My new A. bicinctus

[ThRoewer]

Today I found out that the little bicinctus had jumped out. It must have happened during the time when I had the magnifica(s) removed for treatment... time to invest in screens

[CoralsAddiction]

Originally Posted by ThRoewer

Today I found out that the little bicinctus had jumped out. It must have happened during the time when I had the magnifica(s) removed for treatment... time to invest in screens

Oh, no. What a bummer.
I've lost two clowns to jumping. One jumped due to a big crab that came in as a hitchhiker on a piece of live rock. It must have gotten spooked by the crab.
The second clown I lost to jumping was not accepted by a larger clown. There was chasing but no real damage...until the smaller clown decided it was time to jump.

[CoralsAddiction]

Originally Posted by ThRoewer

The female seems to be constantly hungry and every time she sees me in front of the tank she comes begging for food...

Pretty much every single Percula I have right now is like that. Always poking at water surface for some food.

[ThRoewer]

The milii like to play cat and mouse a lot so, to be on the safe side, I covered their tank. I'm not so much concerned about the percula since they never leave their anemones. Same goes for the bicinctus pair, they rather divide down when startled.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[ThRoewer]

Well, it lasted quite some time for a bleached anemone but the fact that it was not eating finally got to it. Last night the magnifica started to decompose and I had to throw it out.
But the magnifica I got from DD reacted well to the treatment and is doing fine. Though I might need to separate it from the bicinctus as the female really likes to steal the anemone's food.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[ThRoewer]

Just found a huge magnifica from the Maldives at a local store... it was at least 18" at the store, though spread out flat on the back pane. Hopefully it will fit the tank...
Pictures come as soon as it's in the tank.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[ThRoewer]

Pictures of it right after putting it into the tank:

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[CoralsAddiction]

Looks nice. More Haddoni for Milli

[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by CoralsAddiction

Looks nice. More Haddoni for Milli

I got it from a new store in San Jose. They had loads of Maldives and a good number of Australian fish, even a few A. milii and one A. bicolor aside from a bunch of percula (presumably GBR, but could also be PNG).

I think I will leave the purple haddoni with the bicinctus for now.
Though my ocellaris pair is quite excited about the DD magnifica that had to move to make room for this monster...

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[ThRoewer]

The bicinctus female with the new magnifica:



And my Philippine ocellaris were more than happy to take the DD magnifica as hand-me-down:

[ThRoewer]

For some reason, the large magnifica doesn't like its spot despite being dead center under the Kessil and on pretty much the highest spot in the tank. It also gets plenty of flow. Yet I found it already twice on the move... I may have to relocate it (and the bicinctus with it) to my 100-gallon tank and move the purple gigantea (which seems to be unhappy there) and my percula pair #1 into the 40B... well at least then the 100-gallon tank would be a good deal closer to a Red Sea biotope.

[CoralsAddiction]

Originally Posted by ThRoewer

For some reason, the large magnifica doesn't like its spot despite being dead center under the Kessil and on pretty much the highest spot in the tank. It also gets plenty of flow. Yet I found it already twice on the move...

Mine moved a little bit a week or two ago after I changed some of the light settings and flow. It went from one side of the flat rock it's on to another. After some minor tweaking it stopped moving. The key was having it on its own island with no room for lateral movement. Some mags go suicidal, detach completely from rock structures and go floating.
In your case, I would not mess at all with an established gigantea (other than the fact you mentioned it doesn't seem happy where it's at)

[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by CoralsAddiction

Mine moved a little bit a week or two ago after I changed some of the light settings and flow. It went from one side of the flat rock it's on to another. After some minor tweaking it stopped moving. The key was having it on its own island with no room for lateral movement. Some mags go suicidal, detach completely from rock structures and go floating.
In your case, I would not mess at all with an established gigantea (other than the fact you mentioned it doesn't seem happy where it's at)

That gigantea went on a walk up the rockwork after being quite unhappy in its original spot for a while. It either didn't like the excessive flow, or sitting so low, or the water being too low on nutrients, or something else. I think it really needs its own tank in my new anemone system. The other purple gig I have in there is by now the best looking of them all.

[ThRoewer]

These guys produce nests like clockwork - every 11 to 13 days, no matter what. Even moving their tank didn't impact their schedule. Last Friday they spawned the 13th time since I have them. All nests are large and neat with little to no bad eggs. If I would have raised them all I would be drowning in bicinctus by now... I think this pair alone could easily satisfy the demand for bicinctus in the US and beyond...

[Wind]

cool

[ThRoewer]

Well, the move to the 100 gallon tank is on! I already pulled the percula and their restless gigantea and this weekend I got to start rescaping the 100 gallon to suit the magnifica's needs...

This simply became necessary because the gigantea wasn't happy anymore and would not stop moving around. In the anemone system it will get a dedicated tank where it can settle where it likes without the risk of walking into a powerhead. That system also has higher nitrate and phosphate and it seems giganteas like that better - my best looking gig is actually in my dirtiest tank in that system...

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Wind]

Originally Posted by ThRoewer

Well, the move to the 100 gallon tank is on! I already pulled the percula and their restless gigantea and this weekend I got to start rescaping the 100 gallon to suit the magnifica's needs...

This simply became necessary because the gigantea wasn't happy anymore and would not stop moving around. In the anemone system it will get a dedicated tank where it can settle where it likes without the risk of walking into a powerhead. That system also has higher nitrate and phosphate and it seems giganteas like that better - my best looking gig is actually in my dirtiest tank in that system...

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Did your feeding patterns change? And could you care to document any before, during, and after feeding? How long does it usually last?

[ThRoewer]

Feeding has nothing to do with it. The problem is flow. Where I had to put the gigantea in the 100 gallon tank the flow was just too much for it. In my experience, giganteas prefer lighter flow for most of the day with only short periods of higher flow. In the wild you find them in the shallow and more protected waters behind the reef, just below the tidal zone.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[ThRoewer]

I still haven't gotten around to remodel the 100-gallon tank for the magnifica and therefore the bicinctus and their mag are still in the 40B:



Since they put their eggs so nicely on that ceramic plate it would be a perfect opportunity to raise some bicinctus babies - if I only had a free tank for the larva and enough food...

[ThRoewer]

Since my corals recovered and started growing again I scrapped the idea of remodeling the 100-gallon tank for the magnifica as that would have removed pretty much all the available real estate for the corals. Instead, I gave the bicinctus 2 small RBTA I had gotten from a fellow reefer a while ago. In about a month the anemones have nearly doubled in size. Hopefully, in a few more they will be actually big enough for the fish.
Also, for some reason, they prefer laying their eggs rather far away (see end of video). They tried to lay them close to the anemone the previous time but didn't seem to like it and went back to the farther away rock.

[hottuna]

They look dark , like mine...dont know why they darken up in captivity..mine looked like an orange peel when I got them...now dark.

[ThRoewer]

The male is the darker one of the two. He is close to being black. The female is a lot lighter.
It's likely caused by environmental factors. Compared with the reef our tanks are pretty dark...


Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[ThRoewer]

Today these two knuckleheads decided to rearrange the rockwork - without consulting me first of course...
It's quite surprising what big rocks such little fish can move if they are just motivated enough.

[tnw50cal]

Great thread, I want to thank the OP for starting it.

[ThRoewer]

Since I have the time now and hopefully enough food and the bicinctus were kind enough to put their eggs on a rock I could take out I decided to give it a shot on raising a few babies. Only about a quarter hatched since I took the rock out too late and exposed the nest to brighter light, but that should be enough for now. Here a video of the larvae on the morning of their first day: