Kaizen Media Blog

Goby in the corals March 2010

Goby November 2009

Kaizen Reef name: Goby One Kenobi (aka Goby or Gobster)
Common name: Green clown goby, coral goby, warpaint goby
Scientific name: Gobiodon atrangulatus

Physical description: small, green with purple spotted lines and purple stripes

Diet: When acclimatizing to the tank he only ate the small critters off the rocks. After about 3-4 weeks he started eating frozen brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and krill and also loves flake foods as well.

Important dates:
11/14/09: Added to the tank

Personal notes: He likes to perch in the rocks. We have not seen him eat the main fish food yet but he looks healthy so we are assuming he is eating the live creatures off the rocks.
Update Took this fish longer than others to acclimatize to our system. We added some corals to the area he favours and he now spends a lot of time in the corals (he is after all a coral goby).

Kaizen Reef name: one, two, three, four, five
Common name: Black turbo snails, zebra turbo snails
Scientific name: Turbo fluctuosa

Physical description: Top shaped shell, black with yellow stripes.

Diet: algae

Important dates:
11/14/09: 11 added to the tank

Anemone in February 2010

Anemone in February 2010

Anemone in February 2010

Anemone in September 2009

Kaizen Reef name: Miss Anemone (pronounced Miss Any Money)
Common name: Sabae Anemone
Scientific name: Heteractis Crispa

Physical description: Wow, she is a beauty. White-light-green coloured tentacles with purple tips. She has changed her appearance many times by taking on different shapes. Glance too long and she’ll have you mesmerized in her trance.

Diet: Meat. We feed her a piece of silverside or tiger shrimp 2-3 times per week and she gets a lot of pieces of food from the other fish; frozen mysis, brineshrimp, krill.

Important dates:
9/13/09: Added to the tank
2/20/10: Removed from tank, returned to fish store for store credit (grew too large for our 38 gallon tank)

Personal notes: It has been very hard to figure out what species of anemone we have because there is a lot of varying and contradictory information available. If we have classed it properly this anemone would be better suited for the Percula clownfish. Our common clownfish have not yet bonded with it and may not. A better choice of anemone for the common clown would be: Entacmaea quadricolor, H. magnifica, stichodactyla gigantea, s. mertensi. Information taken from Clownfishes and Sea Anemones by John H. Tullock. We really hope the clownfish will bond with their anemone as they get older.
Update Our anemone grew too large for our 38 gallon tank and we returned her to the store for store credit. We put off taking her out for many months but didn’t want to risk her getting unhealthy and dying in our tank. Our clownfish never bonded with their anemone.

Mallory our Ocellaris Clownfish February 2010

Mallory our Juvenile Ocellaris Clownfish 11/21/09

Mallory our baby Ocellaris Clownfish 9/15/09

Kaizen Reef name: Mallory
Common name: Common Clownfish
Scientific name: Amphiprion Ocellaris

Physical description: This is the most popular clownfish because it has absolutely stunning colours and markings. Main colour is bright orange with three black-lined white strips. Their dorsal fin, anal fin, pectoral fins, pelvic fins and caudal fin are black. Babies and juveniles are mostly orange and the strips and markings grow in as they become adults.

Diet: Meaty foods. Ours have eaten everything we have fed: frozen brineshrimp, mysis shrimp, tiger shrimp, silverside, Spirulina flakes, krill.

Important dates:
9/13/09: Added to the tank

Personal notes: It has been great watching Mickey and Mallory grow in their colours and markings as we have had them since they were babies. The have the best personalities, very friendly, curious and peaceful. They are great eaters and get along with everyone else in the tank.

Mickey our Ocellaris Clownfish February 2010

Mickey our Juvenile Ocellaris Clownfish 11/21/09

Mickey our baby Ocellaris Clownfish 9/15/09

Kaizen Reef name: Mickey
Common name: Common Clownfish
Scientific name: Amphiprion Ocellaris

Physical description: This is the most popular clownfish because it has absolutely stunning colours and markings. Main colour is bright orange with three black-lined white strips. Their dorsal fin, anal fin, pectoral fins, pelvic fins and caudal fin are black. Babies and juveniles are mostly orange and the strips and markings grow in as they become adults.

Diet: Meaty foods. Ours have eaten everything we have fed: frozen brineshrimp, mysis shrimp, tiger shrimp, silverside, Spirulina flakes, krill.

Important dates:
9/13/09: Added to the tank

Personal notes: It has been great watching Mickey and Mallory grow in their colours and markings as we have had them since they were babies. The have the best personalities, very friendly, curious and peaceful. They are great eaters and get along with everyone else in the tank.

Kaizen Reef name: Engelberga
Common name: Astrea Snail
Scientific name: Astraea Tecta

Physical description: Cone shaped shell, when it hides it can cover the shell opening with its foot. When it is cleaning the inside of the glass you can often see its eyes, sucker and antenna.

Diet: Algae.

Important dates:
9/13/09: Add to the tank

Personal notes: Engelberga was one of the two Astrea snails we added to our tank at the same time, she was named Engelberga because Louis II of Spain’s wife was named Engelberga. The two seemed to be doing really well as they were very active. After Louis II died she kind of moped around until we added another batch of snails (11 black turbo snails). Since then she is thriving again exploring the whole tank, cleaning the glass and is much more active. She may have been lonely being the only snail in the tank.

Kaizen Reef name: Louis II
Common name: Astrea Snail
Scientific name: Astraea Tecta

Physical description: Cone shaped shell, when it hides it can cover the shell opening with its foot. When it is cleaning the inside of the glass you can often see its eyes, sucker and antenna.

Diet: Algae.

Important dates:
9/13/09: Add to the tank
10/4/09: Died (hermit crabs starting eating him and then the serpent starfish devoured him in one ‘bite’.

Personal notes: Louis II was a great addition to the tank when he was put in with the other Asrea snail Engelberga, he explored a lot of the tank and cleaned the glass. He started acting differently, not moving around, just staying in one place for a few weeks before he died. Louis II is our first reef death.

Sand Sifting Starfish Climbing Aquarium Glass

Sand Sifting Starfish Sifting Substrate

CAUTION IS ADVISED WHEN DECIDING TO ADD A SAND SIFTING STARFISH TO YOUR AQUARIUM

There is a lot of contradicting information on these sea stars on the internet. The LFS recommended one for us to clean up our substrate and we felt it was doing a great job. We did minimal research when we brought it home and found it listed as easy to care for and suitable for our set up. NOT the case!

The poor starfish starved to death in our tank which upon further research it turns out that this is actually very common for this species. They also eat the beneficial food in your substrate, so if you have a smaller tank like ours (38 gallon) then the beneficial food doesn’t have time to replicate for it.

Check out these links on Wet Web Media for more detailed information:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marsiftfaqs.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/sndsftstrfaqs.htm
Find more results on wet web media by going to the bottom of their home page to the search box and select www.WetWebMedia.com.

A trait we found so endearing about our starfish is when he would climb the glass and then jump down and turn over. It is very possible that this behaviour was a sign of him starving and looking “outside the box” for more food sources.

Kaizen Reef name: Sir Sneaky “Starfish”
Common name: Sand Sifting Starfish
Scientific name: Astropecten Polycanthus

Physical description: Our sand sifting starfish has a reptile, scale kind of pattern of different shades of brown.

Diet: A variety of foods and detritus it cleans out of the substrate. Our substrate had a lot of algae growth and the LFS recommended getting this starfish to help keep it clean, he does an amazing job keeping the substrate in pristine condition.

Important dates:
9/13/09: Added to tank

Personal notes: Before we upgraded our lighting this starfish would climb up the side of the aquarium and then when he got to the top he would jump down. Sometimes he did this multiple times in a row and we always interpreted it as him ‘playing’ while he was taking a break from his cleaning work. Now he has a much bigger mess to clean up with higher output lighting (more algae growth) and more fish waste so we assume that is why he doesn’t have time to ‘play’ anymore.

Featuring Meshell our scarlet red legged hermit crab upgrading to a larger shell.

Our juvenile yellow wrasse buries in the substrate at night and sleeps there until the morning.