Quiet Tempest

I recently bought a 75g tank and wanted to get some suggestions for lighting. I'm leaning towards T5HO because I've been running T5s on my 46 gallon bowfront reef and am familiar with them but I'm open to suggestions. I intend to keep only soft corals, zoas, LPS, and was considering a bubble tip anemone after the tank has matured.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Just out of curiosity...

I was wondering who had breeding projects planned for the upcoming breeding season(s). What species and morphs will you be working with? What are you hoping to produce?

I've got Eastern tent caterpillars en masse outside in my gardens. Assuming that these are free of pesticides because I don't use chemical pesticides in my garden, would it be a safe meal item for a leo gecko? I know these are a natural prey item of birds and lizards in the area, but I think that the hairs would irritate the lining of a gecko's stomach. I just wanted your input. Have any of you collected food for your geckos?

Before anyone asks, no, I've not fed these or any other wild caught insects/worms to my animals and don't intend to. I was just curious.

I have a finicky 3 year old. My daughter adamantly refuses to try anything outside of her dozen or so food favorites and I refuse to play short-order cook in the kitchen. I would like to hear more input from moms and dads who implement the "No, thank you bites"/"Polite bites" rules at mealtimes.

Can anyone tell me if there is a one-stop listing for all the reptile shows and expos in a given area? I've googled for specific reptile shows that I've been to in the past and gotten schedule info that way, but I'd really like to find the dates for shows I'm not already familiar with and attend any within a day's driving distance.

I've been keeping soft and LPS corals, mushrooms, zoanthids, and palythoas in my tank for quite some time now with no major issues to speak of. Occasionally when I've reworked the aquascape or done any work in the tank that could stir up sediment and aggravate the corals, I may see mucous expelled. I'm not concerned about that and know that it's normal. What I'm curious about is a particular frag. When I work in the tank I have come to expect to see a coral or two with a string of mucous being sloughed off, but occassionally I see the same mucous coming from the skeletal head of a candy cane frag I thought had died a year or so ago.

Now my question is this. Is it really dead? I've heard some people say that corals like this can come back to live after years of being thought gone forever. Others say that once a coral has diminished to the point of disappearing completely, there is no coming back. I had accepted the fact that I'd bought an already bleaching frag and couldn't save it.

Which online source would you say is the *best* and why?

I've got a 2.5 inch cinnamon clownfish and would like to have a pair. Originally, I bought two but lost one of them about three years ago and never bought a replacement. Now I've been thinking about upgrading to a larger tank and getting a second clown after I move everyone into the new tank, but I wasn't sure if I should aim for a clown of similar size or one considerably smaller? I know cinnamons (my cinnamon, certainly) can be fairly aggressive so I don't want to chance losing the potential mate. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

What do you think?

Does anyone know why a Petsmart store would be housing one goldfish in each and every one of their display units housing community tropicals? I thought it was a simple stocking error when I was at Petsmart yesterday and noticed a common goldfish swimming around with some guppies, but then I noticed one with dwarf gouramis and one with neon tetras... every unit had an individual goldfish inside.

Am I missing something? What would be the purpose behind this? Wouldn't it encourage novice fish keepers to disregard incompatibilities and try this arrangement in their own tanks?

I have a 135 gallon tank housing one adult and two sub-adult black and gold jungle carpet pythons and have used red cypress bedding for the past few years with no complaint.. However, now that I'm going to be buying some new bedding in the next week or so, I was wondering if there was a better choice (buy) available.

What substrate(s) do you use? What do you like/dislike about them?

Okay, I understand that all clownfish are born male. The dominant male in a group will typically change its gender to female in order to mate with the next dominant male.

My question is, can a female clown revert back to a male gender or is it a fixed change?

While I was at the mall earlier today, I noticed a kiosk with lots of bamboo plants. I was looking for a nice gift plant so I walked over to take a look. When I got there, I saw that these were actually tiny tanks (less than a gallon each) each holding multicolored gravel, a bamboo shoot and a pair of African dwarf frogs. Frogs weren't the only things kept this way. I also saw two of the containers with a pair of sulking tiger barbs and a few containers with bettas. There were no heaters, no filters, no light, no nothing. The huge banner over the kiosk read "No Hassle! No filter needed!". I was just dumbfounded by it all. I suppose their logic is that because there is a plant in the water, the fish/frog kept doesn't need a filter.

Is this the new thing this year? Have you seen these things in your local shopping malls?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5InNVJ_Ythc

I just saw it while browsing videos on Youtube and thought this design was really interesting. Has anyone ever owned or seen something like this in person?

Everyone was a beginner once. I hear a lot of sob stories from newbies about how they screwed up this or that and some terribly unfortunate event took place because of their blunder(s).

So, fess up. Share your embarrassing fish tales and help those just getting into the hobby realize that mistakes do happen to everyone. Plus these will serve as reminders of what not to do for any beginners reading your answers.

What do you say or do when a partner/spouse is trying to maintain communication with someone they cheated on you with over a year ago?

My partner and I have been in a relationship for over 9 years now and have two children (7 month old and 3 year old). I found out I had been cheated on the same month I went into premature labor and gave birth to our son 6 weeks early. I was utterly crushed by his betrayal and have been working on restoring my trust in him. I made the stipulation at the time that if he was going to keep talking to the other girl, that I would take the kids and leave because I'm not going to stay in a relationship where my partner isn't in love with me and have my kids grow up thinking that it's okay for a father to be unfaithful or disrespectful to the mother.

Now I find out that he's been sending the girl messages online for the past couple of weeks and I want to bring bodily harm to both of them. Him, mostly. Am I overreacting? What would you do?

I realize cradlecap is nothing to worry about, but it's just so unsightly. What remedies have you used? What worked? Failed?

I just recently heard about some parents boycotting the book, movie, and merchandise because the author is an outspoken atheist.

I bought the trilogy a couple of weeks ago and am now about midway through the first book. I have to say, I think the book is charming. I can't say that the writing really appeals to me that much, but the story is fantastic so far. The trailers I've seen online look very promising and I think my kids will love it. I don't really see what all the fuss is about. Is this just another Harry Potter-esque witchhunt and bookburning mob? Or is there some real danger to children viewers in this story that I'm missing?

Are there really parents protesting Golden Compass?

I'm currently on Mirena and have no intentions of getting pregnant again anytime soon, but I was just wondering what the symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy were? How far along were you when you found out it was ectopic? What did you do?

What I mean is why do I keep hearing people say things along the lines of, "Oh, your fish will only grow to the size of your tank. It will be fine." to questions regarding goldfish and/or oscars. I've even seen remarks here that seem to suggest that fish remain in the sizes that they're purchased as well (small, medium, large).

Are fish store staff members becoming more careless when it comes to educating their customers about potential purchases or are new hobbyists just uncaring altogether and don't bother to educate themselves about their fish prior to buying them? I don't get it.

Additionally, where do you generally buy your fish/supplies, and do your salespeople know their stuff?

If so, where do you order from and were you satisfied with your purchase?

I am interested in buying some new corals for my tank, but I'm just not happy with the selection and prices in my local stores. I want to try ordering some specimens from an online dealer/retailer, but I'm hesitant because most of the sites I've looked at have high minimum orders or I'm afraid that what I see on the page may be entirely different in appearance from what will be shipped.

So, have you purchased fish, corals, liverock, inverts, etc. from an online source? Were you happy with your order? Were they shipped well?

I look forward to responses. Thanks in advance, guys.