Kate's 25g

[kate2118]

So I started this tank about a year ago with 2 Ocellaris Clowns and a little live rock. I never planned on adding coral so I just used a cheap fluorescent fixture. After about 6 months and some trial and error I finally figured out a plan for the tank. I'm ashamed to admit that I lost my clowns in this process. Lesson learned I guess... Anyway, I went out and purchased more live rock and upgraded my lighting to a 150W MH that attached to the back of the tank.

 

Here's how it all started:

 

Then I decided that I wasn't happy with the location of the tank in the room. Before I added any livestock I moved the tank to a different area where now it is the center of attention. I also modified the light fixture so now it hangs above my tank on chains. This allows me to adjust the height of the fixture pretty easily.

 

Here's the tank after the move:

 

As you may have noticed I added some of my first corals as well. I added a Red/Green Brain Coral, a Pink/Green Lobo, a Duncan Whisker, some Xenia, and as soon as I got my Ca levels right I added a Blue Maxima Clam. I found the Red Brain at my LFS with a burn in the flesh. No one else wanted it so I bought it at a discount, brought it home, and nursed it back to health. Now it's tripled in size and looks amazing!

 

Here's the Brain after it healed. It's grown even bigger since this was taken!

[kate2118]

Here's the Lobo:

 

And the Clam:

 

And the Xenia:

[kate2118]

And the Duncan:

 

And here's my new Ocellaris:

 

Here's a closer look:

[neuwave]

Sorry about the clowns but everyone does makes mistakes in this hobby and looses a favorite fish or coral. But that what this site is about to help out and make sure the least amount of mistakes are made. Your tank seems to be coming along nicely. Good luck.

[kate2118]

Thanks for the kind words neuwave... but there is still plenty more to the story.

 

I went downstairs one night, flipped on the light , and noticed something running into the rockwork of my system. I armed myself with a flashlight with a red filter and sat in the dark waiting to see what was in there. After about 45 minutes a small crab, about the size of a quarter, crept out of one of my rocks. Just what I need... a little hitchhiker that's gonna cause nothing but trouble. I attempted to catch him several times with no success. I finally researched various methods for catching crabs and found one that looked promising. I cut the top off a water bottle, flipped it so the top was now inside the bottle, glued it back together and put in my tank with some shrimp as bait. I left it over night and the next morning I found this little guy:

 

 

I brought him to my local LFS and they were happy to give him a new home in one of their tanks. I was so excited to get this guy out! I was planning on purchasing some Sexy Shrimp later in the week and had I not found and removed this guy they would have been a tasty snack for him.

 

While I was in there looking for the little guy I rearranged my entire tank and added some new additions, I'll post some pics soon!

[neuwave]

Cool. Good work catching the crab. That's what happens in this hobby, you set out to do one thing (catch a crab) then changing something else in the tank. I just rearranged my rock-work as well. It always seems to be changing. I'll wait for the update on ur pics.

[kate2118]

Before I go into the new arrangement there's one more thing I forgot to add. As I said before, I recently added a Blue Maxima Clam. He's doing great except for one little thing. He has two very small aiptasia growing right near the edge of his shell. I've posted about this before and everyone suggested adding a Peppermint Shrimp to my tank instead of using chemicals so close to my clam. I figured this would be in my clam's best interest so I made a trip to the LFS.

 

Here's the best shot of the aiptasia I could get:

 

My Peppermint Shrimp is now happily living in my rockwork, only making an appearance at night. He still hasn't eaten the aiptasia but I'm confident he'll get to it eventually.

 

On to the new stuff... Like I said, after chasing down that crab I rearranged everything in my tank.

 

Here's the new arrangement:

 

I've added a few new corals as well...

 

Blue Zoas:

[kate2118]

Some GSP:

 

Eagle Eye/SourApple Zoas:

 

Red/Green Blastos:

[Reefer Al]

I like it a lot! I was going to suggest putting your heater behind your rocks, but you already did lol I like those new blue zoas

[kate2118]

And last but not least, I added another Ocellaris cuz the first one was lonely. He wouldn't come out of his corner before but now they're both front and center!

 

The happy couple: (sorry, its the best I could do for now)

 

Oh, I almost forgot! I finally added those Sexy Shrimp that I mentioned before! I was so excited to bring these little guys home. They're so cool! I added 3 of them today and plan on adding 2 more when my LFS gets another batch of them in.

 

Dance for the camera!

[Lalani]

Sexies.

[kate2118]

As if I haven't gone on long enough today... just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be bringing home a single polyp of a Dendro in the next couple of days. My LFS just got a shipment with a large colony. They're gonna frag it to sell. I know the owner personally so I asked him to set aside a large polyp for me and he'll make sure its super healthy and eating readily before he sends it home with me. I'm super excited! I'll keep you posted!

[Rocket]

What is a Dendro?

[kate2118]

Here's a Dendro:

 

They're very closely related to Sun coral but have larger polyps and open during the day. I believe this is their full name: Dendrophyllia Fistula

[Rocket]

WoW nice. I like the looks of it but Not sure I could stand manually feeding them. I'm already tired of feeding my acans once a week.

[kate2118]

it's just part of the routine i guess... i feed by brain, lobo, duncan, and blastos every 2 days or so. another mouth to feed really isn't that big of a deal for me. i'm in the market for some acans as well. just looking for something a little out of the ordinary. patience is the key!

[treygarz]

Coming along nicely! You will thoroughly enjoy the dendro. I just picked up a colony of sun coral but was tempted to get the dendros. I think that may be next! Tank is looking good! It's well worth the extra feeding for such a beautiful species!!

[kate2118]

Great news! I went to my lfs to pick up the dendro I had waiting for me and ended up with 2 polyps instead of one! They had a large colony that they fragged and in the process one of the polyps got damaged. his skeleton was broken right next to the head. I talked to the guy for a while and he gave me a deal on the damaged polyp. i brought them both home, used a little superglue on the damaged skeleton and now they're both doing great. the polyp that wasn't damaged is even showing some new growth! this worked out perfectly cuz now i can put one polyp in my 25 gal and one in my 90 gal. I'll have pics soon!

[bzphotog]

Here's a Dendro:

 

They're very closely related to Sun coral but have larger polyps and open during the day. I believe this is their full name: Dendrophyllia Fistula

 

 

 

uuuhhhh..... NICE.

 

awesome species and photo

[kate2118]

thanks bzphotog but i can't take credit for that photo, i was just showing that as an example. however, i do have pics of my dendros, finally!

 

this is after a day in the tank:

 

and after a good feeding:

 

they're doing really well after about 2 weeks in the tank. this polyp has even sprouted a new baby that i've been feeding as well. hope this grows into a healthy little colony.

 

Update:

it took him quite a while but my pep finally took care of the aiptasia on my clam. thanks for all of the suggestions on that one guys! my clam looks huge now that he can spread is mantle without getting stung. he's happy as a... well, clam!

[kate2118]

i picked up a small head of frogspawn last week and finally got around to taking some pics this morning. my sexies couldn't be happier:

 

[bzphotog]

the dendros look like a cold water species ive been seeing around the forum. Id love to get my hands on some. havent seen those in my area for sale yet.

[Gerber77]

Great pic of the frog and sexies.

[kate2118]

thanks guys!

 

i'm still "training" my dendros to stay open during the day. they're little pigs too, they eat endlessly.

[PSYS]

Tank looks great...