Yardboy's Jetties Nano

[dickie52]

Yardboy......

 

Nice job!

[Jamie]

Fantastic tank! It's great to see another biotope tank on here, I only wish I could've found this thread sooner!

 

So if the temperature where you are gets alll the way down to the forties/fiftees in the winter, I could get a pederson's anemone shrimp (or any of the other amazing organizms you have in your tank) for my coldwater tank? I think I have some purchases to contemplate.

 

-Jamie

[yardboy]

You bring up an interesting question Jamie. I guess I need to psyche myself into going snorkeling to see what kind of things are apparent this time of year. Possibility that many of these things go dormant somehow so you'd not see them in your tank. Just last week the air temperature got to 25 degrees here, and the next day the shore was littered with brown sea slugs and carrier urchins. Not sure what caused them to die, we assumed that they'd gotten caught in shallow water which may have gotten colder than the water a bit deeper. I'll wait until we get a bit warmer day and I'll try snorkeling at the jetties. Not tomorrow as it's going to be 31 tonight. Brrrrr!

[c est ma]

What a welcome update!

 

Interesting observation about the spaghetti worms and cyano. I, too, think of phenomena I witness as potential research projects.

 

Your cycling insights are also most interesting. Isn't it wonderful to have things that you thought you'd lost reappear?! Congrats on the thriving sponges! I'm eagerly awaiting more info on what's "scurrying around" in there. And here's to successful "simple" set-ups!

 

I just love the goby & shrimp pics, and congrats on the oyster! (Do you think it looks a little emaciated?)

 

Nice info about the gorgs, and that fts shot is just captivating. I could stare at that tank for hours and hours.

 

KUDOS!

 

--Diane

[Jamie]

You bring up an interesting question Jamie. I guess I need to psyche myself into going snorkeling to see what kind of things are apparent this time of year. Possibility that many of these things go dormant somehow so you'd not see them in your tank. Just last week the air temperature got to 25 degrees here, and the next day the shore was littered with brown sea slugs and carrier urchins. Not sure what caused them to die, we assumed that they'd gotten caught in shallow water which may have gotten colder than the water a bit deeper. I'll wait until we get a bit warmer day and I'll try snorkeling at the jetties. Not tomorrow as it's going to be 31 tonight. Brrrrr!

 

 

Does it typically get that cold in Florida? It's been a really cold year here. It's supposed to be 22 tomorrow night, which is unusually cold for Oregon west of the Cascades.

 

I understand your hesitation, I've surfed here, in 50 degree water, and I have to wear at least a 5mm wetsuit to keep from freezing to death. If you go and don't see anything, at least you'll know you never have to go again!

 

-Jamie

[Greenstar]

Honestly one of the sweetest nanos on the site.

[yardboy]

Does it typically get that cold in Florida? It's been a really cold year here. It's supposed to be 22 tomorrow night, which is unusually cold for Oregon west of the Cascades.

 

I understand your hesitation, I've surfed here, in 50 degree water, and I have to wear at least a 5mm wetsuit to keep from freezing to death. If you go and don't see anything, at least you'll know you never have to go again!

 

-Jamie

 

Florida is like California and is quite extended North to South. PCB is in the Panhandle and at the Northern end of the Gulf of Mexico. Shallow water can get quite cold here. The bays are already down to 52 degrees, but the Gulf is 63 degrees. Every time the tide changes there is that temperature change also. We don't get the same degree of tidal change you do in Oregon, only around 2 feet, though when a North wind blows (and brings cold weather) on a low tide, it can be more like 5 feet.

he next week is bringing another wave of cold weather, so it'll be awhile before I venture into the water!

[yardboy]

A couple of shots I took after Green bay got beat in the playoffs.

This piece of knobby sea rod came from a wreck site offshore of Panama City this past summer. Kinda pushing the jetties tank, but the site was only about 20 miles South of the jetties.

 

I thought of putting the title of "Slow Rider" on this shot of the shrimp on the cucumber. I was trying to get a good shot of the mouthparts of the cuke, to show its radial symmetry, which is why it's in the same family as starfish (yes, I am learning something from the book Diane!). Looking at it feed I thought I could show it, but somehow the small shell got in the way, and didn't feel that disturbing it's meal would be nice to the cuke!

 

[yardboy]

I visited the lfs yesterday, they had a few gorgonians but nothing spectacular. I was looking to buy some snails for my frac tank, and noticed that there was a small "stick" of some purple gorgonian laying off in the corner. When I asked how much the clerk just laughed and dropped it in the bag with the snails. Thank you maam!

I thought I'd show a picture of it and later compare any growth it might put on. While gorgonians are generally slower growing, one thing I've noted is that if the outer tissue is damaged but the central chord is still intact, the animal will quite quickly overgrow the damaged section. In the past I'd prune the "dead" parts of the chord off to make the gorg "look nicer". Now I just leave it.

This photo was taken today, 2/14/08. I'll take other shots when I see the rind start growing again.

 

[yardboy]

I'm afraid I may have contaminated the tank. I thought I was careful when aquascaping this tank, to only use the rock I "aquacultured" at the jetties. Today, I pruned back a halimeda and found on a rock behind it some unknown coral. The rock may have been a piece I used to space apart a bigger rock, not sure. Anyway, this looks kinda like a montipora and it is definitely growing. There is a slight purple tint to it, maybe a purple monti cap, but I'm just not sure. I started to cut it off, but decided to watch how it grows. Darn it, it's been all I could do to resist putting zoanthids in the tank, to keep it "pure".

On the other hand, who knows, it might be some caribbean coral. Many tropical fish are swept up here by the currents, living here until it gets cold, then either dying or migrating away. Wouldn't it be cool if it was something that attached itself to the rock last spring and would have normally died, but was "rescued" by my putting the rock in my tank? We'll see.

 

[beeman7467]

Fascinating tank thread. I'll follow intently from here on out. My wife thinks I'm crazy for sitting in front of my tank and 'just watching", but it's amazing how often you'll get rewarded for your patience. Sometimes it can be hard to slow down and just look, but good things usually happen.

[divecj5]

Tank is looking great. What do you mean that you may have contaminated the tank?

 

That sure looks like it is some sort of montipora. Should be cool to see what it develops into.

[dtfleming]

check out sealifeflordia for different gorg also. Did u check out gulfcoast ecosystems for their plants?

[spanko]

Looks like it may be a monti, but could also be some type of encrusting gorg?

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/239458/product.web

[yardboy]

Tank is looking great. What do you mean that you may have contaminated the tank?

 

That sure looks like it is some sort of montipora. Should be cool to see what it develops into.

 

Thanks for the comment! What I mean is that this tank was set up as a "biotope" of the Jetties at St. Andrew's State Park in Panama City Beach, Florida. I've tried to only include creatures that might reasonably be expected to live there. I've collected some livestock from there, and have purchased other animals, crabs and gorgonians, that might be found there. Unfortunately, if a monitpora is in the tank, then the tank is "contaminated" with something that would never be found at the jetties. If I determine that it is a montipora, then I'll remove it. On a side note, if it is a montipora, surprise, it's growing under 2-36W PC's, which I would not have expected to happen.

 

Divecj5, I have purchased extensively from Ken at Sealife. Very cool stuff. Most of the gorgonians came from there. I've also purchase stuff from Reef Scavengers.

Thanks spanko for the link, but It seems to have a hard skeleton. Time will tell.

dtfleming, thanks for the link to Gulf Coast Ecosystems. I've checked out their site and right now most of what they have I can collect right here. This spring I will try again some Ulva. They may also have greater stock later too, so I'll check them again. Sounds like a really cool place though!

[c est ma]

I'm afraid I may have contaminated the tank. I thought I was careful when aquascaping this tank, to only use the rock I "aquacultured" at the jetties. Today, I pruned back a halimeda and found on a rock behind it some unknown coral. The rock may have been a piece I used to space apart a bigger rock, not sure. Anyway, this looks kinda like a montipora and it is definitely growing. There is a slight purple tint to it, maybe a purple monti cap, but I'm just not sure. I started to cut it off, but decided to watch how it grows. Darn it, it's been all I could do to resist putting zoanthids in the tank, to keep it "pure".

On the other hand, who knows, it might be some caribbean coral. Many tropical fish are swept up here by the currents, living here until it gets cold, then either dying or migrating away. Wouldn't it be cool if it was something that attached itself to the rock last spring and would have normally died, but was "rescued" by my putting the rock in my tank? We'll see.

 

 

Well, both the possible monti and the new gorg will be fun stories to follow!

 

That "rescue" scenario would definitely be cool. But how would you ever know?

 

--Diane

[yardboy]

Quote : That "rescue" scenario would definitely be cool. But how would you ever know?

 

Well, if it was identified as a South Florida or Caribbean coral there would have been no way to have purchased it. I've not gotten any Tampa Bay Liverock that might carry in something and that'd be the only other way anything "Carribbean" would have gotten in there. Time and my weak id skills will tell.

[divecj5]

Ahhh...gotcha now on "contaminated." If it does turn out to be a monti....I would at least let it grow for a bit and see how it turns out. Then you could always have it for another tank or for trading/selling purposes

[opaquelace]

Love the update

This is the most interesting tank thread on N-R. I wish I could start a tank like that, but I'm sadly land locked for the most part.

 

I can't wait to see what happens to the monti you found.

[c est ma]

Quote : That "rescue" scenario would definitely be cool. But how would you ever know?

 

Well, if it was identified as a South Florida or Caribbean coral there would have been no way to have purchased it. I've not gotten any Tampa Bay Liverock that might carry in something and that'd be the only other way anything "Carribbean" would have gotten in there. Time and my weak id skills will tell.

 

 

Oh, I see!

 

--D

[Seanfg89]

I'm afraid I may have contaminated the tank. I thought I was careful when aquascaping this tank, to only use the rock I "aquacultured" at the jetties. Today, I pruned back a halimeda and found on a rock behind it some unknown coral. The rock may have been a piece I used to space apart a bigger rock, not sure. Anyway, this looks kinda like a montipora and it is definitely growing. There is a slight purple tint to it, maybe a purple monti cap, but I'm just not sure. I started to cut it off, but decided to watch how it grows. Darn it, it's been all I could do to resist putting zoanthids in the tank, to keep it "pure".

On the other hand, who knows, it might be some caribbean coral. Many tropical fish are swept up here by the currents, living here until it gets cold, then either dying or migrating away. Wouldn't it be cool if it was something that attached itself to the rock last spring and would have normally died, but was "rescued" by my putting the rock in my tank? We'll see.

 

 

Well this is odd, a similar coral that looks exactly the same as the one you have pictured, appeared in my Florida biotope also. It literally appeared out of nowhere and so far has been doing great. At first I though it was a type of porites but the polyps are way too small for it to be that (I have a terrible sense of scale from looking at photos and pictures) so my money is on an encrusting montipora now.

[JonathanS]

Even though the tourist pressure is high, you never know what you will see when you get into the water there.

Schools of all sorts of fish,

 

As I said, you never know what you'll see,

 

sweet girl!

[yardboy]

She says Thanks!

I collected her up and put her in my habitat. Prettier than a Tubastrea but a lot more work to feed and take care of.

[yardboy]

Haven't posted on the jetties nano for awhile, though it's doing well. I even went for three weeks without a WC and it didn't crash, but I'll try not to do that again, as it looked so happy when I did do a change.

The codium is doing it's "fur coat" routine, not sure if it's just algae growing on it's surface, or some sort of spawning thing. It did it last year also so I wonder.

 

The hitchhiker montipora (or whatever it is, you are welcome to offer your thoughts on it's family background) is still growing well, and I'm still surprised that it is growing so well under these PC's. Go figure.

 

 

I previously talked about not pruning dead core from dieback on gorgonians. I had a weird thing happen. Some filamentous algae got established on the end of the cores, and as the rind of the gorgonian grew to the end it started growing over the algae. as the filaments swayed in the current, the gorgonian just followed it along, until it developed these corkscrew appearances. I finally got too embaressed and snipped the algae strand off and the gorgonian stopped growing out. It reminds me of a suggestion made by Anthony Calfo to put trimmings of gorgonians when you frag them onto pieces of plstic or wire line and have it grow over them. At the time I read that I thought he was full of bull, but now I'm thinking of trying it myself!

 

Many sponges growing at the jetties aren't interested in light, and avoid it, likely to keep algae from growing on it's surface. I spotted this purple one growing in a little cave behind the halimeda, interesting that it's almost camouflaged, growing around that purple corraline.

[Lalani]

Glad to see this tank is still doing well!