Teresa's 10

[Weetabix7]

Tank's looking good as always, Bill.

Gotta question on the Great Pyrenees.

Do you have any behaviour problems with him at all?

Is he a digger or a barker?

I ask because I'm thinking of getting a dog and there's a free 1 yr. old Great Pyrenees in the paper.

I do have some knowledge about this breed, btw, just no personal experience.

[varanus37]

Polar only barks when he hears people walking upstairs. We live in the basement and he only really barks if someone is coming down the steps toward us or our neighbor. Sometimes he'll bark at dogs passing by if he's out on the porch or something. Nothing major though. He's not a howler or anything like that. As far as digging goes. I've only seen him really dig a few times. The first few were in Kansas during the winter. They can handle fairly extreme cold and do better in mild climates anyway. Well it got pretty damn cold a few nights and he dug down in some of the tall grass out at the house and made himself a half snow half dirt and bush igloo. Mind you this was a farm in the middle of nowhere Kansas. The other times I've seen him dig have just been scratching really to chew on some roots or something. He never really dug holes when we did keep him outside. He stays indoor most of the time now because of the heat in Georgia. He likes the couch potato life though. They do really well with children which is the main reason we got him. His herding instinct comes up sometimes and he'll push/guide Milana when they're walking with Teresa but she uses it to keep Milana near her, haha. Other than that he's great with small animals. Loves the ferret and wants to play with her. Same with the puppies and the ducks out back. We have taught him to steer clear of small critters and he does well for the most part. I think they're very smart and very loyal dogs. Good with kids and big but not huge. Works out great for us.

 

I should warn you though the only problem we've had with Polar and the only times he's ever shown aggression are when medium to large size dogs are aggressive with him or try to mount him in any way. He's not really the dominant type dog and actually prefers to lay down and have smaller dogs jump at him to play. He's lazy like that. But if a dog of decent size does become pushy or gets on top of him he can push back and will do so very hard. I have to be around whenever Teresa lets him out in those areas of the dog park. If it's just her she'll stay on the small dog side. So that's my huge spiel about Great Pyrenees. Great family dogs and good with small animals but don't take to bullying at all.

 

Good luck,

 

Bill

 

P.S. We've also found that he tolerates medicine just fine and will even let vets stick him to get blood. He does freak out a bit when they remove the needle though. Weird that he'll let them stab him and then flip when the pain goes away, I know.

[varanus37]

Small update. The 'spawn has been moved from this tank into the 55 to make room for the uptake on the 2nd HOB. Seems to be doing really well in there and the 14k's really bring out the purple tips on it. Still maintaining good surface agitation and no detritus on the sand at all now. None of the softies seem to be negatively affected. The mushroom on top of Harrys rock has produced another baby in between it and the first baby. Looks healthy and is about half the size of the first baby. The adult is about quarter size and the big baby is about dime size now. The bubble isn't too sure about the increase in flow but is still nicely extended. Waiting to see if today brings out that big full extension I've had before. Time will tell. If the bubble hates the extra flow we may have to restructure some LR in there to shield it a bit.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

It's my BIRTHDAY....AND my whole family is here this week. Brother and sister got in last Sat. and mom and dad got here Mon. Everyone will be here until Fri. night so not too bad.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So with hot weather coming here in GA the temp in the tanks has gone up a bit. It's nothing outside the range of normal but is in the high end during mid-day now. This small tank tops out around 84 right now because we're not running AC in the house just fans. When it actually gets hot we'll kick the AC on and the tank will drop back down to the usual. My question/concern for you all is this: Do higher temperatures annoy bubble corals? He seems to be sucked in a bit now that the temp is higher. Everyone else is sprawled out and lookin good but he's testy. All params are good and all that. Temp is the only change I've seen in the tank since the bubble became annoyed. It still spreads out huge in the morning and has feeders out at night. It's just that mid-day portion that it shrinks. It's not receded and it' still bubble shape. It's just nothing compared to the morning.

 

So what do ya think?

 

Bill

[Weetabix7]

It's possible that's why he's upset.

When I run into that kind of a situation, I just set my heater very slightly higher to accomadate the fact that there are higher temps and prevent a big temp swing during the day. Did that make sense?

 

On a totally different note, I found an awesome dog, 14 mo. old male half Lab half Mastiff, but couldn't get him cause hubby thinks we shouldn't have a dog right now.

[varanus37]

I get what you're saying. Keep it closer to 80ish during the night. That way the boost to 84 isn't that much, right? Good plan. I'm a huge mastiff fan and I totally understand about the spouse not agreeing with big dogs. My wife says no more large animals until we have a place where it's hard to see the neighbors.

 

Good luck with getting a critter. If you can't get a dog then go for a small exotic instead! Coatimundi or kinkajou would be wicked. I'm also a huge wombat fan. Hard to get those outside of Australia though.

 

Bill

[c est ma]

LOL! That should work!

 

"Honey, I think we should get a wombat."

 

"Wait! I thought you just wanted a dog!..."

 

--D

 

(BTW, I got my Mom to agree to a lot of things when I was little, just by pretending to want a cat...)

[varanus37]

My leverage was reptiles. Grandma let me build a viv in her old bathroom but mom was a no-go for anything in her house. Had a monster pair of monitors in there. Told mom I wanted some other big scary critter and she always offered some nice alternative. I really did want more scalies but I was always willing to accept the alternative....kids are horrible.

 

Wombats are actually very nice creatures. Natures ridiculous earth movers though. Think of a teddy bear on roids with mole claws the size of your hands. Yeah, that's about right. And I would love to have one.

 

Bill

 

Oh, and our next dog will be a hyena. Teresa is stuck on them and I found a lady who breeds them. KEWL!

[varanus37]

New pics! Basically just showing growth all around. Nothing new in this tank. Did move one of the rocks on the right further out from the glass so the ric wouldn't catch direct flow off that HOB. That's really the only change though.

 

The ric.

 

Required huge bubble shot.

 

Top-down of the gsp rock.

 

Small frag of encrusting gorg (I think).

 

New shroom growing.

 

Zoa/gsp corner.

 

Shrooms n polyps covering the skeleton.

 

Polyps taking over and getting directly hit by the HOB.

 

Different polyp type spreading to fill the corner. The hi-fin lives under these polyps in the corner.

 

Zoas from the kitchen side.

 

Shrooms spreading across Harrys house.

 

BRIGHT gsp.

 

Green Bay Packers.

 

Eagle Eyes.

 

Light blue of some type.

 

Fire n Ice.

 

And that rounds it out.

 

Bill

[c est ma]

Wow, this sized-tank really shows off the size of that bubble!

 

So, how IS Harry, anyway?

 

Your first pic got me wondering--was it hard to find an HOB that fit on a tank this high (or should I say, short)?

 

Great zoa shots, and all the rest as well.

 

--Diane

[varanus37]

He's good. Hangs out in his rock. Turns out that hole is actually a tunnel that goes through so he pokes out from under the shrooms sometimes. As far as the HOB's go, I just looked for the smallest one that Wal-Mart had. Haha. Very scientific process . Had to cut the bottom of a cup off and push it down in the sand so the uptake could sit down in that. Otherwise it's buried in the sand and will grind up and burn the motor. Pretty much just rigged, haha.

 

Thanks for lookin.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Got some kewl stuff for the 1/2 10 today. Went to the LFS for crix to feed the leftover anoles from the vine snake adventure and came home with 3 bags instead of 1. Finally got a nice orange/red mushroom in the $5 bin and also found an urchin about the size of the tip of my pinkie. Had to snag it. $5 too. Not a bad score. They had some nice leathers this time around and a reallllly nice purple and green lobo that I have NO ROOM for, haha. Wish I did though. I'm a big fan of the mushie/ric bin at this particular LFS. Every now and then I can find one that's not just green or brown. They've got some blue covered and purple covered mushie rocks that I was hoping a few would fall off of. No luck though until I saw this orangish one. They had a seahorse pair as well this time but I'm saving for other things so no new tanks right now.

 

Pics should be up in a bit.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

Pics of the new stuff, as promised. Some other random pics as well.

First, a pic of something random that I recently noticed.

 

Here's the zoomed view, looks like tiny versions of the other polyps right?

 

Nass out after feeding.

 

Talk about an explosion of growth.

 

And again.

 

Kiwi Limeades from Mvite.

 

Can you see the baby mushie here?

 

Check it out close-up. Dead center of the picture.

 

Looks more and more like a real mushroom every day.

 

Up to four and still going.

 

Check out the difference. White snail is brand new. The other has been here from the start.

 

Better shot of the ric.

 

These are growing like weeds as well.

 

And here it is.....a tiny urchin.

 

And the new moosh.

 

Closer for color and texture.

 

So that rounds it out for now. Hopefully the urchin and new snail help keep the glass clean. It's been a bit of a problem in this tank. Need to pull the HOBs and scrub them as well.

 

Bill

[c est ma]

Nice new additions! It's such great fun to scour the cheap bins for little "finds" like those! I just love the urchin! (I've been so sad ever since I accidentally killed my baby limpet. Hope I find something like your urchin someday!)

 

Nice to see all that growth and great fun to have the baby shrooms & polyps popping up here & there! Things must be very happy in this tank.

 

--Diane

[divecj5]

Looks amazing Bill. Love all of the new additions especially the new shroom (glows out of the tank) and the zoas that you got from Mvite. Very nice.

 

I agree with Diane that I would love to get my hands on a little urchin like yours....just seem like incredible critters and additions to the tank.

[varanus37]

Diane- I'm all about that frag bin they have. I can usually find some kewl stuff in there. Mostly blue-green rics and bland mushrooms but everything is very healthy and good size for the price. Trying to be picky about my rics and shrooms now as my space is dwindling.

 

dive- Yeah, that moosh is really bright. Snagged it as soon as I saw it in their tank. I knew it'd be brighter in mine. The lights are so much closer in my tank. The 2 full-grown urchins I have in the 55 are bulldozers sometimes but I'm fascinated with these guys. When I saw that tiny one I had to get it. We're working on moving the other 2 urchins out of the 55 and back to the LFS. Just less hassle in general. I'm thinking about searching out more tiny guys and letting them grow up in there though. That'd be kewl.

 

 

Oh, and everything I get from Mvite is great. Same for the Coral Kitchen. I'd put anything they have in one of my tanks. I'm a huge fan.

 

5000+ views!!

 

Bill

[varanus37]

The hi-fin likes to hide under these brown polyps in the corner.

 

See the yellow eyeball under the rock? Not that anything in there would eat him, but that's a pretty safe spot I'd say.

 

Here are some update shots for those of you that were following the thread about c7's vine snake. The leftover anoles and a growth shot of the pink leaf plant.

 

 

 

 

That first anole is one of 2 that are that size. They look like miniature water monitors. Neat little lizards.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So check out these little guys. I counted like 6 around the GSP rock and whenever I move something in the tank I always stir up a few. Neat little guys. Find quite a few when I clean out the HOB's as well.

 

Sweet hat there Mr. Crab.

 

Got into a pic snapping mode a bit this afternoon. Check out the 55 thread for more.

 

Bill

[c est ma]

Those micro brittles are so sweet! And they show up well on your dark sand.

 

Silly crab!

 

--Diane

[varanus37]

Yeah, they're kewl little guys. I'm really glad I went with the dark sand in this tank. Makes all of the different colors stick out really well.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So I went to the LFS today for water and I finally convinced the guy to cut up his gorgonian and give me this little basket. The gorg was doing alright when it got there but has somewhat divided into two halves now. The half I got is healthy except for the basket that won't leave it. The other half was not doing well and will obviously be dead shortly. They're pretty good about their livestock and they've had this guy for several weeks now so I'm confident that he'll make it. So on to the pics.

So you can reference the size. (I am aware of the adult size potential)

 

The reason we didn't want to try and remove it from the gorg.

 

Just neat to see one close up.

 

I've pretty well stuck to easy species in both tanks so I'm excited to try something more engaging and a bit more difficult.

 

Bill

[divecj5]

Wow Bill. What an intriguing creature that is. What sort of requirements to they require....the star fish that is?

[varanus37]

They're strict filter feeders and they like to tangle up in things like gorgs. Makes it easier to support themselves and spread out to catch particles in the flow. Mostly move at night and are very fragile to the touch. Not something you can just pull off the branch it's on. Max size is quite large. I've seen pictures of them as big as a tang or so and my research says they get bigger. I'm not sure but I think there's more than one species of these guys. Doing more research to narrow it down as I go. Basic requirements are the same as I understand it.

 

Bill

[varanus37]

So the basket is doing wonderfully. More or less hangs from one or two gorg branches now and spreads himself out to catch food in the current. Very kewl to see. Strange thing happened with the green stripe moosh though. I started out by attaching this moosh to a chalice skeleton and it proceeded to work its way across the skeleton and drop 4 babies, which are doing nicely. Once it reached the edge it more or less stayed there. A few weeks ago I noticed that it wasn't on the skeleton anymore and it has since moved completely across the tank to sit next to the other moosh pile on Harrys rock. No idea why but it looks healthy and so do all of its babies so I'm leaving it be for now. Didn't get touched by the bubble while it moved so I think it'll be alright. Kinda kewl to see. Got my water from a different LFS a few weeks ago so having a bit of red algae on the glass. Nothing really on the sand or corals but a bit on the glass. Much worse in the 55. Went back to my original LFS for water and have since done several WC's. Nobody looks worse for the wear so I don't foresee any lasting effects.

 

Bill