Sandcruiser's 3G Eclipse

[.Newman.]

it looks to be nassarius obsoleta. or maybe ilianassa obsoleta is the more accurate name, either way i think its the mud snail i was talking about, and it might do something drastic if it is hungry. have you seen it dine on anything that you wouldn't want it to eat?

they are related to true nassarius, but theyre more of a tidal mud flats kind of snail...at least thats where i regularly find them lol.

[sandcruiser]

it looks a lot like I. obseleta, but the online description I found of I. obseleta includes a dark interior on the shell, these have a light interior (white).

 

still, I don't think that they are 'normal' nassarius either. ....

 

I think I'll pull 'em out of the display. maybe leave one in the sump for bit n pieces patrol

[.Newman.]

good idea. the shell of these is fully white, its just that the periosteum covers the white of the shell and makes it look brown-black. it could be that the periosteum is covering the inside of the shells as well (I have never dissected the snail enough to find out) but i bet the white interior might be slightly covered by the periosteum more or less during a certain period in the snails life (likely when its juvenile and is growing) but i do not know for sure. Youre right in that they arent real nassarius, so your course of action is probably for the best.

[sandcruiser]

Big night for the small tank.

 

I have been wanting to re_scape for a while: the shrimp and goby have been hanging behind a rock where o don't see them and some various things needed cleaning or glue

 

So I dove in and picked up the large rock under which the shrimp has always lived.... nada. I suppose that they could have hidden in the rock or the sandstorm, but they are MIA right now.

 

I'm sad but optimistic. There is no good reason that my shrimp and goby would die when the corals look great and there are sand fauna and pods all over. Still, I don't know where they are.

 

In better news- I epoxied some stuff into place on the new arrangement. Will photo later when light are back on tomorrow.

 

Anyway, I fragged a shroom earlier this week and both bits are looking good. One is now attached to rock, the other I glued to the overflow pipe to try to help hide it.

 

I also had some zoas break free from the plug on which I bought them, so I glued them into place on rocks too.

 

I siphoned out some cyano and see that I now have two nice patches of one hitch hiker rhodophyta and a second type is also coming in nicely on another rock.

 

I also notice that a shroom has moved over, leaving a tiny daughter shroom on the spot where it had been before.

 

In all, I may have lost my goby and my pistol, but ill bet that they are just hiding, and I've now got 5 shrooms where I only had 3 last week.

 

And I have a better (imo) scape now with plenty of room for the zoas to grow.

 

Oh, I almost forgot! I also doused an aptasia with boiling water. I think it ie dead as my hermit was over there on cleanup.

 

I also pulled some valonia off.

[.Newman.]

pics or it didnt happen.

 

also i bet they are just hiding, but have you been feeding them? if youve been neglecting them then they could have starved in such a small tank..

[sandcruiser]

the tank gets fed.... usually every day. Sometimes I skip 1 day. Never 2 days. And there is a good supply of 'pods. Though, the pod population is down vs. what it was 2 weeks ago.... still, I can't imagine that the shrimp couldn't find food--- there are spag worms in the sand, pretty visible in various parts, and the aforementioned food must have accumulated in the sand a bit as well.

 

the fish... he has always eaten well, but I've never seen him hunt anything other than frozen food!

 

I'll keep my hopes up and my eyes peeled. if they show up, I'll be happy!

 

pics in a minute

[sandcruiser]

20 October 2010 FTS

 

blurry. camera phone.

[yoshii]

Nice! I love that red macro and that fs!

[sandcruiser]

here is a not-so-bad shot that shows the hitchhiker rhodophyta. It has little lobular blades. very slow growing, but seems to be picking up speed as it gets bigger.

also note: the baby shroom to the left of photo, below the larger shroom.

 

and the little bit of blue-gray sponge.

 

I think that the shroom is moving onto the large rock behind this smaller chunk, and I'll bet it'll leave behind another baby when it goes. Which is fine with me.

 

actual color is a little brighter, but I adjusted it to dark to overcome the glare of the rhodophyta a little.

 

also a closer-up shot of what serves as the centerpiece of the tank:

Acan Lord (I think)

some zoas that might be rasta? not sure, don't much care, they are pretty

the rapidly growing red sheet algae

and a shroom

also a cool little duster that would get lost in a large tank but I enjoy very much in this pico

sharp eyes might be able to make out the itty bitty duster below the "large" micro duster.

 

also note some flat worms to the left of the shroom

[sandcruiser]

finally: the frogspawn, who is filling out nicely

also the hermit and some other zoas in the bottom corner

 

and some cyano on the sand

 

 

 

 

and the pissed-off toadstool leather who is usually much prettier.

 

 

thanks for commenting Yoshi

when the red macro grows in enough, I'll be happy to swap you some for another cool macro

but that may be a while!

 

I got the frogspawn at your LFS, I think. I'm pretty sure.

 

 

Nice! I love that red macro and that fs!

[.Newman.]

nice!

 

green striped shroom looks cool. the coral is favia or maybe war coral, not acan lord as far as i can tell. zoas are eagle eyes... nice stuff around the pico!

[sandcruiser]

thanks for the ID on the crits

the coral is the big mystery: looks more like an acan to me, based on mouth shape and general gestalt

I think too big for a war coral (each polyp is about the size of a quarter). Favia sounds plausible. When I got it the outer rim had a lot more red to it.... I keep hoping that the red will color up with some extra lighting. (when I get the lighting).

 

there are 3 (or more) types of zoa, fwiw. I'm content to call them "green" "orange and green" and "orange and blue-ish".

 

 

 

 

nice!

 

green striped shroom looks cool. the coral is favia or maybe war coral, not acan lord as far as i can tell. zoas are eagle eyes... nice stuff around the pico!

 

 

potentially good news:

 

the leather got knocked over and there is a bunch of sand piled up in an odd way by the mouth of a new cavelet that I created

 

I think that the pistol shrimp is still in there, re-scaping for me.

 

still no sign of the goby. I'm now wondering if A ) he jumped (there is a 1" opening on the back of the hood, it is possible) or

B ) he went down the overflow into the sump and is hiding there, very unhappy (I've got some LR so I would have to tear it down to find him)

 

either way

I'm happy that the shrimp might still be around and sad that I still haven't seen the goby

 

I'll have to get under the desk and look around later to see if there are any signs of a hardwood surfing goby.

 

Pics of the shrimp evidence later when there are lights....

[yoshii]

thanks for commenting Yoshi

when the red macro grows in enough, I'll be happy to swap you some for another cool macro

but that may be a while!

 

I got the frogspawn at your LFS, I think. I'm pretty sure.

Totally! it looks like a really neat macro

 

Oh really? Cool! I don't go across the bridge over to Menlo Park much, but then again, I don't drive

You should come again sometime *cough* saturday *cough*

 

Oh, and that "maybe acan" looks like a favia to me

[sandcruiser]

ok, sounds like consensus is that it is a favia.

 

when the macro grows out, I'll let you know

I teach in Hayward at least once/week (most fridays) but driving over on Sat doesn't appeal much.

 

maybe sometime after school we can have an N-R 'mini event' at the store... I'm sure that there are a couple of other East Bay nr readers who might like to meet each other.

 

 

 

 

Totally! it looks like a really neat macro

 

Oh really? Cool! I don't go across the bridge over to Menlo Park much, but then again, I don't drive

You should come again sometime *cough* saturday *cough*

 

Oh, and that "maybe acan" looks like a favia to me

[yoshii]

ok, sounds like consensus is that it is a favia.

 

when the macro grows out, I'll let you know

I teach in Hayward at least once/week (most fridays) but driving over on Sat doesn't appeal much.

 

maybe sometime after school we can have an N-R 'mini event' at the store... I'm sure that there are a couple of other East Bay nr readers who might like to meet each other.

Looks like it's growing too!

 

Cool, I just got some awesome macros from got2envy today, when they grow out I can give you some

Aww since school started I work on Sat so I can't work during the weekdays

That would be so cool! We should do that sometime! I already know 2 other people to invite

[sandcruiser]

post some pics of your new macros, I'm headed over to check your 10g thread now.

 

my reds are both growing pretty fast.

 

I wonder if my goby/shrimp disappearance means a nutrient spike that is good for the macros. at least it would have been good for something..... it isn't good for my happiness, that's for sure.

 

I just read the SW Mollie thread, I'm thinking about adding some sailfin mollies to the tank for color/movement and ease of keeping. I can always pull them back out later.

 

 

 

Looks like it's growing too!

 

Cool, I just got some awesome macros from got2envy today, when they grow out I can give you some

Aww since school started I work on Sat so I can't work during the weekdays

That would be so cool! We should do that sometime! I already know 2 other people to invite

[.Newman.]

don't do it. a male sailfin molly (which is what you're going to want to get) needs around 20 gallons of space. they are fast moving, active fish that need to be housed in large tanks. I have 9 wild sailfins in my 40 gallon, and I can tell that these fish are not a good idea in a pico. I have thought about putting mine in my 3 gal pico or even in my 10 gal nano reef, but have decided against it seeing how these things act.

 

also they are a huge bioload. mollies poop all the time, and i mean youre going to see molly waste all over the sand of your tank unless you take it out daily. think that one molly is the equivalent of two clownfish. i am not joking. So if you want to crash your tank, go ahead and add the sailfin, but I advise strongly against it.

 

even a black molly is going to be quite large, but if you get a very young one, a black molly can probably be a nice CUC member for your tank until it grows large. I am kinda contradicting myself though, mollies dont belong in picos.

[yoshii]

I don't see why everyone is going crazy over this new sw molly thread, it's not like people haven't done it before

[sandcruiser]

good points on the mollie--- they are just easy n cheap and something "different"

 

Maybe I'll just do a little clown or a small damsel

dunno

 

feeling like leaving it alone completely for another month or two, before adding any other fish. What I really want is a goby/shrimp pair that I'll see. I enjoyed the ones that I had very much and am still really puzzled as to what happened to them.

 

I suppose that the most likely answer is a cave-in. That's about the only thing that makes sense in terms of both of them disappearing at the same time.

 

If it were lack of food, I'd expect that the fish would have died first and that the shrimp would have eaten it.

 

I suppose I'll never know for sure. though I still half-expect the shrimp to appear some day. I'm pretty darn sure that the fish is gone. I am planning to tear into the sump this week just in case he surfed down the drain and is hanging out down there, lonely and hungry.

[.Newman.]

best of luck finding your duo

[sandcruiser]

Now I'm doubly motivated to do some tank-work

 

got 3 new frags yesterday from another reefer. I went for a craigslist ad that had a really cool frag w/ 3 types of zoas and some gsp on the same frag for $10.

 

When I arrived, someone else was already buying it! Oh, well. such is life.

 

But I ended up grabbing some blue clove polyps, some gsp and some zoas that are green skirt, orange disc, blue mouth. Eagle Eyes? I don't know the names. I like them. Good enough for me.

 

Anyway, I plan to pull the largest LR boulder out of the tank and break it into smaller chunks. It is just too big for the display. I'll use some of the chunks in the display, and put the rest down in the sump to await a future tank upgrade or just to provide 'fuge space.

 

Here is a miserable photo of the new gsp and polyps. I should really get off my butt and grab my slr, but the phone was right here....

[.Newman.]

yes i think theyre eagle eyes too.

needless to say i am jealous of your GSP...

[sandcruiser]

When the gsp grows in, ill send you some.

I do wonder if your gsp failures are due to too-clean water. I've seen some ratty tanks out there that have gsp going nuts.

 

Time will tell.

 

yes i think theyre eagle eyes too.

needless to say i am jealous of your GSP...

[.Newman.]

my water's not that clean, I do have two crabs in my pico making some waste. and theres tons of detritis everywhere. I was thinking the LEDs i have are burning that GSP out.

 

that would be nice of you, we will have to trade for something

[sandcruiser]

Woo hoo! looking forward to my reef cleaners order. it'll be small, but will nearly triple my macros.

now I'm just wondering if I've got enough nutrients for all of them.

guess ill have to get some fish!

also ordered some snails... there isn't much algae for them to eat now... and I like it that way. but I may be looking to trade snails if they start breeding.

should get stuff in on the weekend.