beeguiles
they call me fish geek ;p
Wow that is one bad urchin!
Fishy's 10g Urchin Jail
- Thread starter FishyReef
- Start date
chichimom79
reef junkie
*shakes finger at urchin* Bad Urchin!
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
I found another snail in its mouth this morning... and this is after feeding it a nice sized piece of frozen krill last night that it readily grabbed and stuffed in its mouth. Is eating live snails normal behavior for an urchin?
Also off to the store today to hopefully get my first fish for this tank - I've decided on a purple firefish, so fingers crossed that one of the stores I go to has one in stock!
Also off to the store today to hopefully get my first fish for this tank - I've decided on a purple firefish, so fingers crossed that one of the stores I go to has one in stock!
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
Acclimating my new purple firefish!!!!!!
Look at who decided to hitch a ride to the bag while it was floating LOL
And here she is, hiding behind a rock by the heater in her new home :)
I haven't named her yet, so suggestions are welcome :)
I'm also excited to report that I found a cute little clip-on LED light for my 'fuge - still need to do some work to get it set up, so will post pics of it once it's complete!!
Look at who decided to hitch a ride to the bag while it was floating LOL
And here she is, hiding behind a rock by the heater in her new home :)
I haven't named her yet, so suggestions are welcome :)
I'm also excited to report that I found a cute little clip-on LED light for my 'fuge - still need to do some work to get it set up, so will post pics of it once it's complete!!
chichimom79
reef junkie
Cute Fishy!! Name her Doris :)
Samhain
Satin, Lace, and Sequins
So bizarre that your purple pincushion decided to nom your corals! Mine hasn't done anything worse than pick up my frags and tote them around the tank. Looks like you're gonna have a purple-themed tank though. May I suggest calling your new fish Violet? Now you just need to work on growing some purple coralline!
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
Thanks Angie & Samhain! She is pretty darn cute, I just wish she'd come out from behind the rock. I fed her some mysis last night and made sure some landed near her but I didn't see her go for it and it probably got gobbled up by the snails. How many days w/o eating before I should start worrying about her? And as far as names go, I think I'm going to take Samhain's suggestion and go with Violet! My step-grandmother's name is Doris, and somehow this fish just doesn't remind me of her lol. And yeah, definitely can't wait for purple coralline to grow, right now all I can seem to grow is diatoms ;)
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
I did my first water change last night (levels have been fine up this point, but went ahead and did the change since adding a fish and feeding more). Now my tank is super cloudy, even a day later. I added the water back in via a 1/4 inch siphon hose from the mixing bucket to the tank, so not a lot of sand would have been stirred up. I did top off with a few glassfuls of RO/DI that could have stirred up sand, but it hasn't in the past. If it just sand particles floating around, how long will it take to settle? If not, any ideas what I can do to help clear the water?
Oh, and Violet is out and about all the time now! I'll post new pics of her in the next few days :)
Oh, and Violet is out and about all the time now! I'll post new pics of her in the next few days :)
little_fish
Moderator
It might be because you have that sugar fine sand
chichimom79
reef junkie
Glad to hear Violet has grown to like her new home :) Hope the cloudiness is just the sand and not an algae bloom. Keep us posted :)
Samhain
Satin, Lace, and Sequins
Glad you're enjoying Violet! Sucks about the cloudiness, but hopefully it clears up soon.
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
Meet Livvy, my Blue & Gold blenny! (Also known as a blue-head combtooth blenny, or Ecsenius Lividanalis). Unlike other esc. blennies, she doesn't have the typical eyelashes - which is a little strange... I wish she had them, they are so cute!
chichimom79
reef junkie
What a cutie! You know I love blennies <3
little_fish
Moderator
Adorable!
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
Time for a very long overdue update on this tank - and a request for brainstorming!
This tank has been through a lot since May - mostly summarized here: https://www.livingreefs.com/fishyreefs-10-gallon-contest-tank-t41670.html Cliff notes version is that I added a Par38 bulb, traded in the urchin, added coral and several inverts, had a minor tank crash from the death of a poorly shipped brittlestar, then had a major tank crash resulting from an aggressive bacterial infection that wiped out all of my fish, tried to save my last fish by treating the tank with maracyn and maracyn II, which wrecked havoc on my corals, and tank then sat fallow for two months.
I finally decided it was time to bring this tank back from its despair and tenatively added a captive bred clownfish a week ago. The LFS told me I could use him to verify whether my water was okay again and could return him in a few weeks if all went well. So far so good, Tango is settling in and hasn't (yet) exhibited any signs of bacterial infection. If I can get him past the two week mark I am going to presume the problematic bacteria has died off and my tank will be good to go again. I'm optomistic :) I've also grown kind of attached to this little guy so he might be staying in my tank - just means I'll really need to rethink my stock list.
Corals are in major need of help. My duncan is the only coral that seems to be happy. The pipe organ partially died off, but the part that didn't seems to be slowly improving. I have a few zoas that have either shruken considerably or haven't opened - the blue hornets haven't opened in a good 2 1/2 months but haven't melted away, and I added a new frag of magicians that never really opened in this tank (though the mother colony they came from is doing fabulously in my 90g). I have a trachy brain coral that has lost considerable tissue around the rim. I dipped it in coral rx and it looked better for a few days, then showed another huge chunk of tissue loss on the opposite side a few days later. I want to save this coral but just can't figure out the problem with it. My orange scolly is hanging in but has receded a lot. Also dipped it and it seems to be holding. Finally have a small favia that doesn't look great but has never really looked great in this tank. Everything else died.
I've thought for a long time that this tank was getting too much light with the Par38 bulb and had the light mounted a good 3ft off the tank. But I recently borrowed a par meter and found that at my sand bed the meter was only reading 11, and at the surface it was only reading 19. Now, I don't entirely trust the meter because it also gave pretty low readings in my 90g, and Northstar suggested that Par meters don't do a good job of reading the blue spectrum lights (which this par38 bulb is heavy on), so I don't really feel confident in the number. But, I did go ahead and move the light closer, about 2ft above the tank now. I still feel like my corals respond negatively to the light but am really at a loss at this point as to what to do. Tango also hides in the shadows a lot but comes out swimming when the light goes out, again suggesting to me that the light is too bright. I dunno, any advice on this one?
Inverts are good in this tank - sexy shrimp are growing, pompom crab is still around, and snails are going strong, even my baby nassarius snails :) I also shined a light under a rock tonight to get a good look at my pompom crab and discovered that my long lost pink dwarf feather duster is still alive and happy with its crown out - that was quite the surprise!
The other big issue right now beside my un-thriving coral is that I think I picked up colonial hydroids along the way. I've thought they were mini feather dusters, but looking again at pictures of hydroids I now think that's what they are - which really bites :( They are white in color, and also on a rock in my 90g (big :( ) I know these are virtually impossible to get rid of. Is there anything that is a predator of them?
Okay, that's it for now - no pics, the tank just isn't worth photographing in its current sad state. If anyone has advice on my corals, lighting, or the hydroids, I'm all ears :)
This tank has been through a lot since May - mostly summarized here: https://www.livingreefs.com/fishyreefs-10-gallon-contest-tank-t41670.html Cliff notes version is that I added a Par38 bulb, traded in the urchin, added coral and several inverts, had a minor tank crash from the death of a poorly shipped brittlestar, then had a major tank crash resulting from an aggressive bacterial infection that wiped out all of my fish, tried to save my last fish by treating the tank with maracyn and maracyn II, which wrecked havoc on my corals, and tank then sat fallow for two months.
I finally decided it was time to bring this tank back from its despair and tenatively added a captive bred clownfish a week ago. The LFS told me I could use him to verify whether my water was okay again and could return him in a few weeks if all went well. So far so good, Tango is settling in and hasn't (yet) exhibited any signs of bacterial infection. If I can get him past the two week mark I am going to presume the problematic bacteria has died off and my tank will be good to go again. I'm optomistic :) I've also grown kind of attached to this little guy so he might be staying in my tank - just means I'll really need to rethink my stock list.
Corals are in major need of help. My duncan is the only coral that seems to be happy. The pipe organ partially died off, but the part that didn't seems to be slowly improving. I have a few zoas that have either shruken considerably or haven't opened - the blue hornets haven't opened in a good 2 1/2 months but haven't melted away, and I added a new frag of magicians that never really opened in this tank (though the mother colony they came from is doing fabulously in my 90g). I have a trachy brain coral that has lost considerable tissue around the rim. I dipped it in coral rx and it looked better for a few days, then showed another huge chunk of tissue loss on the opposite side a few days later. I want to save this coral but just can't figure out the problem with it. My orange scolly is hanging in but has receded a lot. Also dipped it and it seems to be holding. Finally have a small favia that doesn't look great but has never really looked great in this tank. Everything else died.
I've thought for a long time that this tank was getting too much light with the Par38 bulb and had the light mounted a good 3ft off the tank. But I recently borrowed a par meter and found that at my sand bed the meter was only reading 11, and at the surface it was only reading 19. Now, I don't entirely trust the meter because it also gave pretty low readings in my 90g, and Northstar suggested that Par meters don't do a good job of reading the blue spectrum lights (which this par38 bulb is heavy on), so I don't really feel confident in the number. But, I did go ahead and move the light closer, about 2ft above the tank now. I still feel like my corals respond negatively to the light but am really at a loss at this point as to what to do. Tango also hides in the shadows a lot but comes out swimming when the light goes out, again suggesting to me that the light is too bright. I dunno, any advice on this one?
Inverts are good in this tank - sexy shrimp are growing, pompom crab is still around, and snails are going strong, even my baby nassarius snails :) I also shined a light under a rock tonight to get a good look at my pompom crab and discovered that my long lost pink dwarf feather duster is still alive and happy with its crown out - that was quite the surprise!
The other big issue right now beside my un-thriving coral is that I think I picked up colonial hydroids along the way. I've thought they were mini feather dusters, but looking again at pictures of hydroids I now think that's what they are - which really bites :( They are white in color, and also on a rock in my 90g (big :( ) I know these are virtually impossible to get rid of. Is there anything that is a predator of them?
Okay, that's it for now - no pics, the tank just isn't worth photographing in its current sad state. If anyone has advice on my corals, lighting, or the hydroids, I'm all ears :)
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chichimom79
reef junkie
What kind of clownfish did you get? I want pics woman!
I wish I had some advice for you. I am sorry about all of your losses, and I am glad you are bringing it back. Seems like I heard of some success killing colonial hydroids with the Aiptasia-x. I may be wrong.
I wish I had some advice for you. I am sorry about all of your losses, and I am glad you are bringing it back. Seems like I heard of some success killing colonial hydroids with the Aiptasia-x. I may be wrong.
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
Thanks Angie!
Tango is a cute little standard occelaris from Sustainable Aquatics. He's about an inch to inch and a half right now. I'll try to get some pics tonight of him :)
I've got some aiptasia x at home so maybe I'll try that and see what happens on the hydroids.
Tango is a cute little standard occelaris from Sustainable Aquatics. He's about an inch to inch and a half right now. I'll try to get some pics tonight of him :)
I've got some aiptasia x at home so maybe I'll try that and see what happens on the hydroids.
Kelz88
Got Reef?
Only luck i had with those damn hydroids was taking the rock out of the tank :( Tried gluing them, aiptasia x'ing them, boiling them and taking a propane torch to them... with no luck. Hopefully yours are a little weaker :(
Ted
Living one day at a time
I never had them (knock on wood) but did you try sun drying the rock?
Kelz88
Got Reef?
Its out in the yard now, i really dont want to put it back in the tank tbh. Those things will long outlive humans lol. It was a softball sized rock so i just said eff it.
