Thanks Doug! I think I'm done with rabbitfish though. The whole reason I had been attracted to doliatus in the first place was that they're one of the smaller rabbitfish and even still I think mine had become larger than my sailfin tang. After getting used the to the look of these 8 small fish in there right now (2 clowns, the fairy wrasse, the 5 chromis) and seeing them dart in and out of the rocks like you might expect to see on a real reef (it's a neat effect, I should try for a video), putting this 7" or whatever he was rabbitfish in there felt like tossing a 10lb trout into a barrell. So even the small ones are just too dang big in the end. So I think until the day comes I get an even bigger tank (which aint gonna happen soon, if at all) I think I'm OK being done with them for the time being.

I still sorta think them nems is more dumb than evil but yeah either-or I guess, take your pick. The stupid thing is I'm still tempted to try another rose, I just like the look of them even if I can't really stand the clowns that go in them. I technically have two 3/4" sized roses in there somewhere, one is completely lost and untraceable in the rockwork (guess it will show up if it wants to some day) and another in a jar. They were both hidden right in the deepest of pits in the bottom of the rockwork in the 40g so yeah talk about antisocial. Bleached to heck and starved to tiny, at least the one in the jar seems to be staying put so I can attempt to feed it and reacclimate it to daylight but it's probably a tall order to hope anything successful will come of my efforts there but I might as well try. Stupid BTAs.

Well just caught up with whats been happening and really glad to see how things have turned out for you. Very nice Tony. I too love having a RBTA and just lost mine to a bad incident, had the thing for over 3 yrs so very upsetting. I had my true percs settle in it for most of the time.

Tank is looking good :biggrin: Sorry to hear the rabbit fish didn't work out :sad: Hope your carpet anemone behaves itself. I got lucky with my RBTA it barely moved from the spot I first put it in and it's doing really well in my tank. I think it helps that it was a rbta that had split and I bought it from a canreef member.

So, today I managed to find more basement floor (thanks again Eli!) and at the behest of Nathan, my 5 year old son, we moved over "his" starfish (a blue linckia). After getting the starfish on the drip, I thought ... well ... why not. Started pulling rock out, filled up 3 buckets and started chasing fish with nets.

I thought at first I might start with the angels and leave it at that for now. Then I thought ... oh whatever. I'm doing the tangs too. So another 10 minutes and had a bucket of angels, and a bucket of tangs. Started probing the sand since I didn't want to squish the canary wrasse and it's a good thing I did because I would have started stacking rocks back right on top of where he was hiding. So out he came too.

Staying for now are the eel, the butterflies, and the trigger. The trigger will join her friends in about a week's time - since she is the most aggressive and the fastest swimmer, she needs to go in last so that the others have a chance to settle in. I don't really anticipate problems mind you but it just seems better to do it this way for some reason. Eel and butterflies will be getting a new home and I picked up their new tank on Saturday - I'm totally stoked on that and will be starting a new thread for that in the coming days hopefully. It's a 65g tank with a black acrylic background and external overflow, 10mm glass with polished edges. No starfire glass but that's OK probably since it will be a basic FOWLR for the most part.

It was terrible to catch 7 fish to get them out of a tank, but putting 7 fish INTO a tank worked out better than I could have hoped for. They all know each other from before so the dynamics are 100% the same as before but just in a slightly different setting. They all quickly found places to hide and then gradually started venturing out to explore.

What a long journey it's been! But look! All the fish are in but one!

Here's a 10 second video I took about a half hour after they were all in:
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...h_MVI_1793.jpg

And a couple random photos:
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1797.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1798.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1799.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1800.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1801.jpg

The male bellus mooning the camera:
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1802.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1803.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1804.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1806.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1805.jpg


Also picked up some acan frags from CoralMaster (thanks again Greg!!!) and a blue zoo frag. Not sure where to put the blue zoos so for now they are on a rock near the bottom, under an overhang.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1794.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1795.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1796.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/IMG_1811.jpg

Thanks for looking! :)

Coming along nicely there Tony. Where will you put the rumphella?

Very nice collection of fish Tony. They must be so happy...that sailfin especially is so deserving of a big tank to show off all his sexiness.

I'm so in love with my blue zoas. They're all open and getting even more colourful.

Dooooo loooove those zoas Tony.....and the cans are pretty dang sweet too!:biggrin:

Looks great Tony, bet the fish are happy with all the extra space :biggrin:

Looking good Tony. Fish look Great! Happy fish make for happy Reefers! Is the new tank going to be plumbed into the big tank or on its own?

Nice Tony! Will have to make it over sometime and see it in person. :biggrin: