Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse : Queenly Beauty Under The Indian Ocean

Here's a little information about a rare kind of aquarium fish - Bluestreak cleaner wrasse. Aquarium lovers will fall in love of the electric beauty of this fish. This is one of those immensely beautiful species of cleaner wrasse that are found on coral reefs in the Indian Ocean. Marine aquarists will surely love this wonderful fish.
  

Bluestreak cleaner wrasse
 Labroides dimidiatus

Family: Labridae (Wrasses)

Distribution: Indo-Pacific, Red Sea and East Africa to the Line, Marquesan, and Ducie islands, north to southern Japan, south to Lord Howe and Rapa islands.

Description: The Common Cleaner Wrasse is also known as the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Inhabits the coral rich areas of inner lagoons and sub tidal reef flats to seaward reefs and can grow up to 3.9 inches. The Common Cleaner Wrasse has different color patterns; some are dark in color with a silver stripe, while others are white with a dark band and a bright yellow spot at the tail. The Cleaner Wrasse is well known for its cleaning behavior, it establishes a cleaning station. A protogynous hermaphrodite Stays in these stations where other fish come to be cleaned of unwanted parasites and develops a symbiotic relationship with the other reef fish by cleaning them. The cleaner wrasses begin their lives as females of a group of 6-8 cleaner wrasses with one male, the rest are females or juveniles. The dominant female changes its sex when the male dies, an phenomenon known as sequential hermaphroditism. With a most intriguing dance these are amazingly beautiful specimen in an aquarium but like all other Cleaner Wrasse the sustainability in captivity is very less. This is a high maintenance fish. This fish has Medium resilience, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years

Environment: Cleaner Wrasse needs a tank of about 30 gallons or more with abundance of space to hide and swim. It relishes gravel or sand. Water quality should be high with 1.020-1.025, pH 8.1 - 8.4 and Temperature should preferably be 72 - 78° F.


Feeding: Common Cleaner Wrasse is a carnivore fish, it prefers diets consisting of chopped sea foods, brine shrimp, and live black worms. It should be fed at least three times a day.

Behavior: They are peaceful in nature. It usually swims singly, in pairs, and in groups. Some adults solitary and territorial

Compatibility: Cleaner wrasse develops a symbiotic relationship with the other tank mates. Kept together they develop compatibility with the tank inhabitants.

Blue-Spotted Grouper – Perfect Marine Fish for Your Dream Marine Aquarium

Hey, if you are planning to set up your dream marine tank… a gorgeous, large one, I have a fish for you! If you have a tank already, and facing certain odds that go with it, you might want to change the set up and the fishes. I’ll be talking about a beautiful fish - Blue Dot Grouper that you can try out. If you are thinking that you might be at a loss as to how to stock it, believe me it’s not a rocket science! With its real knockout glamor the Blue Dot Grouper will definitely fill the bill! The most common dilemma that most of the not-so-expert aquarists usually face regarding stocking Blue Dot Grouper is the size of tank! Remember, Blue Dot Grouper is really a large variety of fish and requires a large tank – minimum 100 gallon.

Also called Blue-spotted Grouper, Argus Grouper, Peacock Rockcod , Peacock Sea Bass or Peacock Hind, this beautiful marine aquarium fish is of Indo-Pacific and Hawaii origin and amongst the sturdy ornamental fishes that have earned a great deal of admiration by aquarists world wide. Being a sea bass from the family Serranidae, the Blue Dot Grouper primarily feeds on other small fishes in the wild, though it can be fed on crustaceans (krill, small fish, shrimp, mussels etc.) too in your aquarium. Feed at least two times a day with its preferred meaty food items. Remember, this most attractive member of the genus is a bit too aggressive by nature and its compatibility must be give careful consideration. Only one Blue Dot Grouper fish should be kept in a tank. Although this beautiful marine fish may appear a bit shy while introducing, it will soon prove to be one of the most beautiful, smart, disease resistant and personable member of your marine aquarium.

One of the most interesting facts about this wonderful marine fish is that it can change its body color to match with its surroundings. In its natural habitat, Blue Dot Grouper fish is usually seen around the coral reefs. Blue Dot Grouper fish has six white vertical stripes or bands, running along the length from the pectoral fin till the tail fin, adding spice to its beauty. Interestingly these white bands sometimes becomes prominent, while sometimes get faded off being contingent upon the fish’s surrounding environment and its reaction towards it. When threatened these vertical white bands seems to be faded off.

Blue Dot Grouper – Fast Facts

• Scientific names: Cephalopholis argus
• Origin: Indo-Pacific region.
• Taxonomy: Blue Dot Grouper fish belongs to the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Actinopterygii, Order Perciformes, Family Serranidae, Genus Cephalopholis and Species argus
• Fish Size: Approximately 16 inches on maturity.
• Tank Size: Minimum 100 gallon fish-only tank with ample space to move freely
• Color: Blue, Brown, Tan and Green colors with vibrant blue spots. The fins are dark Blue in color with its lighter, yet prominent shade outlining the fins.
• Aggression: Generally aggressive towards the other marine aquarium invertebrates in captivity.
• Compatibility: Blue Dot Grouper fish is moderately reef compatible. This aggressive marine fish can be kept with other aggressive and semi-aggressive tank mates like, Lionfish, Angelfish, Scorpion Fish, Marine Eels, Surgeons and Tangs.
• Light: Blue Dot Grouper appreciates moderately low illumination in the marine aquarium.
• Temperature of water: Water temperature should range between 72 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Specific gravity of water: 1.023 to 1.025.
• pH of water: 8.10 to 8.40.

Caution:

• Blue Dot Grouper is a large fishes and develops habit to dislodge the corals in your marine aquarium. It is hence advisable not to keep it in a Reef Type Marine Aquarium.
• Due to its large size and voluminous eater, Blue Dot Grouper usually leaves around lot of waste in the marine aquarium. You should be highly vigilant to keep your tank’s water perfectly clean by using very effective biological filter.

Keeping Piranha Fishes in Your Aqurium

If you are given a chance to take a refreshing dip into the cool Amazon basin to beat the summer heat, I am sure you will want to enjoy it to the fullest, unless you do not have to play the role of a chewing toy for a school of Piranha. The infamous piranha fish has a good deal of reputation of nibbling live or dead animals. Though this might sound a bit too awkward, but the fact is that a school Piranha can strip flesh off a full sized cow in just a few minutes. Truth be told… Piranha prefers to scavenge on dead animals, and if there's not an option like that, they'll surely move on to tales and scales of other mates in the vicinity.

My personal experience with just one Piranha in my tank had really been bad… probably the worst one, I could ever share! I had a medium-large tank, where I intended to keep a Piranha along with the other aggressive tank mates of Chiclids family, including two Tiger Oscars, one Red Oscar, two Albino Oscars and one gray-black spotted Plecostomus cat fish of around 6” - 7” long… none of them were full grown. I had to shift my Red Scatophagus argus and Green Argus to a separate salty tank. I still remember, it was Monday evening sometimes around mid Autumn, when I brought my long desired Piranha and released it with the Oscars. Let me hide and seek… I wasn’t really aware of the fact that Prinaha could eat up the world, until (the next morning) I found two of my Oscars head without the body and one of the Albinos was still live with its tail nibbled off! Strangely it did not harm my cat fish, which proved that Piranhas can be kept with Plecostomus cat fishes. The Piranha wasn’t a full grown one, but obviously a bit older than all of its other tank mates. I started digging more into the world of Piranha; never kept another, but collected some really researched information from varied sources, a bit of which, I thought, you guys would like to read about.

The piranha is a member of Characidae ( also called Characin) family. Characin is a large family of over around 1200 species of aggressive fishes, of which some have earned a great deal of admiration as very popular aquarium fishes, like all the common discuss and butterfly fishes. Although importing and trading Piranha is illegal in many states in the US, including the state of California, the law is not that stringent in other parts of the world. They are easily traded in many parts of the world. Amongst many varieties of Piranha fishes, the Red Belly Piranha (Pygocentrus Ntereri) is the most common as aquarium fishes. Reports of Piranhas nibbling people in their habitat to dead, has hardly been heard, but it will definitely bite your finger hard if you dip it in a tank of Piranhas. That happens probably because they turn out to be more aggressive in captivity.

Many of my peeps ask me if Piranhas can be kept with other fishes. Yes, but not with all kind of fishes, as the case holds good for many aggressive and semi-aggressive communal fishes too! I will recommend Piranhas with Plecostomus cat fishes, provided they (cat fishes) are not too small in size. Better not to release new Plecostomus cats in the tank full of Piranhas; rather you can release new Piranhas with already existing cats. You can keep Piranhas safely with large sized Green Spot Texas Cichlids, Wimple Piranha (which is not actually a true Piranha), large Red Belly Pacu and Black Pacu etc. Better to keep at least three Piranhas in a tank. Pacu mingles well Piranhas and thrive along well.