Caesar777's "REEFING SUX III" Bowfront

[Caesar777]

So I got two yellow clown gobies--not G. okinawae, but another, paler yellow one with the blue lines around the gills and back. Very cute. They bicker a bit, but nothing too serious as yet--else I'm bringing back one of them before he's bullied into starvation. They're very pretty.

 

Half the ###### I glued up fell down, so I'm pretty p#ssed. A small number of flatworms, though, still persist, but they live in clumps of a half-dozen each on places that are easily accessible. It's just a matter of not being exhausted on a sale weekend during which I'm pretty much manager. Ugh! The soles of my feet are worn raw. OW! Great sale, thus far. I hope they don't screw it up without me tomorrow (control-freak, I know--I wish I wasn't that way, I just don't want things screwed up!). Anyway. My tank's looking nice. Maybe someone will get me a camera for X-Mas. Might I recommend a Canon something-or-other....Something nice, with a macro setting.. I haven't heard my pistols today, and today was when I decided to get rid of the ######s. I wonder if they're dead. I saw one, but he may have been a corpse. Or maybe they snapped each other's pistols off--that'd be nice: I could get some SLEEP for the next week or two!

[Caesar777]

Okay, so I had a wonderful X-Mas. Spent time with the family and the ol' balls-n-chain ( I stole that from Spin City) and everything was grand. My landlord/roommate had a wonderful time, too, apparently, as he and his friends' wild partying half-collapsed my rockwork. I was pi$$ed, yes. It was hard enough to aquascape--this ###### gives me anxiety attacks, seriously!

 

So his New Year's party was apparently a blast, because the rest of my rockwork was completely toppled when I came home! See, I'm downstairs, on the way to the stairs-upstairs, so people can come in, stomp around, run up the staircase that lines the outside of one of my walls, then go upstairs and rattle my room in any part of the bedroom, kitchen, and parts of the livingroom. Perfect.

 

I re-did the rock--and it was a PAIN. I don't like the way it looks, but at least it's solid *knock on wood* *+ giggle @ pun*. The stock All-Glass stand (the black-enameled pine one with the door on the front) wasn't wobbly but nevertheless worried me enough to reinforce it. Still no cure for the upstairs-shakes! Oh well. It's done now. Did a nice waterchange, and came very close to capturing the demon pistols via big-fat-siphon-hose, armed and ready with my thumb on the end, in front of a piece of krill rubberbanded to a rock too large to move (half-golfball-sized). I almost got one, but hesitated, knowing I needed patience with the obviously suspicious and nervous shrimp. They knew something was up, because they normally come right up to food and snatch it. Perhaps the smell of the rubber-band threw them off, or maybe my being in the tank. But regardless, as I stood, so stoic, excitement building internally at the prospect of outsmarting this clever (moronic) pair of marauders, I realized, as I watched the two walk within millimeters of each other for security, that they're just too endearing. Despite their occasional murders of fish and constant loud snapping, they really are rare and beautiful. Their purple and orange bodies, with such large, silly claws and eyespots, with those dozens of tiny purple "inspecting claws", are such an uncommon pattern and color combination. They've colored up since I've acquired them, and they've paired more closely than ever. Perhaps they killed Greasy, the even rarer and more elusive Griessingeri goby, but frankly, I don't care. I saw Greasy but once every month or two, with a fair bit of searching involved, but I see the pistols quite often, especially when I feed. They zip around the tank excitedly, so funny in their frenzy to find the little VibraGro pellets scattered throughout the tank. So, for now, they stay. I like 'em.

 

Oh, also, new clownfish pair. I know, they're so passe, but they're nice. I almost got a tiny pair of wild Perculas, which had a lot of black and very bold coloration, but decided instead on some more unusual tank-raised guys that I paired up myself. One is a t.r. misbar ocellaris, with just the stripe behind its head and a tiny patch on its back maybe 6x6mm, with no tail stripe at all. Nice shade of orange, not too bright or gaudy but not washed out like these tank-raised fellas often are. The other is a t.r. misbar black ocellaris, with all its stripes intact, but the middle stripe is split in the middle on both sides into a saddle and a belly stripe. Both clowns are symmetrical as far as right side and left side, which none of the other misbars were, but is key in my mind. Very cute, I'm anxious to get pics. Being tank-raised, they'll both probably be too dumb to host any of the myriad of corals in my tank, but we'll hope. At least they're hangin' out together most cute-ily. Heh. They look funny together. I am pleased.

 

Add-on: The midas blennies are doing fabulously, but haven't colored up much yet. They also don't get along well, and though it's to be expected and it's not to a level where they're hurting each other or inhibiting each other's development, I've still decided to bring one back, because, among other things, the stocking capacity is reaching/passing its maximum. Keeping the original blenny because I'm more emotionally-attached to him, although the other is more active and out more, but I've made up my mind. Will catch him whenever I can; for now I have the nice metallic pink/red Cynarina to bring back to work, fully recovered and puffy as heck; I had brought it home from work to nurse it back to health after the damage from the power outage (even our two generators weren't enough to power all the return pumps, heaters, and blower, so we lost a few fish and many corals)--sent another coworker home with a good six or seven SPS that would have died, as several others did, if left at work. Sucked, btw. LOTS of people lost animals or even entire tanks because of the power outage, which left 800,000 people in western Washington without power for days, some up to two weeks! Mine was only out overnight, luckily, and no harm happened. My room was freezing by the morning, too.

[ezcompany]

this thread is becoming your blog!

[lgreen]

This thread reminds me why pictures books are more fun than novels. j/k

[Caesar777]

I know, it's pretty boring without the pics, more just the typical thread about each new animal or development. When I do get a camera, you'll all be pi$$ed at how many frivolous pics I'll be posting.

 

"Here's the coral, in the bag, wrapped in the paper sack... Here's the coral in the bag, out of the sack... Here's the coral being pretend-acclimated over about three minutes... Here's the coral in the tank, still mad about having been moved... Here's the coral 5 mins later, no noticeable change... Here's the coral, omg it's expanding slightly!...." And so on. Ahhh, yes, I rub my greasy hands together in anticipation....

 

I'd like to get a camera, but they're expensive and there are far too many options, which paradoxically make it harder for me to find one. I just want a really good camera that can take good macros, but of course that's usually the most expensive thing. Somebody give me a camera.

[lgreen]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1134697745936

[Caesar777]

Okay, I look into that one for to buy.

[travisurfer]

The canon powershot series is top notch as well

[Caesar777]

My new clowns are doing excellent. Eating pellets, but not surprising since they're tank-raised. I'm not a big "MUST BE TR!" kind of person, but these are some nice clowns. Frankly, I'm not even a big clown person, but these guys are cute! Their funky bars are really unique and nice.

 

So in my last "tank blog post" a few nights ago I decided to keep those crazy-snappin' pistols. I still feared that they might attack the new clowns, so I fed the tank with a bunch of pellets and placed that bait-rock back where I'd had it to lure them out to siphon them. Luckily, they left the clowns alone, but the live-rock Midas decided to go bother the pistols--just as he had been doing one night when my bf was here, taking pics, amazed at his boldness in biting their antennae--and they got him. He laid on the bottom, curled in the classic mermaid pose, dark brown and splotchy, nearly black, and breathing fast. But he was upright (like a sea lion lifting its head sort of thing) and didn't seem paralyzed like the last one. I feared for his life. He insisted upon holding his ground against the pistol, the larger female, who ended snapping him again, and she held back when she saw me. Somehow I came home today--after the power had been out for quite a few hours (not sure how many, but according to the timer on the MH, looks like 6-8)--not only did he make it through the attack, but through the stress of cold and lack of O2 saturation. He's darker than he was, but alive and eating pellets. I'm going to bring him back to work, maybe put him in the nano (30gal 2x2x1'H) display with the mystery wrasse pair, or otherwise put him in the coral system to be a pet. He is a good algae-nibbler, and a good buddy as well; I just don't like having four medium-sized fish and two shrimp in my tank. It's too much.

 

I still see the two small clown gobies, and not sure if I mentioned that the bluestripe pipefish GREW AN INCH (a lot for an inch-and-a-half-long animal, now 2.5) within the past month. Amazing. He's out more, too. Greasy I haven't seen in a while; I'll bet the murderous pistols killed him. He always insisted on being their buddy, and they always insisted on snapping at him. Who knows. Maybe I'll see him around, hopefully. Will also try to catch the shrimp to take them to work or something, but not tonight--all the fish are fine *KNOCK ON WOOD* and I'm physically exhausted from working all week (Sun/Mon are my weekend).

 

The cynarina I babysat looks just beautiful. Never seen anything like it: it's a bright vermilion/pink, very unusual color, and really metallic. Just sparkles, and with such unique coloration. BRIGHT! I'll miss it but I literally can't pay even the wholesale price (much less retail), which isn't a lot for this type of coral but I just can't afford it atm. I needs me the health insurance. At least I got to have it in my tank, baby it, feed it, admire it for a time.

 

*Sigh* I am pleased.

[halfpint]

Nice "sounding" tank. I love my 26g bow. For some reason, I think bow's look so much nicer. especially with the black silicone.

[Caesar777]

Okay, some changes. Revamped the rock, but I hate it--too loose and straight-wall-like but it's acceptable. The rock has some nice coralline going, and the corals are looking good. Even the blastos that had receded from attacks are coming back now. I've got the water-changes down to a science, or rather a quick, simple regimen. Siphon with thin tubing until all detritus is collected, then get any pockets of detritus on the rock, then get any flatworms (I always have maybe half a dozen). Still haven't caught the bastid pistols, but I plan to put sand in the tank anyway. It'll get sucked up if I try the big siphon on them, so we'll see.

 

More later.

[travisurfer]

we NEED some pics caesar. get a camera for once

[jimbro]

Nice "sounding" tank.

 

 

Seriously though. Pics.

And those shrimp seem like the bane of your existence.

[Caesar777]

SAND DAY! After being barebottom for the entirety of its existence, the tank finally looked like it needed some sand. The detritus deal is under control, so I figured why not. The rock-rack (5mm lexan with acrylic pegs to hold up the rock, keep it airy in structure, especially the back) makes for a nice "sand guard", keeping it from going in the back where I can't get it with the gravel-vac. People, I don't know how many people I meet who are adamant about not even touching the sand--detritus! There may be stuff that processes waste, but it doesn't disappear. Nearly every customer that comes in who has an untouched sandbed, especially a deeper one (1"+), whose water I test I find high phosphates, even nitrates on those with regular water changes! Usually low pH along with that, because of all the dissolved organics, and they wonder why they can't add any new fish! (without them getting sick and/or dying)

 

So speaking of dying fish: I got a beautiful little baby hepatus tang today. Tiny as the end of my finger! It's obvious that he JUST dropped out of the planktonic stage, and he's still translucent. Eats Cyclopeeze like there's no tomorrow. I put him in my tank after observing him and his buddies for a few days, and WHAT happens? Within five minutes I see that my ruby mithrax crab (red emerald) has him in its clutches, eating it alive! I tried repeatedly to poke at the crab so that it'd let go, but it'd just clutch the fish tighter and back further into the rock. Finally I got it to let go, and caught the injured baby in my hand. My angler died suddenly two weeks ago, so I have a spare in-tank fuge with red bubble macro, where I put the baby tang. His tail-fin is nibbled to the muscle, and there's a good nip out of his lower back, where the adipose[is that the word I'm thinking of?] fin would be. He ate some Cyclopeeze, though, within minutes of putting him in there. I watched him for a sec after putting him there, to assess the damage, and he seemed alright. Then I went back for the crab. Upon initially seeing the incident, I immediately yelled [yes, aloud], "I'm going to KILL you, you f###### crab!..." *poke* "Dammit, KILL YOU!" I felt that he'd refuse to take me seriously if I didn't follow through with my threat, and maybe go after another helpless fish or coral, so I grabbed him out of the zoo colony where he was hiding. Crushed him with my bare hands (as a vegetarian, the only real way, not by cheating with tools), tore him in two...hesitated...then figured "all in the life cycle" and dabbed the dripping goo that some people would call "organs" onto my new polyp of Duncan coral, which, by the way, is pretty awesome, a lovely mint-green with a fleshy, iridescent "stem" and a baby polyp at the base. It relished the bright orange-yellow entrails, and expressed its pleasure by puffing more and closing the tentacles that were nearest to the corpse. (It's a fascinating coral; highly photosynthetic, its tentacles are by far the quickest to react and stickiest of any coral short of maybe only the Elegance, Cataphyllia. It can eat whole krill.) Then I tossed the shards of crab into the toilet, not wanting to foul the tank with a rotting carcass, and left it there with the hair I'd pulled out of my brush and where I later poured the water that had been thawing some mice for my snakes, and eventually flushed after I was through with feeding, "sanding", and cleaning.

 

The tang will get some extra TLC, with lots of feedings. I hope he makes it--little darling was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I knew I never should have trusted a crab.

 

Oh, and I saw Greasy today. Speaking of bastard animals, haha. Cute little speckly face. The bugger is ENORMOUS!--for a Griessingeri goby, anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It'll take some getting used to, but the sand looks nice. Barely 1/4" layer, btw, if even that much. Note that it's not sugar-sized but slightly larger, it's that "Arag-alive reef sand", which is just large enough to be able to gravel-vac without all the sand getting sucked up. No need for rinsing, which is why I like this stuff. There's a tiny haze in the tank, but barely. Will do a water change anyway. Later. Errands to run.

 

My clowns, btw, two young but not tiny ocellaris, are not paired up. One is developing the telltale black speckling of a lone female, too. Definitely not Turbellians or anything like that. There's a lone ocellaris in one of our tanks at work, a customer's pet that is about eight years old (close to nine, now), which was brought to us many months ago with its mate, the latter of which died after less than two months. The large female since developed that black speckling, which got to a point over the weeks that she was over 50% black-mottled. We repeatedly tried to pair her up with new babies, but to no avail. They'd hang out together but he'd be gone within days. Never any signs of brutality, either. Regardless, we gave up after the third try (obviously it wasn't going to work), and after a few more months the speckling started to fade. She still has a fair bit, maybe 10-15%, but it's much less and faded to a lighter off-black. Mysterious, really.

[travisurfer]

The speckling could be coral stings from attempted hosting. Crazy story btw. I hate crabs and never plan to trust them. Even my little blue-leg took off a huge turbo snail

[Caesar777]

I hate crabs, always have. But I gave this cute emerald crab a chance. HA! FIRED!

 

The clown is tank-raised, and never hosts. The one at work has nothing stingy to host--it's n a tank with zoanthids, open-brains, blastos, and acans.

[travisurfer]

zoanthids and brains can cause those markings too

[Caesar777]

I dunno. Never seen 'em on paired-up clowns, and a buddy I know, who breeds clowns, says that the speckles are from long-term loss of a mate. (Breeding clowns in typical breeding-type setups, no coral or live rock and probably no substrate.)

[travisurfer]

hmmm, interesting to know

[Caesar777]

I GOT A CAMERA. ...Ass[es]. It's some kind of Sony Cybershot, 5 megapixel. One of the little flattened compact ones. It takes nice pictures--haven't used it yet sinec it's become mine, but it was my boyfriend's, and he got a better camera, so I got his. Will take some pics later; I just got home from work/errands and I need a shower.

 

Also taking one of the clowns back to work; the stupid misbar that, as cute as she is, has faded from her more luminous orange to a dull one, and has that ugly black speckling. We got in some ocellaris today, so maybe she can buddy up with one and regain her beautiful coloration...in someone else's tank.

 

My angler, btw--the solid black one I brought back to work a few months ago--is enormous. A pearly jawfish died--a large one, too--and so I fed it to the angler. Damn thing stared me in the eyes as he engulfed half of it, head-first, and sucked it in like Jabba the freaking hut slurping the last piece of spaghetti. He's turning into the alien-plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

 

"FE-E-E-E-E-EED MEH!"

[Caesar777]

PHOTOS NOW.

 

Our enormous, larger-than-my-palm sized BRIGHT orange Ricordea yuma at work came in the size of a quarter. Yeah, it's grown. Its baby was barely even visible, more green than anything, and hardly half the size of my pinky-finger-nail. It has since grown to a bit larger than half-dollar-sized, and felt that the bloodline should be spread, so I fragged it off (the baby, God forbid, not the mother!) and it's doing well. They're so much brighter than the photo, but oh well... Here she is:

 

 

Oh, nevermind the flatworms. I do have a few. I siphon them every time I do a waterchange--every two weeks, realistically--and they tend to stay in numbers smaller than a dozen. That yuma is right toward the bottom, right where the little buggers like to be.

 

I like these palys, up next. Gold-tan fringe, metallic pink streaks radiating outward from a light teal-blue center. It's hard to photograph. The rock is far too big, and can't be placed anywhere ideally, so it's just on the bottom in the left corner, backed up against the live rock. Sort of fits in, fits so-so.

 

 

I like these little palys. They're very small and have delicate, wispy fringes. Fairly translucent, they really do have a shiny blue and purple glow. I often see similar ones online as "blue palys", but the ones being sold are really green, reflective of blue from certain angles only. These are really special. Weren't too pricey, either. Seems the only places that charge a lot for zos and palys are Quality Marine and Sea Dwelling Creatures. You might be able to see the little mini-brittle-star-legs waving out from between the crevices of the rock. Darling little things, I seeded my tank repeatedly with them in an attempt to have a steady population, and it worked. I love them--they're adorable and are excellent detritivores, and 100% reef-safe--too small to hurt any kind of fish or motile invert, and have no taste for inverts like corals. I got rid of my larger pink-coralline-colored serpent star, with a body the size of a quarter and legs about four inches long--my baby leopard wrasse disappeared, and I strongly suspect him to this very day. The little fish had been eating pods, cyclopeeze, and even pellets! Beautiful vermiculate leopard wrasse, I'm sad to have him gone. He was tiny, like an elongated dime.

 

 

A really unique mushroom rock came in a couple months ago. They're some very nice lavender/sky-blue rhodactis with the brightest orange rims. Really striking to see them all on one rock, but we ended fragging them to spread the seed; I got one, each of my coworkers [those with a reef, heh] got one, and both of the two display tanks each got two. They're really very nice. This one's in the shadows, behind the now unoccupied coco worm tube. The worm died within the same span of few days of the porcelain crab, and the reason was apparent: I just don't feed. I'd been feeding more because of the baby tang, but honestly, the tank will get really dirty that way. Not a big feeding fan, but my coworker finally convinced me to get some DT's oyster eggs. I did the phyto maybe monthly, but it wasn't enough. The crab was large, and needed a lot more food. I also got frozen rotifers, that way I can try to fill a larger span of food sizes for the corals: the largest, mysis, then cyclopeeze, then rotifers, then oyster eggs. (Or vice-versa on the last two?)

 

 

Detail shot:

 

 

I got a branchy rock with several of those nice "lunar eclipse" polyps, and most have cleared away. I still have a few left, and they're hanging on. I think it was a sundial snail, considering that I found one on the long-existing colony below them (the first in the 26). The interesting part is this lps hitchhiker that has been growing ever since. He's now quarter-sized, and very puffy. Skeleton is small, like that of a tubastrea, and it looks like any other small lps skeleton: short, obvious spindling septa radiating, base attached to the branching rock, and that's it. Central mouth, small extensions every so often. I figure it's a Fungiid of some kind. Regardless, a cutie-pie of a coral, and so hardy. Cool shot of him, imo.

 

 

This is my favorite blasto. The heads are enormous, each a good three inches across. The entire thing inflates with so much water that it easily quadruples in size when open. You can also see, on the left side, my injured PPE blasto. So sad. It got a-stung. The red Goniopora, also partially visible, is still doing marvelously. I love the polyp size: BIG! No scrawny red Goni's in this tank.

 

 

We got in some of a really, really rare lps: Duncanopsamma. A larger colony looks like a branchy Turbinaria, while a smaller one looks like a pistachio-green Tubastrea. Pretty cool coral, it eats like no other coral!--it's a FATTY. You can see how large the polyp is compared to the skeleton (with nub of a new polyp at the bottom). Excellent polyp extension, with a subtle green shine along the stem and polyp. Eats (and closes on) anything from Cyclopeeze to half-silversides.

 

Earlier in the day, when the lights were still firing:

 

 

Earlier this evening:

 

 

Ah, my Acan lord. I've had this thing for a good two years. It's become more and more red, and has grown a fair bit, considering that I rarely feed my corals and it's been in four of my tanks and at least three more besides those (fish store, fragmentation at said fish store, tank of an employee of said fish store, wholesaler, fragmentation at said wholesaler, supplier in its home country, fragmentation by said supplier....)... It's a beautiful piece. And it's my buddy. Also some eagle-eyes, misc fancy zos, pink palys, long-fringe metallic pink palys (not that bright but they are reflective), etc. Amazing texture on those lords!

 

 

 

 

HAPPY NOW?!!

 

No fts shot until I get everything straightened out.

[Caesar777]

One more: side shot of my red and white Cynarina, and blue and white zoas.

 

[Caesar777]

Copy and paste the urls in a new window to see the full-size, and nicely-detailed, photos. Sorry, many are slightly blurry. My hands are shaky.

[lgreen]

Those photos are hot. Tiny was right...you do have nice ####s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(hey...why did it bleep out polyps?? )

 

j/k

 

Very healthy looking.

[ezcompany]

why are you hands shaky eh?

can you get a shot of your lunar eclipse? (orange skirt and dark center)

awesome rhodactis!