Clown College

To celebrate the holdiay weekend I added the final pieces of the fish puzzle to my tank.
This came in the form of two orange anemonefishes (Amphiprion sandaracinos) . To be kind, I also added a home for them in the form of a green bubble tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) . With this addition i've decided that the tank has reached its maximum carrying capacity, and the only further addition will be reef invertebrates (corals & the like). Certainly no more fish, and likely no more hermits, snails, crabs, etc. ).
Now I just sit back and watch everything grow - with an occassional water change here and there to keep everyone happy & healthy).

I'm into Leather

So I've had a leather coral (Sarcophyton sp.) in my tank since way back when I went to the book signing by Mike Paletta. I was nervous to show it to the blogging world because for the last two weeks the thing has just been fairly shriveled and never extended its polyps. Of course, I thought I was unable to keep yet another species which is supposedly able to be kept by idiots. Fortunately for all parties involved, it has decided to join the world of photosynthesizers and extend its polyps and bask in the natural glow of the artificial sun which shines from atop my tank. This make me feel much better - and now I'm passing that joy along to all of you (my faithful readers - even if there aren't large volumes of you) in cyberland.

Increasing Biodiversity (a.k.a. I'm a sucker)

I'm a sucker.
Everytime I go to the aquarium shop to pick up some RO/DI water (a.k.a good water) for water changes, I get roped into some additional reef inhabitants. Tonight it was a small colony of Pulsing Xenia's (Xenia sp. - Red Sea origin) and a small colony of whats known in the aquarium hobby as green star polyps (we science types like to call that one Briareum stechei)
Both seemed well suited for moderate lighting and could be cared for by an idiot.
So along with my water, I came home with some more biomass for my reef.

Lets have a war

Turns out my new(ish) electric blue hermit crab (Calcinus elegans) is an aggressive little bugger.

He's constantly terrorizing the other large hermit crab in the tank (the orangeclaw - Calcinus tibicen) and sometime this week made him switch shells and drop a claw.

Even after this, today I've watched ol' blue chase mr. orangeclaw around the tank like it was nobodys business.

He seems to leave everyone else alone, but he really doesn't like the orangeclaw at all.

Hopefully this is just a show to establish dominance and all this chasing and fighting will end. I've got an otherwise peaceful tank, if only I could get these two to see eye to eye (or maybe claw to claw)

Anemones on the move

some of the smaller anemones which were attached to the zooanthid mats have decided they would rather be other places on the reef.

So, two of the more adventurous ones have picked themselves up and moved away from home to a new location on the reef.

I love it when nature takes its course in my tank.

The budding mushroom

This little guy split away from the main mushroom polyp from which it was attached.
So far it is quite small, but has managed to attach itself solidly to the reef and seems to be quite happy.

I'm happy to have a new polyp to make the reef look fuller.

Meeting Mike Paletta

Went back to the same shop as Wednesday and got my copy of 'The New Marine Aquarium' signed by the Author Mike Paletta.

I was also talked into buying some more stuff for the tank.

To futher help with algae & clean-up, I got 2 more Astrea snails, a Mithrax crab, and an Electic Blue Hermit.

I'm also posting the pic above because its much better than the one of posts ago (The reef springs to life) which was a poor attempt at showcasing my mushroom and fungiid.

Here is a pic of my new Electric Blue next to a much smaller Blue-legged Hermit:

Changes in (L)atitude

I thought I should update the continuing saga of my Gobiodon okinawae (a.k.a. 'Yellow Guy').

In just the past few days he has gone from being ultra-shy, non-eating, make-me-worry-all-day-long-fish, to super cool personality, star of the tank.
I've gotten him to eat everything (live & frozen brine shrimp, frozen & flake formula 1) and he now perches right out on a ledge in the very front of the tank.
He also actively swims and doesn't run and hide everytime I check in on the tank.

I can't tell you how happy this makes me because I was so worried that he wasn't doing well.
In the last three days he's really come around, and he's devoping a pretty cool personality within the tank.

Pics of Peppermint

so the weather outside was frightful this weekend which cancelled my camping trip.
that means I'm spending time working on that photo set up I talked about previously.
Still no underwater shots, but my new method is working better.

Here is a pic of one of my peppermint shrimps clamoring over a $15 cluster of zoanthids.

Also since the weather is bad... tomorrow I will be going back to the shop which sold me my first such polyps to partake in a book signing by Mike Paletta. At the same time I'm sure I'll be picking up some new treats to futher build my low-light reef.

The reef springs to life.

Went to visit the newest local marine aquarium hobby shop (only been open 10 days) today.
They've got a really nice setup and seem to cater towards the rare/big/expensive market.
However they also sell cast-aways at affordable prices.

After some questions and overstaying closing time, the clerk was able to convince me that the reef needed to start its population.

I'm wary of starting corals and the like in such a new tank.
Never-the-less, the clerk was effective into talking me into some mushroom polyps (I think these are corallimorphs, but have yet to do the taxonomy) and a very tiny (1.5 cm diameter) fungia coral.
They were selling these rogue polyps for $5 each, which was a risk I was willing to take.

$25 later my tank is now populated by one small purple fungiid, and 4 musroom polyps.
I'm hoping these guys will flourish, reproduce and grow into the large colonies which they were charging $40 for.

For now, they really give additional color to my live rock.
Keeping my fingers crossed.

Long Live Rock

Well, one reader of this blog (I don't know how many of you there actually are, but I sure appreciate those of you who are reading) inquired about what i've found crawling on my live rock since its been introduced to my tank. I'm a bit of a marine biology nerd, so I've been trying to catalog and identify all of the life in my tank. While this chore is turning exhaustive, I thought I'd mention a few of the cooler finds on my live rock.
I've got numerous serpulid worms, some small white ophiuroids (brittle stars), the dreaded bristle worms, of course coralline algae, but perhaps my favorite find to date has been a rock chiton (pictured) - these guys have always fascinated me in the wild and by stroke of luck, I aquired a six-plated one through the live rock.

I've only mentioned a few of the more 'sexy' critters I've found emerging from the live rock, but there are also tons of isopods, amphipods, worms, and other assorted micro-inverts combing my live rock.

True tales of the undead

So I had a bit of panic over the weekend.
On the bottom of the tank between a crevice in the live rock I noticed what looked like the body of one of my two treasured scarlet hermit crabs.
I was very distraught, but quickly removed the sadness from my tank.
Without careful inspection, I gave the thing a proper burial in the backyard and moped around feeling sorry for my inadequate reef keeping abilities.

The very next morning as I'm giving the morning feed, I begin to inventory the tank and notice that I'm still counting two scarlett reef hermits.
How could this be? I buried one last night.
Turns out the little guy must have just molted as I also notice that he was wearing a new house.

I have no other way to explain this 'resurrection' other than thinking now that what I buried was actually the discarded molt of my crab. Hopefully this is the case - otherwise I've got some magic happening.

Fire in de hole

I'd like to report the latest vertebrate addition to the tank:
a small fire dartfish (Nemateleotris magnifica). I didn't think I would be adding things so fast, but I was kind of hoping to get this guy along with the coral gobies, however the only one the store had that day was too big.
So now the purchased animal tally is:

3 fish
6 hermits
9 snails

There must be something about multiples of 3.

Let there be brine

In the continuing effort to showcase the wildlife in my tank, here is a photo of my scarlett reef hermit crab (Paguristes cadenati). There are two of these guys in the tank, but I like this one the most because his white shell makes his red body & yellow eyes really stand out.

Went to the fish store today to try and get help with my fishes apparent eating disorder.
They suggested live food, so's I got a massive bag of brine shrimp and am going to give them a whirl. Upon initial feeding I did notice both fish to be a bit more alert & active, but still have yet to actually see one of them eat. Hopefully this situation improves soon - I'm really worried.

Also, since I'm feeding and they aren't eating, I decided to get some shrimps because I noticed the hermits & snails just don't clean up the fish food as well as they take care of my algal growth.
So new to the tank today are a pair of Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdenmanni). I'm starting to get quite a high biodiversity.

Starvation Blues

Here is a picture of the Clown Coral Goby (Gobiodon histrio).
Pictures aside, I'm worried about my fishies.
They are pretty shy and always hiding amongst the live rock.
I really haven't seen them eating all that much.
I watch them alot, but am not even sure if they've eaten.
I think I've seen the green guy (G. histrio) eat a few times, and I may have seen the yellow man (G. okinawae) eat once.... other than that I'm left to hope that they are in fact eating.
Yellow still has a pretty sunken stomach and I am getting mighty worried about him.
Going to the fish store tomorrow to see if they have any advice.

Pictures of Fishy

So here is a quick and dirty pick of the Gobiodon okinawae. He likes to spend time perched atop the powerhead, or cruising between the live rock.
His tank mate spends most of the day hiding in the live rock. so its tougher to snap his photo.

Still going with the low quality images till I get my photographizing all straightened out for real.