After the peppermint shrimp fiasco and the removal of the yellow wrasse I've been really focussing on getting the sun corals to open more during the day. I want to enjoy them more when the lights are on and it's easier to feed them during the day when I can actually see what I'm doing. For a while I had been struggling to feed the black sun coral heads that came attached to the orange sun colony. The orange polyps obscure the black heads when they open up. If I didn't take action then I would lose them and I really didn't want that to happen. I pulled the entire colony out of the tank and chopped the black heads off. I also removed the single head marked with the arrow because that wasn't opening too and I thought why not save that too. It took a fair while to coax the fragged heads to open up once more but they are all doing great now.
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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. 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. I have been really loving the little NPS coral garden that I have going on in my tank, the show of polyps at night is really amazing. So when I spotted a couple of slightly different looking sun corals and another similar species for sale online I was tempted. I moved them in and out of my virtual basket at least 4 times before finally committing to buy. I ordered two Tubastraea and a Dendrophyllia, they were delivered safe and sound at the beginning of September. Here they are placed on the sand right after delivery. The first sun coral has beautiful solid yellow polyps. The second colony is orange and, as you can see from the photo below, it arrived with a few heads of black sun coral attached to it (seen at bottom of the photo). Five of the heads are totally black and one (not visible in the photo) has a green sheen to it rather like my T. micrantha. Two, maybe even three corals for the price of one, nice! Here's a quick snap of the sun coral garden at night with the new corals settled in. The yellow one is bottom right and the orange one (with attached black heads) can be seen upper left. The last coral in the delivery is pretty small in size but it's really rather cool! It's Heteropsammia cochlea aka the Walking Dendro, this a solitary free-living coral with a hidden surprise inside. Living within the coral is a Sipunculid peanut worm, the worm extends outside the coral via a hole at the base in search for food and in doing so moves the coral along on the sand. The coral provides the worm has a safe haven and the worm keeps the coral clean and free of sediment, a symbiotic relationship.
I wish I'd taken the time to snap a photo of the underside of the coral before I placed it in the tank but I forgot in my haste to get it settled. As luck would have it I set the coral on the sand at a slight angle leaving the hole just viewable from the side of the tank. I set myself down and waited for the worm to emerge. I waited and waited but there was no sign. Since I'd bought the coral mainly for the worm I must admit I was a little disappointed. The coral is able to live without the worm but I really wanted to 'see' it walk across the sand in my tank! I gave up my vigil briefly to tidy up the delivery box and acclimation equipment etc., I was only away for the briefest of moments but when I checked back on the coral it was upright with the hole now hidden underneath. Darn it, I'd missed the worm, typical! Still it was alive and that's what mattered. The next morning the coral had moved about 4 cm leaving a furrow of sand behind it, exciting stuff. During the last two and a half months it's not moved very far at all in fact it's stayed entirely within the front right hand corner of the tank, working around an area of about ten square centimetres in very slow circles every day. I can't actually see the coral moving, I just notice it's in a different spot every day. I have seen the worm since when it had positioned the coral right to the front pane of glass. I could see a tiny head next to it cleaning grains of sand with my magnifying glass. I received the results of my second ICP analysis yesterday. Cobalt and Aluminium are still elevated but there is a little less than before so maybe the TMC eco rock has stopped leeching or is a least leeching less now, time will tell. The nutrient levels are still low despite my feeding a ton of food and dosing extra nitrate. I have been seeing a little bit of green cyano on the rocks and the sand is looking a bit greener too. I'm still debating whether I should do anything about it or just wait and see. I'll probably just wait and see. Oh and I have been plucking out tiny bits of Ulva from the sand (mainly) whenever I see them, grrr! I'm resigned to have to keep doing this from now on. The sun coral has christened the new rock, the first baby is coming along nicely. The baby Trochus snails are doing really well. I've been moving any that I find in the sump over to the refugium. The refugium needs cleaning and they are better off in there, I want to avoid the scenario where they get crushed by an impeller or jam up my X-filter. I have discovered some in the DT too which I'm surprised about, I thought that they would all have been wrasse food but I guess they are able to hide well enough to avoid such a fate. They do blend in with the rockwork extremely well. The Coco worm continues to do surprisingly well, it has extended its tube even more now. Kylie the Pink Streaked wrasse is keeping a beady eye on it for me. I'm also pleased to report that the Menella gorgonian appears to be doing great now. It's finally decided to pop out another branch at the base, woo hoo! Unfortunately I can't get it to completely recover the sections that lost some flesh earlier on because hair algae has taken a hold. It's only possible to see the algae when the polyps are fully retracted but it does annoy me no end. When the algae grows long enough a hermit comes along and gives it a trim which I appreciate. Unfortunately the Rei Yellow wrasse seems to have taken a bit of a disliking to Jessie the Rainford's goby, I have no idea as to why; a dominance thing maybe. There is no chasing or actual fighting but a fair amount of posturing goes on between the two. When they meet they both fully flare their fins and engage in some sort of a staring contest, Jessie may be the smaller fish but he stands his ground. Rei had better watch his step because if it comes to a choice he'll be the one to go. Catching him would be the issue... A quick pic of Sunny the Sunburst Anthias.
I have now reached the point in my updates where Coronavirus takes hold and the UK along with pretty much everywhere else in the world goes into lockdown.
I allowed Sunny (the Anthias) three weeks to settle, making sure that he was eating well and healthy looking. During that time I noted the nitrates/phosphates levels were continuing to fall so I thought I should get some more fish in there pronto. Since there was no way I could source any new stock from the LFS due to the lockdown I decided to move some over from the Reefer. I had purchased a fish trap ages ago but never got the chance to put it to good use, it was the smallest trap that I could find (the Little ocean small fish trap) but even so there was no way it was going to fit into the tank as it was, some coral need to be removed. I cut out a significant branch of the Pinnigorgia gorgonian and gently (as far as I could) snapped off the yellow Dendrophyllia and Balanophyllia from the rockwork. I took the time to scrape off every single head of Utter Chaos zoanthids that had grown onto the Balano rock as I'm not going to be transferring these 'pests' over to the the new tank. Once the yellow Dendro was out of the way I carefully slid the fish trap into the front left side of the tank. Unfortunately the magnets are on the other side of the trap in this orientation so I wasn't able attach it to the glass, I had to simply lay it on the sand. I expected it to take a while for the fish to get used to the trap but within a few minutes Jessie the Rainford's goby and Kandy the Spotted Mandarin had popped inside to check it out. The fish I really wanted to catch first though were Rei the Yellow wrasse and Spike the Firefish but they were not impressed with the new state of affairs at all. Rei immediately vanished into the sand and Spike just kept well away at the back of the tank. I waited for 2 days but it became clear that neither Rei nor Spike were going to venture anywhere near it any time soon, in fact Rei actually decided that sleeping in the sand was far more preferable to eating. On the third day I decided my plan of catching specific fish was a non starter so I opted to try to catch any fish that I could. Jessie the Rainford's goby was first in and the trap worked perfectly, a quick tug of the cord and the door dropped down with the fish safely inside. Two days later it was Edna the Possum wrasse, the day after that it was Kylie the Pink Streaked wrasse and the next day it was Kandy the Spotted Mandarin (actually Kandy loved the trap so much that he spent more time inside of it than out). The newly transferred fish seem to like their new home and it's a pleasure to watch them weave in and out of the caves in the rockwork. Unfortunately it seems I am currently person non grata, whenever I approach the tank they all vanish at breakneck speed and it breaks my heart just a little bit every time. Hopefully they will forgive me in a few weeks. Feeding has been a bit hit and miss in the new tank and I have been worried about the Kandy especially. He used to feed extremely well on frozen food in the Reefer but in the new tank all prepared foods were refused. I decided to set up a second Tisbe pod culture since it seems lots more might be needed. Fortunately after two weeks he's back on the frozen again (PE mysis rocks!) so I'm a little less worried about slow starvation now. I have also transferred over the Orange Dendrophyllia and both of the Tubastrea corals so now I have a little NPS garden going on in the new tank. It's such a pleasure to be able to easily feed them at the moment, there's no fish trying to steal the food or corals overgrowing/around them and I don't have to bash SPS corals with a pipette trying to reach them. I wonder how long that's gonna last for. Coral warfare/shading is a becoming more and more of an issue as you would expect for any reef tank approaching 3 years of age. Well perhaps not if the tank had been sensibly/lightly stocked but I guess this hasn't happened. Common sense seems to fly out of the window where myself and reef tanks are concerned. Most of what I'm going to post is kind of good really. Generally the corals are growing well but there are some that are losing the battle for survival. The Stylophora needs regular trimming to prevent it from growing up to and touching the left hand glass wall. Its base continues to expand and kills off areas of contact with two neighbouring Montipora as it goes. It has also (along with the Pinnigorgia gorgonian) almost completely shaded out the Beach Bum Montipora. The Beach bum is fading away and there is nothing I can do about it, it's pretty much impossible to relocate. I try not to dwell on this fact too much, it's too painful. Big mistake. Big. HUGE! I removed most of the green plating Montipora a while ago but it's making a comeback and shading the corals below again. I should never have introduced a frag of this in the first place, I just knew it would end up causing issues in a small tank but it was free and I just couldn't throw it away. On the plus side I must admit it is a lovely vibrant green colour. The encrusting 'Superman' Montipora is possibly worse than the green plating Monti, I am definitely in need of some marine Kryptonite for this particular coral. At one point it grew up along one side of the clam till the Crocea decided enough was enough and forced its shell open wide enough to snap a good chunk of the the Montipora right off. The Superman Monti also kills any Seriatopora hysterix it touches and has encrusted over nearby Acropora like they were nothing but bare rock. Interestingly it has actually run out of rock space to the rear and has started growing out in a thick plate like formation instead. I grudgingly accepted the loss of the purple tipped Acro frags to the Superman as they were not thriving anyway (due to the presence of red bugs) but it was harder to take the potential loss of the Acropora gomezi. Despite the parasitic bugs, the A. gomezi still showed nice colouration, not what it should look like under normal conditions but still nice. For months I gritted my teeth and watched this Acro be overgrown, but right at the last minute I decided to frag off the remaining two branch tips. I fixed both of them to the same frag tile and plonked it on the sand. A quick survey with the magnifying glass showed me that the tiny A. gomezi frags are still providing a home/food to the red bugs. I could remove and dip them (repeatedly if needed) but if the bugs are present elsewhere in the system then they will just become reinfested again. The frags have encrusted on to the tile but that's about all they've done at this point. One of the branch tips had a close encounter with the Scolymia thanks to a hermit crab, and got stripped. It's almost recovered bar for a tiny bit of algae covered skeleton at the very end. You can see one red bug highlighted but the arrow in the photo below. The only other Acropora species remaining in the tank is A. hyacinthus (aka Red Planet), I have yet to discover any red bugs on it but that doesn't mean there aren't any lurking out of sight. Interestingly this Acro has been looking better recently colourwise, it's actually starting to look red once more, well pink at the very least. The Scolymia continues to look good. It needs to be moved in the not too distant future as the Favia behind is creeping ever closer. I can't afford for those two to meet! Knowing my luck the (much) more expensive coral would be the loser if they clashed. The Favia has completely overrun the Cyphastrea that used to grow to the right of it and continues to bubble up towards the Acanthastrea to the left. There's been no full on attack as of yet. The Acanthastrea are surviving but not really thriving. I know that they prefer lower lighting conditions but the plating Montipora above is shading them too much at present. I have been trying to feed them to try and make up for it but 9 times out of 10 Rei the Yellow wrasse steals the food. The Oxypora keeps expanding ever so slowly, it is also somewhat lacking in light these days. The Utter Chaos zoanthids are a complete nightmare. They grow so fast and don't seem to be bothered by anything (at least nothing they have encountered in the tank so far). SPS corals are fair game, they just reach up shade out an area of coral until the flesh recedes and then they colonise the dead skeleton. I'm sure that this is a familiar story to many other reef keepers. Having never kept zoas before this is a new one on me. They have grown up the side of the clam and were beginning to reach over and shade the mantle before I decided to scrape them off. A temporary fix as they are encrusting again. To be fair it's just the Utter Chaos zoanthids that are causing a headache, the rest are much slower growing (aside from growing out onto the sand which is making it hard for Lurch the conch to navigate round the tank). The Heliofungia has grown to a lovely size but is really squashed up in the front left hand corner of the tank. It remains attached to the small rock and so cannot move around. This is possibly a good thing as I'm sure there would be carnage if it could scoot along the sand and relocate itself. It expanded so much that it was stinging the orange Dendrophyllia to the right of it. The Lobophyllia has been doing OK, it's really slow growing but since it's tucked away at the side of the tank with not great lighting then that's not exactly surprising. It started off with one head and now almost has three. Unfortunately one night it suddenly launched an all out attack on the Black sun coral. Before now it had been almost completely overgrown by the Utter Chao zoanthids and not retaliated but clearly the threat posed by the Black sun was a different matter. It stripped three branches of the sun overnight. Since the orange Dendrophyllia and black sun both needed moving, plus I (still) had the Balanophyllia sitting in the sump I decided space needed to be made for them elsewhere. In the end I pulled out 100+ Utter Chaos zoas, clipped a few branches of A. hyacinthus and removed all of Seriatpora hystrix. The Seri broke into pieces during removal and I decided to keep just a single piece and reposition it a little higher up. This left a space big enough to just about squeeze in the sun corals, now I have quite a nice little cluster of NPS corals on the right hand side of the tank. After spending over a year and a half in the sump the Balanophyllia is finally back in the DT once more and it's looking good, I don't know why I struggled with it so much. I wonder if perhaps it had some sort of infection that caused the flesh to recede before. It's good to see it back to full health (fingers crossed). I'm also thrilled that the accompanying hitchhiker bivalve is still alive too, I have no idea what that is eating but it must be filtering out enough as it has grown larger since introduction. The yellow Dendrophyllia remains in place next to the Heliofungia, it has encrusted onto the rock work so I'm not going to mess with it. Eventually I expect it too will be stung but that's a problem for the future. In just over a year this Dendro has increased from 3 to 15 separate heads with another forming. Such a lovely looking coral. The Pinnigorgia gorgonian goes from strength to strength, it grows so fast and always fully extends its polyps. I have cut off a number of branches of it already and need to trim it some more. The Muricea and Plexaurella gorgonians are much slower growing tucked away at the back of the tank. That's it for now, I will post an updated full tank shot in a few days' time.
Now for the coral round up starting with LPS. The Favia (Gonastrea sp.?) was such a tiny frag when first introduced, just three heads and now who knows how many there are. It has completely dominated the rock on which it was placed and has even expanded on to the sand on the left-hand side. There used to be a gap between the left and right rock structures that was wide enough for the conch to easily pass through but it's gone completely now. I fear that there will be a huge fight soon between it and the Acanthastrea. I did catch the two in contact one morning with mesentarial filaments extended, I'm not sure who instigated it but both survived the encounter and most of the time they coexist nail bitingly close together as seen in the photo below. Neither can be moved as they are well and truely welded to the rockwork. Unfortunately the Cyphastrea to the right of the Favia has not fared so well. A tiny amount is still hanging on right next to the sand (hidden behind the Scolymia) but it's only a question of time before it's overgrown entirely, again it cannot be moved as it's also encrusted onto the rock work. Acanthastrea #2 (lava glow) is slowly getting bigger but is shaded at the back so can really only grow forward. It's looking much better since I fragged the green plating Montipora that's growing above it. I haven't bothered to feed it much recently because the wrasses steal 99% of the food before it's ingested. The original Acantastrea (#1) was really struggling due to lack of light and that was the main impetus for me to take the cutters to the green Montipora. I am happy to say that it's looking a bit better now and starting to regain some colouration. I have been trying to boost it by feeding it but again it's hard to sneak some to it without the beady eyes of the wrasses noticing. The Heliofungia is growing huge now and has filled the left-hand corner of the tank. I can't even fit the whole coral in when taking a photo from above using the lens dipper. When extended the tentacles sway worryingly close to the the orange Dendrophyllia, I haven't seen them make contact yet but the nearest Dendro head has looked damaged so I'm guessing it must have happened at some point. I thought I had killed the Heliofungia recently when I accidentally dropped the algae magnet on top of it but apart from looking shrivelled for a day it seems to have bounced back again (touch wood!) The baby buds continue to do well, despite them being shaded out by 'Mum'. I don't know how many there are but they completely ring the base of the coral. It would be nice if they detached but show no signs of doing so, I daren't try to frag them off as knowing my luck I'd kill the lot of them and 'Mum' too. The Oxypora is a coral that just is, it sits there minding its own buisness, silently growing larger bit by tiny bit. To be honest it's not in the best position and has plated out into and interesting shape to the rear, growing upwards along side the gorgonian. The Scolymia is the coral that immediately draws your eye, I love it and it's so easy to care for. I'm not sure if it's growing but it certainly expands much more than it did on first introduction. I feed it every now and again at night when its tentacles extend. I have seen videos of other Scolys that feed during the daylight hours but mine never shows a single tentacle when the lights are on, perhaps mine can be trained to do so but there's not much point since the ever patrolling wrasses would spoil my fun. I am forever vigilant to its well being and do sometimes worry when, on the occasional day, it's not as big. It's the most I've ever spent on a coral so losing it would be a hard blow. Then it'd be no more Scolys for me. The Lobophyllia was the first LPS coral to be added to the tank (along with Acan #1). Initially it was placed on the sand in the middle of the tank but I was advised to move it due to its aggressive nature (stinging all other corals in the vicinity) so I moved it to the front left-hand corner and then the right-hand corner but no matter where it went the snails kept knocking it over. In the end I had to glue it down to the base rock in the rear right-hand corner of the tank, tucked away from pretty much everything. The lighting is not great down there and it's got worse since the corals have 'grown in' so it's not surprising that growth has been minimal. Over the months (years now) the Utter Chaos zoanthids have marched their way ever closer to it (and everything else for that matter!) I fully expected the uber aggressive Lobo to keep them in check but no, when contact was finally made the Lobo did nothing at all. So the zoanthids just kept coming until the whole left hand side of the coral was hidden under a matt of polyps. Eventually I took pity on the Lobo and removed the encroaching zoanthids it was only then that I discovered the that Lobo had split into two separate heads. This coral is clearly made of tough stuff! The most problematical of all of my LPS corals has been the Balanophyllia. It was the first non-photosynthetic coral that I introduced to this tank, I chose it mainly because it was a single head hence small and I'd never kept one before (I had kept Tubastraea sp. in the past and found them easy to care for). It started off looking fantastic but gradually the tentacles would extend less and less and the flesh began to recede at the base. I tried everything that I could think of to make it happy. I moved it to different locations in the tank in case it was a lighting issue (too bright perhaps?) or maybe it was flow related. I tried feeding it more frequently and also less frequently but still it continued to decline. Eventually I pulled it from the DT and sat it on a frag rack in the sump so that I could take better care of it. However as the months passed by still nothing much changed, it just hung on and looked rather sad. I tried all sorts of different food stuffs in the hope of stimulating it to open as it once did but the tentacles remained short and stubby or often absent entirely. I must admit there were periods when I would ignore it entirely but I always came back to it determined not to give up. Finally after much chopping and changing I settled on a different feeding regimen, instead of offering it small amounts of food regularly (daily or every other day) I changed to offering food only twice a week at which times I would swamp it. On Wednesdays I would offer it a good amount of LPS pellets and on Sundays it would get a smorgasbord of frozen food, reef roids and coral frenzy all soaked in Selcon. It now looks better than it has done for absolutely ages (I've had it for just under two years now), the change was gradual, the tentacles extend a reasonable amount and recession has stopped, in fact I think it may have even grown a little. The bulge on the right-hand side of the head in the photo below is where the tip of the coral used to be. At one time the flesh receded right to the top and it lost tentacles on one side. Now it has a full ring of tentacles that extend, if not as much as before but definitely much improved. The colouration isn't as good as it once was so I assume I still haven't got the nutrition quite right but hey baby steps. As you can see the hitchhiking bivalve that came attached to the base of the coral is still alive and growing. In addition, the rock base has gained quite a few 'friends'. There are a number of ball anemones, sponges, fan worms, vermitid snails (of course) and even three baby Tubastrea polyps that have settled out on to the base. I'm at the point now where I'm thinking of introducing the coral back into the DT but hesitant to do so in case it starts to fade once more. In comparison to the Balanophyllia the Sun coral (Tubastrea sp.) is easy to care for, feed it and it will grow (and reproduce!), it's released planulae larvae more times than I care to mention. The whole tank is littered with baby sun polyps now. They have settled out all over the rocks, on snail shells, in the weir, on the pump heads and even on the siporax in the sump to mention a few places. There are now too many to target feed so I am leaving them to fend for themselves. I haven't been feeding every head of the main colony like I used to so it may be a little smaller than it used to be. At least that's what it looks like when I compare it to the older photos, it's either that or it wasn't fully extended when I took the most recent photo. From what I've read the heads do not share nutrition so if one doesn't get fed it fades away; I'm not exactly sure how true that actually is however. The first baby sun polyp that I discovered in August 2017 is just over 1.5 years old, wow! It's still just a single head but seems to have developed a calcified base now. To be honest I'm quite surprised it's still alive as I haven't target fed it for ages, it's probably been over a year since I offered it food. It just got too difficult with the Seriatopora growing above it and also it became obscured by (those rather annoying) Utter Chaos zoanthids. Clearly it must be in a position to be able to capture enough food to keep it going. The black sun coral (Tubastrea micrantha) seems to have well and truly settled in to life in my tank. It looks really amazing at night, I know that for most people that's not their cup of tea but come on it does look cool, right? I have seen it start to tentatively extend some tentacles during the day after the fish have been fed so if I offered some food to it directly then I think it would extend during the day. If only it weren't for those pesky wrasse, lol. I couldn't say if it has developed any new heads yet but the flesh has been encrusting downwards to the rock on which it's attached so I take that to be a good sign. Amazingly a while back I found a couple of baby black sun polyps lying in the sump. I think these have developed from bits of flesh that fell off the main coral after my disastrous fragging attempt. I thought about trying to rescue them and fix them to a small rock but decided I had enough mouths to worry about already so they will have to take their chances in the sump. The two Dendrophyllia are doing great, popping out new heads slowly but surely. The yellow one started with 3 heads and now has 14 and the orange one has gone from 3 to 9. Unfortunately there is a small problem with the orange one as I mentioned above, the head of the Dendro closest to the Heliofungia does not fully expand its tentacles any more and sometimes it looks a bit damaged. I should move one of them but the Heliofungia is too large to go anywhere else and the Dendro has just grown down and made contact with the rockwork plus it looks fantastic alongside the yellow one and there's not much space elsewhere for it either, arrggh! That's it for now, I think I'll tackle the inverts update next before moving on to the rest of the corals.
A few months ago I popped into my LFS to pick up some frozen food and naturally had to have a look around the livestock tanks. I spotted a nice Tubastrea micrantha (black sun coral) in one of the coral trays, I don't see many of these available and this one looked to be in good condition too with no loss of tissue (the polyps were not extended obviously). I was tempted to purchase it but space is tight and it's another mouth(es) to feed so in the end common sense prevailed and I walked away. Then weeks later we visited again, the coral was still there only this time it looked sad, flesh had stripped off from a number of heads leaving exposed white skeleton beneath, it was starving to death. Rashly I offered to take it off their hands but only if they discounted the price a little. Amazingly they agreed to this and I acquired myself yet another non-photosynthetic coral. It remains to be seen if this is a good or a bad thing. When we got home I decided it might be a good idea to frag off the 'healthier' part of the coral and discard the section with stripped heads. However when I tried to chop it with some coral cutters I was barely able to scratch the surface of the coral. I passed it over to my husband but he could not frag it either. The skeleton of this coral is tough, I mean really, really tough! I have since read that the skeleton of T. micrantha is denser than most other corals on the reef, so that explains that then, lol. So not only have I a sad looking, partially stripped coral but one that also has damage to the base of one of the branches too. Doh! After acclimation I placed it on the sand for observation. I fed the fish and waited for some sort of a response which turned out to be a big fat nothing! OK, not unexpected since it was during the day but when I checked again after the lights went out there was still nothing going on. I fed the other NPS corals but the black sun remained just a motionless black stick, not a single teeny, tiny tentacle popped out to say hello. It must have been so starved that it couldn't rustle up enough energy to do anything at all, even at night. Clearly I needed to make a special effort or this coral was going to be doomed. So the following day I decided take direct action. I had heard about the 'bucket method' (feeding of sun corals in a separate container outside of the tank). I have never needed to try this before but now was the perfect opportunity. I took the coral out of the tank with some water and placed it in a small jug then I sat the jug in a makeshift water bath. I did this to try and keep the temperature from falling too low during the feeding process. I don't know if this was entirely necessary but as I had the equipment available I thought I may as well use it. I made a diary to document my progress. Day 1: I raided the freezer/cupboards for every food stuff I had that I thought might be suitable. Mysis (PE & Gamma), Krill pacifica, mussel, lobster & fish eggs, Calanus, rotifers, Reef Roids and Reef frenzy. I mixed them all up in a glass and let them marinate in some Selcon for good measure. Then I pipetted the food mixture gently all around the coral and waited for 40 minutes. No tentacles appeared and I can't say with any certainty that any food was ingested so back in the tank it went, this time I placed it up in the sump for easier access, this coral was going to be in and out of the tank a LOT in the next few days/weeks (and maybe months!). Day 2: I removed the coral for feeding twice today, once in the morning for an hour and once the afternoon. There was still no sign of any tentacles but a couple of polyps may have taken in some tiny bits of Mysis. I noticed that the food had to be in direct contact with the mouth for anything to happen. I decided, going forward, to lie the coral on this side so that as many mouths were pointing upwards as possible and then turn it over and repeat. Day 3: The coral was out for feeding twice again today. A few of the heads are definitely taking in small bits of food and I also observed the tiniest hint of a few tentacles swelling. Progress! I have extended the feeding times to 1-2 hours per feed. It's frustrating trying to get the food to stay in contact with the mouths most of it just ends up falling to the bottom of the jug. Days 4 & 5: As above, not much change however a few more of the heads were starting to accept small pieces of food and now there are signs of some short stubby tentacles. Day 6: I reduced the frequency of feeding to once per day. Day 11: Fed the coral as normal in the morning when I checked on it in the sump at lunchtime just after the fish were fed and 5 of the heads had tentacles showing so it's starting to respond to food being in the water. Day 14: 5 heads are showing short stubby tentacles when the coral is out being fed in the jug. Day 17: I'm starting to see a few more tentacles appear now and food is being consumed much quicker. Not all of the heads show any signs of life yet though. Day 18: I've started to notice that the coral has begun secreting mucus whenever I take it out of the sump to feed. I take this to be a good sign although it does make it harder to feed (the food gets caught up in the mucus and fails to make contact with the mouthes). Ideally I would like to keep the coral underwater at all times during the transfer process but space is just too tight in the sump so a quick trip in the air is required. Also today I discovered a teeny tiny Aiptaisa growing on the skeleton of one of the stripped heads, oh for goodness sake!! Day 19: I fed the coral as normal and then whipped out some Aiptasia RX. This treatment killed off the pest anemone in short order but also stripped off any part of the sun coral flesh it came into contact with so now there's a bit more white skeleton showing *sigh!* Day 21: The sun coral is starting to look a bit perkier now especially when it's undisturbed in the sump, some of the tentacles are already partially extended in anticipation of feeding time. Day 24: It occurred to me today after looking at some of the original photographs of the coral that I could no longer see the area of the coral that we damaged when we tried to frag it, plus some of the stripped heads are no longer visible either. The flesh has regrown over them, just a couple of bare areas remain now namely where the Aiptasia RX was used. Also it's becoming a little easier to feed with some of the tentacles able to capture food. Day 34: The coral looks ready to take its chances in the display tank. It's eating well and almost all of the heads are extending nicely. Day 36: The big day! The black sun coral is finally fixed into position in the display tank.
I'd like to say that it's all plain sailing from here onwards but that's not strictly true. Firstly this coral will NOT extend its polyps when the lights are on, not even right after the fish are fed, at least it hasn't to date. So I have to wait till after dark to feed and then because well, it's black(ish) in colour, the tentacles are almost impossible to see (unlike the bright orange Tubastrea polyps). So unless I want to squirt food all over the tank I need a light to see what I'm doing. So a torch is required and then the tentacles start retracting again in pretty short order, argh! This is frustrating but I usually manage to feed 60% of the heads which is not bad. I understand that this coral shares nutrition throughout the whole colony so not feeding all of the heads shouldn't be too much of a problem. In closing this NPS coral is certainly harder to care from than the Dendrophyllia or the orange Tubastrea but naturally looks pretty amazing when open. Long may it continue... The tank has survived to reach its second anniversary today, how the time has flown. Needless to say after two years of running, the exciting stocking phase is pretty much over with (although never say never, lol!) and I've moved on to the not quite so exciting fragging phase. The first coral that needed a proper pruning was the Seriatopora hystrix. It has grown in rather an unruly manner and some of the branches were growing over the top of the clam (a definite no-no!) and a good section was also now obscuring my view of the sun coral, making it harder to feed. The tips are easy to frag but I found that when trying to cut branches further down, whole sections would break off instead, so I removed far more of the coral than I intended. Oh well it will recover given time (assuming that the Utter Chaos zoanthids don't take it over completely). Finally, I am able to see the sun coral in all its glory again. As you can see it does try to keep the branches of the Seri in check by stinging and killing off the tips that stray too close. If you look closely you can also see a few of the baby sun polyps that have settled on to the rockwork to the left. The whole tank is pretty much spotted with baby suns right now, even the Scolymia already has one settled on its skeleton. Talking of sun corals, the Dendrophyllia frag I added in August is doing really well, it started out as 3 heads and now has 5, with another 4 more developing. This seems like a much faster growth rate than the Tubastrea, or maybe it is just more noticeable due to its branching formation. I have also been lucky enough to pick up another Dendrophyllia frag from a fellow reefer. Morphologically it looks the same as the yellow one so it's possibly just a different colour morph (or perhaps it's a different species, I don't know). I so looove these corals, I know that they are only at their best after the lights go out but I simply don't care, I think they are spectacular! I sometimes wonder if I should have just gone with an NPS tank and be done with everything else, lol! Ideally I'd prefer to feed these corals during the day so that I can admire their beauty with the lights on but it's so darn frustrating. The wrasse try to steal the food and 98% of the time they are successfuI before the polyp has a chance to fully ingest it. No matter how I defend the coral, the bloomin fish sneak in and grab it most of the time. It's just not worth the effort and stress it causes (to me and the coral). Oh to be outwitted by a few fish.... Anyway back to fragging. The second coral that needed reducing in size was the green plating Montipora, I'd been psyching myself up to do this for months. I knew the time had finally come when the Acanthastrea corals growing directly below it started showing signs of struggling, they were at that point pretty much completely shaded out by the coral above. I kept putting it off because the Montipora had grown into such a perfect saucer shape and looked lovely, I knew that once I'd had at it the shape would be ruined. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of either this or the Seri before I began chopping, I don't know what was I thinking? Anyway the plate coral may look quite delicate but it was surprisingly hard to frag, lower down the skeleton is deceptively thick. I took off a good couple of inches around the edges on the right-hand side and probably should have done more but that's a problem for another day. Now that the there's a bit more light, the Acanthastrea 'Lava Glow' looks good again. Its smaller brother to the left of it is unfortunately still somewhat shaded. However this coral has never really grown well even when it received better lighting. I did try to move it to another location recently but it's fused to the rockwork so I'm afraid it's there to stay. The third coral that needed to be fragged was Acropora hyacinthus. I've been nipping the front tips off here and there for a while as they grew towards the front glass but more drastic action was needed this time as I was no longer possible to clean the glass in front of it. Due to the fused branch growth it was now impossible to remove individual bits so the best remedy for the long term was to remove the entire front half of the coral and as with the Seriatopora more was removed than intended. In fact there's not much of the coral left now, just the base and one main branch. Hey ho! Whilst fragging the A. hyacinthus a large chunk snapped off at the base and fell right on top of the Scolymia. Argh! The Scoly looked very unhappy for a few days and remained shrivelled up, naturally I feared for the worst but fortunately the reefing gods were smiling down and it has bounced back to full glory once more. To say I'd have been upset if a frag that originally cost £15 took out a much, MUCH more expensive coral would have been a bit of an understatement to say the least, lol! The Scoly loves to eat but never shows its tentacles till after the lights go out so I only feed it at that time. I offer it krill or LPS pellets once or twice per week. The Favia has grown from a frag the size of inch squared into quite a big beastie and has spread out not only over the rockwork but also out onto the sand towards the Acanthastrea to the left of it. There used to be a good gap between the left and right rock piles, a space in which the conch could easily pass through but now his shell won't fit through at all. I fear that it's only a question of time until the two corals start fighting each other and there won't be much I can do about it as they are both well and truly encrusted on to the rockwork, It won't be pretty I'm sure! The Heliofungia also continues to do well, there's no sign of it wanting to break away and wander round the sand (which is fine by me!) nor are it's offspring. As you can see from the photo below the coralline algae growing on the glass is a bit of a pain. I want to scrape it all off but I don't want to damage the coral during the process. Everywhere I've read says if the flesh gets torn then it's "hasta la vista baby!", so I feel it's best to just leave it be. Jessie the Rainford's goby has settled in beautifully and whilst he always gives way to the much larger wrasse at feeding time, he's not shy at all. He roams all over the tank, pecking at algae and chewing the 'sand'. He now feeds really well on frozen food and tries his level best to grab as much as he can before the greedy wrasse hoover it all up, I still offer him a bit extra via a pipette to make sure he gets enough to keep his little belly full. Sadly I haven't seen Candy the Red Striped goby (Trima cana) since the 8th October. He/she was one of the first fish added to the tank on the 3rd December 2016. I understand that nano gobies do not have long lifespans, only a couple of years, so I'm assuming it was just his time. Two years is just too short sadly. I can't help but wonder how long Hop the Nudus goby will be around for now. He was also added at the same time as Candy and he already lost his mate earlier this year (March). Sadly I don't have a recent(ish) photo of Candy to share as once the zoanthids grew over his rock he took to hanging out behind Lobophyllia where he was difficult to photograph. I'll post this sneaky shot taken last year instead. :'( The rest of the fish are fine. I have a new invert (see, I can still squeeze more stuff in lol!), a crinoid squat lobster. I tried keeping one of these adorable little crustaceans back in 2016, when the tank was relatively new. Sadly it vanished after just 20 days and I vowed not try another... then I came across this little guy. I reasoned that now that the tank is mature this itty bitty crustacean would stand a better chance at survival so he now resides in my tank. As I type this, it's been 27 days since introduction and I'm happy to say that he's taken up permanent residence amongst the branches of Seriatopora, hiding underneath the relative safely of the Utter Chaos zoanthids during the day, he blends in extremely well with the orange of the polyps. He's been named Jaffa and readily accepts all sorts of food from the pipette, I am hopeful he will do better than Stripes did. Jobs I still need to do. I need to frag the branches of the Stylophora that are growing too close to the glass on the left-hand side and try and remove some of the many Utter Chaos zoanthids that have spread round the tank (I really regret adding those devils). I've run out of time now so I'll sign off with the obligatory full tank shot. From this... To this, in two years.
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AuthorHi, my name is Lisa and I live in Derby, UK. I am a self-confessed reefaholic! Archives
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