The following list contains websites that sell corals.
Article Written
By Elizabeth M. Lukan 3/20/99
Adopting a technique used in wind tunnels, water tunnels, etc., that
he learned in high school science, Mike figured out a way to
see where high and low current areas are in your newly setup tank. Fill
your tank with clean, freshwater, turn on all your pumps and powerheads and
put in a few drops of food color. The color should swirl around the
tank showing where and how the water will flow. This can be repeated as
many times as you need until you get the flow just the way you want it.
Then, just empty the tank, rinse out any residual color spots, add your
saltwater, rock, etc. and begin your cycling of the tank.
Mike doesn't think the food color would affect live rock, but I
wouldn't want to take the chance personally. And, it would mean running
the test with saltwater and then doing a complete water change. It's your
call. If you wanted to try it, I'd definitely recommend adding carbon to
your filter system to completely remove the food color and any discoloration it
caused. But this would definitely work well with ornamentation only or
base rock. One plus to running this test with rock or ornamentation in the
tank is that the addition of rock or ornamentation definitely affect
water flow.
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Banded
Coral Shrimp
By Elizabeth M. Lukan 3/22/99
General Information:
The Banded Coral Shrimp is possibly the most popular and readily
available shrimp in the saltwater hobby.
In nature, it is found worldwide in all tropical seas in waters
ranging from low tide to about 30 meters/100 feet.
It is a very hardy and aggressive shrimp. It is
best suited for fish-only aquaria with large inhabitants.
All the shrimp in this genus have large claws in the position
of their first pair of legs. These claws are quite impressive and give a
very ferocious appearance, but they are usually only for display
or threat.
This shrimp is also commonly called the Coral Banded Shrimp and a lot of
times just CBS in the online world.
Scientific Name &
Information:
Stenopus hispidus
They are of the Stenopodidae Family.
Home Aquaria:
Shrimp in general should be considered very delicate when it
comes to adding them to your tank. They cannot handle sudden changes
in salinity, pH, or
temperature. So, when introducing your shrimp into the tank, slowly drip
your tank water into a bucket (or other container) with the bag from the
fish store carefully dumped into it, until you have tripled the
original volume of water that came in with the shrimp.
Remember, if shrimp cannot handle sudden changes in salinity, pH, or
temperature when first added to your tank and you take all the time and effort
mentioned above to get the shrimp in the tank, the same would be
true once they are in the tank - you've got to maintain a stable
environment.
Banded Coral Shrimp may be shy when first added to the tank, but
will become less secretive in a short time. These shrimps will more
easily adapt to their new home and come out of hiding even sooner if they
are added as a pair.
Although sometimes sold as cleaner shrimp, the Banded Coral Shrimp tend to
only clean larger fish, and only in the wild and usually while the fish is
asleep. In the home aquaria, they will be more inclined to catch
and eat smaller fish than they will be to perform cleaner
duties. Sick fish are especially easy game and a lot of fish
disappearances are eventually credited to the Banded Coral Shrimp. Not
even hermits are safe as hobbyists have reported their Banded Coral Shrimps
catching and pulling hermits out of their shells.
Although a lot of hobbyists keep these shrimps in reef tanks, I would
recommend against it. These shrimps can destroy corals and
anemones by ripping them open in order to get at ingested food.
Banded Coral Shrimps will not generally tolerate another of their own kind,
unless they are a mated pair. You may get lucky if you put an unmated male
and female together as they may form a pair, but it is a chance. Usually,
when two unpaired Banded Coral Shrimps met, one is left legless and dies shortly
after.
Banded Coral Shrimp do not usually get along with other shrimp either.
Many hobbyists have reported that the Banded Coral Shrimp have killed other
shrimp, especially true cleaner shrimps, the Scarlet/Redline Shrimp (Lysmata
amboinensis or L. grabhami) and Blood/Fire Shrimp (L. debelius).
Banded Coral Shrimps should not be kept in the same tank with an Arrow Crab
(Stenorhynchus seticornis) as they will fight.
Foods & Feeding:
Shrimps in general are great scavengers and will
be useful in helping keep the tank free of stray food, the Banded
Coral Shrimp is no exception to this. Since it is a scavenger, these
shrimps may not need to be fed directly. They will usually eat
food dropped by fish, but, if your fish consume most of the food
before it makes it to the bottom of the tank, some extra food should be given to
the shrimp after the fishes have been fed. Or, since most shrimps are
nocturnal, shrimp specific feeding could be done at
night.
Shrimps will readily accept most frozen and dried foods. But,
remember, if you are feeding the shrimp specifically, foods that float may not
be the best to offer. Finding a food that will sink may be best for
actually getting food down to the shrimp without overfeeding the tank.
For aquarists with gravel beds (sand, live or otherwise, etc.), a
small and harmless bristleworm can be a useful creature to assist in
keeping the gravel bed clean, but they tend to multiply
quite rapidly. If you find this population
explosion unsightly, it can be held in check with the addition
of a pair of Banded Coral Shrimp.
Molting:
The Banded Coral Shrimp will molt on a
regular basis. As with all molting creatures, the shrimp will
be very vulnerable before, during, and immediately after they molt.
Prior to molting, a shrimp will usually not eat for a couple of days, may
not clean it's exoskeleton, and may spend most
of it's time in hiding. Diatoms growing on
the exoskeleton of your shrimp may indicate that it is not cleaning itself and a
molt is imminent. After molting, their new exoskeleton will be very
soft. The molting process is a very dangerous time for the shrimp and
death is a possibility.
Although it raises some disagreements among hobbyists, an iodide supplement
should be added to your tank if you wish to keep these shrimps or any molting
animal for that matter. Recognized hobby leaders such as Albert Thiel
and Craig Bingman recommend this.
Reproduction:
Most shrimp are hermaphroditic, being both male and female for at
least some stage of their lives. They cannot self-fertilize and
because of their exoskeleton, it is only possible for the female to
become pregnant right after a molt. The drive to find a
mate and bear young adds yet another danger to the molting process.
Regardless of the added danger, they will breed easily.
If nitrates are higher than five to ten part per million,
breeding may be discouraged, however.
A purple underside is an indication of a female Banded Coral Shrimp, but
this may not be definite. During my research for this article, I came
across another article by Nathan Cope who stated he had a mated pair
of these shrimps who both had purple undersides. It is much easier to sex
these shrimps if you can find them when the female is fertile, as she will have
green gonads clearly visible through her
exoskeleton.
Banded Coral Shrimps are thought to mate for life and may live
for five or six years with one partner.
Cost:
Store: From $12 to $15.
Three stores were checked in Queens, New York for prices.
Online:
US Dollars: Approximately $6 based on two online sites'
prices.
Canadian Dollars: From $12 to $22 based on
two online sites' prices.
This shrimp is usually readily available through local fish stores and
via online services.
Photo Credits:
The first (filename cbsrk2.jpg) picture was obtained from the
Simplified Reef Keeping website (http://www.connix.com/~reefkeep/ (url dead 8/24/04)).
Simplified Reef Keeping is a book by Robert M. Metelsky. Thanks go to
Robert M. Metelsky for granting permission to use the image in this
article. Robert was also kind enough to remove the Shoreline Resources
Copyright which appears on the website's copy of the image. Removing that
copyright made the picture just that much more impressive. Thanks,
Robert!
The second (filename cbshm.jpg) was obtained from the Harspen
Marine Fish website (http://hosting.soonet.ca/harspen/
(site gone, updated 10/02/05)).
Thanks go to Kris Hartman for granting permission to use this equally beautiful
photo in this article.
What the ... ?
By Elizabeth M.
Lukan 3/22/99
DIATOM - A diatom is any of a class of microscopic one-celled algae having
walls of silica consisting of two interlocking valves. In the home
aquarium, a diatom usually appears as a golden brown algae forming sheets
or films on the rocks and glass often with oxygen bubbles tangled in
them. You can control the growth of diatom algae by
limiting nutrients through purification of make-up water, combined
with herbivores eating the diatoms, and mechanical filters trapping their fecal
pellets.
EXOSKELETON - An exoskeleton is a hard outer structure, such as the shell
of an insect or crustacean, that provides protection or support for the
organism.
GONADS - Gonads are an organ in animals that produce gametes (a
reproductive cell like sperm or an egg) such as a testis or
ovary.
MOLT - Molting is the periodic shedding of an outer covering,
such as feathers or skin, for replacement by new growth.
NOCTURNAL - A nocturnal animal is one most active at night.
pH - pH is the measure of the concentration of hydrogen and hydroxide
ions. If the hydroxide ion is in greater abundance in a solution, the
solution is alkaline or basic. If the hydrogen ion is more abundant, the
solution is acidic. Values of pH range from 0 to 14.
SALINITY - Salinity is the measure of the quantity of dissolved solids
in water and is used to measure the strength of a seawater
solution. Full strength seawater has a salinity of about 35 parts per
thousand.
Prove It!
By Elizabeth M.
Lukan 3/22/99
Ace Pet Shop, 135-17 Northern Blvd., Flushing, New York, USA (718)
359-3336
The American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition, Copyright 1994 by Houghton
Mifflin Company
Harspen Marine Fish, http://hosting.soonet.ca/harspen/
(site gone, updated 10/02/05)
Invert-ual Realities Canada, http://www.interlog.com/~invertca/irc.htm (url dead 8/24/04)
Paradise Aquarium, 66-16 Fresh Pond Road, Ridgewood, New York, USA (718)
366-6921
The Reef Aquarium Volume One by J. Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung, First
Printing July 1994, Published by Ricordea Publishing
Reefers, http://www.acropora.com (url dead 10/03/05)
Reef Life Inc., http://www.connix.com/~reefkeep/reeflife.htm (url dead 8/24/04)
Shrimp for the Tropical Marine Aquarium by Nathan Cope, August 1997, http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~nathan/ (url dead 06/17/08)
Simplified Reef Keeping, http://www.connix.com/~reefkeep/ (url dead 8/24/04)
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General Information:
Comments:
Ian would like to extend his thanks to Chris
Paris (aka Cap) and Steve Wolfe (aka NerveGas) for all their assistance in
getting the survey going.