Betta132 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Somebody at the Austin Aquarium suggested I join this forum, so here I am! I currently have two freshwater tanks; a 65g tannin-water community of mostly small fish, and a 29 biocube (under construction) that will eventually be a microfish community. I also have two male Dendrobates Tinctorus dart frogs, a 'Cobalt' variety and an 'Azureus' variety. Their vivarium is 18" square and planted with mostly simple plants to care for; vines and such. But then again, I suppose you want my reef tank specs? 29g biocube. Established for- four years, I believe. Before then, I had an 8g biocubge up for a year, and everything there was moved over into the 29g. Current tank inhabitants: One yellowtail blue damsel One rooster waspfish One Wheeler's shrimpgoby One righthanded tiger pistol shrimp One sand snail (nassarius? Can't spell it) that's been in my possession for five years. Three small neon green spaghetti worms One assortment of random critters One small clump of zooanthids One small clump of feather caulerpa Tank plans: Firstly, I want this to be a macroalgae tank. Gonna add graciliara (or however you spell that stuff that tangs like to eat), dragon's tongue, and probably some chaeto. I'm also gonna have some random pretty mushroom corals and zooanthids, but it's mostly gonna be a planted marine tank. At some point I want to add another tiger pistol shrimp. I'm fairly sure this will work, and I hope to get a lefthanded one so I can tell them apart. Also, I want to get a money cowry for algae control. They seem to be a good candidate, I just need to find one. Does anyone happen to know where I can get those macroalgaes and a money cowry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Welcome to the club! Club members Subsea and Sascha usually have a bunch of interesting types of macros on hand. I'm sure they'll chime in. Vincent-Thai was selling some dragon's breath a couple weeks back so I'd imagine he might be selling some more soon. Niko's Reef in Pflugerville also has a bunch at his store and he might be able to order you the money cowry. -Ty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Wow three new members in one day? Welcome to the forum. I second jeeper about where to get macros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Welcome to the club. Tangs like to eat many different macro algaes. I use fast growing Caulerpa Paspaloides, which is one of several feather Caulerpas in my display tanks. They graze it continuously. Gracilaria Parvispora was called Tang Heaven Red by Gerald Hesslinger of IndoPacific SeaFarms and the name stuck. It was some years before I realized that this was the same thing as Red Ogo, which is a favorite ediable food in the Pacific Islands. Once when asked by a hobiest chef how do I clean the pods out of the Ogo, I told him I eat them in my Chevichee. I could hear his laughter from Kansas City. Laissez la bonne temps roulee, Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 welcome to the club Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Welcome WOW! You have poison dart frogs? I've literally wanted to buy some since I was 10, but they're illegal in most states. Can you buy them in Texas? I suppose they would just die i this climate if they ever escaped. Washington has a rain forrest so they're strictly forbidden. You should post a pic of that waspfish. They're not very common in the aquarium trade. Poisonous. I'm beginning to sense a trend. On the macroalgae, there are a few different kinds of gracilaria and you may want to look them up so you know which one(s) you want. I have Dragon's Tonue in my display and neither my PBT or Foxface eat it. So far the only macros that I've seen them eat regularily is G. Tik and Ulva. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta132 Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Yep, I have PDFs! They're captive bred, though, so the little guys are totally harmless. They get their poison from certain bugs in the wild, and these guys have never been exposed to those bugs, so I can safely handle them. They aren't petting pets, though, they don't like being touched. Here's the 'cobalt' male: And this is the 'azureus' male: Both are the same species, just different color variatios. Believe it or not, those variations occur in the wild! I don't have a recent pic of the vivarium, but here's one from a couple months ago: I've been trying to get a picture of the wasp, but he's not cooperative. I'd try and use my underwater camera, but, you know, venomous spines and such. He wouldn't kill me, but I really don't want to get stung. It would HURT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 That is SO cool! I didn't know you could get captive bred ones. Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Welcome. Super cool frogs. Have these guys paired up or just tankmates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta132 Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Actually, captive bred dart frogs are much easier to get than wild ones, healthier too. Many of the more exotic pet stores will carry them; if you have a reptile store near you, they probably have a few. They haven't paired up, no... Both are males. Females are territorial, but males usually get along. I'd get yelled at if they were male and female.... People in the dart frog hobby don't approve of the mxing of colors, crossbreeding and such... Everyone wants to keep the bloodlines pure. In fact, darts in general shouldn't be kept with different species or even different varieties... There are size differences, behavioral differences, and song differences that can lead to one or both of them getting stressed. This particular one only works because both are males of the exact same species, and these two varieties are very close in size. They're awesome to watch, these two. They don't know that they're nontoxic, so they're out all the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Super sick Betta132. I don't like messing with nature so I wouldn't breed different colors like that either. I don't approve of designer clownfish and I'll never own one. The Waspfish sting is a lot like Lionfish. I'm surprised that you don't have a dwarf in there anywhere. It'll hurt and initiate a histimine response but shouldn't be fatal. Just run it under warm water and you should be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta132 Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Heh, I like dwarf lions, but I don't think one would be happy in the biocube and he'd eat the others anyway. Maybe someday... I want a frogfish or scorpionfish, especially a Rhinopias frondosa, and I might end up with a big-predator tank someday. With a fish the size of the frondosa, though, a volitans lion might be safer! I saw two bright red frondosas at Aquadome a while ago, and they got a squeak out of me. AWESOME! Absolutely gorgeous... Okay, I've got you a couple of decent waspy pics. You can see he's kinda leaned his spines towards me in one of those, that's how he reacts to things he isn't sure about. When he calms down, he comes up to inspect it. That does mean I have to be careful in there... Especially since he darts around sometimes when something startles him. I suppose maybe I should list my dream tanks in here, since this is sorta my intro thread. These are all things I may possibly attempt to obtain in future... The smaller ones are more likely. 1: Freshwater tank with a leaffish, a ropefish, an african butterfly, and probably a school of large-ish schooling fish. Would be planted and have tannin-tinted water for the fish. I'd probably make it look like the kind of leaf-filled backwater you find most of those predatory-type camoflauged fish in. 2: More of an idea: cube-ish spooky freshwater tank. Ash-colored sand, black branches coming up from the middle like a dead tree, cracked and broken rocks around the area, and a school of black ghost (black skirt) tetras to flitter around like grey ghosts. I think this would look EPIC. Probably wouldn't be planted unless I could find something in keeping with the theme. 3: Saltwater seagrass/macro tank for small fish; pipefish, firefish, mini gobies, little shrimp, all the shy little things that need small foods and can't be kept in typical communities because they get eaten or stung. Would be planted with seagrass and then just left to grow for a bit. 4: Monstro tank; Big frogfish-type thing (maybe the frondosa, if I could get one), lionfish, maybe a large-ish crab or few, and maybe an eel. This is probably the least likely, since it would have to be pretty darn big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 That is an awesome little guy! Are you feeding him live ghosts? You don't need a large tank to keep most Frogfish. The largest one I've ever seen was at the Waikiki Aquarium and it was literally the size of a large dinner plate. I'm talking like 12" across and jet black. They had him in a 55g with black slate rockwork. If you passed by and didn't try real hard you would totally miss him against the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta132 Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Actually, no. He's just barely large enough to eat them, but I bought him eating frozen food. He ate some grass shrimp that I tried to add, so I know he can manage even larger ghost-sized shrimp. I'm pretty sure he also ate a neon goby and possibly a young Hector's goby... I didn't know how he'd done it until I offered him some big mysis and I saw his mouth. He has a HUGE mouth! Way larger than it looks. I might add a clingfish at some point, but I wouldn't suggest this fellow with anything smaller than 2". My 1 1/2" Wheeler's goby is maybe small enough to get eaten, but he's given up on catching it... It's far too alert and has a pistol guarding it. I know frogfish don't need a larger tank, since they just sit... I was thinking more along the lines of tankmates, if I could manage that. Hmm... Bet I could keep a weedy scorpion in something like a 65, since they're supposed to pretty much not move. The ones I saw, they only sat in one spot for the entire time I was there, they didn't twitch or anything. I'm curious... Do you think it would be possible to keep a big frogfish (dinner-plate size) with tiny gobies? I mean, things like neon gobies might be too small to get its attention... What do you think? I'd have to test it with something like a ghost shrimp... Ooh. There are shrimp that sit in seaweed, ones I know how to get... If they were safe, I could add some and have them crawl on him and be an awesome contrast. And neon gobies could swim on him and clean him off... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 You could start breeding saltwater molly's if you want to keep a live food source. Kind of a good setup since they are probably the smallest algae eating fish you can put in a SW tank. Frogfish will eat anything that it even thinks it can fit in its mouth. I wouldn't trust it with any fish not at least the same size as it. I've seen some gruesome pictures of them catching fish twice their size and not being able to swallow them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta132 Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 I don't think I'll need live food for this wasp... He's very happy to eat frozen for me. Plus, I kinda like mollies. I find them cute, the way they wiggle around. I may be adding a nice molly to pick on algae, but not for food. If I run into an emergency where he won't eat frozen, there's a Petsmart five minutes from here that usually has healthy ghost shrimp. I know they'll go after big stuff, but there's gotta be a point where something is too small to interest a predator.... Like sharks and minnows. Sharks don't eat minnows, and things like sardines are usually safe around them. Hmm... How large would an eel have to be for a 10-ish-inch scorpion to not be interested, do you think? Anything short of a full-size green moray? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmvanness Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I have several macros I've collected here and there. I can make you a pack if you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta132 Posted May 8, 2014 Author Share Posted May 8, 2014 I just remembered that most waspfish get bigger than mine... He's about 2 1/2" long, not very large at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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