Reef Ramblings

A couple of weeks back while looking around an aquarium store in the Midlands I was a little disturbed to come across a pair of Oxymonacanthus longirostris, known variously as the Longnosed Filefish or Orangespotted Filefish. This gorgeous fish, with its unusual patterning of orange spots on a blue background, is an obligate corallivore specialising in Acropora polyps, resulting in an extremely poor record for survival in the aquarium.
My first reaction on seeing this notoriously difficult fish for sale was one of horror, but since then I’ve talked to a couple of wholesalers and had a bit of a rethink about the situation. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to encourage any one to purchase one of these fishes, in fact quite the opposite, but It makes an interesting subject to discuss in this month’s column.

First off, a bit more information about this fish (courtesy of Fish Base):
A member of the family Monacanthidae or Filefishes, this is a reef-associated fish occurring in clear lagoons and seaward reefs with a depth range of around 0.5 metres to 30 m. They tend to be found in pairs or small groups nesting near the bases of dead corals, often on clumps of algae. They grow to a maximum total length of 12 centimetres and appear to be monogamous. Males may be identified by having bristles on the caudal peduncle that are longer than those on the body. Reports from the field indicate that this fish feeds exclusively on Acropora polyps with feeding taking place throughout the day becoming less towards the evening. Further reports from the Marshall Islands mention the following corals as being eaten: Acropora acuminata, Acropora nasuta, Acropora valida, Heliopora coerulea, and Porites cylindrica.
They have a distribution in the Indo-Pacific from East Africa, south to Maputo, Mozambique, east to Samoa, north to Ryukyu Islands, south to the southern Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia, and Tonga. This species is replaced by Oxymonacanthus halli in the Red Sea.

Note: This fish is also known as the Harlequin filefish in the US where Orangespotted filefish can be used as the common name for an entirely different species, Cantherhines pullus, a 20 cm long Atlantic filefish with a distribution mainly in the western Atlantic including “Floribbean waters”.
I’d suggest the use of Longnosed filefish as a more universally accepted common name.
Don’t you just love the confusion caused by common names…

A Look at the Hobby Literature.

Reviewing the hobby literature on this species you get an overwhelming reaction of not suitable for captivity – best left in the ocean.

John Tullock, in Natural Reef Aquariums (1997 and still an informative book 10 years on) puts this fish into a category defined as follows: Special requirements for this species, usually dietary needs, cannot be met by the home aquarist. Appropriate conditions for this species are not yet defined. He then goes on to include it (along with its relative O. halli) in a table of Fishes with Special Dietary Needs, and also in a table of Marine Fish Species Not Successfully Maintained by Public Aquariums.

Writing in the Conscientious Marine Aquarist (first published 1998 but still a useful book) Bob Fenner says, “Leave it in the ocean unless you are farming corals. Otherwise it will starve to death in your tank”, before going on to say that he thinks all members of the genus Oxymonacanthus are corallivorous and as such should be avoided.

The Complete Book of the Marine Aquarium (2002) Vincent Hargreaves says of aquarium suitability, “This is not an easy fish to keep in an aquarium for any length of time since its main diet is coral polyps particularly those of the Acropora spp.”

Dr Elizabeth Wood, in the Responsible Marine Aquarist (2003) makes the point that as long-nosed filefish feed exclusively on Acropora and seldom survive for long in captivity, that they should be left on the reef to avoid unnecessary wastage. In the reference table at the back of this book it’s classified as “Virtually impossible to maintain”.

In Advanced Aquarium Techniques by Jay Hemdal (2006), a book written mainly from the perspective of a public aquarium aquarist, this fish is included in the table headed: Fish That Rarely Survive Past the First Year Mark in Closed System Aquariums.

I’ll leave the last word from the hobby literature to my buddy Scott Michael. In Reef Aquarium Fishes (Pocket Expert 2006), Scott says, ”Some reef keepers have successfully housed this species in a tank with numerous SPS coral colonies. If there are enough corals to feed on and only one or a pair of these fish are kept, they may not damage any one colony enough to cause its demise. That said O. longirostris is best avoided by most aquarists. (One in hundreds may accept substitute foods, but most specimens waste away and die.)”

Previous UK Aquarist Query.

In, I think, 2004 I had a PFK reader query about the Orangespotted Filefish, I responded with the article: Catering For Picky Feeders On The Reef, which I’m reproducing here in part.

So here’s the letter from reader Rob Burns who started my interest in these fishes.

I was a very enthusiastic marine aquarist for several years until about 10 years ago when a combination of children and setting up a business meant I had to give up the hobby.
I am now interested in getting back into the (much changed) hobby as circumstances now allow for the time and dedication required.
I would really like to set up a ‘specialist’ tank to keep just one species, the Long Nosed Filefish, Oxymonacanthus longirostris. I am aware that these are very difficult to keep although I did achieve some modest success all those years ago in a mixed but ‘quiet’ tank. I had thought about setting up a largish tank with predominantly Acropora species, which I believe, is the natural diet of this species in the wild and a small group of these fishes.
My question is whether you think this would be possible/advisable; whether it would still be possible to import this species for such a set up and whether with care and attention to other dietary needs it might succeed? I have always been fascinated by this particular fish and would derive a great amount of pleasure from being able to keep them.

Regards

Rob Burns.

Hi Rob,

My first thought was “Whoa! Forget it!”, but after I’d reflected on the idea for a while I changed my mind. I’m generally against stocking hard to keep species in shops, but if an aquarist is after something in particular and demonstrates knowledge of the animal, I’m usually happy to order one in.
I prefer to discourage the average fishkeeper from buying these more specialist creatures. The thing is, we are now keeping animals in our tanks that a few years ago we wouldn’t have thought possible; if responsible aquarists are prepared to work at problem animals then maybe, in years to come, we’ll be able to successfully keeping even more species.
As you’ve mentioned, the problem with this stunningly beautiful fish is, with its diet of Acropora polyps, this fish is an obligatory corallivore. In his book, Marine Fishes, Scott Michael mentions that it can be occasionally persuaded into eating live brine shrimp, though this will rarely fulfill its nutritional requirements.
I think you’re on the right track, setting up an Acropora tank, but I’d suggest going one step further and incorporate an Acropora refugium into your system. Acropora are very hardy and easy to grow given the right conditions, so by farming them in the refugium (where they’re safe from predation) you could then rotate them between the display tank and the refugium. By rotating them back to the refugium they’d have an opportunity to recover and grow.
If you want to try supplementary feeding make sure any live food is enriched with either a product such as Kent’s Zoecon or phytoplankton. If the fish are reluctant to take food from the water column you might like to try pushing something like shrimp into the surface of a coral skeleton or rock to simulate polyp flesh.
Incidentally, I’ve also come across a report of Oxymonacanthus longirostris spawning in captivity, placing adhesive eggs on to the glass of the aquarium
I’m afraid that although I’ve been writing this answer up in an encouraging manner saying, yes its doable for someone prepared to put in the money, time and effort, its unlikely that you’ll be able to get hold of the fish. A couple of years ago the main marine wholesalers in the UK, TMC and KKC, agreed not to import this fish on the moral grounds of it being to difficult to care for. Also the key to success with this fish would appear to be to obtain good quality stock, which is very much dependant on the standard of the holding facility that they are imported from.

Back to Today …
As I said at the beginning I‘ve again talked to the main wholesalers about this fish.
The story is, that having located a good reliable source for these fishes, where the fish are looked after and it’s ensured that they’re feeding, TMC are bringing in a small quantity each year. They are being collected to order and only going out to stores that know what they’re doing. I’m also told that they’re aware of fish that have done well over time. The rationale seems to be that as these fish are feeding well and surviving import that they should be OK to sell. This is in contrast to the situation a number of years back when far more of these fishes were brought into the country only to die within weeks of importation. Further, that by making small numbers available, it avoids the unnecessary wastage that occurs when fish are brought in through console from sources – this is where the retailer picks their fish off of an import list and the fish are delivered direct to the store.
(Console, or consolidation, can work well in the hands of knowledgeable retailers who go to the trouble of quarantining their imported fish before putting them on sale but, in the case of the numerous outlets where these fish go straight into the sales tanks on delivery, it can be a recipe for disaster.)

OK, fair enough so far, but I’m still skeptical on two points – that the fishes do go to retailers who really know what they are doing, and that they are exhibiting long term health. Think back to Scott’s comment about the number of longnosed filefishes that die for every one that survives.

There’s not much I can to about the first point but I‘m interested in exploring the second one.
Instead of just taking a prohibitive view on the grounds of the literature stated above it might well be worth assessing the survivability of the longnosed filefish in today’s reef aquarium Unfortunately this may prove difficult to do as we’ll be relying on anecdotal evidence from aquarists of widely varying experience and ability, not to mention the veracity of said evidence as there can be something of a competitive aspect to maintaining difficult animals that may lead some aquarists to, shall we say, exaggerate their successes.

So, Can the Longnosed Filefish Be Successfully Kept?

Although a fish may be feeding on what would appear to be an adequate diet this does not mean that it’s receiving adequate or appropriate nutrition. The references to these fish feeding on Artemia, or brine shrimp, is a little worrying when you consider what a poor source of nutrition these are if they’ve not been enriched.

One aquarist may view a fish that has survived for some time as a success, whereas another aquarist’s interpretation may be that it was just a stronger fish that took longer to starve to death than …

The fact that there are reports of this fish surviving in a few aquariums may indicate that its nutritional requirements can be met in today’s reef where there are both more corals and more incidental animals, critters, available as a food source than in the more sterile aquaria of ten years ago.
Kept only in ones or twos with sufficient stony corals to spread out the damage and so keep pace with the feeding demand there seems to be little reason for them not to survive. To achieve this you’d need a mature reef with conditions optimized for coral growth, the sort of reef that can be regularly harvested to produce frags would seem ideal.

So, although it would seem reasonable to be able to successfully maintain longnosed filefishes in captivity, it seems self evident that the aquarist who’d like to keep them will need to be experienced enough to provide the conditions required for SPS growth yet at the same time be sympathetic towards the idea of growing corals as food.

If you’ve kept these fishes, successfully or not, it would be interesting to hear from you so I can put together a more complete picture of their survival in captivity.

Standard admonishment: Always research the requirements of any animal you’re interested in purchasing. This doesn’t just mean ask the guy in your local fish shop – the retailer won’t always know and unfortunately I hear many reports of bad advice being given …
Best advice can often come from someone with experience of keeping your chosen beast but even that’s not always going to be correct – think about what you’re told.
You have to take responsibility for the fish or invertebrates you buy, if you don’t feel confidant that you can fulfill its needs don’t buy it!

Any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2007

This first in a series of articles on lighting is aimed at people new to the hobby who may be a little confused by all the lighting options available to illuminate a marine aquarium. Some of this may appear simplified to more experienced aquarists but, hey! We’ve all got to start somewhere! See elsewhere on the site for articles that go into lighting in greater depth.

Why light the aquarium in the first place?

The majority of the animals, the fishes and invertebrates that we keep in the reef aquarium, come from the tropics where the midday sun can be extremely bright. One adaptation to this abundant light is that many species of invertebrates, in particular the corals that we keep in our aquaria, have adapted to a way of life that involves a symbiotic relationship with single celled plants that convert sunlight into energy to the benefit of their host through the process of photosynthesis. So, to successfully maintain these animals in captivity we need to provide them with a comparatively large amount of light.

Types of lighting:

Although there are a number of different types of lighting that can be used in the hobby there are a few things that they all have in common. They all produce light and to a lesser or greater extent they all produce heat. Lamps are rated in terms of watts to give an indication of their power output and energy consumption. Additionally, lamps used for aquatics have a Kelvin rating e.g. 6500˚K, 10000˚K, 14000˚K, 20000˚K. This is a description of the colour of light the lamp produces in much the same way as domestic lights get rated as being, “warm white”, “white”, or “cool white”. This is often also referred to as the spectrum of the lamp. To an extent the choice of Kelvin rating used over a reef tank is down to the aesthetics of the aquarist – the colour that gives the effect that the aquarist finds most pleasing. Going from 6500˚K, through the intermediate ratings, and up to 20000˚K will give an effect similar to that of how colour changes with increasing depth. At the time of writing there seems to be trend to use around 14000˚K in the UK and Europe, with many aquarists in the US going for the far bluer colouration of 20000˚K. There is variation in colour between lamps of the same Kelvin rating produced by different manufacturers so the choice is somewhat subjective. Anything between 10000˚K and 14000˚K will be fine for the majority of corals you’re likely to keep as a newcomer so don’t worry about it too much.

Note: There often seems to be a perception that the bigger the Kelvin number is the more powerful the light. The Kelvin rating refers to colour, while wattage indicates power.

(For a more in depth examination of Kelvin rating and water depth, please look out for a further article on this subject)

Lamp Fitting Designation.

All the different types of lamp have some sort of designation to describe what lamp fitting each particular lamp is suited to e.g. T8, T5, RX7s etc, These fittings are standardised so a lamp designated, say RX7s (150w metal halide lamp), no matter who the manufacturer is, will fit any RX7s fitting.

Remember: Just because you have a lighting unit that’s made by a company such as Arcadia, it doesn’t mean you have to replace the lamp with an Arcadia one. Any lamp with the same type of fitting can be used in that unit.

Fluorescent lights.

These can be split into 2 categories, linear fluorescent lights – the familiar fluorescent tube, and PL lamps or power compacts – also sometimes referred to as energy saving bulbs.

Linear fluorescent lights can vary in length, wattage (usually proportional to the length), fitting –T12, T8, T6, T5, etc. and Kelvin rating. There are also different outputs of fluorescent available: NO (normal output), HO (high output), and VHO (very high output) but with the exception of T5 lights these are not seen often in the UK. Regarding T5 lights, beware if you’re trying to put something together on the cheap; the lights produced by reputable aquatic manufacturers will essentially be HO lights, whereas the majority of T5 lamps you see at low prices in the DIY shops are NO lamps and will produce less light. Not really recommended for aquaria deeper than 45cms (18 inches).
Multiple lamps are required to provide sufficient illumination for a reef and, to get the best out of them, they need to be close to the surface of the water. This can present problems when it comes to accessing the tank to carry out maintenance and also brings with it the potential for overheating the water if the top of the tank is enclosed.

T5 lamps usually have a greater power output than T8 lamps but have the downside of running at a higher temperature, which in turn may influence the running temperature of the aquarium.

PL lamps or compact fluorescents are in effect a linear lamp that has been either folded back on itself or looped round in perhaps a spiral. Fittings here can vary quite a bit but the most common ones for aquarium use have either 2 or 4 pins in a straight line. Watch out for cheap (inferior) imports, mostly of Chinese origin, where the lamps have the 4 pins arranged in a square – you’re unlikely to be able to find any quality lamps with a spectrum suited to aquarium usage to replace these with when they, almost inevitably, fail.

Power Compacts have the advantage of producing more light in a smaller area due to their configuration, the downside here is again heat, plus their shape means that the reflector cannot be used as efficiently so they may produce less light than a linear lamp of the same wattage.

It is possible to compensate for the lower output of fluorescent lighting by extending the photoperiod, that’s the length of time the aquarium is lit to represent a tropical day. A day length of 12 to 14 hours is acceptable.

Metal Halide (MH) Lighting.

Metal halide lighting (sometimes also referred to as HQI lighting) is currently the gold standard in reef aquarium lighting. These lights throw out a lot of light and also a lot of heat, aquariums utilising multiple MH lighting units often need the addition of a chiller to keep the water down to a temperature suitable for corals. Available in wattages ranging from 70w, through 150w, 250 w, and 400w, up to a crazy 1000w!! 70w is not much used and is a bit on the low side, 150w is very common but probably best thought of as entry level MH lighting, 250 w is a great choice for most usage, 400w is probably best employed over deeper than average tanks, and while 1000w is more the preserve of public aquarium systems, that’s not to say that hobbyists don’t go to this extreme – I know of hobbyist tanks that are lit with three 1000w MH lights!

Aquarium MH lighting units (or luminaires) are generally ugly and heavy items of equipment that need to be suspended from the ceiling above the tank. They offer light penetration to a greater depth than fluorescents and are probably better suited to maintaining corals because of the “glitter lines” they produce, emulating the same effect as the sun produces in the wild. Glitter lines are the ever-changing patterns of light and shadow you see on the base of the aquarium (much the same as you see in shallow water at the beach). You get these with MH lighting as the light is a point source the same as the sun, this effect gives the reef aquarium a far more dynamic appearance with shadows being well defined; fluorescent lighting is a diffuse light source and you’re unlikely to get glitter lines without fairly extreme surface agitation. The situation is slightly better with power compacts as they are put out more light in a smaller area than linear lamps.

Other advantages of MH lighting over fluorescents include retaining access to the aquarium for maintenance, the fact that the lights are further away from the water surrounded by air which will, to a certain extent, mitigate the problem of heat transfer.

Keep the cover glass protecting the bulb clean to optimise light output. A build up of salt from minor splashes will soon reduce the amount of light reaching the aquarium.
Don’t run lamps without a cover glass or you may end up exposing your corals to excess UV radiation, which could cause them to bleach.
Manufacturers specify a minimum distance for the light to hung above water level as a safety precaution: water splashing against the hot cover glass, perhaps at feeding time, may cause the glass to shatter

The Components of a Lighting System.

So far I’ve talked about lighting as a whole but an aspect of lighting that’s not as well appreciated as it should be is that any lighting system is the sum of 3 separate factors. Lamp, ballast, and reflector all contribute to the overall efficiency of any lighting system. If each of these elements has been optimised to work well with the other 2 then you’ll have a great lighting system, but one inferior element may mean you could be actually producing less light than a well put together lighting unit of a lower wattage. It’s quite possible to put together a single 250w MH light that will out perform an off the shelf 400w unit of inferior design.

Reflectors.

A reflector is essential to make the most of the light emitted by your lighting system. This is mostly applicable to fluorescent lighting where the separate components are often bought separately – don’t forget to install reflectors, particularly in Juwel conversions and the like.

In the UK most aquarium lighting systems used, especially MH ones, are complete packages put together by the manufacturer. It’s worth noting that nearly all of these MH units are compromised by the small size of reflector that is used.

Keep reflectors clean to optimise light output.

Ballasts.

The ballast is the box of tricks that makes the lamp light up. There are 2 types of ballast on the market, electromagnetic and electronic. Electromagnetic ballasts are the traditional method of lighting lamps; they tend to be heavy and waste energy in the form of heat. With fluorescent lighting, an inefficient ballast can consume almost as much electricity as the lamp itself so don’t be fooled into thinking that your 36 w lamp is only using 36w, it may be using say, another 30w, meaning your “low wattage” 36w lamp is actually using 60w or more!

Electronic ballasts are a more recent introduction; they are lightweight and far more efficient, consuming only a few extra watts of electricity, produce less heat, and extend the life of the lamp. They run much cooler than traditional ballasts. I have electronic ballasts that run at a low enough temperature that you can comfortably rest your hand on them, contrast this with electromagnetic ballasts that may run at around 120˚ Celsius, ouch!
It’s worth noting that some T5 lamps need to be run with electronic ballasts otherwise they won’t light.
There are also high-frequency electronic ballasts available that can give an increase in power output of around 10%.

Much of the above refers to fluorescent lamps, but there are also electronic ballasts available for MH lamps, which offer similar improvements in performance but the energy saving is not as marked as it is with fluorescents.

Lamps.

Lamps, bulbs, tubes, whatever you want to call them – different manufacturer’s lamps will perform differently when run with different ballasts. This is an area where a little experimentation may pay off to find the lamp that is best suited to your ballasts.

Lamps don’t last forever. It’s good practise to replace them when the output has reduced by 30%. A rule of thumb would be to change lamps yearly but as a number of factors influence how quickly lamps deteriorate I must stress that this figure is just give for guidance. A more accurate way of determining the life of a lamp would be to measure its output with a PAR meter. (For more on PAR and PAR meters, please look out for a further article on this subject).

Be careful handling MH lamps with bare hands as secretions from the fingertips may cause bulb failure.
Double ended MH bulbs should be fitted with the inner exhaust tip pointing upwards (the small piece of glass sticking out of the inner bulb where it was sealed at the factory).

MH lamps should be allowed to cool down for a few minutes after being turned off, before they are re-ignited.

Actinic and Dusk / Dawn Lighting.

Blue lighting is often referred to as actinic lighting; it’s been common practise to run these lamps in addition to regular lighting to bring out fluorescence in corals. This practise is probably not necessary with today’s lamps, as they should be generating plenty of light in the correct part of the spectrum to fulfil this requirement.

Where these blue coloured lamps do come in useful is as a way of producing a dusk / dawn effect by having them come on half an hour to an hour before the main lights and then going off a similar length of time after the main lights have been extinguished. This goes someway towards replicating the natural dusk / dawn effect and also prevents animals from being spooked by being suddenly exposed to something roughly equivalent to the midday sun or by being suddenly plunged into darkness at the end of the day.

Note: With all lighting it’s important to employ timers to ensure a regular photoperiod for you reef.

Above all, please remember that there’s no “best” lighting for a reef tank – only the lighting most appropriate to the animals being kept.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2007

For many reefkeepers frozen foods are the staple nutrition for feeding the captive reef but, given the number of frozen foods available, how do you choose?

Not all frozen foods can be considered equal. To compare what you’re purchasing you need to take into account a number of factors including: price, how the food’s been handled, nutritional value, potential pathogen content, water content, and integrity, not to mention added extras such as levels of antioxidants and colourants.

Price.

To my mind this is one of the least important factors in choosing which brand of frozen food to buy.
Firstly I fail to see what the point is in building up a beautiful reef, investing significant amounts of time and money in the process only to resort to feeding the cheapest – read inferior – foods available in some misguided attempt at economy.
Secondly, if a food is cheap, it’s cheap for a reason. I’m a strong believer that when it comes to price you get what you pay for.

Handling.

Quality foods are flash frozen on collection Compare this with the cheaper foods that arrive at the manufacturer’s premises in bulk as large frozen slabs that are then thawed out for repackaging by the simple expedient of using a fire hose!

Nutritional Value.

Have a look at the information on the food’s packaging; you’ll find little giveaways to quality here by observing what levels of protein are present – heck! I’m amazed at the fact that some manufacturers can actually bring down protein to such low levels, 5% or less, especially considering the protein content that the repackaged animals originally contained … Oh, and they then display this value as though it’s something to be proud of!

Just check out the protein content of our favourite, P. E. Mysis – 69.5%!

Potential Pathogen Content.

Has the manufacture screened their product for bacterial contamination? This is a process that will cost the manufacturer additional money, something to bear in mind in connection with low cost products. The best manufactures carry out testing to ensure their product is pathogen free.
(See Coral magazine Vol. 3 nos.4 and 5 for more on the subject of pathogens present in food)
Other manufacturers may utilise irradiation to ensure a pathogen free product but this may be bring with it other potential problems, not to mention the known nutrient losses from irradiation effecting vitamins A, B1, C, and E.

Any toxins produced by micro-organisms prior to irradiation will remain unaffected and still have the potential to adversely affect any animals that ingest food where they’re present. In the hands of an unscrupulous manufacturer (or one just trying to make an extra buck) irradiation could be used to disguise spoiled food. As irradiation leaves no visible presence, a food with high bacterial load can be rendered more or less sterile, yet it could still pose a hazard as the process kills the bacteria that cause spoiled foods to smell or look bad, leaving us with none of the usual indicators of inedible food.

Water Content.

What exactly are you spending your money on why you purchase frozen food? The chances are, especially with cheaper foods, that you are buying some very expensive water! So although a food might appear inexpensive, in reality you may actually be paying more for the small amount of usable food in the pack than if you were buying a quality food at a higher pack price.
(See the article in Coral vol.1 no. 1, where Daniel Knop suggested defrosting the same volume, of a number of different frozen foods, to appraise what you get for your money)

Quality foods such as P. E. Mysis and Cyclop-Eeze FreezerBar are great examples of foods where you’re not wasting your money by buying water.

Integrity.

When I use the term integrity in connection with frozen food I’m using it as a measure of how intact the frozen organism remains. This is something to be concerned at for a couple of reasons.
Animals that hunt by sight, in particular seahorses, track their prey visually before ingesting it. These animals need to be reassured that the item in question is actually a tasty food item, so a frozen item that remains intact with antennae, legs and eyes still attached where they should be, will be more readily taken – this can be something of a life or death issue with some of the more picky eaters our there.

This is one of the factors making P. E. Mysis the food of choice for American seahorse keepers.

I consider it important to stick with frozen foods that retain integrity when feeding in a reef. When feeding a frozen food, usually crustacean based, if the carapace remains unbroken there is little risk of polluting the tank, any item that’s missed at feeding time will remain inert until something comes along to eat it (usually not that long in a decent reef). Contrast this with foods that are all broken up, they leach nutrients into the water as soon as they enter the tank and anything remaining uneaten at feeding time will be a source of pollution until it’s eventually devoured.

Note! When feeding, you want all the nutrients to remain encapsulated within the food item so that they go where they’re needed – into your reef animal’s gut – and not into the water, where the phosphates and nitrates will be available to fuel all those pest algae and bio films that we don’t want!

Lipids, Antioxidants, and Colourants.

These are a few of the little extras you get in the better foods. Depending on what food you’re feeding, certain organisms can deliver higher or lower levels of lipids or differing percentages of the various fatty acids such as DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid).

Omega-3 fatty acids are a source of lipids; these are compounds that provide twice the energy of protein on a weight for weight basis. If you’ve ever read the label on the fish food you buy you may have come across references to HUFAs (highly unsaturated fatty acids), well that’s what omega-3 fatty acids are. They are the most important source of lipids for marine fishes, but due to the difficulty of processing these compounds they are often deficient in dry foods.

Carotenoids are pigments that give colour to animals and plants, but unlike plants animals can’t manufacture them and must obtain them from their diet. These carotenoid pigments come in a number of forms; for example the main ones in Cyclop-eeze are astaxanthin, a pink pigment, and canthaxanthin, a red pigment, so increased colouration is most likely to be seen in animals that naturally express these colours. But there is more to astaxanthin than colour. Over the last few years, research has shown that it has an important role to play in growth rates, respiration, protection from UV radiation, tolerance to stress, and may help boost the immune system.

Frozen Foods Hints and Tips.

Keep your frozen food in a sealed container to avoid it drying out (freezer burn) or oxidising; this will also prevent unpleasantness when other family members discover what you keep in the freezer!

Avoid frozen foods being repeatedly frozen then thawed. This will rupture the cell structure allowing nutrients to leak out into the water. This applies to our frozen Aquaculture Grade Phytoplankton as well as the more usual frozen foods.

Don’t buy single packs or small quantities of frozen food via the internet. It’s virtually impossible to expect small quantities, especially single packs, to survive posting without thawing. This is why Midland Reefs doesn’t sell any frozen foods unless they’re bought in bulk.
Support your local retailer by purchasing your frozen food from them.

Most frozen products will have “best by” or “use by” dates, pay attention to these and never buy out of date food.

It’s a false economy to buy larger packs of food just ‘cos it’s cheaper in bulk. As soon as you open a pack of food it will start deteriorating, certain vitamins will start to break down resulting in food of poor nutritional quality. Only buy the amount of food your animals will go through in a reasonable time.

Although many of us may mix together a number of different foods in a quantity of tank water to enable us to feed the reef, corals, and fishes all in one operation, don’t leave this mixture for any length of time before using. When feeding using this method, just allow enough time for the frozen food to become defrosted then use the mixture straight a way. Any defrosted food mixture will quickly become contaminated by bacteria from the environment, which will rapidly multiply, the longer the food is left unused.

And lastly, if you take your entire pack of frozen food out and carry it over to your aquarium at feeding time – Don’t forget to put it back in the freezer!!!

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2007

Reef Ramblings, February 2007.

Welcome to the first of the new web based Reef Ramblings.
It’s been an interesting past few weeks down on the old coral farm. Lots of things have been going on during February including, unusually for me, getting out and about in the UK visiting shops and public aquariums.
Having recently been asked to take on the distribution of DT’s plankton farm products by Dennis Tangrin it was then really cool to be asked to take on distribution of Hydor to the specialist marine market. I’ve done a bit of consultation in the past with Valerio Bresolin, the president of Hydor who’s also the engineer behind the design of their product range. Shortly we’ll be putting details of the new Hydor marine products up on the site, this includes the Koralia range of 4 “Stream” style pumps, and the Performer range consisting of six protein skimmers to suit tanks from 450 Litres up to 4000 Litres along with a range of 3 CO2 calcium reactors.

Expect to hear more on Hydor products in the weeks and months to come.

Up North.

Jon, the Midland Reefs sales manager, took me up to Tyneside to visit a couple of shops stocking our products. If you live up that way it’s definitely worth looking out for Marine Life, up at Whitley Bay, and Cyber Aquatics in Gateshead. Both shops have a nice selection of corals available.

While we were up that way I took the opportunity to take a look at one of the public aquariums that Midland Reefs supplies – Blue Reef Aquarium Tynemouth. We’ve recently started supplying them with P.E. Mysis and they’re really pleased with the result. Whereas previously their pot-bellied seahorses weren’t that pot-bellied and appeared to be miscarrying, they’re now all nice and plump and are producing healthy fry. If you keep seahorses I’d definitely recommend trying this frozen mysis shrimp. It’s used in 90% of the public aquariums in North America and is the favourite food of American seahorse keepers. Check out www.oceanrider.com, they’ve been raving about this food for years. This is the only frozen food I’ve ever seen my Banggai cardinals chase down and take from the substrate!

Down South.

The following week saw us travelling south to attend an open evening at Tropical Paradise, Eastleigh, near Southampton. Richard and his team put on a great event, I got the chance to meet people I’d previously only spoken to over the phone and to extol the future of reef lighting – LED lighting, Richard’s customers went home happy with lots of bargain corals and discounted products including DT’s live phyto and DT’s Oyster Eggs.

A Digression on the Subject of Seminars and Open Days.

Given the disappointing turn out for the last two full blown seminars in the UK, Instant Ocean at Leicester and D&D at Birmingham, both a couple of years back now, it’s unlikely that we’ll see anything like that again for some time. On both occasions a company tried to give something back to the hobby by organising a day of talks, bringing in well-known speakers from the States and Europe to give presentations. Neither event attracted more than around one hundred and fifty attendees leaving both companies questioning the wisdom of spending thousands of pounds when UK aquarists can’t seem to be bothered to travel any distance to benefit from the occasion. Everyone who attended will have learnt from these events and enjoyed being in the company of like-minded aquarists but just not enough people turned out to make them viable.

Contrast this to the events I attend in the US, Germany, Italy, France, etc. where people travel great distances to attend a show or conference, shelling out for a hotel room for a couple of nights. Everyone has a great time catching up with friends they may not have seen since the previous year’s event and, of course, talking non-stop fish and reefs for a couple of days (often in the bar for some reason …) Heck, I love these events and wish aquarists would come together in the UK to share this sort of experience.

What we do seem to have though is the growing popularity of the shop open day / evening. Perhaps this sort of event is more suited to the way aquarists think in the UK, if so I’d like to encourage the idea and get more shops participating. Last year Team Midland Reefs (Tim and Jon) attended Andy Caine’s open day at Aqua World. This year we’ve just done the Tropical Paradise event, we’ll be attending the Coral Garden Aquatics (CGA) open day at the end of April where I’ll be giving a presentation, and Andy tells me he’ll be arranging another one later in the year (date to be announced).

So what makes up a successful open day? An open day can perhaps do in the UK what a conference does in other countries only on a local level (… a local event for local people …). It benefits the shop’s customers, rewarding them for shopping there regularly, it attracts potential new customers to the shop and shows that the shop may have more commitment to the hobby than just relieving the customer of hard earned cash. Customers get the opportunity to pick up a few bargains in the way of discounted products from distributors such as Midland Reefs, they get the chance to talk with representatives who have an in depth knowledge of their products and who can advise on correct application and help sort out any difficulties the customer may have experienced, perhaps in setting up an item of equipment or in the day to day operation of an item. And, if there’re presentations on the agenda, people will leave at the end of the day knowing a little bit more about their hobby, hopefully increasing their chances of long term success.

If you’re a shop owner (or perhaps a club) or you if think you can persuade your local marine specialist shop to put on an open day, please get in contact. We’ll be more than happy to turn up (calendar allowing) especially if there’s an information/education element to the event and you’d like a presentation on some aspect of the hobby.

Remember:

The key to success in this hobby is knowledge, not fancy gadgets or “Instant Reef Success”TM in a bottle!

Meanwhile, Still Down South …

Whilst we were down that way we went to see another of our public aquarium customers, the Bournemouth Oceanarium. We’ve recently sorted this aquarium out with BLV Ushio lamps for use on their coral displays. The intention is to update the existing coral displays so we spent some time discussing how they could be best improved. This is a compact aquarium that’s really nicely themed as you move through from exhibit to exhibit. Well worth a visit if you’re down this way. With a bit of luck one of my photos of their Moray Eels may soon be gracing the front cover of Tropical Fish.

Phone Calls.

Of late I seem to have had a spate of phone calls asking for info about mud systems. It certainly does seem to becoming an increasingly popular way of running a reef tank. I’m currently running two EcoSystem mud systems at the moment, one is my grow out system for frags and juvenile fishes, the other is on a mish-mash of a tank that contains a number of assorted anemones plus a lot of Briarium species, Star polyps, that spawn fairly regularly. I’ve not had any settlement that I can be certain of from these soft corals and they remain on my list of research to dos, there’s so much going on at the moment that it’s difficult to find time for everything.

I had an unexpected surprise last Tuesday morning when I received a phone call from Ian Tomlinson. Ian was one of the lucky winners in the competiton to win a Mini MoonBright that we’d recently run in Tropical Fish magazine. It was really nice to get a phone call out of the blue thanking us for the prize he’d won. Ian doesn’t have a marine tank, he keeps Discus and he’s hoping the addition of a moon light will increase his success with breeding and raising his fishes. It’s a good reminder that the moonlight has an application beyond marines, especially when it comes to breeding as many freshwater species link their breeding cycles to those of the moon, and of course in preventing skittish fishes from panicking when the lights go out.

Tip of the Month.

During our recent travels, in one of the shops we visited, I noticed a coral display tank containing racking that had the supports fabricated out of plumbing piping. On closer observation I saw that there didn’t appear to be any “ventilation” to the pipe work. On talking with one of the guys in the shop it became apparent that there’d been some sort of ongoing problem with this tank that they’d not been able to sort out. Although making supports for racking or rockwork with food safe plumbing pipe work is an easy, albeit slightly expensive, solution you do need to ensure that a certain amount of water can flow through the assembly. If the water inside the pipe remains static there is a possibility of stagnation, which has been implicated in tank problems in the States. To get over this problem just drill a few 6 mm holes at intervals along the rack, taking care to ensure you leave no points where gas could accumulate. We’re not talking about trying to get an active flow of water through the framework; we’re just trying to prevent the interior becoming anoxic to forestall conditions such as a build up of Hydrogen Sulphide, so by having plenty of “ventilation” holes it’ll allow the ingress of various critters that will help facilitate some level of water exchange.

If you’d like to comment on anything in Reef Ramblings please email: reeframblings@midlandreefs.co.uk.

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2007