The Puffer Forum

First hitch hikers spotted, tube like things with red hairs that are out and then in lol. My wife said she saw a white worm type thing but I am yet to see it. Also some form of algae or sea weed has appeared on one of my rocks. Soo cool this live rock business

Just had a thought, should I add a small quantity of food at any point for any critters that may be in there? Also just spotted some little white worms poking out the rock with tentacles.

Patient fish-keepers are rare birds. Even after all these years I am still impatient. I lame at least part of my blood pressure on that...

I miss the large tank full of fish immensely, however the new challenge is worth it. As are the little critters I am already finding, it makes the patience worth while even if it is tough

It has been so long since I've had a really mixed tank, that I do not miss them at all. Now if I visit a routine hobbyist's home with such tanks, they tend to make me feel uneasy. I do still have one "mixed" tank with diurnal schooling catfish (two species) and shrimp, but that is about as "mixed" as I get.

You could feed them some flakes.

I don't have flakes to hand, how about small mysis or baby bloodworm? If not I'm gonna have to buy flakes in the morning.

Oh another quick question a local shop has just recieved it's weekly shipment of live copepods ( if that's how you spell it), are these worth adding? If so can you add too many? They do 5 bags for a fiver each bag has tons in

bertie 83 wrote:I miss the large tank full of fish immensely, however the new challenge is worth it. As are the little critters I am already finding, it makes the patience worth while even if it is tough

I found the smaller critters and algaes more interesting than the corals and the fish and ended up looking in my sump for longer periods of time than in the aquarium. I loved the waiting period

bertie 83 wrote:I don't have flakes to hand, how about small mysis or baby bloodworm? If not I'm gonna have to buy flakes in the morning.

Any food will do in my experience. The pods I had went nuts over any foods, though I will admit that algae wafers excited them the most. they would literally dart from 1 end of the aquarium to the other to get a bite.

bertie 83 wrote:Oh another quick question a local shop has just recieved it's weekly shipment of live copepods ( if that's how you spell it), are these worth adding? If so can you add too many? They do 5 bags for a fiver each bag has tons in

Not worth adding, imo, unless you have a mandarin goby in either a very small tank and/or a very new tank where pod populations have not yet properly established themselves.

It's a new set up tank, I may add some to give it a boost. Thanks tim

bertie 83 wrote:It's a new set up tank, I may add some to give it a boost. Thanks tim

Sumps also make great pod factories . My Eheim pumps don't kill them in any case. Even the Mantis shrimp living in my sump went through it to the display tank . Luckily I have so many isopods he cant be bothered with fish or hermits.

If you have a macroalga refugium, especially a 24/7 lighted one, they make great 'pod factories - which is why I favor passive return to the display from such tanks.

Ok new question. So my daily water testings are showing great parameters, no ammonia, slight discolouration/ barely detectable nitrite and the same for nitrates. I have seen what I have discovered is aiptasia, basically are there any reef and community safe aiptasia eaters? I think unlikely but worth am ask. I am close to the stage of adding livestock so want my first fishy to eat this if poss before adding anything that could potentially be harmed by it. Thanks in advance guys

bertie 83 wrote:Ok new question. So my daily water testings are showing great parameters, no ammonia, slight discolouration/ barely detectable nitrite and the same for nitrates. I have seen what I have discovered is aiptasia, basically are there any reef and community safe aiptasia eaters? I think unlikely but worth am ask. I am close to the stage of adding livestock so want my first fishy to eat this if poss before adding anything that could potentially be harmed by it. Thanks in advance guys

Peppermint Shrimp
Copperband butterfly fish
Berghia Nudibranch

Angelfish will also eat them, though I don't know if this is 100%.

My Flameback angelfish (a dwarf angelfish) did eat the few aiptasia I had.
Beautiful fish, always going around the rocks looking for things to munch on. This particular one seems reef-safe to me.


These are the ones I know of. Though the copperband is very hard to keep alive longterm from what I heard.

I just added a dozen pepp shrimp to my tank. I NEVER see them! I'm not sure if they're eating the aptasia or not. I do know I have way to many copepods. Maybe they ate the shrimp. They are HUGE & look more like beetles to me. They eat all my weaker fish in minutes & swarm whenever there's food in the tank.