It's been seven months since I introduced a pair of thorny oysters to my tank and I am sad to report that they just didn't last. The larger one died after a couple of months and the smaller one followed suit a week later. I must assume I wasn't supplying enough of the right kinds of food to sustain them or they just didn't acclimate well to my tank. It's not all doom and gloom however, some of the organisms that came attached to the outside of the larger oyster's shell are still alive. The Frond oyster, Dendostrea frons, on the top of the shell is still opening and closing, which is very cool. As is the jewel box clam (Chama sp?) at the back. This is the only photo of the clam I have taken so far, it looks the same now as it did back in July, well it's covered with a bit more coralline algae and vermatid snails now. The vermatid snails are everywhere now and they are becoming rather annoying. The other smaller bivalves have survived too along with some of sponges etc. The sponge coverage is a lot less that it was at the beginning but some bits are holding out on the more shaded areas of the shell. The grey 'blob' growing to the right of the Frond oyster has definitely grown since introduction, I assume it's a type of sponge also. Up until recently I had assumed the small tunicate originally located to the left of the grey sponge had long since perished but no, it's still hanging on in there amazingly. It looks like it's seriously getting squeezed out by the sponge though. Last but not least the small fan worm attached to the bottom of the shell is still alive and looking lovely. I think it may be Bispira brunnea however these worms generally appear in clusters (hence the common name cluster dusters). They secrete soft non-calcareous tubes but I can't tell what kind of tube this worm is living in, when the feathery head retracts you wouldn't know anything was there at all. Some of the livestock has adopted the empty oyster shell as a favoured sleeping location. The cowries like to hang out under the top shell during the day as does the Black Sea cucumber occasionally (but he's getting too big to fit into the space now). Since it was clear the oyster shell was going to be staying in my tank for the foreseeable future I decided to put it to good use. I needed a spot to fix down a new spiral coral that I picked up in October. I had tried fixing the coral to a rock in front of the yellow spiral but the two didn't appear to get along very well. The yellow one stopped extending its polyps and the flesh looked oddly puffy so I opted to pull the new spiral away as a safety precaution. This left me with a bit of a dilemma, where to place the new one. That's when I came up with the idea of making use of the oyster shell, actually there was really no where else to place the spiral to be honest. This new spiral coral is super curly and has a thicker stem than the other two I have, it is a different species being a Stichopathes sp. rather than Cirrhipathes sp. As you can see this species has polyps on one side of the stem only whereas Cirrhipathes sp. have them arranged all the way round.
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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) 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. |
AuthorHi, my name is Lisa and I live in Derby, UK. I am a self-confessed reefaholic! Archives
July 2022
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