Yesterday was pretty eventful, my pair of pink streaked wrasse spawned for the first time. I guess that means that I was fortunate enough to choose a male and female after all. The female had been looking fat all week but yesterday she looked like she'd swallowed a marble, so round was her tummy. The pair seemed to be displaying/interacting a lot and this intensified a couple of hours before lights out so I sat down to watch them. The male would display to the female by swimming on his side next to her and his colouration changed too (I'm not exactly sure to what because the lighting was really, really blue at that time plus I was sitting too far away so not to spook them). The rear of her belly next to the vent went very pale/white. The romancing/courtship went on for about an hour, they would come together, rise to the top of the tank and swim back down again. Finally, about 50 minutes before the lights go out, they did the deed. I downloaded the footage from my webcam but the quality is bad, I mean really, really bad but I'm still pretty excited to have captured it anyway. Maybe when/if it happens again I can try to record it on my phone but the lights will still be blue so it might not be that much better. I have cropped the footage a bit and tried colour correcting some of the blue (also the glass needs a wipe). It's a blink and you'll miss it kind of moment, so if that happens check out time stamp 1:20 (top left of the screen).
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One of the benefits of the yellow wrasse no longer being present is that whenever the fish are fed and the flow is switched off out pop this pair. I don't know what Flash has been eating recently but his belly is really quite round, lol. I woke up yesterday to discover the black cucumber has grown a lot of hair overnight. I don't think it really suits him really, lol. This is what this species likes to do when away from the rockwork, he'll find whatever is available and make his way underneath it. Then he'll spend the next few days working through the sand in the near vicinity before heading back to the rocks again. In this particular instance it's kind of annoying as he's 'eaten' the sand underneath the Heliofungia and pooped it out the behind the coral so the Helio has somehow slid forward and is now squished right up against the front glass. Once the cucumber moves on I'll have to move the coral back once more.
I have also noticed that over the last year or so there is generally less sand lying around the rockwork than there was to begin with. This is because a both cucumbers eat up the surrounding sand and deposit it in piles in caves under the rocks. It is nice clean sand though. ;o) The rise and fall of the Peppermint shrimps.
Just over 4.5 months ago I nervously introduced three Peppermint shrimp into my reef tank. All three settled into the rockwork on the left hand side of the tank and would pop out at feeding time to steal any fish food that happened to land near to their home. As the weeks progressed the Aiptasia gradually started to disappear and I rejoiced, they were welcome to steal fish food as long as they kept up with their main job of Aiptasia snacking. However as the weeks ticked by they became more disruptive, they would roam around the tank after lights out and try and steal extra food from the NPS corals. I would feed the shrimp directly to keep them busy at coral feeding time but they consumed it double quick and still wanted to steal more. It became impossible to feed the sun corals in the evening. I tried feeding them earlier in the day so that the food would be fully engulfed and well on the way to being digested before the shrimps came out prowling. This worked to a certain extent but no matter how I tried I couldn't get all of the corals to open up during the day. Plus I had fish issues to contend with (the yellow wrasse liked to steal food too at that time). I kept at it for a while but the sun corals weren't looking as great as they used to. Pre shrimp days they would look glorious in the evenings when they were all fully extended but they learnt that night-time brings out pointy/stabby claws so began closing up tight. The Dendrophyllia seemed more affected than the Tubastrea. One night I checked on the tank and saw a pair of shrimp climbing all over the Dendrophyllia trying to pull food out from within the polyp heads, I decided right there and then that the shrimp had to go. I kind of hated them by that point. The following evening I placed the small fish trap on the sand next to the Dendrophyllia, baited it with fish food and waited. To my disappointment and frustration not a single shrimp was interested in my all you can eat buffet. I tried again the following evening but still nothing, wth! Maybe the fish trap was putting them off somehow (I'm not a fan of it either to be honest, the door does rock to and fro due to the pulsing action of the powerheads). I decided to go old school and try a DIY trap. I simply took a plastic bottle, chopped off the top half and inverted it into the lower half. A small hole was drilled into the lower half so it could be baited with food and it was weighted down in the tank with a small rock. I added some bits of mysis etc and settled down to wait. 45 minutes later I had my first shrimp prisoner, woo hoo! The shrimp was transferred to the refugium to serve his (or her) jail sentence. I've named this shrimp 'the bold one'. The following evening I baited the trap again and waited... and waited... and waited but I never saw a single shrimp at all. I went to bed a little disheartened but determined to keep going till the remaining shrimp were caught. The next morning I got up to find that the trap had done its job overnight and caught another shrimp. The shrimp was cowering behind the tiny rock in the trap. I was really quite surprised that it hadn't managed to find its way out again. This shrimp, now known as 'the stupid one', was transferred to the refugium to join his 'bold' friend. Two down and one to go. I felt confident that one more evening and the final shrimp would be mine. However it proved not to be, although the shrimp approached the entrance to the trap at least three times it just refused to go in. I went to bed hopeful that it would enter overnight and be waiting in the trap to go and join the others in the morning. Sadly all I found in the trap the following day was a conch! I tried six more nights to catch the last shrimp (who was now named 'the clever one') but no matter how I baited the trap with tasty food he would not be caught. The Nassarius snails were having a field day instead, lol. As the days progressed I began to notice that the Dendrophyllia started to look a little better so I decided to call it quits for the time being. Two weeks of staking out the tank after lights out was getting somewhat old. It could stay put as long as it wasn't doing any damage to my corals. It's been a month since 'operation shrimp trap' and I am happy to report that sun corals have returned to normal again and look amazing once more. Unfortunately I've noticed some Aiptasia popping up once again around the tank.... Argh!!! One step forward and one step back yet again. Ming the Pom Pom crab is actually still alive!! On the 13th September I had the first sighting of him since mid July, I thought he was a goner for sure so I was thrilled that he was still alive. Sometimes keeping a reef tank can be pretty darn miserable but on that day, it was an awesome reefing day.
He has set up his new base of operations at the back of the tank behind the Goniastrea. Now that I know where he likes to hang out I he's easy to locate and feed. Yesterday he popped out into the open for a wander so I was able to take a new photo of him. He's still carrying a single Aiptasia, I wonder why he only carries the one, maybe one is enough for his purposes? When I thought that he had died I visited a shop looking for pom pom crabs to replace him but fortunately there were none available. Who knows what would have happened if I had been able to find another, Ming is pretty big now (for a Pom Pom crab) and the ones I have seen in the shops recently have looked really tiny in comparison, he would have been all over a new one for sure. It would have been cool to find one so that they could share Pom Poms but but I would have hated it if there had been any aggro between the two. One of the opposite sex would have been cool though assuming they got along OK.... |
AuthorHi, my name is Lisa and I live in Derby, UK. I am a self-confessed reefaholic! Archives
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