I meant in the tank lol

Hey Jamie, I was looking at your other thread and man, that tank is awesome!!! I wanna set a tank up like that in my room now! Hey, 1 question though: How long do the catalina gobies live and what temp do they need? Sweet tank man!

Sounds good. I won't be around until september, which is when we're doing the group buy from foreshores, but pm me for further info.



Intersting idea. The fact that the tank is so small means that weight probably won't be an issue, and I don't have a rock drill, but could come in handy if I ever have a lager tank.



Yeah, the zeroedge was pretty cool, too bad it didn't work that well. I'll have to make a new version sometime, because it was awesome looking. I don't really know about Catalina's lifespan, i would guess ten years-ish? that seems to be typical for most fish. I would say definitely no higher than 70, but the colder the better.

-Jamie

Ok, so I just read this whole thing...
WOW.
This is so unique, beautiful, and natural looking!!!
I love those barnacles!!!
And the pic of the urchin hiding under the rock made me laugh!

Yeah, the zeroedge was pretty cool, too bad it didn't work that well. I'll have to make a new version sometime, because it was awesome looking. I don't really know about Catalina's lifespan, i would guess ten years-ish? that seems to be typical for most fish. I would say definitely no higher than 70, but the colder the better.

-Jamie
[/quote]
How come it didn't work well? That sucks man! You should make it bigger when you make the new version!
Like 24x24x24! And thats a pretty good lifespan for the Catalina. I heard the trimma goby only likes for a year or so. Glad the Catalina lives longer cuz Im going to buy one in a while. Thanks for the info Jamie!

Okay, will do. Consider one sent

Thanks! Yeah, the urchins are funny. They try to camouflage themselves, but don't realize that it's useless because they're bright purple.



There just wasn't enough flow overall, and since I left the front and side panes dry (only the back overflowed) Salt would crystallize along the top edge, which was really ugly and difficult to clean off. Next time I would make it out of acrylic and have flow over all four sides. I was guessing at the lifespan, but I'm sure it will live at least close to that long. One year seems really short for any fish.



Got it.

-Jamie

nice. I'm being crazy and trying to use adhesive insulation on the tank walls to make it retain the cold temps better...not sure of how well it will work yet, but for 4 bucks why not? No light on it yet, but I put an AC 20 on it to get some flow going

Good luck!

Everything is back home now, but not in the tank yet, I want to make some modifications while it's empty. I'm going to dremel some teeth on the back part of both the top tank and the tidepool. It was getting really annoying having all motile invertebrates wash down into the sump every few days. Other than that it was pretty good, I think all the leaking issues have been addressed, so once I make the teeth the tank should be up and running again!

-Jamie

Okay, I decided to move everything into a five gallon tank for now, till the surge tank is ready, and it looks surprisingly good for just having been thrown together. I got some quick pics of some of the new stuff, plus an fts. The water hadn't cleared up yet when I took these, but it's crystal clear now. I'm not used to it, since the surge tank is always full of micro bubbles.

FTS


Here's the little pycnogonid. Just a centimeter across, and very well camouflaged.


Here are the hydroids. Not looking as good as they did when I got them, plus the picture is kind of blurry. They're tiny, so I had my longest lens extender on, but I couldn't get it to focus perfectly.


Orange striped anemone closed


and open


A. elegantissima


-Jamie

ONE OF EVERYTHING, PLS.

Your getting more than one of everything! Well, not everything. There's only one spider, but you can have him if you want. You get the sculpin too (sorry, there's only one!). And lots of anemones! Just get me an Urticina and a strawberry and I'll be happy. I wonder if I'll find anything in Puget Sound. Two week long marine biology camp just a few days away! And the best part is that I'm getting picked up by my parents, so I'll be able to tidepool and stuff! Awesome! And I'm bringing my wetsuit and underwater camera so I can snorkel and take pictures and stuff! I'm so excited!

lol, ok. I probably have three or four more weeks of 90+ degrees, then it's smooth sailing.

Just pray he still has strawberries by then.

Oh he will, If he doesn't I may be forced to take drastic measures. I don't know what sorts of measures, but you can be assured that they will be drastic and I will take them.

Oh, this is really random, but when we were at the beach we went on this awesome hike (I think I was the only one who enjoyed it) through the Oregonian equivalent of a cloud forest. It was misty, and damp, and every inch of everything was completely covered in life. It was AWESOME! It was also a great place for salamanders. I found my first oregon slender salamander, which was SOO COOL! It made me want to set up a pacific northwest cloud forest biotope with a few salamanders, mossy everything, and maybe even chilled water. Now that would be an awesome tank.

-Jamie

Okay, the stuff is all back in the original tank, with an AWESOME new aquascape (imo). Pictures should be here tomorrow.

It's funny because I'm enjoying it and you aren't !

j/k, trust me though it' worth the wait. Well, if you like it it will be, that is. But you definitely will, probably.

Oh, and FORESHORES GOT NEW STUFF! Not a lot of new stuff, but still everything looks nice. Unfortunately, they're pictures are awful. Half of them you can hardly tell what it is. Just have to buy it and find out!

-Jamie

Well, poo. I can't seem to find my photo card. So, yeah, no fts, sorry. If I can't find it by tomorrow I'll steal my dad's, or use a different camera, but I'm not convinced it's lost yet.

-Jamie

I call shenanigans!

Shenanigans indeed. Someone stole my photo card!

very cool

NOM NOM NOM.

Delicious.

Thanks everyone!

It's even better now, but I LOST MY PHOTO CARD!!!! And I'm about to leave for the San Juans for eight days, so you guys won't even get to see it till then. SORRY!!!

As a plus, I'll probably have some new stuff then. I'm hoping for a couple M. senile (my old ones disappeared during the tank moving ordeal), and If I'm lucky, I might even find an Urticina! I've seen lots of pics of them in tidepools around there. Wish me luck!

-Jamie

Another vacation?

For crying out loud, man!

^^^ditto.

Wish I could do that.

Hey, Mexico was a service trip and you know it. It was free for that reason, too. And it's not like I'm working, just waiting for school to start, but yeah, this was an especially busy summer.

And in WAY more important news,

OMG I GOT URTICINA GREBELNYI!!!!!!!! Yeah, I'm excited. It's a big one too, a perfect tank centerpiece. And there's more. I also found an itty bitty pipefish, which I (against my better judgement) brought home as well. He's maybe three inches long, and ADORABLE. I'm gonna pick up some bbs tomorrow and see how he feels about those. If that doesn't work, I'm going to the beach next weekend, so I'll get some live plankton to tide him over till I get him eating something else. Plus, my lfs sells life rotifers and other planktony things, so I should be set, for a while at least.

Camp was pretty awesome, because of the location, but some of the people were kind of insane. One kid actually tried to kill another (he got sent home) and there was this girl who was addicted to every drug imaginable, plus she got a kidney infection while on the trip, so an ambulance had to come. And, only, like, two other people there were actually interested in marine biology, despite the fact that the camp description said "serious science students only." But, despite the drama, it was still and awesome trip.

And, if you're wondering why there aren't any pictures, school starts tomorrow, and I just got home a few hours ago, so I'm a *little* busy. But soon!

-Jamie

indeed. Exciting! I can't wait for pictures, and that doesn't even make sense, because I could take them anytime (but the lights are off, so they'd have to be night shots).

what group buy? living in la jolla, the temp here is like 70-75 year round. plus i got a chiller and a 1/2in thick tank im dying to tinker with

All the info you need is here: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=164213

I think they are waiting till next month to buy so weather is good all over the country.

those are expensive prices =(

They are, but they do include shipping, which helps a little. I think you should try it. What size tank is it?

Dshnarw- yeah, it was kind of rediculous. Not exactly what you'd expect at a science camp. The kid who freaked out was kind of delusional, and thought he was like, super powerful and could kill you in an instant, but in reality, he was just a wimpy little kid, so it was more like just a fight where he chased the other kid around for a while until one of the counselors came. Still scary though

But anyways, I got urticina pics! yay!







I also decided I needed a new signature, since I haven't had either of those anemones for over a year, and I don't even have a tropical tank anymore, so I'm leaving it up to you guys to decide. I may add more if I get pics I think would look good, but these two are all for now.









By the way, those both had the color messed with a little, but I figure it doesn't matter cause it's just a sig and all.

-Jamie

Maybe I'll put my Urticina sig back up, lol. Remember the good old days.

I like this one better^^^

Those would be the kids that bring guns to school...or become astrophysicists

Rocks = boring; urticina = interesing. Then again, you don't have an Urticina in your tank, so it would be false advertising.



Haha, indeed. Thanks for the input.


In other news, I have determine that the Urticina hates surge, I don't know if it's the high flow, or the bubbles produced, or maybe both, but what ever the reason, it gets really po'ed whenever the surge is on. This is not fantastic, because it does not physically fit into the top tank, and even if it did, I couldn't put it there because of the pipefish. By the way, that tank will be going back to the original planned eelgrass biotope, for the sake of the pipefish. So I need to figure out somoething to do with the anemone. I might just hook up a little five gallon on the side, just for this nem, and maybe a symbiotic shrimp or two. If anyone has a better/mor reasonable idea, let me know.

I got the pipefish some live brine shrimp today. I would have done baby brine, but the fish store didn't have any. Despite the fact that they were way to big, the pipefish still attacked them, and bit peices off quite a few. I also threw in some cyclopeez, but he only was interested in the stuff that moved. I'll see if I can find bbs tomorrow, and will keep trying with the cyclopeez.

-Jamie

12x16x12 AIO. 1/2in acrylic. I have a chiller and the ambient air here is very mild. Plus, I get free filtered saltwater which comes at about 55-60F. Perhaps I will wait until you guys propagate your specimens and the prices drop a bit

Getting rid of an anemone, eh?

Sounds awesome. Definitely do it. Though if you want strawberries, it'll be a while, since no one's getting very many.



yeah, no. Just an excuse to get a new tank! But I don't I think I'll be getting the one from foreshores now, since I already have one and all, so... you could get that one! And I got more pictures!

Macros this time.








And a night shot:


-Jamie

Yummy.

Yours is more tentacle-y than mine were. U. grebelny, you say?

Grebelnyi (aka crassicornis) for sure. The green and red mottled column is a dead giveaway. I'll get a pic tomorrow if you like.

http://actiniaria.com/urticina_grebelnyi.php

"The typical specimens of Urticina grebelnyi are large, about 20 cm high, with the cylindrical column about 15 cm diameter, and crown of the tentacles up to 25 cm diameter or more. Occasionally much larger specimens occur, up to 50 cm high."

-Jamie

Interesting. Mine were the same species, but the tentacles were always much shorter. I had pretty strong flow in that tank though, that could be why.

BLASPHEMY!!!

At least Daniel appreciates my rockscape.

nice setup... very realistic

should I be jealous?

Maybe - has he entered the contest in the Lounge yet?

Nope he didn't want all of the attention, but if you look around on the site I bet you could find a couple of pics of us together.

Have you?