Lets start with the bad, it seems I didn't locate and remove all of the nudibranchs from the zoanthid rock last week, I can't say that I'm really that surprised to be honest. So, yesterday out came the rock again (it's good job it's not stuck down!) for another thorough inspection. This time 3 of the little blighters were flushed off. If I discover any more at a later date then I'm going to have to break out the Reef Primer and dip the rock. I know that I should probably have done this as soon as they were first discovered or, even better, as preventative measure but I really hate killing the cool harmless stuff just to nuke the (possible) bad hitchhikers.
Now for the good news. :o) As soon as I knew that I was setting up another reef tank I knew that I HAD to have a pistol shrimp and goby pair. I have never tried keeping a symbiotic pair before and would really wanted to observe the interactions between the fish and shrimp and, most particularly, admire the shrimp hard at work digging. Anyway to my very great surprise my wonderful better half came home yesterday with a Whitecap Goby and Red Spotted pistol shrimp pair. I had tried to purchase a pair before but on the day before I was due to visit the shop the shrimp went missing from the tank in which it was being kept in, I was so gutted as they are not commonly available. Luckily for me the shop was able to obtain another pair and unbeknownst to me, my husband drove over and picked them up. The pair are absolutely beautiful! Upon introduction, the shrimp separated from the goby and headed for the back left-hand corner of the tank whereupon it promptly started digging a hole in the sand. The goby however remained in the open water at the top of the tank which is not a good place to be considering the size of the fish (tiny!!) and the strength of the water flow from the Tunze Nanostream pumps, but more worryingly it is small enough to take a dive through the weir comb to the depths below. I decided to switch off the circulation pumps for the time being to give the little fish a fighting chance to settle but there’s not much I could do with the size of the gaps between the comb. Will I still have a goby/shrimp pair tomorrow who knows? I expect a sleepless night ahead for me worrying about the poor things.
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So my tank seems to have passed the first coral test, all of the frags I introduced 12 days ago are still alive. Phew! The Stylophora is even showing signs of growth. I think it might be time to add a few more at the weekend and maybe even another fish.
The coralline has really started to take off, I'm seeing spots of growth on the pumps and on the back wall too. I am undecided as to whether I should scrape it off for a nice clean look or leave it au naturel. I'll live with it for a while and see how I feel when the coverage increases. Spirorbid worms have also begun to appear in the DT and in the sump too. The tank parameters as of this morning are: Specific Gravity 1.026 d SG Alkalinity 6.85 dKH Calcium 425 ppm Magnesium 1270 ppm Nitrate 0 ppm Phosphate 0 ppm I'd like to tweek the KH and Mg up a bit more but those values are not too bad. I am extremely surprised not to have any detectable NO3 or PO4, this is a bit of quandary for me, I don't think I've ever had a tank with no (or low amounts) of NO3/PO4. I guess the Siporax and refugium must doing their thing, it is early days though and stocking is light I so expect that the levels will rise soon. I do have a bit of furry algae growth on the rocks and a film of algae forms on the glass so I know that there must be some nutrients hidden in there even if the tests say different. One of the things I love most about reef tanks is discovering and identifying new creatures. Yes, some of it can be problematic (as per yesterday's post) but some of it can be hands down cool too (well certainly to me anyway).
Last weekend I noticed an unusual disc thing attached to the zoanthid rock (yes again the zoa rock, it's just full of surprises, lol!). I was immediately curious to find out what it was. It's a sessile flat disc measuring just 2mm across. To the naked eye it doesn't look like much but on closer inspection (with a macro lens) it has a beautiful radial pattern with a distinct middle section. My initial thought was a type of foraminiferen which belongs to a group of single-celled organisms (protists) with shells. I decided to request the help of an expert at foraminifera.eu to help with identification. He confirmed that it is indeed a sessile benthic foram called Marginopora vertebralis. Pretty cool huh! To dip or not to dip, that is the question?
I'm a big fan of biodiversity in a reef tank so when it came to adding my first corals last weekend I found it hard to decide if I should dip them or not. I had the Reef Primer at the ready but in the end I chose not to this time. I mean how unlucky can I be to introduce something nasty on the very first introduction? Ha, was I wrong, wrong, wrong! Today whilst checking the tank, I discovered some tentacles that I'd not seen before. Out came the magnifying glass to confirm what I already knew I was seeing, a zoanthid eating nudibranch! My first thought was quick get the camera out followed closely by darn it, I suppose that needs to go asap. I removed the rock to a separate container of tank water and attacked it with a pipette. Two of the pesky blighters floated off, there may be more and there might be eggs too, only time will tell. They are amazing looking creatures, really beautifully camouflaged but sorry, I can't have them chowing down on my zoanthids. It's such a pity, my kids have been wanting me to get a nudibranch for the tank (as if!), little did they know that we already had some, lol! Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all enjoyed the festivities.
I am pleased to report that my tank has corals in it at last! I took absolutely ages at the LFS deciding what to buy. I'm still not sure if I have made the right choices but the deed is done now so I'll have live with the consequences. My criteria for selection were small pieces/frags only and easy(ish) corals to care for. So I am now the proud owner of a small rock with a scattering of zoanthids, a frag of Stylophora pistillata and a frag of Acanthastrea sp. At the insistence of my son I also came home with a couple of micro hermits. As far as my kids are concerned, crabs are absolutely awesome and corals are just blah! I did however, put my foot down at the suggestion of buying a clam at this point. As much as I would love one I think the tank is too young and unstable at the moment. With regards to the resident stock, the squat lobster is still MIA so it's looking like he's probably gone up to the great reef in the sky, I doubt that I'll be getting another if that is the case. He will be my first loss and will be sorely missed. The Scaleless Shrimpgobies are spending more and more of their time hidden in their cave and have become very protective of it too. Any hermits that venture too close are immediately attacked. Neither goby has fed today in fact I have only seen one of them (not sure which one) a couple of times this afternoon. I do hope they are OK. Edna the possum wrasse has become a bit more confident and I can feed her directly from a pipette, she still quite shy and prefers to swim close to the rockwork and hang out under overhangs though. Candy the Red Striped goby is going strong and seems unfazed by anything at all, food is definitely on top of her list of priorities. |
AuthorHi, my name is Lisa and I live in Derby, UK. I am a self-confessed reefaholic! Archives
July 2022
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