Derry

I've got a couple of small frags that might help someone who's still getting started or who's willing to be patient and grow a colony out. The first is a frag plug with one medium and two baby green palys (mother colony pictured). The other is a frag of brown acro that's about the size of the top of the frag plug (actual frag pictured, but the color balance is off - it's not that green). Both are free, first come first served, but quid pro quo trades are always welcome.

Discounting the chunks that my trigger has broken off, mine has more than doubled in the 18 mos or so that I've had it.

I was going to jump in an disagree since it looks just like a coral I have that was sold to me as Pectinia. However, in digging around a little, I think mine was misidentified by the retailer. The whorls on the growth edges of the Pavona pictures I found online look just like my coral, so I'm throwing in my long-winded vote for Pavona.

I'll take the suharsonio. Derry

Mighty Putty is the same thing as Aquamend, just with a different branding. Bed, Bath and Beyond is selling 3-packs for $9.99.

I've got a 4-stage Aqua-Pure undersink RO unit that's rated for 25 gpd. The stages are: Five micron sediment & rust filtration Activated carbon filtration Reverse osmosis membrane Final activated carbon polishing filtration What kind of results should I be able to expect in terms of final TDS? FWIW, my TDS going in is about 250.

Yep, they're floridas.

I was afraid that if I just put a flat cover, he could bounce off of it and fall behind the tank.

The trigger has been rescued and is once again happily cruising in the display tank. And since the third time is so NOT the charm in this case...

I bought some really pretty rics from RC about a year ago. They're orange with purple rims and a bright green mouth. However, in all this time, two have been come just four. Borneman's book suggests putting them on the sand bed, so that's where mine are. It's a 30" tank with two 250 MH and four T5 actinics. Anybody out there who's had good results with rics and can offer any advice?

I thought he needed to ride in a plastic baggie for that...?

So last week I heard this odd splashing from my tank to discover that my 5" bluejaw trigger had jumped into my overflow box. Over a year in the tank, and he finally decides to go exploring... I dismissed it as a one-off and went about my reefkeeping until this afternoon. My trigger gets in these modes where he just cruises one of the end panels of the tank, up and down, up and down. Well, he was in cruise mode like this when he got strafed by my male anthias chasing on of the females. The trigger startled, shot straight up (thank goodness for the canopy!) and splash, landed in the overflow again. Sigh... Looks like it's time to build a guard for the overflow!

+1 for the green button palythoas. Have you tried http://www.coralpedia.com?

Looks perfect. How much?

Title says it all: I'm looking for a small HOB skimmer for my 20-gal seahorse tank. Anybody got any leads?

Tell me about it!

Picked up two erectus from Mama yesterday evening. Both are females (at least until I can convince my wife to put up with the grow-out tanks that breeding them would require). I've only got good pics of the one right now. The other's being camera-shy, hiding in the caulerpa.

So what's the biggest critter that's managed to get into your overflow? I heard a splashing commotion the night before last, only to discover that my 5" bluejaw trigger had cleared the last 1-1/2" of grating to go exploring in my overflow. Eels and octopus are disqualified because they're notorious about going for walks, but what else of reasonable size has ended up where it shouldn't in your tank?

The coke bottle trap works well if 1) you drill a couple of small holes in the bottom to allow water to flow all the way through, and 2) if you have other fish willing to compete with the offender for food. When I had to get rid of my 6-line, I would squirt a little frozen brine through some airline tubing just in front of the bottle trap's mouth. The 6-line tried to beat my chromis to the brine, and I caught him in less than five minutes. This also works particularly well for bold fish like chromis - I caught each of my three chromis two or three times a piece before the 6-line finally went in the bottle. However, there's no way to safely cram my yellow tang through the neck of a plastic coke bottle, so I am DEFINITELY filing that mirror trick for future reference!

Yeah, that year mark gets here in about six weeks. Someone suggested that I pick up a "trainer" for them - a clown that knows how to host and will show them how. I think that's my next step.

I just left BB&B, where they have packs of Might Putty (simply AuqaMend rebranded) on sale, 3 sticks for $9.99. I just stocked up with what should be about a 6-month supply. Look by the registers. Derry

Yeah, there's a MAASTard in SA with a 240 that has a harem of EIGHT! I wish...

About two months ago, I ordered three female lyretail anthias from Vivid. When they came in, I panicked a little because it looked as if all three had started transitioning to male, and I was worried about a turf war breaking out in my tank. I shot WetWebMedia a note and got an answer from Fenner himself. He said that, in his opinion, the three were all "more male," but to just give them time and they'd sort things out amongst themselves. Fortunately, there is clearly an "alpha" in the trio, and there is clearly an "omega" as well, so the scuffling has been minimal. Well, the male's transition has gone into turbo over the last two weeks, with his height from dorsal to ventral deepening and his coloration really kicking in. The pics are a bit fuzzy because I'm not using an exactly stellar camera, but the differences in coloration show pretty well. I'm particularly fond of the blue/purple highlights that have developed along the edges of the male's dorsal and tail fins. His body coloration actually looks a bit "dirty" right now because he can't figure out what color he is at the moment, but I'm really looking forward to seeing where he ends up once the transition has completed.

It also looks pretty cool when it grows enough to protrude beyond the underside of the rock. There's very little true while in a tank, and I love the big patches of sponge that I have in mine.

I'll jump on the "free stuff" bandwagon, too!