[fishlette]

BigC, on Jul 12 2007, 01:29 AM, said:

Quote

Great Barrier Reef.. You lucky so and so . Thats on my *things to ss before I die* list

We went last year to GBR and it is totally amazing. Even saw a clownfish hosting an anemone. mega.
We are just an ordinary joe bloggs family and are not blessed in a monetary sense, so we had to scrimp and save for such trips. But I tell you if there ever comes a point in your life whereby you get the opportunity to go to Australia and visit GBR then grab it with both hands.
This is where we stayed for a couple of nights.
http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/
Good to see the tank is comming along nicely even though six numbers on a saturday night would help.
I'm following the thread daily.
Regards
BigC

definitely a nice place to visit. i live only a short drive from the bottom tip of the reef and everytime you go there it blows you away pity global warming is taking such a toll on the reef

This post has been edited by fishlette: 28 July 2007 - 10:51 PM

[fishlette]

littleme1969, on Jul 29 2007, 06:59 AM, said:

Just goes to show you how pics can be deseptive..
The common clown is the one that has been clinging to life all week. Finally took some frozen brine shrimp today thank goodness, after only managing to get live baby shrimp down him all week. he never ate a thing for 3 days. I got them sent up from london by courier as the shop thats nearest to us (40 miles away) never has much in as far as marine goes. The little clowns mate died within half hour of me putting him in the tank. I bought the tomato clown the next day from the above mentioned shop with the scooter blenny. They got on fine at first and the little common clown picked up a bit, but after a few hours the tomato, aware that the common was not so good started to pick on him Thinking that the common clown was unlikly to live anyhow I put it in the 8 gallon and have spent all week trying to coax him to eat
The tomato clown arrived in great health , photos are a bit strange as the fish is mental!!!..lol it wont keep still for a second and when it sees the camera it either head butts the glass or hides behind a rock, thats why I only have 2 rubbish pics..lol Hes a stunning little fish if not mentally challenged Eats tonnes now after spitting everthing out for the first 3 days. The Blenny is just fantastic, so cute and cheeky, hes always eyeballing me through the glass to see what I'm upto. He was quite thin when he came but hes eating well and seems to be putting on weight .

As for the tank its running great, no test issues what so ever, no evaporation problems either. Keeps a steady temp never above 82 even when its hot outside and the lights have been on for hours, I also have a back up built in fan if it does get a little hot. I just bought 2 30" tanks, one is for another plec holding tank and the other will be an upgrade for the marine Just need to sort out overtank lighting which I'm working on:)

The corals are also a bit of a stress, one keeps trying to open and the hermits jump on it...lol so it goes back in grrrrgrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

might be an idea to move your frags somewhere less accessible to the crabs. i havent found a prob with mine but most of my corals are all up, out of reach of the bottom and all the crabs stay at the bottom

[BigC]

Quote

100 tanks.. my god where did you put them all ?

I have had 3 fish-houses to date at different locations (house moving) each one more elaborate than the last. The last one was 10'x8' timber I built from scratch (not prefab) I had three teirs running all the way around and a bank of tanks in a centre island. I also incorporated a large pond, constructed by making a reinforced plywood box, decked it out internally with 1" polystyrene and lined with a light blue pond liner (for visual purposes) this I used for rearing semi adult fish to maturity.
As to rearing BS, this is an art in itself and to be honest is very time consuming not to mention the space needed. Thats not to say it cant be done.
http://www.brineshri...hrimp-c119.html
If I could make a suggestion. Years ago when I was A member of Bradford and District Aquarist Society, we used to get our adult Brineshrimp from Yorkshire Brineshrimp Supplies. Now in the eighties earliy nineties the owner had his boom years cornered a niche market and flourished, then, if my memory serves correctly something happened to the water supply and things went bad and he seemed to dissapear from the secne for a while, to the dismay of both breeders and LFS collectively. It was a big thing in fishy circles losing such a reliable source. But anyway he seems to be up and running again and advertises in the Aquarist Classifieds
I know this is an old link but I contacted him late last year and got a response so give him a try and see if he can help you out. If you do let's know how you get on.
I have posted the link below.
http://www.aquarist-...ail52_29646.php
Incidentally you have to feed BBS as soon after hatching as possible, they loose their quality quite quickly and are not as good nutritionally after a day or so.
I hope this was of some help to you,
Regards
BigC

Quote

definitely a nice place to visit. i live only a short drive from the bottom tip of the reef and everytime you go there it blows you away

Your sure are blessed with such beautiful surroundings, We are booked to come over again next March and on the Iteinery is to visit GBR and to bob into a certain fish and pet epourium in Brisbane. Se you then
Regards
BigC

This post has been edited by BigC: 29 July 2007 - 07:07 AM

[Joshy]

Any more pictures and updates littleme?

[littleme1969]

Thanks for the info Big C. I gave it a go but decided it was too much like hard work so have stuck to hatching and feeding to fish over a few days, the fish enjoy them just as much, even though they do look a little bog eyed trying to see and catch them

Time for an update..
Well the tank and fish are all ok. Water perameters are all stable with no issues to date. I have noticed both hair algae and red slime algae on my filter outlet. I think this just goes to show what a fantastic job the clean up crew do, as there is non anywhere else in the tank where they can reach. I take the filter outlet off and place it in the tank and the hermits totally pick it clean within a few hours, even the red slime algae..amazing I have been putting a little extra food in for them as it is obvious by how clean the tank is that they could do with a little extra.
I also bought some pods for my sump as I hadnt seen any in the tank. With a little plankton feeding they are now breeding on mass and my scooter blenny is having a great time picking them off the rocks and sand. Hes looking really well at the moment, crossed fingers it stays that way.
Tomato Clown is a real fruit loop hes taken to attacking anything that gets near or on his corner under the powerhead. Even the smallest piece of spaghetti algae stuck to the powerhead inlet gets him in a rage and he can spend 20 mins picking it off swimming round the front of the tank and dropping it, only for it to be blown right back round by the current.. lol On the not so good side he has also started attacking some of my soft corals So with that and the issue of my other clown to think of and his nasty little habit Ive decided to get rid of him.
Common Clown for some reason has just developed the dreaded white spot He was looking so well too and now this. Anyway I caught it quick and treated him within 12hrs of seeing it so hes on the mend again. Hes so cute.. he swims like a mad thing when he sees the feeding tube go in and sucks the food right out of the end..lol Looking forward to getting him in the big tank when the other clown has gone.

Upgrades..
Well I took the plunge, bought a bigger tank, 100w overtank lumanaire ..lol I just need to get a large sump type filter for my live rock rubble etc and some new sand and I'm ready to go at the begining of september when hubby goes to collect my tank I'll also get another 5kg of live rock too to fill it out a bit, though the reef bones that are in with the common clown have already seeded really well with coraline algae and look pretty good so i'll be using them too.

Corals..
Ive bought a few soft corals too , god these things work out expensive even just buying frags Luckily though all have survived being posted and most are growing really well despite my rubbish lighting.

Pics and Vids..
Tomato Clown
Scooter Blenny
Bristle worm & scooter
Shrimp














All of my hermits have now shed and upgraded to larger shells, also the shrimp has shed twice too.
Its amazing, you dont realise just how much has grown on the rock until you look back at the pics. The tank has just reached 4 weeks at time of these pics

This post has been edited by littleme1969: 13 August 2007 - 12:07 AM

[fishheaded]

Wow littleme how did you get such great pics of your clown?! My pics always turn out so blurry whenever i try and take a pic of my fish

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, great tank and fantastic camera work

[littleme1969]

Thanks for the comments guys much appreciated
Pics.. I have a SLR Marco/Supper Marcro camera, goes down to 1cm Though the glass has to be spotless or all you get is a pic od dirty glass..lol I probably get about 5 good usable shots out of ever 50 I take but as its digital its easy to check and dump the rubbish.

I was doing a little searching on Youtube and foun this fab little vid on a breeding pair of scooters
Scooter coutship
I think when I ugrade I may and try and find mine a Mrs Blenny

[chrissaysyes]

Your tank is looking awesome! Some of these pics are amaaazing. I want that camera

[littleme1969]

Thankyou for the lovely comment, but I upgraded my tank about 3 weeks ago Its now a 25g with 17kg LR good mix of corals and I'm just adding my new fish at the mo to finish it off. All went like clockwork too *TOUCHES WOOD* no deaths or ammonia at all in the new tank amazing
Big Update with lots of pics comming soon

[fishheaded]

littleme1969, on Sep 6 2007, 02:50 PM, said:

Thankyou for the lovely comment, but I upgraded my tank about 3 weeks ago Its now a 25g with 17kg LR good mix of corals and I'm just adding my new fish at the mo to finish it off. All went like clockwork too *TOUCHES WOOD* no deaths or ammonia at all in the new tank amazing
Big Update with lots of pics comming soon

Your tank is looking great!
Cant wait for the updated pics!

[littleme1969]

Well its been one seriously busy month been run off my feet trying to squeeze everything in, and the added issue of the tank upgrade was a headache that I enjoyed grately
I intended to the upgrade with a 2.5' tank that was being picked up at the begining of this month, but decided I would use a 3ft 25g that I had as I just managed to sell some of my breeding plecs and got £100 for 2 pairs lol so that paid for a bit of the upgrade.
Problem was I had to strip down the old tank to move it as the new tank was going in the same place This tok the best part of a day. Moving everything into buckets/large containers while I set the new tank up. I did expect to loose either coral or fish but luckily this was not the case.
I moved the old tank inc sand onto a stand at the other end of the room and set it running agin with new filter floss etc and put thefish and corals back in there overnight to give the new tank time to settle and stablise temp salinity etc.
The new tank had another 22lbs of live sand added and an initial 5Kg of live rock making approx 13kg of rock altogether with the stuff from the old tank. I dint get much in the way of hitchikers in the second 5kg batch just a startfish and another bristle worm.
Fish where added back 24hrs later with the corals once |I was sure the temp was stable and s.g. was good. Everythig settled well with no ammonia or nitrate spike over the following week. I then bought another 5kg of live rock to finish the scaping and also added another 3kg of base rock to support the scape at the bottom. Total rock now approx 20kg
Third lot of rock and had amundance of hitchikers inc 2 mantis shrimp starfish bristle worm button polyps feather dusters nice brown macro algae etc. It had some lovely shapes and colours of algae too. Was really pleased with the quality an amount as there seemed to be twice as much as I normally get giving me lots to work with for the scaping
For the new tank I also bought a new light unit, powerhead, 3 chamber internal filter. The internal filter houses the heater pump and all filter media so it keeps it nice and tidy
The tank has been running for 3 1/2 weeks now with no fluctuation in any stats which is great, ive had a few minor algae issues which the clean up crew have kept on top of. So I will add something to help with any phosphate issues to the filter.
Ive slowly been adding coorals to the set up over the past 3 weeks and the new fish went in friday of last week and more will go in tomorrow.
Ive slightly overstocked..lol but I intend to add an 8g sump to the tank over the next week or so.
Pics time
New tank layout..

[littleme1969]

Fishy Pics..
Finally got a good pic of scooter with his fin up



Supper cute little yellow clown goby Hes so small and has only just started to eat bless him.




Yellow Nose Goby, proving hard to get a good pic as his hole is in a place in the tank that my camera does not like




I also have a dotyback which is living up to its reputation..lol you can see him on the tank shots as getting a good pic of him is proving harder that herding cats Not sure about his long term future as yet I'll give hima few weeks and see how it goes

Hitchikers..
Tiny white crab.


Shed of another small crab that came in with the first lot of rock..


Star fish.. I have a few of these in different colours.


No idea what this is...lol Some kind of anenome? it never moves whatever it is, and does retract its bubble thing.


Mantis shrimp Currently living in the fry trap

[littleme1969]

Coral Pics ...









My New brain coral is slowly comming back to life, I thought it was a gonner

[SkiFletch]

Tank looks great littleme . Do you happen to know the species of your brain coral? I know it's a Favia genus, but the species eludes me. I ask cause I have one that has the same structural appearance only all purple and I dont know what the species is myself

[littleme1969]

Hi Ski
It was advertised as LPS Favia Favites Moon Coral I got the green/peach colour, but it also came in green/purple and complete purple. Sorry cant be of any more help than that.

[thefirethief]

Fantastic pictures littleme. I've been considering getting a Yellow Nose Goby (although thats the first time Ive heard it called that), and hopefully its symbiotic shrimp. Was it hard to come by or just something you spotted in the shop one day? I've not been too sure of its availability here in the UK.

Mark

[littleme1969]

Hi What else are they known as? I got mine HERE But he was the last one Ive not seen them for sale anywhere else .
Hes quite the little charachter, He tried to throw out a snail from his burrow the other day, it was way bigger than his head, he kinda dislicated his jaw and clamped on, then spat it out..lol Hes one tough little cookie this guy. I did try to get a pistol shrimp to go with him but they where out of stock

[fishheaded]

Nice pics, your tank is looking awesome littleme! Keep it up.

[thefirethief]

littleme1969, on Sep 11 2007, 11:06 PM, said:

Hi What else are they known as? I got mine HERE But he was the last one Ive not seen them for sale anywhere else .
Hes quite the little charachter, He tried to throw out a snail from his burrow the other day, it was way bigger than his head, he kinda dislicated his jaw and clamped on, then spat it out..lol Hes one tough little cookie this guy. I did try to get a pistol shrimp to go with him but they where out of stock

I've been doing a bit of reading on the fish and most places have it named as Blackray Shrimp Goby or the scientific name Stonogobiops Nematodes. Doesn't seem like its a fish that can be confused with others though. Are you still planning to get the shrimp in the future? Dont know if you can find one locally but cheapfish.co.uk claims to have them in stock. Also, what are your plans for the sump? Is it going to be Hang-on?


Mark