Caesar777's "REEFING SUX III" Bowfront

[aparker]

Loud as ######. But it works alright enough on this little lowly-stocked nano.

 

Fantastic thread, Caesar.

 

Your tank is really impressive, as is your breadth of knowledge about SW livestock. Would you mind going into some detail about tank setup beyond the new 250W and your venturi skimmer? e.g. are you using a separate refugium? What are you doing for water movement? Dosing & waterchange regimen?

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be thrilled to have a tank that looked half as successful as yours does....

 

Thanks

 

Alex

[Caesar777]

I did my own wiring! AND IT WORKED! Icecap ballast to BlueLine pendant... YEAHHHH I ROCK! (Pics in a sec, hehe)

 

This is the reflector, w/all info on box, also my new name, Flonk... Honk for Flonk. (My coworker made sure to write my name on it...Thanks.) It's cool, square and multi-surfaced.

 

 

 

 

Reflector:

 

 

Closeup, with Ushio 20,000K bulb (we'll see how that fuggah looks. I like Radium but they don't make HQI.) (Ooooh, shiny.)

 

[FUGU!!!]

I did my own wiring! AND IT WORKED! Icecap ballast to BlueLine pendant... YEAHHHH I ROCK! (Pics in a sec, hehe)

 

This is the reflector, w/all info on box, also my new name, Flonk... Honk for Flonk. (My coworker made sure to write my name on it...Thanks.) It's cool, square and multi-surfaced.

 

Reflector:

 

 

Closeup, with Ushio 20,000K bulb (we'll see how that fuggah looks. I like Radium but they don't make HQI.) (Ooooh, shiny.)

 

Sh*t caesar I diddnt know you worked with flonk!

[Caesar777]

I'M FLONK

 

AND I WILL DESTROY YOU

[Caesar777]

Fantastic thread, Caesar.

 

Your tank is really impressive, as is your breadth of knowledge about SW livestock. Would you mind going into some detail about tank setup beyond the new 250W and your venturi skimmer? e.g. are you using a separate refugium? What are you doing for water movement? Dosing & waterchange regimen?

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be thrilled to have a tank that looked half as successful as yours does....

 

Thanks

 

Alex

 

Awesome, glad to get some pos. feedback on the tank. I have mixed emotions on it, honestly, sometimes really happy with it and sometimes wanting to tear it all down. Last night, for example, I put the new light on, and was ecstatic at doing it all on my own. But as that peeled back, I realized that I was still unhappy. But it's just me and my crazy brain.

 

I don't have a fuge, and have considered a hang-on but the skimmer takes up all the room on the back of the tank, and it's in a corner of the room so there's no room to hang off the sides (and I prefer a clean look anyway). Really the purpose of absorbing nitrate and phosphate is overrated, and I regularly seed my tank with microfauna scavenged at work (just lift up a coral or rock, and you get some juicy amphipods!). I have barely a 1/4" of sand, and it's only in the front half of the tank, so that it doesn't build up waste unnecessarily behind the rocks. I gravel-vac it every few water changes, and do a 5-gallon waterchange--with reverse-osmosis water--about every week and a half. (Weird timing, but that's how it usually works out.)

 

I dose Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium and Seachem Reef Builder (alkalinity & pH), and get enough of everything else from the salt mix. I'm not a fan of dosing too much--there are so many unnecessary products out there, or ones that are overrated when they're really only best-suited to very specific tanks--just keeping up on that balance of calcium and alkalinity. REALLY important.

 

Also keeping phosphate down is a big one; most people only think about nitrates. My nitrates are usually trace (like 5), and even when the tank "gets bad" (I don't do a wc in, say, 3-4 weeks) it doesn't get higher than 15..and that's when I'm lazy or, in this case, hurt, haha. So phosphate is just another product of the breakdown of organics, and is the hardest one to keep down! I use a 5/8" siphon tube to thoroughly get all the surfaces of the rock (pockets of detritus build up, and it's not even visible oftentimes, until you hit a spot and the tube fills with brown-tan junk!).

 

As far as water movement, I'm a big fan, and I believe that's part of the success with the animals; I have the little powerhead running the Knop skimmer, a Rio 800, which is only like 200 gallons per hour, but for flow in the tank I have a conveniently-positioned MaxiJet 900 (260GPH, I think), mounted on the top-rear-right side of the tank, and that blows everything around the top and front, and keeps the surface agitated. Really gets a lot of water movement in the tank. Then there's a little powerhead (can't remeber name) hidden behind the rocks to get some flow back there--ever since I took off the Remora Pro, whose return pointed down behind the rocks and finished the water's circuit, I've had to use a supplemental powerhead. But I do like the Knop skimmer, for the price (cheap), and it works fine enough for my few little fish and #####rdly feeding regimen. It really does pull a fair amount, and I like the clean look with the overflow box. Speaking of #####rdly feeding, I've finally decided that I'm taking my Midas blenny back to work--I can't keep him from not being a skinny little twig. I love him, but I want what's best for him. He's beautiful, too, all bright yellow-orange with those cute blue eyes, and he's my little buddy, always trying to get my attention. His name is StringCheese II. (After a child of a maintenance customer who named theirs StringCheese. I thought it was adorable and very fitting.) I'll drop him in a section of the large coral system (6'Lx30"Wx20"T tank) before my boss can tell me to put him into the fish-for-sale system. It's MY fish!

 

Hope that answers your questions; if I spaced on anything, or you have more, feel free to ask.

 

Oh, on the pipefish - sorry for the late reply. I haven't been able to track down the exact species--I think it's undescribed, actually; maybe I could name it!! --but it is in the same genus as the "African bluestripe" (not the Janss'). Same basic care and traits--2" fully-grown, likes to hang upside-down behind the rocks, cruises around, does cleaning behavior, and is very personable, knows me and knows when to avoid me (when I'm gluing frags and moving rocks--he could get bumped) and when to come around (when I'm feeding or doing a waterchange--he can find stirred-up food!). I've had great success in using frozen/thawed Cyclopeeze (get the frozen bar, not that overpriced little pump-bottle or the flake crap) for pipefish, and have had nearly a 99% success rate in getting them to eat it. I've worked with many of them at work and in my own tank. In all, these pipes are super-easy and not wimpy at all, as most would expect. Hardy, fast, not delicate or slow and not those slow, methodical feeders like some other pipefish or seahorses. The only thing to watch out for with these little guys is that they're VERY territorial: two males will fight to the DEATH, incessantly chasing each other and "snicking" each other, and generally just stressing the other out, not letting him eat, literally until one dies. They just won't let up. And it's tough because they have no sexually-dimorphic characteristics, so there's no way to tell until they fight... The best way if you want more than one is to have them put together at the LFS where you buy them, because males will suddenly forget their shipping stress and whatever else, and start chasing each other instantly! There is no way to stop it except for just separating them altogether. I'm not sure if the bandeds, multibandeds, and dragonface--the other popular pipes--are this aggressive; perhaps we've always gotten in either all females or m/f splits (we even had a pair mating! Fantastic!), or who knows. But I've only seen this aggression in the bluestripe types; that only means that it's absolutely true in the bluestripe species, and only possible in others. (Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't! We may have just been lucky thus far with all females or m/f pairs.)

 

The only concern with these guys, other than that, is getting picked on by other fish. I have two ocellaris clowns, and they completely ignore him, as well as a midas blenny, which also ignores him, and a yasa hashe--same thing. The only fish I'd think would pick on him are angels (dwarf and large), some wrasses (definitely ALL the Thalosoma species like the lunare, Klunzinger's, bluehead, Jansen's, green/brown bird, etc., and then also possibly the Pseudocheilinus species, like the eightline [definitely], sixline/fourline [definitely], pinstripe [maybe, likely], and mystery [maybe, unlikely]; possibly fairy wrasses but very doubtful), other blennies (lawnmower, especially, or bicolor, even more so--them suckers're mean! Midas, tailspot [Escenius stigmatura], and twinspot [E. bimaculatus], and other smaller, less aggressive species are fine, for sure); and then any other really nippy fish.

 

If you have any questions about the pipe or anything else, do let me know.

 

Edit: "nigg ARD ly" is NOT a cuss word, but thanks for the concern, NR.

[Caesar777]

Oh, and the Ushio bulb looks awesome. The tank is so bright! And the color is very nice, though I realize it hasn't "burned in" yet.

[Caesar777]

Okay, prepare your tear ducts for the sad tale of Snoopy and One-Eyed Willy.

 

Two weeks ago my boss and coworkers were all crowded around the fish-system sump (non-reef, so it's chock-fulla bioballs, and of course some fatty skimmers), trying to figure out how to completely re-plumb it so that it's more accessible. I came by and offered to help, but there's really nothing I can do that they can't, so I walked off. An hour later they're still on it, and I find that they've found two mystery wrasses, a small female lutescens wrasse, and another fish (can't remember) among the bioballs! Occasionally they get through the overflow teeth and end up in there. Well, the lutescens was extremely skinny, and ate immediately but didn't make it. The mysteries seemed alright, but within a week one had developed a severe eye infection and lost its eye. Taking pity on the animal, the boss put him in a large coral tank, where he laid for the rest of the day on his side in the corner. I figured he'd be dead before closing.

 

A few days later I asked about him, and the boss said he'd seen him, and seen him eating, too. I didn't believe him, frankly. But he saw the sixline wrasse had attacked the little mystery, who, in his normal state, would have kicked the sixline's ass into next week, but without an eye and visibility down 50% (eyes on the sides of their heads, remember), he ended up with a big bruise on his side. He was moved to the tank next over, with the cured live rock and some small large-species of angels (Poma, coral beauty--a dwarf, I know--and a few others). A few days ago I was bagging a pair of mysteries for a customer, and, upon inspecting the fish, once bagged, as I always do, I found that the larger one had a bum eye. Clouded, not too bad but certainly not something to sell for $250! So we put him back and caught another that we'd been holding in another tank in the coral system. Two days later, the wrasse's eye was completely gone. I could see his skull, his blood vessels, and even the twitching optic nerve as he attempted to look around with the vestigial orifice. Another eyeless wrasse!--what a shame! I decided to put him in sanctuary, too, in with the original mystery in the coral system (not the one-eyed one, but the smaller one of the pair I split up), and he looked bright and otherwise healthy.

 

Then on the opposite side, I spotted the original eyeless mystery, huddled in the corner, obviously terrified, and I realized that it was the giant new crosshatch trigger that was scaring the living bejeezus out of him. (The trigger is harmless, and eats nothing but those tiny frozen/thawed mysis--hehe, cute), but there was no convincing the poor wrasse. The sad part is that, with an eye missing, these guys are now "damaged goods", no longer "worth" their original price, "disgusting" in the eyes of the snobs who buy these beautiful, intelligent fish as trophies. It's really a shame, and it's not fair. I asked the boss what he'd want for the frightened one in with the crosshatch trigger, and he gave me a good deal. He's at home with me, now, in my 26-gallon bowfront. Nice bars on him, still; still young. Beautiful animal, I think the lack of eye is endearing. The midas blenny is going back to work, I think, and the clowns for sure. It may well just house the mystery, the yasa, and the Greasy. I'm hoping he'll take out those pistols--frankly, I don't really care about the beauty of them or the $40 that I had paid that I was going to get back from selling them to another reefer; they just ### me off. Oh, my new buddy's name is Snoopy. (Those mystery wrasses are really sneaky and snoopy.) Hopefully he'll make it... He's very stressed right now, and has that big bruise.

[Caesar777]

THE PISTOLS WILL NOT LEAVE HIM ALONE

 

THEY WILL BE CAPTURED TONIGHT

 

THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION

 

EDIT: NOW IT'S PERSONAL

[natrate]

Hey Caesar. I just bought a Ushio 20k bulb today. I love it!!!! By the way, your tank looks grrrreat!!!

[davidhughes85]

Really nic etank c7...really nice zoas

[reefone]

THE PISTOLS WILL NOT LEAVE HIM ALONE

 

THEY WILL BE CAPTURED TONIGHT

 

THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION

 

EDIT: NOW IT'S PERSONAL

 

time to get out the bamboo skewers

[Caesar777]

I called my mother back today (she calls me like every day, and I've been living on my own for years now), and told her about how and why I'm so p###ed at these shrimp, and how I might just stab the f#####s and bring them to her house to fry them up. She laughed heartily. If I wasn't vegetarian, I'd do it--I'm considering it anyway! >

 

Thanks for all the compliments, folks. Cross your fingers for my sweetheart wrasse, Snoopy! :worried:

[lgreen]

FLONK

 

That's hilarious.

[aparker]

time to get out the bamboo skewers

 

Butter, garlic, linguine...

 

Pistol shrimp scampi

 

Thanks C7, BTW, for the lowdown on your tank maintenance - I'll be putting it to good use here soon. And good on you for saving the "damaged" wrasses. I was a cichlid nut for years (related family, as you know), and it's hard not to think of the things as little scaly dogs, especially ones you've had time to observe and get to know.

[Caesar777]

I had a one-eyed Ranchu goldfish named Bananas Foster. I saw him at Petco, and found him adorable. Round body the size of a golf ball, double-tail, no dorsal fin (part of the breed), and a bright orange with white highlights. Obviously he was either born without the eye, or lost it when he was very young, because there was simply a pit, nothing more. (No gory skull like with this wrasse!) So, knowing how most people feel about "gross" animals like him, and considering his instant charisma ("feed me! Feed me!"), I asked the clerk, "How much is the one-eyed goldfish?" She looked confused and said, "What?" I walked her over to the goldfish section and pointed at the animal. "Him," I said, "with the missing eye."

 

"Ew!" She said. "You can have him!"

 

I was so happy. I still miss the guy.

 

I'm hoping for the best with this wrasse. Had to give up on the pistols AGAIN, as I ran out of water. The wrasse has been very stressed because of all the ###### going on in his life lately, but I have hope for him--mystery wrasses, as expensive as they are, are amazingly resilient. Luckily. I'm hoping for the best, as he's a real trooper!

 

Oh, and one final key for a healthy tank: reverse-osmosis water!

[natrate]

Bananas Foster!!! You've got to be kidding me? I'm making Bananas Foster tomorrow at my parents for desert. Stick of butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 4 bananas, 1/2 cup dark rum (fire), pound cake, vanilla ice cream. Yum!!!

[Caesar777]

"I always thought that Bananas Foster would be a great name for a gangster." - Local celebrity Pat Cashman. It never made any sense to us, so it became the name of my badass goldfish.

 

Oh, yeah, the Ushio bulb rocks.

[halfpint]

Whoah, I lot has happened since I last peeked in on this. I have a 150w on my 26w 14000K HQI Bowfront ant I, too love mine. It brings out so much color in everything. After a month or so, the bulb will look so much cleaner and not as blue and you're really gonna love it.

[Caesar777]

PHOSPHATE ALERT!

 

Wow, I'd been feeding the tank a ton in an effort to get that mystery wrasse to eat. Also in trying to catch the pistol (baiting with krill) and feeding the excess bait to the corals. I brought some live grass shrimp, too, hoping to catch the eye of the starving wrasse, and I'm still not sure if he ate any of them. Found some dead ones stuck on the powerhead, though. So despite my pain, I HAD to do a water change. "At least a simple gravel vac," I figured. Luckily my tank with stand is tall and I'm short, so I don't need to stoop to g.v. Wow, some real crud came out of that sand, and I got about three-1/2 gallons out in the process of the water change.

 

Held onto some old water before dumping it out, to test it, and tested the new water after letting the tank circulate for a good half-hour. (15x turnover, we're fine, haha.)

 

Old water nitrite/nitrate: 0/trace

New tank water nitrite/nitrate: 0/trace

 

I never have nitrite, of course, and never above 10 total free nitrate (3-5 standard reading). Phosphate, however, was another story:

 

NEW water phosphate result: 0.4

OLD water phosphate result: 1.0

 

My only point, here, is that so many people argue with me that their water is "fine" because they came up with "safe, according to the test" readings of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. So many problems in that: first off, tests often show "safe", "stressful", and "dangerous" levels of these chemicals, but ammonia is NEVER safe. Anything above 0 means that the tank is out of whack and dangerous to the animals within! Nitrite is only slightly less terrible, and is often there when something dies, as the ammonia may be processed quickly but the bacterial populations are not enough to take care of all the nitrite. Now, even if their ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate were all 0, it may not mean that their water is fine. Why? HIDDEN TOXINS: PHOSPHATE. A product of the breakdown of wastes, and one of the key products in commercial fertilizers, it not only fuels algae growth, but inhibits coral growth and can even kill animals of all types! Clearly there was a ton of crud in the sand, and the phosphate test indicated that there were, indeed, all those organics. There's never a "case closed", but please, don't argue with me when you're at work with me that your fish are fine because "the tests say it's fine", or even worse, b.s. me and say, "Phosphate? Yeah, it's like 8.3". IT'S FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR ANIMALS, not for me to get commission (which I DON'T) to sell you more, just to doom them to death. Kthx.

 

And TEST YOUR PHOSPHATE!

 

Edit: Oh, and One-Eyed Willy died. Found his decayed body as I searched for him at work.

Snoopy is still alive in my tank, and it was hard to get a good look at him because he's been hiding behind the Knop skimmer's hang-on overflow, but he looks like he may have scarfed some shrimp.

@ Snoopy

[Caesar777]

Baby blue tang disappeared. I swear to God I'm killing my pistols. The mystery wrasse is still shy as hell.

 

Came home today to a giant diatom bloom--new light, I assume, along with the extra feeding for the m.w. Brought home a very small copperband butterfly, a fish I've always wanted but never had in my near-seven-years of saltwater, and he's doing well. Was going to get him when he came in earlier this week, but he looked haggard, to the point of near-death. He was cowering in the corner, fast-breathing, and scratching on rocks. Came in today (had yesterday off--days all changed up because of my back, now I have half-days and no-days) and he looked fantastic, as well as the corals around him. So he's been picking in my tank--saw him picking something right next to my huge orange and blue Florida rics and yelled, "WHAT THE FUUU--" and rounded the corner to find that he was picking something from the red bubble macro behind it, not the polyps themselves, which hadn't retracted even a hair, meaning they were completely untouched. At first he was staying in the bottom corner, but not hiding or cowering, not even breathing fast, actually looking quite well and surprisingly relaxed, but now, a half-hour later, he's exploring the tank thoroughly, and picking random things off the rocks. He's a beautiful fish.

 

I will again make an extreme effort to catch my pistols. I'm praying to God that I won't have to rearrange the rocks, because I brought home a large zoanthid rock today, which I knew I'd have to make room for, and nearly killed my brain with a panic attack, as I always get when I have to move any rock. Jesus, I ought to chill out, but for some reason it just SPOOKS me, even to move just a few rocks. It's partially the fear of screwing it up and not being able to make it work, while juggling large rocks in my hand, unable to set or place them, but partially just strange anxiety. I guess I've always had it, even about rearrangement specifically. My mother is the opposite, always wanting to change her surroundings, moving the furniture around to try something different and possibly better, and throughout my childhood and adolescence, inciting in me an anxiety attack every time. It's a strange fear. Perhaps it's that classic fear of change, fear that "if it's not broke, don't fix it", lest it become worse, or even unsolvable....

 

Heart palpitations. Racing pulse. Uncontrollable shaking of hands, running up the arms to the shoulders. Mind races, unable to focus or relax, I feel like a bomb about to explode. No control. At some point I am able to figure it out, or figure out *something* to end the cause of the fear, and sit, quietly, shaken...shaking... I realized only recently that I've had it all my life. I have yet to be able to control it...but I'm making improvements. Making an effort.

 

Lots of crap to nibble on that new zoa rock. Spotted an emerald crab on it (I'd placed it temporarily in the shrimp/emmy-crab tank so that it wouldn't sell) almost released it into the tank!! I hope no more hitched along...I HATE crabs.

 

Oh, I'm naming the fish Conan O'Brien, because he reminds me of him (awkward, skinny, bright orange and stark white, and comical, as well as seemingly even-keeled and pleasant).

[aparker]

Jesus, I ought to chill out, but for some reason it just SPOOKS me, even to move just a few rocks.

 

Heart palpitations. Racing pulse. Uncontrollable shaking of hands, running up the arms to the shoulders. Mind races, unable to focus or relax, I feel like a bomb about to explode. No control. At some point I am able to figure it out, or figure out *something* to end the cause of the fear, and sit, quietly, shaken...shaking... I realized only recently that I've had it all my life. I have yet to be able to control it...but I'm making improvements. Making an effort.

 

 

One word - Yoga. It will fix your brain and your back at the same time. Find a really good instructor and become her/his disciple. You will be a different person in half a year.

 

Token NR content: just take the tank apart and kill the pistol shrimp - offing the $*^@*) will be therapeutic, and you'll be able to clean up all the unreachable detritus that's helping push your PO4 level up.

[Caesar777]

Token NR content: just take the tank apart and kill the pistol shrimp - offing the $*^@*) will be therapeutic, and you'll be able to clean up all the unreachable detritus that's helping push your PO4 level up.

 

Oh God, that'd be quite the undertaking. I really ought to just do that, but my anxiety stops me. Not to mention that my back just can't handle it right now, much less my psyche. But yes, I'd be rid of the shrimp and I could get a powerhead back there (no spraybar or anything). Not too much detritus back there, though. Bare in the back, and I can see it. Heck, it's a pistol-shrimp raceway. Can see them but can't get them.

[Caesar777]

Conan is doing well. Eats mysis, as well as picking tiny miscellaneous encrusting plants and animals from the rocks. (Nice, he's pretty much cleaning up weird crap I don't want growing, haha.) He may have a speck of Cryptocaryon on his dorsal, though, can't tell. Will just try to keep the water quality up and feed him well.

 

Snoopy is also doing, well, fairly well. Still hides behind the overflow box, but he's introverted and wary because of his missing eye, and afraid of the pistols. Just wait until he gains his strength, and those pistols can kiss their beautiful but evil asses goodbye. He responds to me, now, still too afraid to come out, but will make direct eye contact and scooch forward toward me, still hiding in the shadows but knowing that I can see him, and seemingly unafraid, only slightly intimidated. I try my best to make careful, measured movements around him, preferably none at all, to prove to him that I intend him no harm. He's seen me chase the pistols away from him, and I can tell he knows. He saw it; he lived it. He knows that, while my reach within the tank is extremely limited (I never go behind that box, lest he lose his faith in that one safe place), I'm as hateful of the pistols as he is, and that I'm willing to defend him if I can. He really does know this. I've been bringing home feeder ghost shrimp, just to keep him from getting thin, and trying Hikari mysis. I think he does pick the mysis, and he doesn't outright attack the shrimp because of his missing-eye-induced nervousness, but he's clearly been eating because his weight is, while not ideal, not thin enough to really worry me, only keep me on my toes about making sure he's fed. Have been doing a ton of water changes, but that's what it takes to rescue such a debilitated fish. I'm up for the challenge. I know that, once his health is back, he will be the same wrasse-hole that God intended, and he'll dominate the tank as Nature intended! Damn it, he's a freakin' TROOPER. Good Snoopy, good buddy.

 

The rearranged rock looks nice. I like the new zoa rock, very large and sparsely-covered with zoanthid growth, but covered in thick purple coralline, and it's a nice Kaelini-esque, shapely rock, so it fits right in. Actually, it made me realize how much coralline has grown on what was once bare Tonga branch and Pukani rock, nice quality but with little growth, stifled by harsh water conditions in the rock-curing vat. The rock itself is beautiful, though, and very ideal: shapely and porous, not round or heavy and natural coral heads, not cement or other bull-ish.

 

I took home two frags of Elegance (Cataphyllia coral). Yes, frags. We had a colony at work that had receded to two small, one-inch pieces of living tissue among a four-inch-long bare skeleton, so I simply broke the skeleton with my fragging cutters between the livin portions, trying to leave some of the "dead" skeleton around the flesh to ensure that the delicate polyp isn't damaged or stressed. The smaller one seems very stressed and will probably melt, but the larger one looks good. Both puffed up and looked good for a few days--this was.....Tuesday. The small one started looking funky probably yesterday or the day before. Good luck, biggun Elle.

 

I spotted Greasy again, still quite large and with a good belly. The yasa is upset that I moved an Alveopora to the entrance of his cave, and I haven't seen him this evening. I'm afraid that, in his fear and confusion, he may have been left vulnerable enough to be killed by the pistols. I hope not. He's a nice boy.

[Caesar777]

OH MY FUGGIN' GOD... My tank-raised orange ocellaris--the b!tch female--kept nipping at my Duncan coral...or so I thought. Turns out she's HOSTING IT. OF ALL THE MANY FLUFFY CORALS I HAVE TO HOST, SHE CHOOSES THE EXPENSIVE ONE! Damn, there's a big-ass, puffy frogspawn directly below it... Ugh. Duncan's pi$$ed off.

 

Cute, though. Turns out she isn't biting it, but nuzzling it with her face. She was just snuggling up her front half to it, turned sideways and laid almost still; thought for a second that she'd been stung and was being killed! Hey, I've seen carpets do it. (I've accidentally incited carpets to do it. )

[ram man]

I just started reading this thread and saw that you have the same camera as me, the sony cybershot 5.1 mega pixel. How did you manage to get such great shots with it? like what setting did you use? I've been fooling around with this thing for half a year and still cant get good pics.