Stocking plan for rebuild
Posted 09/28/2010 at 08:52 AM by sacremon
So the survivors of the plague that swept through the tank are a zebra moray and a magnificent rabbitfish. The rabbit is back to normal appearance, and has been greedily eating half a sheet of nori a day. The tank also has two 3" spider conchs (Lambis lambis), an urchin that I believe is an Echinometra viridis, some coralimorphs and a couple colonies of Goniopora. Oh, and a whole heaping lot of algae, which looks like my old nemesis, derbesia.
The algae actually isn't all bad. It provides a kind of in-tank refugium for zooplankton, which the goniopora in turn eat.The problem is that the stuff is fast growing and will smother anything I try to put on the rocks. It is even growing on the sand, though that is easy enough to remove during a water change. The rabbit doesn't care about it, preferring to eat nori, or starve a day if I don't provide any nori.
So my thoughts on the restocking: Pterois radiata and volitans (1 each), a Ctenochaetus strigosus or binotatus, a Naso lituratus and a couple Parupeneus cyclostoma. Even though I believe it was the Parupeneus that brought in the flukes last time, I won't hold it against the species. They are just too lively and fun to watch and feed. So long as the lions don't grow so much faster that they eat the goatfish, I should be fine. I hope.
The algae actually isn't all bad. It provides a kind of in-tank refugium for zooplankton, which the goniopora in turn eat.The problem is that the stuff is fast growing and will smother anything I try to put on the rocks. It is even growing on the sand, though that is easy enough to remove during a water change. The rabbit doesn't care about it, preferring to eat nori, or starve a day if I don't provide any nori.
So my thoughts on the restocking: Pterois radiata and volitans (1 each), a Ctenochaetus strigosus or binotatus, a Naso lituratus and a couple Parupeneus cyclostoma. Even though I believe it was the Parupeneus that brought in the flukes last time, I won't hold it against the species. They are just too lively and fun to watch and feed. So long as the lions don't grow so much faster that they eat the goatfish, I should be fine. I hope.
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