Oceanic Angles

[varanus37]

I agree. Several friends raise sea horses and another has successfully raised clowns so I've seen the process first-hand but this is my first run. Matt Pedersen's presentation on the breeding of the Harlequin File was first done in a friend's living room at our monthly reef club meeting, LoL. Places like TONMO and MOFIB are great resources. Having friends that frequent those is of great benefit too. I'll keep things updated as best I can.

 

I know I've been slacking on tank updates but there really hasn't been much going on aside from my algae battle. I told Teresa I wouldn't get any new coral for this tank so my plan is to stick to that as best I can. My dendro has a baby head so that's something of recent interest. The only real change to my regimen recently has been to scale way back on feeding. I'm shooting for twice a week right now. We'll see how it goes.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Good news and bad news. I have another hatchling so that's the good news. I lost my first hatchling so that's the bad news. The 1st hatchling became much more active and was hunting the pods I put in the net, seemed to be doing really well. He was on the bottom of the net and holding on with his tentacles. My filefish cruised from across the tank to take a whack at him and got ahold right through the net. I was there when this all happened so I pulled the cuttle immediately and placed him in the fuge. He cruised for the algae and hid out but was floating today. I couldn't physically see any damage but he did ink and I'm sure that was a boatload of stress.

 

Now that the 2nd hatchling is out I'm going to watch. When he starts to hunt and actively move about the net he'll be moved down to the fuge area. The first day or two they seem to hide in the branches and are fairly safe IMO. Once they become active they'll go down below. I'm undecided whether to just let them wander the fuge and eat as they will or if I should use my second breeder net and corner them off so I know for sure if they're eating or not. My feeling there is if they're not eating what am I really going to do about it? I mean I'll know for sure that there are pods in the net available to the babies but that's really about it. I can look in the fuge area and tell you without a doubt there are pods available there so I don't see all that much difference aside from my own peace of mind. We'll see how it goes. Probably tomorrow or early Monday is when this new baby will be moved.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

The second hatchling has been moved down to the fuge. He looks good and was checking things out when I turned out the lights. I have the fuge on a reverse light cycle from the display so I'll try and get some pics tonight. I checked in on him a little while ago and he was poking through the algae, hopefully hunting.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Another baby hatched today while I was at work. This one is a bit darker than the first two but looks good.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So there are now 3 babies in the fuge and no babies in the breeder net. I still have 2 or 3 eggs that are good size and fairly transluscent so things are looking good. This last cuttle that hatched out is a big fella. Has no fear at all. I use a small cup to transfer from the net to the fuge and he was the only one to cruise around the cup and check things out as opposed to just sitting in the bottom freaked out. The reaction was the same when I introduced them to the fuge. The first 2 hid immediately but this guy wandered about and checked things out and is now hanging out in a thin spot in the algae mat. I'll try and get pics up soon. Hopefully the other two will make more appearances. The first baby to go into the fuge has taken up residence on the backside of my return pump and hunts near there so he's harder to get pics of but I'll try.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

We lost one of the recent transfers to the fuge. He was a bit sketchy in the transfer to start and floated a bit before scooting off to hide. Found him floating this morning. The other two are just fine and are hunting near my return pump. I'll get pics if they ever move out of that back corner when I'm actually looking.

 

Bill

[Weetabix7]

I'm sorry.

 

This is a really cool "experiment" that you're doing though, Props to you.

[varanus37]

Yeah, it happens though. I knew I wouldn't have 100% success from the outset. We actually just hatched another baby this morning. Looking at the eggs I think this guy will be the last. The other eggs are all fairly dark. I'll give them some time but I'd bet they're done. So there are two in the fuge and this one in the net. This baby in the net is somewhat the same as the last. He's much larger and quite a bit darker than the other babies so hopefully I'll have good luck with him. If the other eggs do turn out to be bad I think I'm going to chunk off a ball of algae and keep this one in the breeder net alone. Two in the fuge and one in the net should give me fair chances. If I start to notice that the pods are getting low in the net I can always swap out balls of algae with the fuge.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Did a good-size WC the other day and rearranged a few corals. Nothing major but wanted to give some of the LPS a bit more space. Our hammer is growing tremendously and was creating a bit of crossfire between it and the brain. My orange shrooms and tan palys don't seem to mind at all but other LPS in that spot are not happy at all. I've moved in and moved out two pieces now so I think that corner will stay empty until the softies grow to cover or the hammer pops out a few more heads.

 

I'll try and get some pics up soon.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

32000+ views!

 

Thanks for tagging along.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Finally got to see one of the cuttles munching away. Lots of tentacle movement and little bits of pod flying about. It's crazy how big their eyes are in comparison to their body size, especially now that they're growing a bit.

 

Update on the net baby. Turns out the net had a hole in it below one of the egg bundles and it looks like he escaped. I don't like his chances in my tank at that size so I'm assuming the worst of him. Decided to put the rest of the eggs in the fuge and let them do what they're going to do.

 

So two babies doing well, several eggs still in the fuge and one baby MIA in the display. Assumed KIA but we'll know more if in a few months my shrimp start to go missing.

 

Bill

[Rocket]

sweet tank!

[Militant Jurist]

Let's just hope he doesn't end up as a POW. Do you have any pictures of these guys in action? Flying pod bits sounds like a good time is being had.

[varanus37]

Rocket - Thanks! Anything in particular sweet? Or just my all-around awesomeness? Obvisouly it could also be my modesty.

 

MJ - Ya know, that's the major downside to keeping these guys in the fuge. I don't clean the glass in that tank on purpose for the little buggers and sponges that are growing on it so side shots are basically impossible. I've tried top down but I can't get my shoulders into the stand for my 75 LoL. I do try to get pics whenever I see them so hopefully at some point I'll have luck.

 

For those that have been reading that's actually why you haven't seen tank pics in awhile. I spend most of my time now trying to get cuttle pics and figure out a way to crawl into my stand LoL. Friday is my birthday and I'm off work so I'll try and spend some time taking regular tank shots for the thread.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So I was reading an article the other day on LPS and NPS corals and their various feeding preferences and lighting and things like that. Saw a neat tidbit on Sun coral. Apparently it's been noted that they drop babies which just float off and this is one way that they quickly colonize areas. I don't know if any of you saw my post awhile ago about Sun coral being considered a nuisance species by oil rig crews because they spread so fast on their equipment below the water line. Reading that has me wondering if the little yellow ball anemones that I think I've been seeing are really just little yellow 'nems or if I'm seeing baby sun coral heads. I don't know if I consider myself that lucky or not but it sure would be neat if it were true. I plan to monitor these little guys and see if anything does become of them. I would think if it were a baby sun coral that growth would be evident as opposed to some small ball-type 'nem.

 

While I was checking on one of these little yellow babies I also found an awesome bivalve. He's down in the corner that I've posted about before where the hammer is taking over. I'll try to get pics if I'm able but the glass doesn't get much scraping in that far rear corner. I'd say he's about half the size of a flame scallop you'd see in an LFS and he looks exactly like a flame scallop but an ugly brown and gray color, LoL. I've post about these guys before living on the underside of my clam and my large brain. This particular critter has taken up residence between an old overturned clam shell and the left pane of my 75. His spot has him sitting directly beneath the hammer bunch and catching a fair amount of flow from across the tank as it travels down the pane and swirls in that corner. I'm pretty certain that this flow is what's making my hammer, large brain and duncan so happy as they catch all sorts of food this way. Looks like this bivalve has taken the hint and joined in.

 

The March meeting of JARC is tonight so pics of the tank will likely have to wait until tomorrow. I'll do what I can for the bivalve shots.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Got to playing with flash pics to try and snap a few of the fish.

 

 

 

 

Same guy, no flash.

 

Check out the six-line shots. Mean buggers but beautiful fish when they display at you.

 

 

 

Random inverts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come.

[varanus37]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally some of the coral.

 

 

 

 

So those are a few of the new pics from the 75.

 

The JARC frag swap will be held at the Elks Club in Joliet, IL on April 24th. The times are from 10am to 6pm and all are welcome to attend. If you'd like more info please feel free to PM me and I can provide all the details.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

And here are some non-reef pics of our newest pet. This is Peter the millipede

 

 

 

 

 

Bill

[bird]

Too cool. Looks like it is having a field day with the strawberry.

[varanus37]

Yep, he went straight for it. It's awesome to watch them eat. They nibble along stuff and then stop every so often to clean their legs and antennae. Really neat to see it up close. They make me think of a cuke in a reef tank. They're great for kids' shows since they eat fruit and veggies and are completely harmless. Their legs are slightly prickly so kids really like to feel them run up their arms. And by run I mean god-awful slowly crawl LoL

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Forgot to put it in the pic posts but my bristletailed filefish has moved on in the local reef club. I'm pretty well out of aiptasia at this point and I have friends with plenty of 'nems to keep him fed. He was a sneaky little bugger to net but he made the trip well and I was just told he acclimated in his new home and is chilling out now. Glad to see he went somewhere he was needed but kinda sucks to have him gone. He came right to the surface with the clowns and blue-side wrasse to eat and it was pretty kewl.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Update on the baby cuttles. I have two cuttles that are still doing very well. The larger is probably 1" or so and the smaller about 3/4". I tried putting some pellets in today to see if there was interest and they were soundly ignored. The pellets did let me see the kewlest feeding response from an animal that I have ever seen in person. That's saying something as my other interest is reptiles, specifically large carnivorous lizards (see my s/n).

 

When the pellets started to sink a little clump of them sank toward one of the sponges I leave in the fuge to attract pods. The larger cuttle cruised over the sponge and I thought he might eat a pellet. Instead he waited for a good size pod to come out and grab a pellet and then he absolutely exploded. It was just like a movie where the giant squid flares it's tentacles to grab a boat or something. Pod bits and pieces of pellet food and lots of tentacle wiggling. Totally awesome

 

I really need to find a way to get myself into my stand and get some pictures.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So the pics aren't awesome. I turned the fuge light on when I got home from work and interrupted the larger cuttle munching something. I ran to get the camera since he was close to the glass but by the time I got back he had started to move into the algae ball. Here's the best I was able to snap. I put the pics as I took them and then zoomed using the camera settings.

 

 

 

 

 

And zoomed.

 

 

 

 

 

So that's the larger cuttle. I'm really glad to physically see that he's eating. The growth made it obvious but it's still nice to know. The other cuttle was born later so it's smaller but it's obviously growing as well. Just waiting to see it in feeding action.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So I was given a sunset monti frag tonight at a BOD meeting for our local reef club, pretty kewl. It was payment for dog sitting that I did like a year ago LoL. The girl gave me several frags at the time but told me one wasn't doing well so she kept it to see if she could save it rather than give me a bad piece. Now I get a good sized chunk of sunset monti spilling off a frag plug. Not bad considering I didn't even remember that she "owed" me the piece.

 

Bill

[Needreefunds]

Just a quick post to reassure you we are still following along

 

As I have said before, your posts are wonderfully detailed and leave little to be questioned

 

Great pictures Bill.