Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef

[Nano sapiens]

Ralph, may I please please request pics of those cats?

 

Also, my red planet in lower light is has also gotten green color back in addition to pink.

 

My email server is down, or I'd send you a pic or two he sent me of his cats. I'll send you pics later.

 

Glad to hear your RP is doing better. I'm thinking of cutting off a mini-frag, sticking it to a rock and placing it on the SB. The 'Christmas Tree' Acro from my son is holding color and seems happy enough on the SB in moderate flow. Acros are weird

 

Happy New Year!!!

[metrokat]

Happy New Year.

[Nano sapiens]

Going slightly off-topic, per Metrokat's request:

 

'Bandit' (smaller of two, less Serval, more house cat):

 

 

 

'Turbo' (F2 generation Savannah):

 

 

 

[metrokat]

Oh wow. You made my day! How beautiful these cats are. Does your son need permits to have them?

[patback]

Love love love those cats. I would give up anything fishtank related for a savannah cat.

[Nano sapiens]

On 1/1/2013 at 2:26 PM, metrokat said:

Oh wow. You made my day! How beautiful these cats are. Does your son need permits to have them?

 

No, they are no longer considered 'wild' since they are interbred for at least a few generations with the domestic house cat. TICA accepted the Savannah for registration in 2001. The Savannah was accepted for Championship status by TICA in 2012.

 

Servals are long, lean cats and they can really jump! An F2 is two generations removed from the full Serval, but still retains a lot of the Serval traits while being more affectionate due to the domestic cat influence. But they are not 'Lap' cats.

 

They are smart enough to be potty-trained (caught in the act). :

 

[Nano sapiens]

Love love love those cats. I would give up anything fishtank related for a savannah cat.

 

These are awesome cats. I'm a dog person, but if I had to have a cat the Savannah would be my #1 choice.

[Nano sapiens]

Some pics to start off the New Year right:

 

 

'Christmas Tree Acro':

 

Acan colonies:

 

The reddish ones on the left grew from a blood red 1/4" frag head and now has 8 heads. The 'Rainbow' one on the right originally came from 'Purpleup' and started as a small single head, but now also has 8 smaller ones around it which can't be seen in this pic. It's also the size of a Silver Dollar and glows most beautifully in full actinic lighting

[metrokat]

Tank looks good, the colors on the Christmas acro are awesome.i tried to teach my cat to use the potty, it was a21 day training program, I lost patience on day 14, cats in general are very smart.

[Nano sapiens]

Tank looks good, the colors on the Christmas acro are awesome.i tried to teach my cat to use the potty, it was a21 day training program, I lost patience on day 14, cats in general are very smart.

 

The tank and corals all look really good right now (better than the photo), so I don't want to mess with anything. The RP is just going to have to adapt. The Xmas Tree Acro's polyps are more brownish in real life, but iit's doing surprisingly well in only 85 PAR on the SB.

 

My son almost lost patience with the training, too, but he kept at it.

[Rain24]

Happy New Year! Wow, those are some impressive looking cats!

 

Your acans look like they're giving you a fireworks show underwater. Great pics.

[JR!]

wow love that acro. id take a piece when id gets bigger

[Nano sapiens]

On 1/1/2013 at 8:23 PM, Rain24 said:

Happy New Year! Wow, those are some impressive looking cats!

 

Your acans look like they're giving you a fireworks show underwater. Great pics.

 

Here's what they started as...

 

Red one (beautiful blood-red half-polyp rescued from LFS):

 

'Rainbow':

 

On 1/1/2013 at 8:50 PM, Jrmiller said:

wow love that acro. id take a piece when id gets bigger

 

Let's hope it gets bigger

[jball1125]

Great pic for the new year, the cats are cool too!

[Nano sapiens]

I know some folks like to get full mini-colonies and have that 'filled in' look right away, but I've always enjoyed starting off with small coral bits and pieces and then seeing what happens. But, this by far is the smallest:

 

 

Last night I noticed a bit of the 'Xmas Tree Acro' flesh was dangling off the plug, so I glued it to a small rock and stuck it up higher in the tank. Looks like I got (2) little polyps out of it. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to grow out, but once it gets going it should be exponential as '2 becomes 4, 4 becomes 8, etc.' Anyone notice the 'R' etched in the LR? if my last initial shows up too, I'll be calling the 'Paranormal Investigators'

 

And, in other news, I found my A. granulosa on the SB (sigh...again). Since this is the 4th or 5th regluing, its time for some real surgery, namely drilling holes in both the frag and the LR, then gluing it all in place.

[buddythelion]

Haha, you're not the only one who's been playing around with tiny bits of acro! I have 2 tiny 1-2mm size pieces of red planets that I accidentally broke when I brushed my hand on them trying to glue the pieces down in place. Just for fun, I glued the pieces down onto a frag plug and let them sit on a frag rack. Funny thing is that they are showing signs of encrusting and have great PE! Hopefully they become a nice frag soon. That's the amazing thing about SPS, even the smallest bit of tissue is a possibility for a new colony.

[Nano sapiens]

Yeah, pretty amazing how little it takes to get them going (under the right conditions).

[Nano sapiens]

Updates:

 

Bicolor Dottyback returned to LFS. Great fish, tough and easy to feed, but a 'one fish wrecking crew'. Started off to be rather well behaved, but the last few months it incessantly dropped sand and gravel on all the corals. Finally got tired of blowing it all off couple times a day just so the corals didn't smother. Should start to see my Barnacle Blenny again since 'The Terror' is now gone.

 

Experiment: Removed the ORA Red Planet to the SB and created two mini-frags from it. The main frag receives ~85 PAR, one frag is getting ~140 PAR and the other ~110 PAR and low/medium to moderate flows. After a couple days, I can see the frags gaining brown zooanthellae, but no change in pigment production. Blue Digitata is now where the RP used to be and is doing well.

 

A. granulosa glued back on LR Suspect Dottyback had been knocking it off. Coral is encrusting quickly, so it should have solid base on the LR soon to prevent it from falling off.

[Nano sapiens]

A couple quick photos to use to record progress.

 

Two frags of 'Ultra Blue Digitata starting to take off:

 

ORA Red Planet frag from Vivid moved to SB (~85 PAR, lower-moderate flow):

 

RP 1/4" front frag (~140 PAR, moderate flow):

 

RP 3/8" rear frag (~110 PAR, low flow)...crazy polyp extension:

[metrokat]

While my RP is coloring up very very well, I have little to no polyp extension.

[Nano sapiens]

I'll take your color for my PE

 

The main frag has been on the SB for about a week and it is definitely looking better

 

Are you seeing more red or more green in yours?

[metrokat]

I'll take your color for my PE

 

The main frag has been on the SB for about a week and it is definitely looking better

 

Are you seeing more red or more green in yours?

At first the tips turned pink, now the body which was butter yellow has turned green.

[Nano sapiens]

At first the tips turned pink, now the body which was butter yellow has turned green.

 

Congrats, green is an improvement, that's for sure. Even though I'm seeing some pigment darkening and color shift, I'll have to wait a while to see which way it goes. Most accounts indicate that pigment color changes are usually quite rapid (just a few weeks or so) when the conditions are to the coral's liking.

[metrokat]

Hope you're doing well. I placed a frag of the RP higher in my tank, but not directly under the T5s. This frag is showing a mottled reddish color with very small bits of green. However the PE which is absent on the colorful frag is visible on this nondescript colored one.

 

Could bright light get them to extend polyps while lower light inhibits it? Polyps are primarily feeding tools so in the environment of low light, perhaps the coral is conserving energy and only showing PE at night when traditionally plankton rises in the water column? I'm not sure if I can explain the color difference in this case, normally higher light would induce better color even if the response of the coral to the light was stress, and the color was stress induced.

 

/rambling.

[Nano sapiens]

Hope you're doing well. I placed a frag of the RP higher in my tank, but not directly under the T5s. This frag is showing a mottled reddish color with very small bits of green. However the PE which is absent on the colorful frag is visible on this nondescript colored one.

 

Could bright light get them to extend polyps while lower light inhibits it? Polyps are primarily feeding tools so in the environment of low light, perhaps the coral is conserving energy and only showing PE at night when traditionally plankton rises in the water column? I'm not sure if I can explain the color difference in this case, normally higher light would induce better color even if the response of the coral to the light was stress, and the color was stress induced.

 

/rambling.

 

I'm good, thanks. Hope you are fine, too.

 

I'm finding that the RP is a strange animal, indeed. Very prone to loose coloration under what it considers 'stressful' conditions.

 

Most Acros respond to higher light and good flow (within limits) if acclimated properly, but this one appears to follow it's own set of rules. The bleached frag I placed on the SB in 90 PAR and low-moderate flow is developing a brilliant green florescence at the base that is slowly moving up towards the 'branches', but the branches have retained their mostly pinkish coloration. The little 1/4" frag I placed up high at 150 PAR and moderate flow is a combo of green and mottled reddish, like yours, and has the least polyp extention. The 3/8" frag under 110 PAR and low flow is going all green on the body with just a hint of red and has outstanding polyp extension.

 

IMO, PE is not 100% understood. The current theory I've read is that PE will happen if a coral feels it can gain enough energy to make it worthwhile. In my tank, I have good PE on all the Acros (except A. granulosa), possibly because I turkey baste the LR daily and stir up the SB 2X/week. Nearly all corals will adapt to daytime feeding and learn to extend their polyps during the day and then retract them at night. PE may not be that critical in a location where the light intensity/flow is high enough to stimulate high photosynthesis rates which makes available ample glucose, glycerol, and amino acids to the coral.

 

I've also lowered Alk to around 8.5 dKh (previously up 10 10.5 dKh). This change *may* have helped the situation, but I hadn't noticed any change in the coral previously when I dropped Alk to 9.0 and kept it there for a few weeks. IMO, biggest factors by far are light and flow.

 

After reading through all the RP posts, the fastest growth seems to be when lots of pink/red coloration is present. In MH and T5 tanks, I've seen this as PAR around 225-250. With LEDs, PAR levels of 160 and lower have been mentioned by those that have done well with it. So, there is quite a light intensity spread that this coral can do well in, but it tends to be more towards what would be considered 'lower light' for an Acro. I'd really like to know what Clades the pigments belong to, what light intensity produces photo saturation, etc. and I even emailed Dana Riddle to see if he could possibly do a write up of this coral.

 

...and you thought that you can ramble