bulldozer in a tank that small.. maybe if you putty all of your frags into place you'd be ok. I'm not sure why you don't think you can do hermits.. look for a few little bluelegs, they're great hair algae eaters and won't trample your corals any more than they would in a bigger tank.

yup you have a bristleworm, good for your sandbed but don't touch it, those spines itch like crazy once they get in you, and all it takes is for them to brush up against your skin to get a nasty row of pointy itchiness stuck in you.. they're one of those things that's good for your tank but obnoxious enough that a lot of people like to remove them, I find that they're easy enough to avoid and its best to just let them clean your tank for you, which they do really well for a free critter

we stock LR rubble at aquatek for 4 bucks a pound, we have at least 70 pounds in stock right now that you can cherry pick through to find just what you need

sounds like you guys are going to have a blast, I'm working all day Sat. though, you might want to come by Aquatek at some point to check out what we've got and just say hi, we've got a good selection of nice corals in right now and more coming tomorrow... we'd be a nice stop before you all head South.

my favorite dumb snail was an astrea that managed to get stuck coneside in to a powerhead... no idea how the stupid thing did it but it was stranded a full inch from the glass, stuck to the intake flailing hilariously.

i told you he was a nice one

i'm still a fan of just taking a razorblade and having at it, obviously this is a horrible idea for acrylic, but I find I need a not less elbow grease if I just use a cheap razor that I'll be able to throw away when I'm done with it I think home depot sells them by the gross for 15 bucks, no worries about rust in the tank that way either.

I use CC in my rock dwelling mantis tanks, because they seem to like using it in their little construction projects, but for tanks that feature sand sifters, burrowers, and fleshy corals I find that sand just provides a more accommodating environment.