Donya's 55-Gallon

[Donya]

Sadly Mrs Hairylegs passed in the early AM. After inspection, I can't see any evidence of anything but a natural death, so I guess she was just older than I thought. Size vs. age is a funny thing in hermits. In the case of Pagurus longicarpus, I have seen that it's possible to take average-sized individuals and produce "super hermits" in a few months that are twice as big as the biggest ones I've seen in the wild. That has suggested to me that something about the environment may limit the maximum size of some species in the wild (food, shell availability, seasonal changes, etc.). Anyway, since hermits in the trade are all still wild caught, it means size never really has much meaning for guessing how old a hermit is.

As was perhaps to be expected, Mr. Hairylegs is having a fit. This is again something I've seen in other paired hermits, that they will get really upset if the mate either dies or is otherwise removed. He noticed pretty much as soon as I removed the female (she had stopped responding to any stimulus at that point; I thought it best to isolate her then to avoid any attention from Nassarius) and has been on an angry rampage since then. He searched all the empty shells first and then went generally ripping on stuff. My hypothesis that lots of superglue might hold rocks together against hermit rage has been disproven, since he broke off the Xena frag from the rock I'd glued it to - there was a lot of glue holding that and he somehow pried it off anyway. Looks like I will have some repairs to be doing this week.

 

[sorgan]

Poor mr hairylegs .
He must be sad

 

[Donya]

Should get my stuff together and update this. The tank is most certainly not dead even if the thread got that way lol.

The sad news: My. Hairylegs has been gone for a bit. Had him for around 7 months if I counted right before he started showing signs of old age. The species in fact doesn't live very long if the papers I've read are anything to go by, probably around 4 years on average. Since they tend to be collected large, they are already going to be towards the end of that. I still have two monsters, but both are horrendously large (one has even surpassed Mr. Hairylegs' size) so I imagine they probably don't have a lot of time left in them, although I don't want to make too many guesses. While I won't add any other hermits while I have them, after their time I will not be getting any more D. megistos and will be focusing on species that are either collected substantially smaller/younger or are known to have a longer lifespan. It's a bit heart-wrenching to watch animals that are such characters burn out after such a relatively short period of time when I've had hermits of other species for multiple years now.

Anyway, time for something more uplifting. Remember this?

Here it is today:

The Duncan has gone from 2 heads (which was more like 1.5 after it was damaged) to 8 if I count all the little ones. The GSPs have not made a lot of progress but have made some - it's just hard to see because it wraps around the back mainly. The most progress obviously is in the zoas. The right colony was added after being stomped to near death by the hermits and has flourished. Also, whenever I get upset with my progress on tanks, I have to remind myself that all those zoa polyps on the left came from just that one little polyp on the epoxy plate. In fact, the plate isn't even there anymore - I removed it to start a new colony elsewhere, and the hole it left was filled in straight away.

Tree coral I've had since the summer:

It just gave me some daughter colonies this week. The one on the right is approximately the size of what I purchased to begin with.

And finally:

 

[lljdma06]

Haha, this is why you wanted me to get a hermit. Sorry about Mr. Hairylegs. He was a tank staple. I liked his antics very much.

I remember the creation of the ornament. That has done some serious growth. Wow. Looks great.

Very nice to see how this tank has progressed. Looking forward to a new tank shot.

 

[MBOU]

Wow! I love seeing the before and after shots of the orament, it was a great idea! The duncans looks awesome now! I need a duncans coral!

Nice to you around and back on the forums again and look forward to seeing more updates!

Might need to pick your brains on a canonballing crab ID soon, lol i didnt believe the customer at first so they showed me some awful blurry photos. Couldnt see more than the shell but could see what it had done. Had climbed up to th top of the liverock and waited for a fish to go by and launched itself off. It actually took out a coral beauty

My one and only question was "is its legs red and hairy" was answered with a yes...

Were sold it from Pets at Home as a group of 10 'scarlet legged hermits' as a start up CUC. They now only have one and he is getting biiiig LOL. So i might be getting him as a pet soon!

 

[Donya]

Might need to pick your brains on a canonballing crab ID soon, lol i didnt believe the customer at first so they showed me some awful blurry photos. Couldnt see more than the shell but could see what it had done. Had climbed up to th top of the liverock and waited for a fish to go by and launched itself off. It actually took out a coral beauty

My one and only question was "is its legs red and hairy" was answered with a yes...

Unfortunately I would guess there's actually something stressing the crab quite badly if it has resorted to trying to going after live fish, assuming we're talking about a hermit crab...not a hairy red true crab, right? If it's a true crab, all bets are off without a proper ID since some true crabs are quite well adapted to nabbing fish.

I actually had a another Dardanus megistos until very recently that was a total ninja at climbing and turning up in strange places regularly where I couldn't see an obvious path. I found its behavior quite amusing until it turned up dead suddenly after a molt and I realized all was not well. From past examples (although none involving climbing like this crab did) I probably should have realized that abnormal behavior usually means something abnormal going on elsewhere. It had some kind of misshapen part of its abdomen (might have been a tumor; they are strangely common on that body part), although it died literally stuck in its shell as a result of that, so I wasn't able to figure out anything beyond that. Anyway, individuals that act insane/aggressive/etc. to a degree that they really stand apart may not be in a good way. It can be anything from a bad diet to starvation or internal problems with the crab. Not saying that this particular crab you've described is ill, it could be perfectly fine, but for a hermit crab it's still a behavior that would push my "diagnostics now" button. Diet is worth investigating first, since hermits tend to become very interested in active predation when not fed properly, including if not fed the right assortment of things.

That said, unless the coral beauty was actually witnessed being had, I would not jump to the conclusion that the crab had an incredibly successful rock jump. If there was actual visual proof that the crab trapped, killed, and ate a fully healthy fish start to finish, that will actually be the first example of successful healthy free-swimming fish-catching I have heard of for a hermit crab. However, I have heard and seen many examples of large hermits thrashing desperately at fish with no success (they are a bit blundering really) when very stressed.

 

[MBOU]

Customer didnt come in with the crab so we will see if they turn up, they showed me a photo of the crab eating the coral beauty and they said the beauty was fine but they didnt see the crab climb the rocks, he was already near the top and he kind of just walked off the edge as the coral beauty swam out the gap below him and he probably took advantage.

My bet is a poor diet too though, whether its the cause or not. Really doesnt help when they are sold as CUC in groups and told "they dont need feeding, they just eat all the crud.." get it all the time locally. Aparently no inverts, plecs or catfish(trops) need feeding ever

 

[MBOU]

Customer didnt come in with the crab so we will see if they turn up, they showed me a photo of the crab eating the coral beauty and they said the beauty was fine but they didnt see the crab climb the rocks, he was already near the top and he kind of just walked off the edge as the coral beauty swam out the gap below him and he probably took advantage.

My bet is a poor diet too though, whether its the cause or not. Really doesnt help when they are sold as CUC in groups and told "they dont need feeding, they just eat all the crud.." get it all the time locally. Aparently no inverts, plecs or catfish(trops) need feeding ever

 

[Donya]

Customer didnt come in with the crab so we will see if they turn up, they showed me a photo of the crab eating the coral beauty and they said the beauty was fine but they didnt see the crab climb the rocks, he was already near the top and he kind of just walked off the edge as the coral beauty swam out the gap below him and he probably took advantage.

Eeehhhhh...I'm not buying it, sorry. Sounds like too many other "crab killed my fish" scenarios where the crab was just found with a dead fish and the hobbyist unwilling to look at the full picture. My money is on the fish being badly injured/sick or even already dead. Fish can die at the drop of a hat without showing obvious symptoms of internal problems and people don't want to consider it. Instead, they want something to blame. People ignore that fish also drop dead unexpectedly in crab-less tanks, where it's concluded that the fish dropped dead unexpectedly. If a crab is present and does what a good scavenger does...burn the witch I mean, surely the crab did it! Big hermits can be a royal PITA for sure, but primarily to sessile things.

Anyway, enough rant. More updates.

Working on a new FTS. Took some yesterday, but then the camera card got corrupted so I lost them. The tank has a big ugly blue breeder net in it right now so I'll have to wait until that's gone. The net has been called the "penalty box" (perhaps only Star Trek nerds will get the joke...although sports apply too I guess) because I've used it over time for misbehaving animals until they cooled off. This time I'm using it just for peace of mind with one of the big hermits that just molted. The two I have left are a bit...odd. The largest (and largest I've ever had) is a female that is very ill-tempered. I have to watch my fingers with her. The other is a male that was missing an eye when I got him and that eye has never grown back right. It's shaped like a bowling pin, the little bit on top being the eye. The male also seems to be a loner that has zero interest in the typical social interactions and hierarchy the species normally participates in. He just wants to be by himself, has a strange relationship with the big anemone I posted a pic of, and that's that. However, he absolutely beats the snot out of anything that tries to start something with him. The female has never been able to keep all her legs for more than a day or two because of that. Even with her massive size, every time she molts, she decides to go pick a fight with him again (Seems like a "maybe I'll win and be dominant this time" sort of thing), loses a leg or two, and has to accept defeat. Since the strange-eye loner male just molted, I decided it best to keep him out of the way while he hardens up, since he's still not as large as the female.

Other changes that have taken place since the summer:

- No more Tunicates. I had three at one point, and eventually one died of what seemed to be natural causes. Nothing really wanted to eat it, but then the female hermit picked at it a bit. Given the rate at which the other two Tunicates were brutally destroyed, I assume that the lack of interest must be because the Tunicates looked/smelled like something else. Maybe they looked like a poisonous sponge or something, but once the ruse was discovered...

- Thorny oyster. Added one of these because of the amount of filter feeder food I dump into the tank. It has been doing well. Crabs leave it alone; they seem to have no interest in other live bivalves in the tank, so it seemed a reasonably safe choice. It's also growing another oyster-looking thing on it, so it's like...a fractal oyster.

- PJ cardinal fish.

- Almost no more anthelia. Blasted clowns ate it all. Yes, ATE it. Nom-nom-nom yummy. It was putting out a lot of fresh new polyps and trying to resort to mat-spreading as a result of the harassment to the large polyps, but the new buds apparently tasted even better. Like baby corn I guess. Why fish, WHYYYYYYYYYYY

- New male maroon clown. The original male of my pair got taken out in a CO2/CO poisoning event that blasted a bunch of my tanks. I have an HVAC in the bedroom that is connected to the fish room by a vent. It's not well sealed against outside air. Some idiots doing yard work in front of the complex stood around that one HVAC outside with leafblowers pumping exhaust right into it for ages while having a chat. KH went through the roof and pH went through the floor in all tanks, and I woke up coughing from the fumes coming in that early morning. Numerous dead things across most tanks. Needless to say, that vent has been shut. It was amazing really that I didn't lose more things. My guppies were the worst hit, but only lost a few things here and there in other tanks. I'm amazed my parrot and geriatric zebra finch survived, since that sort of thing usually hits birds pretty hard.

- New lights. Broke my 2xT5HO+LED dealy somehow. Still looking into fixing it to have as a spare, probably a bad ballast. Replaced currently with an upgrade, a 4xT5HO+LED dealy with a timer and internal cooling fans. Roughly the same heat it seems with more light. Very nice.

- More coral platforms. The other platforms are sporting a chili, Elegance frag, blasto frag, and a bunch of Zoanthids.


Pics soon, I promise!

(Edits for typo fixes)

 

[Donya]

Horrid photos ahead...brace yourself.

Female hermit:

Male with funky eye in breeder basket (had to cover the light with my hand - that's what why the strange lighting)

And...my word it looks mucky zoomed out. You sure you wanted to see the whole thing? LOL.

 

[lljdma06]

Haha, penalty box. I'm such a Star Trek nerd.

Sounds like you have some pretty awesome pictures to put up. I like the look of chili corals, are you finding yours hard to care for?

What is it with neighbors or party-goers killing things in our tanks. Tell them to stop!

 

[Donya]

I don't want to speak prematurely on the chili as I have only had it a couple months and it hasn't grown great heaps, but so far it has seemed pretty straightforward and simple, and it has grown a little bit in the last month. However, it's one that wants to be upside down, which threw me a bit at first. I started it out facing up, and it didn't just flop to point down, it stayed rigid and actually rotated it's connectivity to the rock in order to point straight down. I have read that they have an orientation that they want and will have it no matter how you place them initially, so if that's true then I just got an upside-downer colony. There may be other factors involved too like flow or light, I have no idea. It's been a bit prone to getting crud on it at times, but the snails keep it pretty clean without damage. It also has had some Aips trying to grow directly on it, but my peppermint shrimp have been cleaning that up too and the nems don't actually seem to inhibit it from feeding or anything. It stays open a few hours after lights on to catch the morning feed and starts to open again usually juts before lights off to catch the night feed. And it's got a barnacle in it that comes out to feed with the polyps...

For food I use a mix of three Kent things: phytoplex (although just switched this to the more concentrated phytomax since I go through it so fast), chromaplex, and microvert. I'm really not sure what particle size the chili is making use of; will probably be adding rotifers back into the mix in the near future to see if it has an impact on the growth. If it did, that would basically answer the particle size question. Anyway, I mix up the three supplements together and feed the whole tank by dripping it into active flow. If I have the time and the chili isn't up yet, I put a few drops in to wake it up and then feed the rest around 10min later. I've estimated that I'm feeding as much as 4x of the recommended 3x weekly dossage of the mix daily, but split into a morning and evening feeding or more if I'm home all day. Obviously I will not be looking into trying anything like SPS on this kind of feeding regime LOL.

What is it with neighbors or party-goers killing things in our tanks. Tell them to stop!

I know! It seems to have been an abnormally bad season for that in the threads. Strange stuff.

 

[lljdma06]

Yeah, I've got a gorgonian and sun corals, so no fancy, light-loving, I need super clean water corals for me! Just mushies, which seem to like the extra yummies in the water anyway. Thank goodness the porcelain crabs filter feed as well. Everybody in that tank needs food, so at least the food isn't being wasted.

Was just interested in the chili for actually the reason why you're reserved about it. They kinda stay smaller, from what I've read.

I may try rotifers, I've heard good things about them. Right now, I'm feeding Kent zooplex, which is 800 microns, and Brightwell aquatics Zoo plankton, which has a range in size. The sun corals get mysis and other frozen foods. Those guys are pigs! It's tough. Maintaining water quality has been a challenge. I'm doing ok, but it's a challenge. No holidays for me.

L

 

[Donya]

Just got some more rocks and magnets to do more platforms. Will try to take some in-progress pics to show how I do it with actual rocks. Right now I have three platforms, one as a resin ornament and two with rocks. As for why I'm getting going on more, unless something has changed, there will probably the annual frag farmer's market in the near future.

Was just interested in the chili for actually the reason why you're reserved about it. They kinda stay smaller, from what I've read.

As in...how small? The one I've got can squish up reasonably small, to maybe 2" top to bottom, but is probably a good 5" extended and seems to be growing lengthwise the most (gravity at work I presume).

Rotifers seem to be a hit by the way - just added those back in and a few drops of "wake up" are getting a much faster response than before.

Right now, I'm feeding Kent zooplex, which is 800 microns, and Brightwell aquatics Zoo plankton, which has a range in size.

I haven't had much luck with zooplex recently. Small fish always love it, but it bounces off things that want it but are too slow to close on it properly and it seems to make other things like my chili curl up and go "yuck" when I target feed it. Don't think I've ever seen the Brightwell Aquatics one in stores. Did you have to order it online?

 

[lljdma06]

Just got some more rocks and magnets to do more platforms. Will try to take some in-progress pics to show how I do it with actual rocks. Right now I have three platforms, one as a resin ornament and two with rocks. As for why I'm getting going on more, unless something has changed, there will probably the annual frag farmer's market in the near future.

I love this idea. post pictures, I think it's a great way to build levels. Sort of like those old Dutch scapes. Can see myself trying something like that in the 36g.



As in...how small? The one I've got can squish up reasonably small, to maybe 2" top to bottom, but is probably a good 5" extended and seems to be growing lengthwise the most (gravity at work I presume).

Yeah, 5 inches is too big. That's my stupid pumkin Yuma. That thing can go from like 1.5" to 5" inches in a very short amount of time. I'll stick with gorgs.

Rotifers seem to be a hit by the way - just added those back in and a few drops of "wake up" are getting a much faster response than before.

Really? Good, I must try them. Too many small mouths to feed.



I haven't had much luck with zooplex recently. Small fish always love it, but it bounces off things that want it but are too slow to close on it properly and it seems to make other things like my chili curl up and go "yuck" when I target feed it. Don't think I've ever seen the Brightwell Aquatics one in stores. Did you have to order it online?


My gorg seems likes the zoo plex. My panda goby maybe is taking it in too. The funny thing is that the sun corals like cyclops ease and then something meaty. That's what gets them open. So everybody wants something different. Now imagine feeding this smorgasbord in a 4g tank?! No wonder I'm changing the water like a crazy woman. LOLOLOL No, I found the Brightwell at a lfs, but I don't remember which one.