Areas

[lakers10]

i had a question i see how another member in another thread is setting up a Caribbean reef tank .. i was wondering what other area's are there to base your tank off of? and what fish are in those area's Thanx...

[BIGBIRD123]

The are a lot of areas...Tonga, Figi, Solomon,Vanuatu and Australia to name a few...it takes some research but the more you read, the more the options...

[Europhyllia]

why don't you start by thinking about what fish or coral you particularly like?
For example I really like gorgonians but they are a lot of work if you go with the non photosynthetic variety (feeding, water quality, etc.).
I also really wanted a jawfish. It just so happens that most photosynthetic gorgonians (easy to care for) and one kind of jawfish are from the Caribbean so I decided to look at more underwater pics and be inspired by it.
If you find your focus point coral or fish you can research more about it and build your system around it.
I bet an Australian Reef would be super colorful.

[BIGBIRD123]

I bet an Australian Reef would be super colorful.

...and expensive...

[Europhyllia]

That's what I was thinking but I wasn't going to say it. lol

See that's the nice thing about my Caribbean Reef. Stuff doesn't have to travel far. I can get huge gorgos for 20 bucks or less straight from the diver/collector. 500 bucks should pretty much fill that 215g tank. Or you can get one aussie acan colony for 500 for your Aussie reef. :D

[Mr Cob]

Reef biotopes:

We had a meeting on this and Brad gave MAAST a sideshow of it but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps a Board member will chime in with it's location. It was a very informative presentation and I know it inspired a lot of talk around here about building a tank to meet a specific biotope.

http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?56072-January-Meeting&highlight=biotopes (http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?56072-January-Meeting/page5&highlight=biotopes)

[Europhyllia]

Biotopes are tough. Takes a lot of discipline. I don't have it. lol
Area 'inspired' tanks are much easier. You get to keep your favorites. There's some compromise. :)

[lakers10]

Thanx everyone.. yea my tank is goin to be a 150 tall.. the fish i like mostly are many type of gobies and blenny's and a few tangs lol idk really never looked in too it i am goin to start pretty soon : )

[lakers10]

can some one point me in the right direction.I would like to know if there is a index of some sort for the aquarium life of great barrier reef or a some sort of australian biotope. like what specific fish live in those areas i know there huge but cant find a detailed list.

[Europhyllia]

Yeah I think it would be huge. How about a book?
I found some great used books for my Caribbean project and found them really helpful not only in showing me options as far as what species goes but also pictures of how things/corals/sponges are grouped together in nature.
The books I bought were guide books for divers meant to help them identify species encountered while diving. Doesn't include any info on aquarium care, etc. but gives you a great visual overview and starting point in your planning. Here are my books link (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=reef+identification+florida+caribbean+bah amas&x=11&y=19)

You could probably find something similar for Australia/Indo-Pacific on places like Amazon (they also offer lots of used books now)

You could also just go to places like LiveAquaria and type in australia as your search word and come up with lots of Australian critters.

The dive guides have been really fun though. I love them. I need to collect all of the ones in the Caribbean series. lol

[Europhyllia]

oh look. something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Indo-Pacific-Sea-Fishes-Northern-Australia/dp/094732528X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278900267&sr=1-5

[Europhyllia]

back again already. the author of that reef guide has a website with a huge photo database:
http://www.nevillecoleman.com.au/underwater-pictures/image-subgroups.aspx?ImgGroupId=5914

Enjoy!
other stuff besides fish:
http://www.nevillecoleman.com.au/underwater-pictures.aspx