[owlbassboy]

is the yellow not a sponge??? ive never seen yellow corraline

[TigerIssey]

owlbassboy, on Aug 28 2009, 01:07 PM, said:

is the yellow not a sponge??? ive never seen yellow corraline

When I enlarged the pic, yellow looks like a sponge to me too

[AK77]

You're both quite right. I had a good old squint at it and it does like like its a sponge. It just looked so smooth I thought it was calcified. I think a trip to the opticians may be in order lol

[seffieuk]

how's it going AK?

Seffie x

[AK77]

Hi Seffie,

I injected a couple. Its actually pretty hard to do, as they aiptasia contract the moment you touch them. I did kill one but a couple of others seemed to survive. I went to the LFS yesterday afternoon and recruited some help. Rather than injecting the aiptasia, I thought it would be far more sporting and entertaining to let my new peppermint shrimp kill them

I've not checked the tank today, but will do so in a minute and see if there are any remaining.

[Luketendo]

AK77, on Aug 30 2009, 02:42 PM, said:

Hi Seffie,

I injected a couple. Its actually pretty hard to do, as they aiptasia contract the moment you touch them. I did kill one but a couple of others seemed to survive. I went to the LFS yesterday afternoon and recruited some help. Rather than injecting the aiptasia, I thought it would be far more sporting and entertaining to let my new peppermint shrimp kill them

I've not checked the tank today, but will do so in a minute and see if there are any remaining.

Think it was a few days for me and they were gone.

[seffieuk]

They are ******* aren't they, they move real quick as well so just when you think you have got them, there they are again

How many peppermints did you get?

Seffie x

[AK77]

Just the one. At nearly £12 I couldn't afford to get more. I was pretty shocked at the prices at my LFS. I've not been in there since I shut down my last tank and I was gob-smacked.

It cost me nearly £8 for two blue knuckle crabs, £6 for two trochus snails. I can get a CUC waaaaaaay cheaper on ebay even with the shipping. I was pretty disappointed with the selection too. Last time I went in there, there were some amazing fish. The most exciting thing I saw there was a dwarf flame angel... for £70 .

The corals have leapt up by about £5 a go and again, I saw very little in the way of wow factor that they used to have.

I think the peppermint has munched one. I'll see how it progresses over the coming days.

[AK77]

Well it looks like the peppermint has been working its magic. The aiptasia have greatly decreased in number. Its not started on the ones on the other rock, so I might have to rearrange stuff to get it to venture further from its den.

Today I added 4 red legged hermits, a mithrax crab, another 3 trochus and this little fellow....




Rather than get a load of vibex snails, I opted for a conch. When I put him in the tank, he immediately burrowed into the sand. Then a few minutes later he reappeared and started eating the big patch of cyano that I have growing on the front of the tank. He's very active and should do a good job of keeping the lower portion of the acrylic clean as well as the sandbed and rocks too. Its really intersting to watch his "trunk" forrage about looking for something to eat.

[Buddyboy67]

Nice buy AK..gotta love their eyes,lol...good choice with the peppermint too as aip x, etc will take them out quickly but must people find after a few months several young aips will appear from the base of the exploded pest...pepps take em out and keep em out !! He will eventually work his way around the entire tank and eat em as he finds em..

[AK77]

Buddyboy67, on Sep 2 2009, 04:08 PM, said:

Nice buy AK..gotta love their eyes,lol...good choice with the peppermint too as aip x, etc will take them out quickly but must people find after a few months several young aips will appear from the base of the exploded pest...pepps take em out and keep em out !! He will eventually work his way around the entire tank and eat em as he finds em..

Hi Buddy. lol yeah that's the best thing. They just look like a snail with a trunk. I thought he'd be effective for looking after the sandbed and cleaning up the algae and detritus around the rocks. He's definitely more intresting to watch than vibex snails lol. I was going to get a couple of bumblebee ones, but they were nearly £4 a pop, so the conch worked out cheaper.

The mithrax seems to be enjoying himself, and is frantically picking away at the algae on the rocks. One thing I did think was a bit strange is the two blue knuckles I bought the other day. Both of them are hardly moving. One has retreated into its shell, the other has hidden itself in the rock and again, isn't doing anything. I wonder if they are molting or if there is something wrong. All the other crabs seem fine as does the peppermint, so I doubt very much that its the water parameters.

Any ideas?

[Buddyboy67]

Funny you say that AK..recently bought two of the smallest of these guys i've seen for the nano..they did exactly the same and never reappeared from their shells either, yet the bruisers in the big tank are thriving. The mithrax in the nano is thriving as well but every hermit I put in there does the same thing in about two days after introduction..I simply can't work out what the problem is.
Thinking is it some sort of parasite as it simply doesn't make any sense..

[daveo_irl]

Some days my hermits are very quiet, just sitting in the one spot, and then the next day they are back to themselves. Also, I have noticed that they can be a lot less active then normal when they are about to shed.

This post has been edited by daveo_irl: 02 September 2009 - 03:26 PM

[AK77]

Buddyboy67, on Sep 2 2009, 04:21 PM, said:

Funny you say that AK..recently bought two of the smallest of these guys i've seen for the nano..they did exactly the same and never reappeared from their shells either, yet the bruisers in the big tank are thriving. The mithrax in the nano is thriving as well but every hermit I put in there does the same thing in about two days after introduction..I simply can't work out what the problem is.
Thinking is it some sort of parasite as it simply doesn't make any sense..

Hmm that's really odd. I just flipped the shell over thats on the sandbed and its moving its claws about. They were very quiet in the tank at the LFS too. I hope it is just a case of them molting. I might try to drop a pellet near to one and see if it makes an attempt to eat it.

[Buddyboy67]

Try them just after lights out mate..normally more active then

[AK77]

Well the shell has been upside down for a couple of hours now and its not bothered correcting itself. The other blue knuckle hasnt moved either. The shrimp seems fine. Its out and about at the moment. Will keep you posted for any development

[Luketendo]

Is the conch really good at cleaning the sand as I had some Nassarius but they got eaten by hermits.

[Buddyboy67]

Check out fighting conches mate..great little, for a conch anyway, workers

[AK77]

Well it looks like one of the blue knuckles died last night. I just saw his body lying next to the shell. Its defintiely not a molting as the rear of the body is intact. I expect the other one to follow suit. The others look to be doing fine. I think the blue knuckles must of had something in the LFS. Come to think of it, all the hermits in the tank were very docile and huddled in their shells.

I wonder what it could be?

[AK77]

Just had a shooftie in the tank and thought I found the other blue knuckle's remains behind the LR. Then I looked up and noticed his old shell wedged on the rocks. I was about to remove the shell when I saw a nice bright pair of legs hanging out of it. This one just molted, as did the peppermint shrimp. Hopefully he will pull through without further incident. My 4 red mexicans had been quiet too and I was concerned that there was something wrong with all the hermits but, everything seems to be ok.

The conch really went to town, attacking the cyano on the lower portion of the tank with the snails demolishing the rest. Since I repositioned the LR away from the acrylic sides to allow him access, he's been tearing round the perimeter of the tank like a thing possessed lol. All the gunk that had fallen between the LR and the acyrlic is gone and a nice white, clean trough is in its place. A seriously cool addition to any CUC. I think I'm going to name him Dyson.. purely because there seems to be no end to the amount of cr@p he sucks up lol.