Reef tank (Pic heavy!)
TenebrousNova
England Join Date: 2015-12-23 Member: 210206Members
England Join Date: 2015-12-23 Member: 210206Members
So I mentioned I keep a reef aquarium and was soon asked to make a thread about it. Hopefully the devs will have mercy upon me. I've been keeping saltwater animals for about four years now so you can imagine why Subnautica is so appealing to me. In fact, I do believe that Subnautica has influenced the development of my little reef in some ways. Let us begin!
Main view of the reef:
As you can see the tank is fairly small. I started out with a little nano tank that sat on my desk but my habit of spending more money than I should on corals meant I filled it up very quickly indeed. This tank is starting to reach its limit although I'm sure I can squeeze a few more in.
Here's the blue/green chromis. He's a fairly generic reef fish but I figured I'd include him anyway...something about the way he stares at you reminds me of a peeper. They are typically a schooling fish and I did keep two of them. This one is antisocial and chased off his partner, so now he lives by himself.
Next up is the midas blenny. He spends most of his days glaring indignantly at you from his many hidey-holes but soon comes excitedly to the front at feeding time. He has a venomous bite (Not that harmful apparently) and turns almost completely black with his mouth wide open when he feels threatened. He has caused the death of a few small corals unfortunately...I place the plugs they're mounted on into little holes in the rocks for them to spread onto, and he'll respond by headbutting them out so he can have the holes for himself.
I could never part with him though. Partly because of his personality and also because extracting him from his hiding spots would be next to impossible.
I don't have any stalkers, but here's something almost as vicious: my true percula clownfish. A certain movie may have taught you that clownfish are cute, friendly creatures. Experience has taught me that they're anything but friendly! The male (The smaller one) constantly has to be driven back with an old toothbrush or he'll sink his teeth into my hand, causing me to drop whatever I happen to be delicately moving around at the time. Yes, they do have tiny teeth. The larger ones (Maroon clownfish in particular) have been known to draw blood.
They do love to snuggle up in the rose bubble tip anemone at the top right of the tank, but they also use the toadstool coral (Behind them) and green star polyp colony (Bottom right of the first photo) as hosts.
For those who don't know, clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites. This means that they are born as males and the dominant one will grow bigger and become the female. She's pretty much the alpha in any clownfish pair or group. If she dies, the next male in line will begin his own transformation into a female...something that makes Marlin's quest to find Nemo a bit more interesting.
My female clown has calmed down and doesn't bite me quite as often but it's unpleasant when she does.
My last fish, but not least: the mandarin dragonet. She's easily my favourite! Dragonets are very picky eaters, mostly feeding off copepods, amphipods and other microfauna they find on the rocks. They flutter around almost like hummingbirds as they intently scan the area for treats. Unfortunately, this picky diet and their constant eating means that mandarins often die in captivity as they very quickly deplete the copepod population and starve to death. Fortunately, they can be trained to eat alternative foods. Mine eats frozen food and pellets and as you can see, she's a fat lump!
Until a few weeks ago I also kept a male to keep her company. I rescued him from a pet shop, he was literally skin and bones having none of his natural food to eat. I fed him on bags of copepods and gradually weaned him onto pellets and he did do well, until one day the female attacked him and ripped the spine off his dorsal fin. I sadly had to rehome him...I think it's because he was on the smallish size for a male mandarin.
This is my pom pom crab, the cheerleaders of the sea. Mine is very elusive and I can go months without seeing it. The "pom poms" are tiny anemones that the crab uses for defensive purposes and to mop up bits of food. The anemones eat any leftovers. Should the crab lose an anemone, it will tear the remaining one in two to create a replacement.
Red legged hermit crabs! I have several, they're excellent little janitors.
Here's my red fingered starfish, pictured next to a tiny asterina starfish. The red one cruises around the glass feeding off film algae. The asterinas are hitch hikers that tend to turn up on bits of rock or coral. Some species will eat your coral but these seem to be the benign kind. I do have a banded serpent starfish but he lives under a rock so I can't get any photos.
Here's a random fanworm I found growing on a rock when I was taking these photos.
This great big coral is called a kenya tree, it is a soft coral that doesn't have a skeleton. I got it from a tiny piece smaller than my little finger but it rapidly blossomed into this monstrosity. Each branch is lined with hundreds of tiny polyps, each an individual animal with their feathery tentacles for catching bits of food. At night the polyps close up and the branches shrink, leaving a big pinkish stump sitting on the rock.
Such is the size of my kenya tree that I often snip branches off with a pair of scissors and sell/trade them. Did I mention that most corals can be cut up if done properly to create more? Some see this as a form of conservation so we don't have to take as many from the ocean. Don't worry, the coral's nervous system is very simple and they open up very quickly afterwards. Splitting is just one of the ways that they reproduce.
I bought this Acanthastrea species a few weeks ago and it seems to be quite happy. It's a hard coral so unlike the kenya tree there is a hard, calcium based skeleton underneath the fleshy polyps that they can retract into when threatened. This coral loves to be fed meaty foods and puts out its cnidocyte-covered feeding tentacles out when it smells something edible. These tentacles can be seen in the photo surrounding the polyp's mouth.
On a side note, you can get purple Acanthastrea with bright green mouths. The inspiration for Subnautica's purple brain coral, perhaps?
This is one of my favourites, an orange fruit loop zoanthid. It's one of the rarer species and I believe I paid £30 for a single polyp which has since spread. I now have about 20 of them.
More zoanthids and a baby rose bubble tip anemone. The adult, if fed enough, will rapidly grow and then tear itself into two adults or bud off tiny new anemones at the foot. I have two babies and the adult right now.
More corals! Pictured is a red mushroom and a green hairy mushroom.
Here's the other baby anemone...it's attached to the shell of the squamosa clam. Fortunately, the clam doesn't seem to be bothered but I'll have to find a way of removing it at some point. It's lodged between the scutes of the clam shell which will be hard to reach.
More corals and my derasa clam (The stripy one):
Clams are not simple animals like corals and anemones. Coral/anemone polyps consist of a mouth, stomach and the oral tentacles. Clams have gills, a heart and gonads and thus need a lot more energy...although it's worth knowing that anemones are also pretty light demanding. Both corals and clams contain a symbiotic algae named Zooxanthellae inside their tissues which generate energy for their hosts through photosynthesis. When stressed or given insufficient light they will lose their zooxanthellae (Bleach) and die. The Zooxanthellae is also what causes the corals to fluoresce under blue light.
The final three clams: a gold maxima clam (My oldest), an ultra blue maxima (Which I bought as a baby) and a blue/gold crocea clam. The latter two cost a small fortune...I'd love to have either a pure black maxima clam (£500+) or a gigas clam, but a gigas will grow bigger than the actual tank. The maximas and crocea are the most light demanding clams so they sit right at the top.
Finally, my sexy shrimp. I have three of them, all of them female I believe. They get their name from the constant dance they do, they sort of wave and wriggle their tails back and forth to ward off predators. Pretty awesome to watch! Like the clownfish, they are resistant to the stings of corals and anemones so they often sit on top of them, dancing all the while.
My avatar.
Sorry about the long read and the many photos, I could (And sometimes do) talk about this subject all day and will be glad to answer any questions. I'd be cool if there's any more hobbyists here.
Pretty fun to be able to watch the tank and play Subnautica at the same time.
I hope you guys enjoyed!
Main view of the reef:
As you can see the tank is fairly small. I started out with a little nano tank that sat on my desk but my habit of spending more money than I should on corals meant I filled it up very quickly indeed. This tank is starting to reach its limit although I'm sure I can squeeze a few more in.
Here's the blue/green chromis. He's a fairly generic reef fish but I figured I'd include him anyway...something about the way he stares at you reminds me of a peeper. They are typically a schooling fish and I did keep two of them. This one is antisocial and chased off his partner, so now he lives by himself.
Next up is the midas blenny. He spends most of his days glaring indignantly at you from his many hidey-holes but soon comes excitedly to the front at feeding time. He has a venomous bite (Not that harmful apparently) and turns almost completely black with his mouth wide open when he feels threatened. He has caused the death of a few small corals unfortunately...I place the plugs they're mounted on into little holes in the rocks for them to spread onto, and he'll respond by headbutting them out so he can have the holes for himself.
I could never part with him though. Partly because of his personality and also because extracting him from his hiding spots would be next to impossible.
I don't have any stalkers, but here's something almost as vicious: my true percula clownfish. A certain movie may have taught you that clownfish are cute, friendly creatures. Experience has taught me that they're anything but friendly! The male (The smaller one) constantly has to be driven back with an old toothbrush or he'll sink his teeth into my hand, causing me to drop whatever I happen to be delicately moving around at the time. Yes, they do have tiny teeth. The larger ones (Maroon clownfish in particular) have been known to draw blood.
They do love to snuggle up in the rose bubble tip anemone at the top right of the tank, but they also use the toadstool coral (Behind them) and green star polyp colony (Bottom right of the first photo) as hosts.
For those who don't know, clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites. This means that they are born as males and the dominant one will grow bigger and become the female. She's pretty much the alpha in any clownfish pair or group. If she dies, the next male in line will begin his own transformation into a female...something that makes Marlin's quest to find Nemo a bit more interesting.
My female clown has calmed down and doesn't bite me quite as often but it's unpleasant when she does.
My last fish, but not least: the mandarin dragonet. She's easily my favourite! Dragonets are very picky eaters, mostly feeding off copepods, amphipods and other microfauna they find on the rocks. They flutter around almost like hummingbirds as they intently scan the area for treats. Unfortunately, this picky diet and their constant eating means that mandarins often die in captivity as they very quickly deplete the copepod population and starve to death. Fortunately, they can be trained to eat alternative foods. Mine eats frozen food and pellets and as you can see, she's a fat lump!
Until a few weeks ago I also kept a male to keep her company. I rescued him from a pet shop, he was literally skin and bones having none of his natural food to eat. I fed him on bags of copepods and gradually weaned him onto pellets and he did do well, until one day the female attacked him and ripped the spine off his dorsal fin. I sadly had to rehome him...I think it's because he was on the smallish size for a male mandarin.
This is my pom pom crab, the cheerleaders of the sea. Mine is very elusive and I can go months without seeing it. The "pom poms" are tiny anemones that the crab uses for defensive purposes and to mop up bits of food. The anemones eat any leftovers. Should the crab lose an anemone, it will tear the remaining one in two to create a replacement.
Red legged hermit crabs! I have several, they're excellent little janitors.
Here's my red fingered starfish, pictured next to a tiny asterina starfish. The red one cruises around the glass feeding off film algae. The asterinas are hitch hikers that tend to turn up on bits of rock or coral. Some species will eat your coral but these seem to be the benign kind. I do have a banded serpent starfish but he lives under a rock so I can't get any photos.
Here's a random fanworm I found growing on a rock when I was taking these photos.
This great big coral is called a kenya tree, it is a soft coral that doesn't have a skeleton. I got it from a tiny piece smaller than my little finger but it rapidly blossomed into this monstrosity. Each branch is lined with hundreds of tiny polyps, each an individual animal with their feathery tentacles for catching bits of food. At night the polyps close up and the branches shrink, leaving a big pinkish stump sitting on the rock.
Such is the size of my kenya tree that I often snip branches off with a pair of scissors and sell/trade them. Did I mention that most corals can be cut up if done properly to create more? Some see this as a form of conservation so we don't have to take as many from the ocean. Don't worry, the coral's nervous system is very simple and they open up very quickly afterwards. Splitting is just one of the ways that they reproduce.
I bought this Acanthastrea species a few weeks ago and it seems to be quite happy. It's a hard coral so unlike the kenya tree there is a hard, calcium based skeleton underneath the fleshy polyps that they can retract into when threatened. This coral loves to be fed meaty foods and puts out its cnidocyte-covered feeding tentacles out when it smells something edible. These tentacles can be seen in the photo surrounding the polyp's mouth.
On a side note, you can get purple Acanthastrea with bright green mouths. The inspiration for Subnautica's purple brain coral, perhaps?
This is one of my favourites, an orange fruit loop zoanthid. It's one of the rarer species and I believe I paid £30 for a single polyp which has since spread. I now have about 20 of them.
More zoanthids and a baby rose bubble tip anemone. The adult, if fed enough, will rapidly grow and then tear itself into two adults or bud off tiny new anemones at the foot. I have two babies and the adult right now.
More corals! Pictured is a red mushroom and a green hairy mushroom.
Here's the other baby anemone...it's attached to the shell of the squamosa clam. Fortunately, the clam doesn't seem to be bothered but I'll have to find a way of removing it at some point. It's lodged between the scutes of the clam shell which will be hard to reach.
More corals and my derasa clam (The stripy one):
Clams are not simple animals like corals and anemones. Coral/anemone polyps consist of a mouth, stomach and the oral tentacles. Clams have gills, a heart and gonads and thus need a lot more energy...although it's worth knowing that anemones are also pretty light demanding. Both corals and clams contain a symbiotic algae named Zooxanthellae inside their tissues which generate energy for their hosts through photosynthesis. When stressed or given insufficient light they will lose their zooxanthellae (Bleach) and die. The Zooxanthellae is also what causes the corals to fluoresce under blue light.
The final three clams: a gold maxima clam (My oldest), an ultra blue maxima (Which I bought as a baby) and a blue/gold crocea clam. The latter two cost a small fortune...I'd love to have either a pure black maxima clam (£500+) or a gigas clam, but a gigas will grow bigger than the actual tank. The maximas and crocea are the most light demanding clams so they sit right at the top.
Finally, my sexy shrimp. I have three of them, all of them female I believe. They get their name from the constant dance they do, they sort of wave and wriggle their tails back and forth to ward off predators. Pretty awesome to watch! Like the clownfish, they are resistant to the stings of corals and anemones so they often sit on top of them, dancing all the while.
My avatar.
Sorry about the long read and the many photos, I could (And sometimes do) talk about this subject all day and will be glad to answer any questions. I'd be cool if there's any more hobbyists here.
Pretty fun to be able to watch the tank and play Subnautica at the same time.
I hope you guys enjoyed!
Comments
How much would you say this hobby has cost you altogether? I know it's a tough question because it's lots of little costs that all add up.
Particularly, how much was the tank and what's its capacity?
The tank's capacity is maybe 120 litres? Not entirely sure on that, it was all custom-built by the previous owner.
Next up is the live rock. You can get away with using ordinary rocks from the beach or whatever although in some places you can get penalised for it (I know that Florida doesn't allow it). Live rock is riddled with holes formed from burrowing worms and the tides and is also home to beneficial bacteria which is used to remove ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. The holes give it more surface area and thus better filtration capability. Live rock is maybe £5-10 a kilo? I guess it varies.
Larger tanks will often come with a sump which is also great.
Water is cheap. You can mix your own saltwater using a reef salt mix and reverse osmosis (RO) water or you can collect it yourself from cleaner parts of the sea, I prefer to mix it myself. The RO water is also used to top up the tank when water evaporates, because as it evaporates the salinity of the tank gets higher and can harm the animals if left unchecked.
You'll also want a protein skimmer, not too expensive depending on what you get. The skimmer causes waste in the water to rise up as a stream of bubbles, which spill over into a collection cup as waste which you throw away every few days. Also, you'll need a heater, again quite cheap.
Those are the real essentials. Some people go all-out and buy fancy computerised auto-topup systems and chemical pumps but I haven't bothered, opting instead for calcium/magnesium supplements, a phosphate reactor and UV steriliser. It works well enough for me but I'm sure it's helpful to have the extras if you can.
You can buy test kits to test for specific water parameters (Salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, magnesium, calcium, etc) but a pet shop will probably test it for you which is cheap.
The prices of the animals and corals are difficult to say, it depends entirely on what you have and where you get them from. I'd say that I've spent at least £600 over the years on animals although I've been able to recoup some of it by breeding and selling my corals. Fortunately I help out part time at the pet shop and can usually get a few discounts and corals in exchange.
Of course, a nano tank is much cheaper and easier to find space for. The only downsides are limitations to stocking it and the water chemistry will be more sensitive. I managed quite well with one when I got started. If you do ever get into this hobby, I can't emphasise research enough. Do plenty of reading beforehand, but it isn't the insurmountably difficult hobby that a lot of people think it is. Once everything's settled it's usually just feed once a day, wipe the glass, water change once a week and a water test once every two weeks.
I hope that helped?
I love the blenny and dragonet, and I really love the effort you've put into all the coral, anemones etc and the environment in general, something I think is often overlooked in fish tanks. It's definitely a beautiful set up. And not a skull or shipwreck in sight.
He sounds like a bad ass.
Never been a fan of ornaments such as plastic corals (The real thing is so much better) or shipwrecks myself, I prefer to make things look as authentic as possible. Power to you if you do like ornaments though!
I'm glad I helped.
The blenny is a pain sometimes but there are also times when he makes up for it with his cuteness. He used to have a favourite sea shell at the front that he'd curl up inside with only his head showing, blue eyes staring daggers at passersby. Another time I caught him reclining on an inflated coral like it was some sort of sofa.
This was taken last year when he was still using the shell. Excuse the bubble algae, I had some problems back then (Hair algae, red cyanobacteria, flatworms):
Also, I found an old photo of the kenya tree coral when it was just starting to grow. I still can't believe how big it is now!
I don't like the ornaments either, I meant it was good you didn't have skulls or shipwrecks, they're the stereotypical cliche. I really approve of you aesthetic taste, it's a beautiful aquarium and I'm fairly envious.
Also, you spent 30 quid on a zoanthid polyp (very pretty) and now you have 20? That's a win.
I remember taking the big toadstool coral out and putting it in a bucket of saltwater, then cutting off a few slices from the "cap". There was slime everywhere and this awful metallic smell and I was like "oh gods, what've I done?!". I tied the pieces to rubble and put the adult back in. Within half an hour they were open and happy again. In a few weeks the toadstool pieces attached themselves to the rubble and I was able to trade them in. Haven't done it since though, it's one of my older corals and I'd hate to lose it to carelessness. Plus the clowns would hate me forever.
Next week I should be able to get a few more corals, not sure what I'd like to get though. Maybe a plating Montipora, they grow in colourful shelves and look quite nice.
I'm envious in turn as I never seemed to have any success with bettas...I wish I knew why! If I ever go back to freshwater I'd love to try keeping freshwater stingrays...if only I had the room for a tank big enough.
Got more photos this afternoon!
This little guy is a Blastomussa merletti polyp that I bought last week, another hard coral. He seems to be happy enough judging by how puffed up he is, I love the colours. I give him a little bit of food each day in hopes that he'll start to grow more polyps. B.merletti is pretty small. Their cousin, Blastomussa wellsi, is much bigger. I'll be getting one of those next week for sure.
When target feeding corals I often have to cover them or the sexy shrimp will try and steal their food...
Speaking of which, here's a sexy shrimp sitting on a palythoa colony next to the squamosa clam. You can see part of the clam's fleshy mantle at the top left. Do you see those dark, raised bumps on the edges? Those are very simple eyespots used for detecting light and motion. If you make any sudden movements near the tank the clams tend to see it and slam shut.
This is my "mini maxi" carpet anemone. Most carpet anemones are pretty difficult to look after and absolutely huge with a potent sting (They have been known to eat clownfish on occasion). Mini carpets are nice and small, easy to look after and come in a veritable rainbow of colours. I've seen a purple and yellow one at the pet shop but sadly it was snatched up by someone else. Mine is blue and green.
It does have pretty strong nematocysts. They can't penetrate your skin but if you accidentally brush against it it'll stick rather strongly onto your skin. It's made me jump a few times when doing tank maintenance.
Last photo, this is a piece of Xenia elongata, more commonly nicknamed "pulsing Xenia". It gets its name from the mesmerising way the polyps constantly open and close, it's marvellous to watch. Xenia is a fickle coral that thrives in some tanks and yet some expert hobbyists can't seem to keep it alive at all. Unfortunately for me, it is very invasive and gets everywhere. And when you touch it, it leaves the most awful, sickening smell I've ever known on your fingers that takes ages to wash off.
If you don't believe me about Xenia's constant pulsing motion, here's a nice video. Why a coral would expend so much energy on movement is still a bit of a mystery. Some people speculate that it helps them to feed in some way. Others say it keeps the water around it oxygenated by keeping it moving.
I finally managed to obtain a Blastomussa wellsi! It's the one on the left, next to its cousin Blastomussa merletti for comparison. The B.wellsi polyps are so much larger and vibrantly coloured. There are just two polyps but with sufficient feeding it won't be long before they sprout off babies.
You may also notice the cross section of the B.wellsi's skeleton where the original colony was cut with a band saw. Some coral species are so physically similar that the only way to tell them apart is to examine the skeleton under a microscope.
I am taking my first tentative steps into SPS (Small-polyped stony) coral territory. SPS corals are the main "reef building" corals that form the building blocks of many reef ecosystems. SPS corals are characterised by hard skeletons and tiny polyps, LPS (Large-polyped stony) respectively feature larger polyps such as the above Blastomussa. Then you have the softies, which don't have skeletons and just consist of the fleshy polyps. Of course, these classifications aren't really used in the scientific community and are just there to make things easier for hobbyists.
Here's my first SPS, a purple Stylophora, also known as a birds nest coral. They're known to grow fairly quickly under optimal conditions and mine seems to be quite happy so far. It seems to enjoy a strong current that ruffles the polyps, giving it a nice rippling effect. I secured it in place with a silicone based coral glue (Which actually works so far...my attempts to use epoxy resin months ago was a smelly, messy disaster that didn't even hold the corals in place).
Next, I set to work putting my new red Montipora capricornis (Another SPS) in place with the same method. This coral grows in a shelving manner which looks truly spectacular, especially if you have different coloured Montipora living together. Getting these photos were pretty awkward, sorry about the poor detail. You won't be able to see the polyps in the photos because they're very small, but they resemble tiny bright red flowers dotting the surface of the coral "shelf".
Also, the male clownfish was in an evil mood when I was mounting the Montipora to the rock. The biting was unrelenting and it was all I could do not to flick him in retaliation.
That's pretty much all for this update, hope you enjoyed.
Oh wait, a final bonus photo first...one of the hermit crabs managing to look cute.
Now I have the money but no time to really do the proper research and setup. Or the maintenance or the proper quarantines and acclimation for new fish or corals. Have you had much problems with hitchikers or nuisances? Or diseases? I think I'd also be heart broken if I brought home a new friend who didn't make it because it was sick or it just couldn't flourish in the tank for whatever reason.
Very Beautiful...
Sadly, some day the way things are going, this may be the only way to see a coral reef.
I have had my fair share of hitchhikers and other problems, yes. I've lost a few fish before but they were always healthy beforehand. I usually lose invertebrates due to incompatibility (They may suddenly decide they don't like each other and start fighting). I did have a pair of fire shrimp but after months of peaceful coexistence I have one remaining.
The pest I currently suffer from is the Aiptasia anemone, a small brown anemone that spreads rapidly and delights in stinging your corals into oblivion. I check for them every week or so and eliminate the ones I find with a specialised treatment.
In the past I've also had small flatworms that would cover the glass and smother corals, they bred so fast. Buying a six-line wrasse (Who sadly jumped out of the tank many months later) was very helpful since wrasses find flatworms appetising. Red cyanobacteria was another nightmare. Picture a red slimy substance coating everything in reach...that killed a few corals because it would completely deprive them of light despite my best efforts to keep them free of it. In the end I installed a UV sterilizer and that helped get rid of it. I was also having hair and bubble algae at the time which was almost as bad and made the tank look very ugly.
I also bought a small zoanthid coral once which turned out to be infested with tiny white Nudibranches (Sea slugs) that fed specifically on that coral. Dipping the coral in fresh water for a few minutes caused the Nudibranches to rapidly fall off and caused no harm to the coral itself (They're often exposed to rain during low tide). Later I bought a big yellow Montipora that suffered from Montipora-eating Nudibranches...I did wonder why it was so cheap. Removing the adults was mostly done with a soft toothbrush but getting the eggs out of the small folds of the coral proved impossible for me. The coral sadly died weeks later and the Nudibranches later starved without the species they preyed on.
The moral of that story is to very closely inspect whatever you're buying before it's actually in your tank. I once turned down a nice looking clam because it was riddled with pyramidellid snails. None of my five clams have suffered with them and I'm happy to keep it that way.
So yeah, most pests come on corals and rock. I've heard accounts of people hearing clicking sounds at night and finding hermit crabs dead, only to find that the rock they bought the day before harboured a mantis shrimp. Bobbit worms aren't unheard of either...there was even one guy who bought a rock that had a little octopus living in it!
@DaveyNY
Thank you! I sincerely hope that it doesn't come to that. I'd love to visit a wild reef one day although it would be so tempting to snip off a few small bits for my tank.
Got photos? I love seeing other people's tanks.
Sure, though they're of the tanks at their previous best... moving was not easy for the critters and had to downsize things...
Saltwater: clownfish and eventual reeftank
freshwater
Loving the freshwater tank too.
I've had a lot better luck with freshwater and with plants. I started with one little anacharis and ended up with hundreds. Can't get hairgrasses to survive to save my life though.
Firstly, my green hairy mushroom coral has split! You can see that there are now two polyps, the new one at the bottom is slightly smaller than its parent. I do wish that the red mushroom next to it would split soon.
Here's a rare treat for you...my fire shrimp (Lysmata debelius). He rarely makes an appearance unless it's dinner time and never really sticks around long enough to be photographed. He was a lot bolder when he lived with another fire shrimp but I suspect they fought because the other simply vanished one day. Fire shrimp are a cleaner shrimp so they will pick bits of detritus or any parasites off of passing fish. They're quite shy compared to the skunk cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis) so you won't see this behaviour as much. Sometimes he'll even jump onto my hand and start cleaning.
Finally, here's a common scavenger species that lives in my tank: the bristle worm. Some people like myself allow them to stay in the tank because they're great scavengers but other people can't stand them. They get a bad reputation from other, similar Polychaetes (Such as the enormous bobbit worm) living in the tank that might kill small invertebrates or fish but most bristle worms mind their own business. They can get very long though.
They get their name from the rows of little white bristles lining their sides. They look soft but they're not- the bristles are very sharp and will break off into your skin at the slightest touch. I can tell you from experience that it feels like tiny shards of glass stuck into your fingers that take ages to remove. Reactions differ between people but it tends to make my fingers swell and itch intensely for a few days after being stung. It's very easy to accidentally get stung...you can lift any rock only to find a few of them were hiding underneath. The less common, bright red fire worm is supposed to be a lot worse but I haven't had any of those in my tank.
As soon as you feed the tank you'll see bristle worms emerging from crevices to eat any leftovers.
Jacques!
Only just noticed the big growth spurt that the green star polyp colony is having. That white mass is all new tissue which is encrusting up the glass. You can see all the baby polyps forming in the second photo.
I've seen photos of tanks where the star polyps completely cover entire sides of the tank, it can look really nice.
Sorry about the slightly dirty glass, I'm doing a water change today anyhow.
At the weekend I'll be taking my scissors to the kenya tree since it's so big that it obscures the view of a few corals at the back and overshadows some of the others. I've found a few people who are willing to trade pieces of coral I don't have in exchange for a few kenya tree branches. I'll probably throw in some Xenia...honestly, I already give the stuff away for free since it grows so fast.
great stuff. as a fellow aquarist, i can say i truly appreciate the effort and maintenance that goes into somethin like this, let alone the passion-filled hours of research!
myself, i am a planted tank keeper and currently have 17 tanks going. over the years, i have accumulated more plant species than i could hope to keep track of. never tried my hand at saltwater, but i have taught classes on aquascaping and, though lately real life has kept me a bit too occupied to maintain everything how I'd like, i have entertained the thought of some day creating a nano reef tank.
some day.
here's to keepin our hands wet! cheers!
That's neat! I always wanted to one day try making one of those Japanese style planted tanks that looks like a surface landscape, I love how it looks like the fish are swimming through the sky:
Regrettably, the Montipora capricornis I showed earlier died a few weeks ago. Gradually the tissue receded from the skeleton starting from the edges and moving inwards until there was nothing left...I've never had luck with that species for some reason and I broke out all the test kits just in case. The water is about perfect. It may have been unhappy in the place I positioned it or perhaps something else was stinging it. Chemical warfare from the soft corals, possibly. I shall continue my research and hopefully try again one day.
Not a lot else has changed! The electric blue maxima clam decided to detach itself from the rock it's been anchored to for the last few months and jump down to the bottom. They do that sometimes...they get restless and decide to shift themselves a bit. The zoanthids continue to grow new polyps and although I can't get in a position to photograph it, the red mushroom has in fact reproduced! Right underneath its skirts there's two babies that're growing quickly.
The reason I can't photograph them is mostly because the midas blenny has decided the crevice the mushroom babies are growing in makes a fine home. Look at that murderous stare, projecting enough raw hatred to give a reaper leviathan nightmares. Would you want to piss him off? I didn't think so.
Oh, and the adult rose bubble tip anemone has started to get restless again. Sea anemones aren't actually stationary but can slowly crawl along on their pedal disk in the same manner that a snail does. Some anemones can even swim. Look it up if you don't believe me. The anemone decided to crawl down to the bottom of the tank where it threatened to sting a few corals and by the next day had moved back to its original position. Confuses the hell out of the clownfish when their house decides to get up and take a walk!
I just found this old photo of my banded serpent starfish. I call him Ringo.
He's probably one of the oldest critters I have in there. You won't see him these days as he hides under the rocks, but occasionally you see his arms waving around when the tank is fed. If you can coax him out of hiding when the lights are off, he'll actually eat out of your hand.
Just maybe, though, but I'd really like to
Paludarium (from latin palus : swamp/landing and -arium : space) this is old and now defunkt
How many hours of maintenance would you guess you put in each week?
A quick water change takes me half an hour to an hour at most. When I find myself moving stuff around and really getting into it, it can take up to three.
First off is this little black Nudibranch. I think he's called a pustule Nudibranch, for the odd lumps covering his back. I can't find a proper species name for him and there's practically no information on them. He's very lazy and hardly moves whilst he grazes on algae on the glass. I do like the little eyestalks, they look like the "rabbit ears" that the closely related sea hares get their name from.
Next up, a baby Aiptasia-eating filefish, my latest weapon against the dreaded Aiptasia anemones I sometimes discover in the dark corners of the reef. I haven't actually seen him eat Aiptasia yet, but he does pick frequently at the rocks in search of food and has so far eaten every kind of food I've offered.
His colouration isn't exactly spectacular but I love his bright eyes and the odd, flattened body. When he reaches his full size he'll be roughly as big as the female clownfish. He looks like a slow, deliberate swimmer (And he is) but he can move very quickly indeed when he wants to.
A little trivia for those who don't know: filefish skin was once used as a substitute for sandpaper, owing to its roughness.
I've also re-purposed part of the refugium tank for growing smaller corals. A piece of egg crate functions as a shelf and I installed a new light down there. There's three corals down there right now and they seem pretty happy! Unfortunately my fish and hermit crabs tend to knock smaller corals around so I'm putting some of them in the refugium until they get bigger. Right now a little Acanthastrea, the Blastomussa merletti and some of my fruit loop zoanthids are down there. Feeding corals is so much easier when there's no fish/shrimp/crabs/worms trying to steal the food out of their mouths...
Hope you enjoyed!