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)
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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.... I decided a few weeks ago that it was finally time to add a few more fish to my tank. My son complained that when he looked at the tank he couldn't see any fish in there. I have to admit this was kind of true as I have a fair number of fish not on display for most of the time. The Whitecap goby lives underground with his pistol shrimp buddy, the Black barred goby lives in a cave (which he never, ever leaves) and the Possum wrasse is quite secretive too. The ghost cardinals are, well, ghosts! That just leaves the Yellow wrasse as the only visible swimmy one (I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the yellow wrasse but more about that later). Anyway off I go to the fish shop with the sole purpose of getting one or two largish in your face swimmy kind of fish. After 45 minutes of serious deliberation and I found myself driving home with 4 really tiny fish. I lost my beloved pink streaked wrasse at the beginning of the year after 4 years and I really missed him so when I saw a tank filled with 6 or 7 really tiny pink streak wrasse I immediately thought ooh I could try a pair of these enchanting fish. Apparently males of the species have more pronounced yellow lines down the body and blue-grey markings on the gill cover. I studied the tiny fish for ages trying to spot any differences between individuals. After consultation with the assistant and some more studying we chose what we considered were two likely candidates. I have named them Pinky and Perky (from the TV show), I hope that doesn't prove to be a premonition because Pinky and Perky were actually twin boys, gulp! This is Pinky who I hope might be male: And this is Perky who I hope is female: They are totally adorable and interact with each other peacefully. So far so good, I hope it stays that way. I also picked up a Royal Gramma (Kelsey) because in all my years keeping reef tanks I've never ever had one and clearly I needed to tick that box. Last but not least I was going to add another Spotted Mandarin to replace the one I lost in May. There's something about their 'nothing fazes me attitude' that I really love. I had beefed up the copepod numbers ready to add another but decided to go with a teeny tiny Flame scooter instead (Scoot). It's another fish I've never kept plus it's really lovely looking fish. Check the vermatid snails (grrr!) for size reference, this guy is tiny. I wish I'd been able to pick up a pair of these guys too but they only had one available. Also I'd rather err on the side of caution in case frozen food was not accepted. Fortunately he's not fussy, it's non stop eating all day for this guy.
It was a couple of weeks after adding these new fish that I decided for about the 100th time that the Yellow wrasse really had to go. I'd kept him for a long time but he's so greedy and high strung that he just drove me crazy. Trying to feed the corals was always a bit of a battle of wits with him watching all the time. I used to feed them after he'd gone to bed but once I (foolishly) added some Peppermint shrimp that was becoming impossible too. Arghhh Peppermints don't get me started!! I've tried many times over the course of the last year to catch this wrasse. He was just too fast and clever for me, the number of times he's escaped the trap squeezing through the smallest gap as the door was falling. It was like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible style escapes every time. Anyway I made one last concerted effort to catch him and to my extreme surprise I did. Once he was in the bucket I found myself totally unprepared for what to do next and chaos ensued. I quickly posted on a local FB group whilst also calling the LFS. To avoid keeping him in the sump for an unknown amount of time I needed to make a decision on the spot, take him to the shop before it closed for the day or wait and hope someone was prepared to offer him a new home. I decided to go with the shop option rather than risk having no interest. As it happened there were plenty of offers for new homes from local reefers but I was already well on the way to the shop by then. Duh! I do feel bad about moving the Yellow wrasse on but the tank is so much more peaceful now and the remaining fish so much more relaxed. A couple of weeks ago I introduced a frag of a pink Australian Acropora hyacinthus as part of an experiment organised through the UltimateReef forum. The plan is to document its growth and colouration over the next 12 months and compare it to those frags placed in various other reef aquaria. All frags were taken from the same parent colony and added at the same time, give or take a few weeks. There are 42 participants in all, and the systems vary from large to small, new through to established reefs, SPS only set ups and mixed reefs etc. It's going to be fun (as long as I don't manage to kill my frag of course). Here it is, 3 hours post introduction, 29th July 2021. Unfortunately it was bashed about a bit in the post and some of the tips were damaged but the rest looks healthy enough so hopefully it will recover given a bit of time. Fingers crossed! Since I have the camera is out poised to take regular photos of the experiment frag I thought I ought to make an effort and take some updated shots of the other livestock too. Here's a few to begin with: And here's a FTS to sign off for now.
I think my Pom Pom crab has gone to crab heaven after 4 years with me, I haven't caught a glimpse for a few weeks now and that's just not normal for him. He lost one of his anemones in April possibly due to an altercation with the Porcelain crab but I don't know for sure. I assumed he would split the remaining anemone into two but he never did, in fact on a couple of occasions I spotted him carrying an Aiptasia around instead. Three months after he lost the first anemone I noticed that the remaining one looked really small. Then sadly it too was gone the very next day. I made a special effort to keep target feeding the crab for the next couple of weeks but now he's vanished and naturally I fear the worst. He may still be OK hidden in amongst the rockwork but I think it's unlikely. This is my last photo of him when he was carrying just the one anemone. RIP Ming.
On the 20th July I noticed that my Coco worm was looking a bit worse for wear and I feared that it was on its way out. Then on the 25th July my worst fear was realised when I noticed a red 'blob' lying on the sand. It was the crown of my Coco worm! I removed it to take a photo and whilst doing so I noticed that the crown was still moving. Freaky!! I know that feather worms can regrow their feathery heads so I just had to sit back and hope that mine was still alive in its tube and healthy enough to recover. 10 days after the head was discarded I spotted some new teeny tiny feathers poking out of the end of the tube. I was so thrilled (and relieved) to see that it was still alive. Regrowing the crown seems to be quite a quick process. The photo below was taken 13 days after the crown was discarded. And this is day 15: There's still a way to go yet before it's fully recovered assuming the new crown will be as large are the old one. I have no idea if it will be the same size or not actually. I wish I knew why the old one was dropped. Is it a normal age process or due to some sort of stress factor, like too much flow or lack of food perhaps?
Time for a coral update. I picked up this gorgonian nine months ago as two small frags set on the same frag plug. They settled in OK but didn't appear to grow much, they did both 'fatten' up a bit though. At the end of January I started to notice some odd looking polyps developing, they were mainly on the front frag but I also noticed some on the the rear one too. The tentacles elongated and I thought that they looked suspiciously like sweeper tentacles. There were no corals particularly near to the frags, perhaps it was something floating around in the water? A few more months passed by and rear frag began extending less and less, I assumed that maybe it was a lack of food which is always my fear with non-photosynthetic corals. The direction of flow mainly goes from front to back so perhaps the front frag was capturing the lions share of food depriving the rear frag of any. I tried target feeding more but it didn't seem to make any difference. Eventually I decided to cut the rear frag off and stick it down somewhere else. Unfortunately I made a really poor job of fixing the frag because the next day the it had totally vanished, no doubt knocked off by a snail or hermit crab never to be seen again. What an idiot I am.
So now I have just the one frag. Interestingly since its sibling was removed it's been looking a better. The strange sweeper like tentacles have gone and I am wondering if the two frags were trying to fight each other. They were cut from the same gorgonian, so they were exactly the same species. Maybe they didn't like being so close to one another? It's a strange one that's for sure. A couple of months after I moved and 'killed' the rear frag I had to relocate the remaining one to make room for another coral. The Chilli coral needed a new location asap (that's a story for another update). I like the new position much better, it's not far from where it was and I rotated the frag plug so it's much easier to observe any growth. Come on lil frag, groooow now please. Another somewhat risky new addition to report and this is going to be the last one for sure!
One Friday night a couple of months ago, whilst under the influence of a couple of glasses of wine, I had this crazy idea to get a black cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota). Mr Fantastic (my Tigertail cucumber) seems happy enough living on the right hand side of the tank and I thought it would be cool to introduce another cucumber to habit the left hand side of the tank. Literally as soon as I placed the order I regretted it, I thought to myself I'll cancel that order first thing in the morning. However I rather stupidly didn't and on the following Wednesday a black cucumber duly arrived. I spent ages acclimating it and checking for any injuries, toxic releases etc. At that point I was seriously regretting ever having drunk any wine the previous Friday (or ever really). The cucumber was carefully introduced to the left side of the tank and it slowly moved to the rockwork and stayed there safe and sound for the rest of the afternoon. However when I checked on him after lights out I discovered he was climbing up the front glass. When I say I didn't sleep much that night, I mean I really didn't sleep much that night. I kept getting up to check where he was or checking the webcam with the infrared lights to make sure he was still in view and in one piece. Fortunately all he did was climb to the top of the glass and stay there. The next morning when the lights came on he climbed down to the sand and stayed there for the rest of the day. After lights out he was back up to the top of the glass again and this time stayed there for the next two days without moving. Finally on the evening of the fourth day he climbed down to the sand and moved over to the rockwork on the left side. He worked his way under the rocks and has stayed in that vicinity ever since. To begin with I could see him 'working' on the sand but as his rear end was hidden from view I didn't know if he was actually processing (eating?) any sand or not. Finally one morning, after 4 weeks, I discovered he'd left me a proper pile of white sand noodles out in full view. I am rather relieved that he appears to be doing OK, for now at least. An impromptu video of the NPS corals last night after lights out. In hindsight I probably should have wiped the glass and used a tripod. Also apologies for the reflections, the corals look good at least. |
AuthorHi, my name is Lisa and I live in Derby, UK. I am a self-confessed reefaholic! Archives
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