Donya's 55-Gallon

[Donya]

LOL thats one hell of an aip you have on that rock! i suppose the mantis wont mind to much
really juicy bit of liverock that, all sorts of stuff on it. halimeda, sponges, that odd red bamboo algae (i think its a breed of caulerpa) and OFC that lovely nem

It is rather a large one isn't it Strangely no offspring from it yet though. It's a different species than the other mega-Aip I have sitting accross the desk in my 1.5gal pico, so I don't know yet if the invasion is simply yet to come, if it's due to the species, or if the mantis plays whack-a-mole with any small ones before they become visible. The rock also has a small sea cucumber and a number of odd bivalves that are totally encased in the rock except for their siphons.

 

[sorgan]

sadly no true peppermint shrimp will last long enough in that tank to do anything, the aip would eat it in no time!

 

[Donya]

Trying to tempt the clowns away from the NPS colonies with a little bit of Sarcophyton action...

Definite interest from the larger clown, but no commitment so far.

sadly no true peppermint shrimp will last long enough in that tank to do anything, the aip would eat it in no time!

It's a mean little tank lol. Roam around outside and risk running into sticky aip-zilla, hide in a hole and risk getting clonked on the head by Mr. Didymus. I'm glad I was able to get the baby Mithrax out of there before it met a bad end. There was an even smaller gorilla crab of some sort in there to begin with, but I haven't seen it since, so have I a feeling wandered down the wrong back alley.

 

[Donya]

I'm sure you guys have probably seen enough pics of the clowns for a while, but here's yet another of the smaller one (which I presume will be the male) showing his distinguishing feature. He's got a fair bit of a chin going on, so he's been named "Handsome Dan" after the Yale bulldog mascot.

Thinking a bit more strongly about an algae blenny and maybe a xenia frag in the near-ish future since the toadstool seems so happy. Any thoughts on the blenny as the clowns grow? I've seen the blennies in with lots of other clowns (including tomatoes if I remember right), but not maroons so far, so I was wondering if there is a reason for that.

 

[Donya]

I've wanted to keep this species since I first saw some of them in a shop when I was 10 or 11 years old. Was only able to get one for now - he's gone straight to work on the sand bed, which rather desperately needed some attention. Hopefully more red hairy fellows will arrive soon.

 

[Donya]

Honestly didn't think he'd be tempted by this shell, but...

A bit big for him strangely enough, so I sadly doubt he'll keep it when I get some others to toss in.

So no one has thoughts about maroons + algae blenny compatibility? Thoughts or links to point me to if I'm just being a total noob about it and the answer should be obvious?

 

[Donya]

A few notes to post up about what i've seen of my one Dardanus megistos data point...

First up: he has turned out to be rather of a big softy so far. Still a bit of a multi-legged gorilla that is being difficult to plan around, but he's still been a big soft gorilla. I guess there's time yet for him to have a personality change, but right now I'm guessing the reason for the "rrraaaar crush kill destroy!" attitude I often see from them in stores is due to (1) shallow sand beds or coarse substrate that they can't sift for food and (2) being a predator tank or heavily stocked small tank with little to scavenge off of the rocks and elsewhere in the tank most of the time. With a few more of these, I will probably have no need for any other sand-sifting animals even though the sand is quite deep. The hairy legs work as very effctive shovels to bring clumps of sand to the mouth with sugar grain-sized particles. Still, even if the crazy behavior is mostly hunger-driven, anything else I add to the tank invert-wise will have to be either fast, armored, or noxious in some way (e.g. mushrooms) to make sure it's safe.

And the down side: I'm going to have to investigate other and perhaps stronger glues to anchor things down. I tried some marine epoxy putty to stick down a mushroom that was holding onto only a little piece of rubble, and the hermit popped that little rubble piece right out of the putty this morning. He was very gentle with the mushroom itself though - not a scratch on it. He also moved the toadstool to sift the sand under it. Again, strangely gentle with the toadstool...it didn't even close up until I reached in to move it back. At any rate, I can see that if I want things to remain where I put them, I need to get a bit more serious about enforcing it.

As for the clowns, they are still happy lovey dovey and tuck into the same little nook in the rock together every evening. Still no commitment to the toadstool, but its presence seems to have distracted them enough that they're no longer harassing the NPS polyps (of which I have a few new ones just started growing )

 

[sorgan]

whats the chances of shipping some of the polyps to me

 

[Donya]

Hey now! The clowns only just decided to stop beating on them - the new little ones some time to grow before I break out the bone cutters.

The new polyps coincide with stepping up feeding a bit unless I was missing them before somehow. I've taken to making up ~10mL daily of a nasty (or tastey, if you're a polyp) slush of Kent Micrvert and Zooplex each evening and target feeding all over the rock after the clowns get their snacks. The toadstool has also been going crazy and looks to be starting a growth spurt. The more frequent feedings has been partly to benefit the many bivalves on the rock, which I'm hoping to keep going as long as possible. I know filter-feeding bivalvse are really tough to keep going, but I've had good luck with the "feed less more frequently" strategy in the past with some mussels.

I've also been wondering...so I have this big old tub of phyto going on that I've been keeping up should I have hermit larvae to feed. I think I'd like to start using my phyto when I run out of the Kent Microvert (or just as a substitute now), since it's a pretty diverse plankton culture with more than just phyto in it. However, I really, REALLY don't want it to have a big phyto bloom in whatever tank I toss it into. Since I've found the process of trying to concentrate it and turn it into a gel to be a lot more hastle than it's worth, I'm wondering about taking daily-size doses of it and just making frozen cubes out of it. It would be roughly like the gel approach, just less concentrated and therefore more frozen tub water involved. Anyone have thoughts on live vs. dead dosing with something like that?

 

[sorgan]

freezing does nuke some of the goodness out of food and also releases phosphates when it thaws, how about using something like a kalk reactor to keep a daily dose suspended and have it slowly feed over a long period.

also (i am sure you know) that phyto, regardless of how diverse will not sustain NPS in the long run but all your corals will love a bit of green

donya ATM i am using a new food from D&D, its a powder food that mixes in tank water to produce some pretty foul smelling elixers, my NPS are loving it and ive even seen visable growth on my Dendronephthya over the last few months whilst using it. just food for thought.

 

[Donya]

A bit embarassed to say that I had a zoanthid splurge today...right after having an anthelia splurge yesterday, so I better curb the splurging for a bit.

A place I haven't been to before due to the drive is suddenly going out of business and unloading everything for cheap, so I went up to have a look and came back with a paly clump and five bunches of various other zoas. Have pulled three nudis off so far, but the bunches were actively spreading at the store and look completely healthy otherwise. I've always pulled a nudi or two off of every zoa bunch I've gotten in the past, but never had issues with nudis getting a foothold in tanks. I did have problems with zoa spiders once in the distant past, and that was horrible...but I've seen no evidence of anything that nasty on these new ones. The little rubble bits the zoas are on are so full of little snails, Asterinas, etc. that I really don't want to dip anything, so I'm just going to try to wait and pick things off as I see them.

freezing does nuke some of the goodness out of food and also releases phosphates when it thaws, how about using something like a kalk reactor to keep a daily dose suspended and have it slowly feed over a long period.

Hmmm...interesting idea there! I will have a bit of a think about what I could rig up in that regard.

also (i am sure you know) that phyto, regardless of how diverse will not sustain NPS in the long run but all your corals will love a bit of green

Oh of course - the NPS will still be getting a nice helping of cyclops and such. The bivalves and other filter feeders on the rock just close up in response to anything bigger than phyto-sized particles though, so they would be the main audience.

donya ATM i am using a new food from D&D, its a powder food that mixes in tank water to produce some pretty foul smelling elixers, my NPS are loving it and ive even seen visable growth on my Dendronephthya over the last few months whilst using it. just food for thought.

Not familiar with this brand; what's the product called?

 

[Donya]

Pic time...

Anthelia - it is where the toadstool used to be, since I had to move the toadstool over a bit for lower flow (and I'll probably need to tack it onto a bigger rock too).

Yes, there is some ugly cyano that just popped up there in the last couple days. Why? Probably because brilliant me forgot to change out the phosphate pads for...I'm not actually sure when I put them in. Well, there's new ones in in place now! I think the hermit has also gobbled that patch after the pic was taken.

Big hairy hermit showing off his colors a bit better:

And the toadstool actually is happy and showing some new polyps, the hermit just bonked it and made it close up on his way over to look at me.

New polyps undergoing inspection while I decide whether to QT and if so for how long...

The other two zoa bunches that aren't in the photo (they're in the tub sitting on the right edge) will be headed to the mantis tank.

...and then my camera ran out of batteries.

 

[sorgan]

Now I feel a bit sheepish as I just remembered that the food isn't up for general sale yet but as soon as it is I will tell you
Julian sprungs marine snow is good stuff though

I am considering putting some large feather dusters in the tank to help suck up some of the food I am using just another idea to consider.

 

[Donya]

Ah now marine snow is something I've heard a bit about - I'm pretty sure I've seen it in one of the nearby shops too.

I read bunch of live phyto info over the last few days that is persuading me that my fears of phyto blooms are probably 99% paranoia...and I've got a nice spray bar chopping the surface, so even if it did bloom I shouldn't really have anything to be worried about except a WC or two. I think I'll have a go with a phyto dose this afternoon. I haven't found a good explanation of how a phyto recator should work/be constructed so far, so for the moment I'm just going to dunk a cup in the phyto tub.

Large tube worms are written off for me unfortunately, since they are on the menu for Dardanus megistos. They would almost certainly be dug up and have their tubes cut open. There are some encrusting small ones that are getting going on the rocks, but it remains to be seen whether mr. hairy will have something to say about them.

Zoanthid update: I decieded against any additional QTing after a day since no other creepies showed up and the polyps weren't looking too pleased, so they are now split between the 55gal and mantis tank. Palys and greenish-brown ones are opened up and happy. The purple-ish nubby ones are being more sulky but slowly opening up. Part of the reason I ditched QTing is that the nudis died within only a couple of hours of being removed. I've never seen zoanthid-eating nudibranchs die that fast (in the past they lasted 2-3 weeks), so I'm wondering if the frags had already treated with something like flatworm exit at the shop. There is one scaleworm remaining in a crack on one of the rocks (the only hiding spot for anything really), but from what I've read he will probably only be a danger to pods.

 

[Donya]

Have been dosing live phyto from my tub since the last post. No ill effects! Seems all good so far. Doing 1/2cup per day currently but may up it to 1 cup. The bivalves seem rather enthusiastic about it.

One of the bivalves (mussel?):

My phyto tub:

Turning the baby crab grow-out container into a bit of a refugium:

And the Anthelia is making some new polyps:

Any guess what those brown things are? It's on a coral skeleton, but I can't tell if it's just algae growing in the grooves or if there is actually a polyp that looks like that. Hopefully it's just algae, since it's heading towards being consumed by Anthelia creep.