My humble 5.5g

[H20]

The little amphipod looking things almost looks like the little mysis shrimp that I feed my tank. Could you have some mysis swimming around you tank?

 

The baby gobies are sweet! Hope they survive!

[c est ma]

I just want to ask... What camera is that? Your shots are crazy clear! Mine is a Nikon coolpix 5700... and it sucks... or me sucks, i don't know...

 

Yeah, right! Duncan, I'd kill to have taken these shots:

 

FROM DUNCAN'S THREAD:

 

********************************

My baby fungia that's forever growing, the locals called it tiger fungia. Probably due to tiger stripes.

 

Orange plate... picture is a little washed-out...

 

********************************

 

(As I've mentioned, my cam's just a Coolpix 3100. You need to give me tips! )

 

The little amphipod looking things almost looks like the little mysis shrimp that I feed my tank. Could you have some mysis swimming around you tank?

 

The baby gobies are sweet! Hope they survive!

 

Thanks, H2O!

 

AFAIK, I do not have mysids. Nor do the critters I see (however miserable the photos) resemble pics of mysids I've seen, to my eyes, anyway. But maybe I just haven't seen this stage?

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

--Diane

[dtfleming]

are u looking for s strain of rofitiers? if so reefscavengers sells them.

[Weetabix7]

That is SO awesome Diane and I got to be a part of it!!!

That would be so cool if my little creation got to be a baby goby nursery!

[Duncan]

Sorry if I missed you mentioned your camera model! But my cam is impossible to take moving object shots and yours is capturing them perfect! And to take pod (grain-sized) pictures with that kind of clarity is insane, something which me nor my cam could perform.

 

coolpix 3100, I will remember that! Thank you.

[c est ma]

Sorry if I missed you mentioned your camera model! But my cam is impossible to take moving object shots and yours is capturing them perfect! And to take pod (grain-sized) pictures with that kind of clarity is insane, something which me nor my cam could perform.

 

coolpix 3100, I will remember that! Thank you.

 

Duncan, I'm sorry; I really don't expect anyone to remember anything I've said in lo, these many pages. I can't ever remember myself!

 

And as for the really tiny stuff--that's the only thing I'm somewhat good at, and it's all due to a trick. I point my point-&-shoot through another lens of some sort, either a magnifying glass, a loupe, or the eyepiece of my stereo microscope. Lots of people don't realize that's possible. You can also take shots through telescopes and spotting scopes, but those don't generally apply to our little reefs...lol.

 

Yep, I even took the vids that way...the first through the stereoscope, the second through a hand-held magnifying lens...My cam isn't the best for vids but it at least gives me documentation...

 

So I'll bet your camera would probably work a lot better than mine with these tricks!

 

--Diane

[c est ma]

yes, yes it is Especially when she's already *TOLD* me I was getting her a sapphire bracelet to match her engagement ring

 

Got your orders, eh?

 

 

LOVE the baby plate! Very cool that it finally detached.

 

Thanks! ( Now go take some pics of Amber's.)

 

 

Earings not a bracelet. And not just to match my ring but also to wear with my wedding dress. You need to pay attention when I talk to you. And its not just a Valentine's present its also my birthday and Christmas present. So see its not all that bad.

 

Uh, Daniel...??

 

Amber, not listening this badly before you're even married may not be the best sign...

 

 

Diane,

My plate generating sites are the same size but the one plate that detached was about 3/4 inch wide. Hopefully it will live and grow quickly seeing as how it is already eating the pellets. I don't have to worry about the cuc because all I have are a few snails and two sexy shrimps (they like to scavange so I count them as part of the cuc).

 

3/4". Essentially 3X as big as mine. This is why I'd really want to see your site--is it sticking out in the water like mine, or more flush against the surrounding rock?

 

 

I meant that...I was holding my bracelet while trying to type earrings.

 

 

Thank you, Mr. Quick Recovery...

 

LOL; you two!

 

--Diane

[Duncan]

Duncan, I'm sorry; I really don't expect anyone to remember anything I've said in lo, these many pages. I can't ever remember myself!

 

And as for the really tiny stuff--that's the only thing I'm somewhat good at, and it's all due to a trick. I point my point-&-shoot through another lens of some sort, either a magnifying glass, a loupe, or the eyepiece of my stereo microscope. Lots of people don't realize that's possible. You can also take shots through telescopes and spotting scopes, but those don't generally apply to our little reefs...lol.

 

Yep, I even took the vids that way...the first through the stereoscope, the second through a hand-held magnifying lens...My cam isn't the best for vids but it at least gives me documentation...

 

So I'll bet your camera would probably work a lot better than mine with these tricks!

 

--Diane

 

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation! Much appreciated! Guess I have to go find my magnifying glass. Okay, enough of me derailing your tank thread!

[divecj5]

Hey Diane,

 

Just took my lunch break to catch up on your thread. I have no idea why I haven't been getting the notifications when there is an update. It was well worth the 45 minutes of cruising the thread and enjoying all of the wonderful pictures.

 

First off, congratulations on TOTM....as everyone else said it is incredibly well deserved. You are so great at documenting things....you are the photo journalist of your reef Great work and keep it up.

 

Congrats as well at the goby hatch as well....that is simply incredibly.

 

Quick question though, where did you get the majority of your rics? I know that you said you went to the LFS for the last one but just curious where the others were from. My LFS unfortunately only gets in the plain Jane green ones that are usually a bit bleached out. Well that and the ones that they get in with ANY color on them are usually way overpriced.

 

Keep up the great work Diane....I don't think anyone ever gets bored with your posts.

 

Adam

[arwndsh]

Ok Diane I did it. I borrowed my roommates camera and took pics of my plates. The first two pics are of the plate generating site unfortunately something had annoyed it so you cannot see the new growth, the site is circled in red. (this is cross posted in your plate factory thread as well)

 

 

 

This is a pic of the plate that detatched from this site around Christmas time. Its the big green/blue one on the left. The one on the right is the one that looks like yours.

 

This is a pic of the plate that is still attatched to its site.

 

This is a pic of my plate garden.

[c est ma]

Hey Diane,

 

Just took my lunch break to catch up on your thread. I have no idea why I haven't been getting the notifications when there is an update. It was well worth the 45 minutes of cruising the thread and enjoying all of the wonderful pictures.

 

First off, congratulations on TOTM....as everyone else said it is incredibly well deserved. You are so great at documenting things....you are the photo journalist of your reef Great work and keep it up.

 

Congrats as well at the goby hatch as well....that is simply incredibly.

 

Quick question though, where did you get the majority of your rics? I know that you said you went to the LFS for the last one but just curious where the others were from. My LFS unfortunately only gets in the plain Jane green ones that are usually a bit bleached out. Well that and the ones that they get in with ANY color on them are usually way overpriced.

 

Keep up the great work Diane....I don't think anyone ever gets bored with your posts.

 

Adam

 

 

Adam,

 

Man, I'm pretty flattered you'd spend your lunch break on this. Thank you so much for all the kind words!

 

Sorry to say (since you're not in my neck of the woods) that all my rics have come from 3 lfs's. (Actually the main one is not too local--about 1.5 hours away...). I have always drooled over online vendors, but am just a little wary of ordering that way, mostly because my space is so limited. I once ordered a gorg from Drs. F & S that they said would be a 6" tall piece...they sent me a shrub the size of my tank. I had to quickly "donate" that to another lfs, keeping only a tiny side branch...

 

I agree, colorful rics can be very difficult to find...

 

Anyway, your questions reminded me of a post from another old thread of mine, that I thought I would shamelessly copy and paste here, just to get some pics of some of the original rics on this thread:

 

 

 

Here's the orange one when I first got it (October, 2005)--only one mouth and much, much smaller (I paid $50 bucks for this, but I haven't regretted it!). It has since filled in that corner:

 

**********************

 

 

And here's the pink one at first (November, 2005), also ~ $50. This one really did start out looking like Audrey (ref. to Little Shop of Horrors...)! (It now has polyps in the double digits.):

 

 

These were tiny ones I picked up for much less, between $7 & $15 each (3 of 6 that I acquired mostly in January, '06):

 

 

I managed to attach 3 of them to a rock, here shown next to the orange ric:

 

 

**************************

 

 

--Diane

[c est ma]

Ok Diane I did it. I borrowed my roommates camera and took pics of my plates. The first two pics are of the plate generating site unfortunately something had annoyed it so you cannot see the new growth, the site is circled in red. (this is cross posted in your plate factory thread as well)

 

 

 

This is a pic of the plate that detatched from this site around Christmas time. Its the big green/blue one on the left. The one on the right is the one that looks like yours.

 

This is a pic of the plate that is still attatched to its site.

 

This is a pic of my plate garden.

 

Amber, that is SO COOL! Thank you so much for taking those pics and posting them here. I can't tell you how much this whole "calving" process fascinates me and how much I love fungiids.

 

I'm going to save the bulk of my comments for my plate thread.

 

Very sweet!

 

--Diane

[divecj5]

Hey Diane. Spending the lunch break catching up on your thread was a lot better than just reading USA Today or MSNBC online....always time to catch up on news other times

 

That's funny about Drs. F&S sending you something that was larger than expected. That is usually something that people would be happy with in larger tanks but for nano keepers it is something that can make you very wary. I know that now that I don't have my 55 gallon tank, I have to be a lot more selective and really think about how things are going to grow in the tank. Makes it that much more fun though in my opinion.

 

Thanks for posting the pics of the ricordeas that you got. I guess I didn't realize that you only bought singles when you got them and that they've gotten that big. What if anything do you target feed them with? I have had a good bit of success with feeding them Cyclop-eeze but I'm never really sure if they are eating it or not. Not sure about yours but mine I guess sense the food and curl around it. Have you had similar experiences.

 

I wish I would have snagged a picture of my one ric propagating....it was really cool how it was stretched between the two halves with just a small strand between the two. By the next morning I had two

 

Take care,

Adam

[Djbacon]

Gorgeous tank Diane !! So cool to see how much can be done with such a small space. Dying to start filling mine up.

[jhealey]

This is a really nice tank! I especially like your Rics, and decided to buy some of my own!

 

I bought a small blue and pink piece, and as of now don't have a good spot for it, are yours just sitting on your substrate? If i have a live sand substrate will I be able to keep them just on the sand, or would it be better on a piece of Live Rock?

 

Thanks, and your tank is incredible!

[j0hnny]

Diane, I love your rics so much that I scored 3 little ones from a LFS for my tank. I'll post pics by the end of the week. =)

[xADUBx]

Congrats on TOTM Diane! Your tank is the coolest ever!

[c est ma]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

 

 

This is a really nice tank! I especially like your Rics, and decided to buy some of my own!

 

I bought a small blue and pink piece, and as of now don't have a good spot for it, are yours just sitting on your substrate? If i have a live sand substrate will I be able to keep them just on the sand, or would it be better on a piece of Live Rock?

 

 

Some of mine are on rocks they came on, some are on rocks I managed to glue them to, at least one has migrated from the rock I glued it to to the main LR, some have slipped down the rocks they came on to the substrate, and some are sitting right on the substrate. They tend to have their own ideas as to placement. As I have crushed coral, I don't know how they'll do on sand, but IME they're very hardy. I like to have them attached to rocks, myself. I've recently had some unattached pinks drift over to my B. merleti, and kill some of the merleti polyps.

 

 

 

 

That's funny about Drs. F&S sending you something that was larger than expected. That is usually something that people would be happy with in larger tanks but for nano keepers it is something that can make you very wary. I know that now that I don't have my 55 gallon tank, I have to be a lot more selective and really think about how things are going to grow in the tank. Makes it that much more fun though in my opinion.

 

Oh, I agree! And cheaper. I've often talked about searching the bottoms of dealer's tanks for whatever might have detached and ended up there...

 

Thanks for posting the pics of the ricordeas that you got. I guess I didn't realize that you only bought singles when you got them and that they've gotten that big. What if anything do you target feed them with? I have had a good bit of success with feeding them Cyclop-eeze but I'm never really sure if they are eating it or not. Not sure about yours but mine I guess sense the food and curl around it. Have you had similar experiences.

 

I generally feed frozen Cyclopeeze directly to the rics, though I've seen them grab anything I feed the tank. They routinely get some of the sinking morsels I feed my fish. My rics have various feeding responses...some close up like Discosoma, but some just open their mouths. Sometimes they seem to pass food toward their mouths with their tentacles...

 

I cannibalized some other threads to get these pics. I have more pics of the orange one than any other, probably because it was my first and I was so fascinated by it. Or maybe it's just the most photogenic.

 

Here it is early on, opening wide for Cyclopeeze:

 

 

Here's a shot from a series I got when it seemed to be passing a brown flatworm to its mouth! Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be a trend...maybe flatworms are generally too "smart" to sit on rics...:

 

 

Another shot of it eating Cyclopeeze, after it'd developed 5 mouths:

 

 

The pink ones are far more likely to close up around food:

 

 

Here are a couple of crazy pics of the orange one eating mysis:

 

 

Down the hatch:

 

 

Much as it seemed to relish them, IME my rics really don't like food items that large. They tend to emerge more or less intact some time later. Chopped mysis are kept down, tho.

 

And here are some pics of warring mouths on the same polyp. One had eaten something and the other one wanted it...led to a very weird liplock:

 

 

 

 

I wish I would have snagged a picture of my one ric propagating....it was really cool how it was stretched between the two halves with just a small strand between the two. By the next morning I had two

 

Mine have NEVER divided like that! Though I've seen pics of similar phenomena, most recently on Hinecken's thread. Mine just seem to grow rows of circumference tentacles right down the middle of the polyp, till one day there are two where there used to be only one...

 

--Diane

[lilredneckman]

Wow of course great shots Diane. I love to see my rics eat. It is so interesting.

[Dooderino]

I love to watch my rics eat. Every Sat. is the tanks big lunch. I'm always amazed when its feeding time.

[divecj5]

Great information and documentary as well. I think that I remember seeing some of these pictures before but some of the sequences are stunning. It is pretty amazing how different ric species and individuals will end up feeding differently. As I mentioned, the majority of mine just end up either curling around whatever they catch or opening their "mouth" to capture food that way.

 

That one ric with the five mouths is just stunning....all it needs to do now is split five times

 

Great information Diane....your thread is just a wealth of knowledge and a reef book in itself.

[el fabuloso]

Wow. Those pics of your rics eating are just astounding! I had no idea rics eat like that.

 

My yuma doesn't seem to respond to direct feeding. But now that I feed my sexy shrimps regularly, pieces of food will land on it and it closes up into a ball.

[klarion]

Wow. Those pics of your rics eating are just astounding! I had no idea rics eat like that.

 

+1 as always Diane. I'm craving another series of FTS'. Hope you can oblige........

 

I don't have any rics yet because I'm trying to be slow in adding new life and the local LFS don't carry rics for some reason. I'm planning a trip to a different LFS some distance away and hopefully they'll have some good stuff.

 

best,

b

[Loosey]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

 

\

 

 

Another shot of it eating Cyclopeeze, after it'd developed 5 mouths:

 

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--Diane

 

 

amazingly good photos

[c est ma]

Thank you, everyone.

 

 

 

+1 as always Diane. I'm craving another series of FTS'. Hope you can oblige........

 

I don't have any rics yet because I'm trying to be slow in adding new life and the local LFS don't carry rics for some reason. I'm planning a trip to a different LFS some distance away and hopefully they'll have some good stuff.

 

best,

b

 

Boris,

 

I don't think you'd ever regret getting a ric. But any reason to visit a new LFS is a good reason.

 

I will take some new fts's, but that reminds me that I've been wanting to post this series of the right side of my tank for a while. These were taken in late January. I used to avoid looking at this side--it was sort of a jumble, never too attractive IMO, and I got in the habit of not really paying any attention to that view. But what with setting up the fuge over there, watching the plate coral develop, etc., I finally got some pics I like. Now that the Xenia is on the wall, and the gsp has spread nicely over the smaller of my two main pieces of LR, I'm starting to like this view...

 

Just a shot of the mound o' gsp:

 

 

These next 4 are essentially identical--only a tank "Mom" would have to post all of them . In this first one, from a slightly higher angle, you can actually see my beautiful little Blastomussa merleti, which is stuck in the very back of the tank (has to be away from those threatening softies) and seldom shows up in other shots (and behind it you can see a clump of chaeto behind my main LR...even with the fuge, I seem to get good results having some chaeto in the main tank as well):

 

 

In all of these, the developing baby plate coral can be seen in the lower left corner, the sort of pinkish-translucent circle with light greenish ribs radiating out of it. This was just a few weeks before it detached.

 

 

A bit more toward the front of the right side. I like the way the things in front look so lush and "moundy" from this angle:

 

 

And pulled back a little. The Xenia in the bottom right hand corner are pieces I've pruned off the LR and have yet to rehome. I was hoping I could put them in my new 'fuge, but I have a few kinks to work out first. Meanwhile, here in the backcorner, under the HOB filter and essentially lightless, they continue to thrive--but get etiolated and pulse at a much lower rate:

 

 

 

Well, that's more than enough of that side!

 

--Diane