Sublunary's 12 Gallons

[sublunary]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate you both following along so I'm not just talking to myself.

 

The Tubbs were starting to open a little when I left this morning - so I have hope for them yet!

[sublunary]

My male pom pom crab was out in the open this morning, so I jumped up to snap a pic. I noticed he was holding his walking legs kind of funny, and on closer inspection I found he was eating a chunk of bristle worm! I had no idea they did that.

 

 

The female's been hiding a lot. She somehow lost one of her arms and that's made her a bit more cautious, I think.

 

Since I had the camera out, I got pictures of the 2 chitons that are hanging out in the day light. I think these two are probably the same species.

 

This one's my favorite, because he's always spent the days camped out in the open, when the rest of the chitons hide in the rock. He's at least doubled in size since I first noticed him.

 

 

This one I just noticed the other day. He's picked up some camouflage.

 

[animalmaster6]

The Pom Pom and Chitons are awesome!

[sublunary]

Thanks! I love the chitons. I feel really lucky to have gotten a bunch as hitchhikers. The ones I see for sale are always listed as too big for my tank. The best part about them is they eat that wiry red algae that nothing else touches. I've seen a few people whose tanks were covered in the stuff, complaining nothing could get rid of it. I had a bunch of small patches on several different rocks and the chitons have eradicated it in all but one spot.

[weeber]

hey how is the goby doing? have u seen him much? has he eaten any thing?

[sublunary]

Goby's doing great! I haven't seen as much of him since I rescaped and added the crabs, but I think that's a good thing. Instead of staying in the one corner where I could always find him, he's been moving around the tank and seems to have 3 or 4 spots he likes to hang out in. He still hops away whenever he sees me looking at him too. It doesn't matter if I'm across the room, if I turn towards the tank, he flashed his fins at me, then runs and hides.

 

He's finally started reacting to food though. I added rod's food to my rotation and stuck his head out to investigate. I've seen him at pretty much every feeding time since. I don't know if he'll ever let me target feed him, but I'm happy I can at least find him to get food in his general area.

[animalmaster6]

What a great character

[sublunary]

Called nanotuners to check on my retrofit. Apparently the driver I ordered doesn't work with their normal LEDs and it would take a while to get ones that would. So a 40 minute conversation with Nick and one small credit card transaction later I have upgraded to CREEs and ordered an additional driver so I will be able to play with adjusting the blues and whites separately.

 

My girl has been out and about a bit more, though she is still missing an arm and acting cautious. Her nem has gotten huge and beautiful. I'll be almost sad when she grows her arm back and splits it.

[sublunary]

Girl crab has eggs! (And boy crab hasn't been seen since Friday. )

 

Little crab has a new home.

 

Goby is

[animalmaster6]

I your tank.

 

Congrats on the Pom Pom!!

[konolua]

Love the crabs...LOVE them!

[sublunary]

Thanks to you both! I love my crabs too. Unfortunately I haven't seen my male pom pom in over a week now. I think I might have to give him up for dead. I'm not sure what happened - he wasn't exhibiting any abnormal behavior and I never saw anything bother him. He just disappeared.

 

The egg release seems to have happened while I was away this weekend, so I missed out on them this time. I've heard pom poms can store sperm, so hopefully I'll have some more larvae to play with even if I can't replace the male for a while.

 

On a happier note, I have new fish! I just finished acclimating 2 Trimma rubromaculatus from Live Aquaria. They are ridiculously fast little fish when they want to be. Getting them from the acclimation box to QT was not as easy as I expected. But now they're in there...

 

So far they've just been hanging out in the corner together. They hover maybe half an inch off the bottom, then sink down and chill for a while before hovering again. So far they seem pretty bold. They aren't hiding and don't spook when I look at them like the flaming prawn goby. I like them.

 

Since I'm posting pictures, I have new FTSs. I'm still battling that demon algae. I don't know what else to do about it... I also still have trouble with the color balance in tank shots. No matter what I do the front right side where my favia is always gets really washed out. So this is the best i could do with my P&S and photobucket's editing.

 

 

And this is my favorite zoa colony. I finally got a picture that looks pretty much true to life.

 

If I ever get up the nerve to try some fragging, those purples with the pink circle are going to be first. I'd love to get them to spread.

 

Lastly, I'm still waiting on my LEDs. Poor guys at nanotuners seem to be run ragged, so I feel bad calling them for status updates - but I need my light! Hopefully their new estimate of next week is right. I'm really eager to get everything hooked up.

[animalmaster6]

Tank looks awesome!

 

I love those Trimmas

[sublunary]

Ah ha, figured out how to get color on the whole tank!

 

Much better.

 

The new gobies are doing really well. I love how they hover and wave their fins. Makes me think of hummingbirds. I tried to target feed them yesterday, but the baster just made them freak out and rocket around the tank. So today I decided to just throw in a pinch of freeze dried cyclopeez and see what happened. They loved it! I'm so glad I don't have to worry about them not accepting food.

 

I'm also amazed at how friendly they are with each other - they spend practically the whole day right next to each other and won't swim more than an inch apart for more than a few seconds. I expected them to tolerate or ignore each other, not be all buddy-buddy. It's fun to watch.

 

This one got tired of hovering and spent a couple of hours using the chaeto as a hammock.

[animalmaster6]

Those gobies are awesome

[Squared]

I like the messy look, it appears more natural. Nice gobies!

[sublunary]

I'm sad to say I came home tonight to find my peppermint shrimp all white and dead on the bottom of the tank. I haven't been home for two days, so I have no way of knowing if he turned white before he died like the first one did.

 

Thankfully everything else looks fine and normal. Params are in check and there doesn't seem to be anything weird going on other wise. But I'm going to miss my shrimp. He was the boldest, most entertaining animal in there.

 

So what do you guys think about replacements? Right now, I'm considering two things. I can go to an LFS this week and pick up two scarlet cleaners. Or I can wait until May (the next time I'll be home during the day to accept a package) and get two anemone shrimp - probably pedersons, but maybe one of the other species available. Scarlets would be faster and cheaper (because of shipping), but the anemone shrimp are just so cool looking. I'm torn.

 

Maybe I'll go scope out LFSs tomorrow to see if any of them have anything cool, but that's generally too much to hope for...

[animalmaster6]

I'm sorry

Definetly get the anemone shrimp, they are sooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!

[Curry02]

That is one awesome looking goby!! Nice tank!

[Squared]

Sexy shrimp are anemone shrimp. But I see why you would want something different.

[sublunary]

I like the messy look, it appears more natural. Nice gobies!

Thanks. I like a little green so the tank doesn't look too sterile. But that picture's what it looks like after an hour or so of pulling algae... I'd like it better if it didn't grow so damn well.

 

Sexy shrimp are anemone shrimp. But I see why you would want something different.

 

Yeah, I'm just not a fan of the way sexies look. I like the cleaner anemone shrimp better.

 

I'm sorry sad.gif

 

Definetly get the anemone shrimp, they are sooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!

 

AM, you think everything is sooo cool. But I do agree with you most of the time. I'll try and hold myself off for a month so I can get them shipped. Beginning of May's not that far away, is it? Maybe in the mean time I'll get a couple of florida rics for them to hang out in.

 

That is one awesome looking goby!! Nice tank!

 

Thanks! He's a weird little fish, but I love him. Definitely my favorite purchase so far.

[animalmaster6]

AM, you think everything is sooo cool. But I do agree with you most of the time. I'll try and hold myself off for a month so I can get them shipped. Beginning of May's not that far away, is it? Maybe in the mean time I'll get a couple of florida rics for them to hang out in.

Definetly get some rics for them, they tend to host them.

[sublunary]

Well, I found out today that my schedule is going to go way more insane than planned for the next week, so I won't be home to do daily maintenance on the QT. That means the trimmas had to go into the display a bit earlier than I had planned. So far it looks like the transition went ok. They started chasing copepods as soon as I released them and have been trying out lots of different resting spots. They seemed a little overwhelmed when I turned the flow back on. It's just the return pump for now, but it's a lot stronger than the little filter in the QT. I think once they get used to it, they'll be fine.

 

I really like the way they look swimming around. It's nice to have a little more color and movement.

(I put the yuma a few inches higher in the tank. It's been stretching way too much for light lately. It'll go back on the sandbed once I get the LEDs.)

 

 

 

I think this is one of my favorite tank pictures so far.

 

So far nothing has bothered them. The flaming prawn goby came out to investigate, but he's spending too much time in the shadows for me to get good pictures of him being inquisitive. Same with the pom pom crab, who I was happy to see has two arms again. I spent way too much time watching everything this afternoon...

[animalmaster6]

I love your tank and gobies

[sublunary]

I love your tank and gobies

 

Your posts make me happy. I'm glad I'm not just posting pictures for my own amusement. I can't wait until your 125 gets going and I can say the same thing to you. So many gobies... I also want to see your aquascape surprise... you haven't revealed it yet, right?