Found a stray voltage issue, i was getting shocked badly any time i touched the tank. Especially on my middle finger where i had an open cut, never really thought about it though and assumed it was just the saltwater. It finally clicked when i realised it didn't happen in my othert saltwater tank. Tested with a multimeter and it detected 180 volts in the water. No wonder my grouper was so unhappy and also probably why my personifer and monocle died. Bought a ground probe and it's all fixed now. I've decided to shut down my other (first) tank as most of my shrimps and crabs which made it special have died over the past few months. I'll move a couple fish over and sell the rest. I moved my 5-6cm longfin bannerfish over today and it's doing well, i might also move my 6cm whitecheek tang, if i can catch it.
I also got a large purplemask angelfish the other day, it's been in an acclimation box so my coral beauty doesn't bash it. Eats like a champ though and isn't scared of me, and is absolutely stunning.
Got some more fish arriving later this week and next week too. Multibar angel (got a mature one for a bargain $250 aud), 7cm new guinea wrasse (kinda hate the name 'china pearl', considering they're not found in china and new guinea is also the species epithet), 7cm manybar goatfish (Parupeneus multifasciatus), 8cm stripey, and there's also a Pixy wrasse (Coris pictoides), christmas wrasse (Coris dorsomacula), Jungle perch (Kuhlia rupestris) and a skunk tilefish i'll probably order this week
. The jungle perch is particularly exciting. This is one of those unknown endemics i mentioned. I guess they're not endemic, they're found in some pacific islands too. But as the common name implies they're mostly a freshwater fish and are occasionally kept in the freshwater hobby. However as with a lot of australian natives, they're extremely adaptable. They are euryhaline and catadromous, adults migrate to the sea to spawn from streams in tropical north queensland and some population in the indo pacific live permanently in saltwater. The one i'm interested in is 10cm, most are sold as 5cm fingerlings as wild collection is illegal now. It's hard to find info on them but they seem to be semi-aggressive and obviously are very fast voracious predators. Just have to make sure nothing can fit in it's mouth, like a snapper. They might seem plain to some but i really like their spotted tails.
My plan is to release the purplemask at the same time as the multibar that's coming to split the aggression from my coral beauty. My floral maori wrasse has been doing super well since the tuskfish has been sumped and is probably my favourite fish in the tank. Him and my spanish hogfish swim next to eachother all day, they're like little puppies and they follow me around the room begging for food any time i'm in front of the tank too. He's also capable of flashing and changing colours super quickly. He's usually a mix of dark grey and brown shades with some stripes and the typical 'floral' pattern. He gets darker at feeding time, but he's at his nicest when he flashes my hogfish (flares gills, mouth and fins) for a cleaning. He turns a very light blue-grey, almost white while retaining the floral pattern and the blue in the centre of the tail fan. I've moved a bunch of rockwork from the old 5ft over, so the tank also looks a lot nicer now and hopefully that can 'reset' the tuskfish when i reintroduce him next week, i'd really hate to see the maori get bullied again. People say Cheilinus are semi-aggressive to full aggressive, but at least with C.chlororous, i think he's scared of my lennardi.
Sorry for the long write up, i'll upload some photos and videos of stuff when i have time. Unfortunately one of my hydra 3s just seemingly kicked the bucket. I heard a loud spark noise come from my power strip where everything is plugged in accompanied by a flash. Everything continued to work like normal except now one of my lights won't turn on at all, i think the power box thing died.
