[Ninong]

The tank is now seven months old. I haven't had time yet to figure out why my pictures on Reefland vanished when the software was upgraded but I figured I would go ahead and post a current update anyway.

Back on Dec. 17, 2003 I received a gorgeous pair of Cirrhilabrus scottorum from The Marine Center. Unfortunately the supermale did not survive the shipping stress. The Marine Center promised to replace him with one from their next shipment or give me a refund. I requested a replacement.

It took about three weeks for them to get a new shipment in and another week or two to acclimate them prior to shipping them out to customers. In the meantime I was beginning to wonder if perhaps it might not be safer to ask for another female slightly smaller than my present one instead of getting a new male. I was concerned because it looked like my female had put on some weight and possibly grown about half an inch since I received her. I don't think there was any doubt that she appeared to be a mature female when compared to the larger and more intensely colored supermale who didn't make it. But now I began to worry that if the new male was not quite as large as the other one, I might have a problem on my hands.

I even thought about getting two females, both about an inch smaller than my present female, so that the resident female could change to male and I would have a trio. But then when the phone call finally came telling me that the new Australian Scott's were almost finished acclimating I decided to go ahead and let them pick out the nicest supermale from that batch. I even discussed getting another female. I couldn't make up my mind. I told Randy I would call him back in a couple of days to let him know what else I wanted shipped at the same time as my replacement supermale Scott's.

Now this is where there was a serious malfunction in my reasoning processes. Somehow I got to talking to him about his new batch of gorgeous Australian Cirrhilabrus lineatus fairy wrasses. For a few minutes there I was thinking about getting the replacement supermale Scott's plus another female Scott's plus a female Lineatus. Somehow I managed to switch from that idea to the idea that maybe I could keep a pair of Scott's and a pair of Lineatus in my little 120-gallon tank. This was NOT a good idea. In fact, it was an extremely BAD idea. In retrospect, I should have asked for two female Scott's both smaller than my present female. That would have been the safest way to go and I knew it but I am sorry to say I didn't do the right thing.

I asked for a replacement supermale Scott's as large as they could find plus a pair of Cirrhilabrus lineatus. This shipment arrived on Jan. 23rd., exactly five weeks after the first shipment. The fish were extremely well packed, as usual, in gigantic bags. The female Lineatus was in about 2 gallons of water and each of the supermales was in about 3 gallons of water. It was a very large and very heavy box. The female Lineatus was alert and swimming around in the shipping bag but both supermales were on their sides. This time I was determined not to panic and just do an extremely long and slow acclimation. All of the larger specimens of Cirrhilabrus spp. fairy wrasses are extremely sensitive to shipping stress.

I floated the unopened bags for a full hour in my tank with the lights out before opening the bags and beginning a very long acclimation. I had to remove about seven gallons of tankwater to allow for the displacement. After six hours total acclimation, I removed the female Lineatus and released her into the tank. She immediately swam off into the rock structure. I waited longer on the supermale Lineatus because I didn't want to take any chances. I had already removed half the bag water twice, all the while adding about a cup of tankwater every 10 minutes or so over a seven hour period (8 hours total acclimation counting the hour floating in the unopened bag). A cup of water may sound like a lot but it's not much when you're adding it to a bag with 3 gallons of water.

The supermale Lineatus was a truly spectacular specimen. His body coloration was mostly purplish. I was shocked when I added him to the tank to see him drift to the bottom sand bed and remain in the same spot unmoving for about 15 minutes. He had seemed alert in the bag. Finally he swam off into the caves in the rock structure.

I was so shaken by the experience releasing the supermale Lineatus into the tank that I delayed the release of the supermale Scott's until 10:30 p.m. that night. He got a full 9-1/2 hours of acclimation. He seemed alert and swam off into the central cave as soon as he hit the water. I felt a lot better about his chances.

The next morning at 8:00 a.m. the actinics came on. At 8:05 a.m. all hell broke loose in the tank. The resident female Scott's was chasing the new male Scott's all over the place, into and out of the rock structure and under the rock structure. Sand was being stirred up through the entire water column. This high-speed chase lasted a full ten minutes. It seemed like an eternity. The new male was weak from shipping stress and the female was able to outswim him and she was constantly biting him on the top of his head and his dorsal fin. Finally the male wedged himself into a narrow crevice in the rocks where his head and most of his body was protected.

This was a very traumatic experience and I was consumed with feelings of guilt as I realized that it was my fault that this was happening. And this was only the beginning. My "female" Scott's was just getting warmed up. A couple of hours later the supermale Lineatus made a brief appearance and she took off after him. This was a very brief chase that lasted no more than a minute. I believe he wedged himself under a large piece of rock at the left rear of the tank just beneath the Lockline return line. That was the last I saw of the supermale Lineatus.

While all of this was taking place, the new female Lineatus was keeping a low profile. I saw her moving around in the tank but she was being careful to avoid the female Scott's. Later in the day the female Scott's would begin the first of what would turn out to be almost non-stop chases after the female Lineatus. By that time the female Lineatus had fully recovered from the shipping stress and she was easily able to outswim the female Scott's and being much smaller than the female Scott's, she could go into holes too small for the female Scott's to follow.

The male Scott's made a second attempt to swim around in the tank later that same afternoon and the second high-speed chase lasted perhaps two minutes at the most. This time he wedged himself under some live rock at the right side of the tank where I could easily see him. He was in a sand foxhole with rock above him and sand all around him. The "female" Scott's displayed in front of where he was hiding. She would erect her fins and do a little back and forth jig for two or three seconds and then swim off. She returned to his hiding spot every minute or two for the rest of the day doing her little dominatrix imitation.

The following morning the male Scott's made his third and last attempt at swimming around in the tank. His last for the next 10 days. This high-speed chase lasted no more than 30 seconds and ended when the male retreated to his foxhole. He remained there without leaving that spot for the first seven days. He enlarged the foxhole so that it was about 10" across. This did not present any problems for the live rock in the tank because it all rests on acrylic supports beneath the sand.

During this period, I deliberately fed the tank very heavily with Cyclop-Eeze, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp and bloodworms. Things that I knew would drift all over the tank and into his cavern. He refused to eat. He wouldn't eat even when I positioned food within an inch of his mouth. The "female" continued to assert her dominance and even ventured into his cavern from time to time. It was difficult to see what was going on. In fact, I couldn't see what was going on. On the seventh day the male Scott's ventured out about three or four inches to grab some food. This was the first time that he ate anything that I am aware of. He was able to get away with this because I was deliberately feeding the female at the other end of the tank to keep her busy. Whenever she saw him out of his foxhole, she would rush over there and he would immediately retreat; but at least he was eating at last.

The female Lineatus was still being chased by the female Scott's but the female Scott's could never actually catch the female Lineatus. These chases gradually became more and more infrequent and less intense. After about a week they were reduced to ritualistic feints instead of an actual chase. Every now and then the female Scott's will make out like she's going to chase the female Lineatus and the Lineatus will make a high-speed U-turn but that's about it. I think the female Scott's has finally realized that she can't catch the female Lineatus.

Somewhere around Day 4 or Day 5 following the arrival of my three new wrasses, my nitrates zoomed up. I had been testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate twice a day starting around the third day to try to determine if the supermale Lineatus was still alive or not. I never did get any detectable ammonia but my nitrite reading went to 0.1 ppm compared to the usual 0.05 ppm and my nitrates went from the usual 1 or 2 ppm all the way up to 25-50 ppm. Let's call it 40 ppm. The next test that same afternoon came in at exactly 25 ppm and then the following morning's test was down to a clear 10 ppm. I measured 10 ppm nitrate for two or three days before it dropped to 5 ppm and now I'm down to 2 ppm.

During the afternoon of the 11th. day I noticed that the male Scott's was swimming around freely in the tank. I first noticed this around 4:30 p.m. and I fed the tank twice in the next two hours to see what would happen. The "female" Scott's ignored him just as she ignores the female Lineatus when she's busy eating. The situation from that point on has been that the "female" Scott's is the dominant fairy wrasse in the tank. If she makes a move, both of the other two wrasses -- the male Scott's and the female Lineatus -- yield to her and high tail it out of there; but the female Scott's is content that they recognize that she's the boss and usually she does not actually chase them.

Once the male Scott's started swimming freely in the tank I was able to get a good look at him. For the first 11 days I only got brief glimpses. He appears to be about the same length as the "female" Scott's, maybe a tiny bit longer, but she may be a little heavier. His coloration is obviously more intense than hers. His body coloration is deeper and his caudal fin is redder -- hers is more of a red-orange. His dorsal fin was mostly dark blue. I say mostly because the female chewed a lot of the blue off. He has bite marks all around his dorsal fin and the top of his head and the front half of his dorsal fin has been chewed down. The rear half of his dorsal fin is shredded and his anal fin has some damage. There is no damage to his caudal fin, his pectoral fins or his pelvic fins. His pelvic fins are slightly longer than hers and they have a brighter dark blue leading edge. The first supermale Scott's had really long pelvic fins but the first supermale Scott's was about 5.5" long. My best guess is that my new male Scott's is approximately 4.75" long and my "female" Scott's is approximately 4.5" long.

The female Scott's still has the mostly bright orange dorsal fin typical of Australian variant females. Maybe she has a little bit more dark blue in her dorsal fin now than when I first got her but that could be just my imagination. I guess it's possible that as a mature female she began the process of changing to male in the absence of a dominant male influence during the five weeks she was in my tank without any other fairy wrasses. I am relatively sure that the new guy is a male and that he is incapable of reverting to female. I would love to see him assert himself so that the sex change process that may still be taking place in the resident "female" can be halted and reversed but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. At this point it would appear that the worst is over. At least I hope so. But I'm not sure if the pecking order will change or not.



Full tank shot taken this afternoon. The "female" Scott's is on the left, the new male Scott's is on the right.





The male Scott's is on the left, the female Scott's is on the right and the female Lineatus is at the top of the picture. She is about 3" long.




Again the male is on the left and the female is on the right. You can see that the rear half of his dorsal fin is all dark blue. He has dark blue running the full length of his dorsal fin but a lot of it was chewed off. You can see that he has more intense body coloration than the "female."




Female Lineatus and male Scott's. The female Lineatus is a gorgeous fish. I wish I was good with the camera, obviously I'm not. The male Lineatus was spectacular and his body was more of a purple color.




I have a few more frags in the tank now. I don't remember if I mentioned it before, probably not, but I got three new clams from Clams Direct. Another crocea, an ultra maxima and a little gold maxima.




Another shot of the female Lineatus. I still have that nuisance red algae. My Foxface Rabbitfish nibbles on it but that just keeps it down, it doesn't stop it from spreading.




The blue maxima on the left is new, as is the crocea on the far right. In this shot you can see the ragged edge on the front half of the male Scott's dorsal fin.




Don't get confused. That's Primus, my Foxface Rabbitfish, behind the female Scott's. My orange Montipora capricornis discolored when my nitrates shot up. I hope it recovers.




Full tank shot from the corner. There is a green cap frag on the sand bed that I have to get rid of. I'll probably trade it in for credit or something. It came to me by mistake in a frag order. There is a new little pink open brain in the left front corner that you can barely see in this picture.




My new ultra max is my new favorite clam. I think the blue streak a little lower down must be Comus. He photographs blue when he's in the shade.


That's about it for now. Hopefully my wrasse situation will work itself out in spite of my stupidity. Yes, I have seen four and five species of fairy wrasses, including more than one pair, in the same tank but those were large tanks, much larger than mine. I should have known better. I wouldn't recommend more than one male Cirrhilabrus species wrasse unless your tank is at least 300 gallons.