animalmaster6 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I love the gunnel Jamie! They are my favorite fishes (well them and the gobies). Glad to see you have them again! Between fishbase.org, and http://www.elasmodiver.com/Fish_Pictures.htm I've been abel to ID most of what I've caught from my phone on the beach, lol. Gotta love technology, Random question what type of phone do you have? I want a phone that I can go on N-R and research sites while I'm at a beach or other location. Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Random question what type of phone do you have? I want a phone that I can go on N-R and research sites while I'm at a beach or other location. Nothing super special, its a Older Android phone. Its the T-Mobile G2, same thing as the HTC Magic. I'm actually going to start using an older samsung once I get a tablet. Been thinking about getting a Barnes and Noble Nook Color and rooting it since its droid based. Link to comment
Jamie Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 I love the gunnel Jamie! They are my favorite fishes (well them and the gobies). Glad to see you have them again! Random question what type of phone do you have? I want a phone that I can go on N-R and research sites while I'm at a beach or other location. Yeah, a smart phone would be awesome. My phone... can call people? And text, it can also text. Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Yeah, a smart phone would be awesome. My phone... can call people? And text, it can also text. Haha same here. I love my phone but I want something with internet. Link to comment
Jamie Posted July 31, 2011 Author Share Posted July 31, 2011 Woo! Everything made it home and is in the tank! I drastically overestimated how big this tank is when I was collecting rocks in barview, but I managed to make everything fit... sort of. Unfortunately, this came out really dark, but the DSB area is filled with lovely nehalem bay muck! And with the muck I accidentally brought home a few baby clams, and this guy. Sweet! I'm not done scaping yet, just sort of tossed the stuff in for now. I think I'm gonna need to cut out a lot of the foam, and make some structural reinforcements, but that's what tomorrow is for! Now it's sleepytimes, I've been waking up at 5 am for three days in a row! A few pics before I hit the sack: barview rocks - so much life! Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 These shrimp are so awesome I am going to keep a TON of them in my sand bed. We caught hundreds of them by dragging our nets through sand. There's also no limit on them, so I was going to keep a seperate tank full of them as a live food source And with the muck I accidentally brought home a few baby clams, and this guy. Sweet! Link to comment
Jamie Posted July 31, 2011 Author Share Posted July 31, 2011 WOW that is nice rock. I know, right? These shrimp are so awesome I am going to keep a TON of them in my sand bed. We caught hundreds of them by dragging our nets through sand. There's also no limit on them, so I was going to keep a seperate tank full of them as a live food source Sounds like a good plan. Yeah, I wasn't even trying to get this guy, and didn't notice I had him till I got home. Link to comment
yoshii Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Wow amazing rock! So much life! What kind of shrimp is that? Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 Crangon sp., perhaps C. stylirostris, but I'm not sure, there are a few that look very similar. I got many more (much better) pictures! Also, I made some very minor changes to the scape... Left: Right: So yeah, I took out the foam . I decided it just wasn't necessary, and I might as well have it be all natural since I had so much rock anyway. It would be too heavy in a big tank, but in a little 5.5 like this it's really not a problem. I was amazed how much life had already colonized the foam however. I found a tiny crab, several worms, including an awesome nemertean, tons of amphipods and isopods, and incredibly, the tiniest gunnel I have ever seen! It was about 3/4 inch long, and about as thick around as angel hair pasta. I've never had a fish hitchhiker before! I imagine he'll be eaten by one of the many predators in the tank before long, but still pretty cool! Excluding that guy, my fish total is at 3 right now. I realize that's a lot for such a small tank, but I'm running really heavy filtration to deal with all the feedings anyway, and the fish basically never move, so I don't think swimming room is an issue. In addition to the penpoint gunnel, I have two tidepool sculpins that are absolutely adorable! They always hang out together, so maybe they're forming a pair? Or maybe they just like the company of their own species. Either way, very cute. (They have fantastic camouflage - both are pictured above, if you didn't notice the second one at first.) Check out all those rotifers in the water column! The penpoint seems to be doing well, though he's much more cryptic than the sculpins. Usually he just pokes his head out from holes in the rock. The shrimp are surprisingly territorial, but they seem to have sorted themselves out. Each has its own little cave to peek out of. Of course, sometimes they get brave and come out in the open As far as anemones go - I have four species at the moment, which is probably how it'll stay - elegants, metridiums, mystery nems, and the d. lineata's, which have been relegated to the dsb chamber to protect them from the elegants - also they're on a really big ugly rock, too bad. And a parting shot of the mystery nem. I'm settling on Anthopleura, but the species remains a mystery. They actually look a lot like A. artemesia, but as far as I know, those only live in sandy environments with at least some wave action, which is the antithesis of a dock in olympia washington. So, it's still a mystery! I'm pretty happy with these pictures for now, I've finally got good documentation of everything that's in the tank. No I just have to keep it all alive! Hopefully the chiller is coming back tomorrow, I haven't heard from Pacific Coast yet... I ordered my dosing pump today! And I'm going to pick up a programmable timer soon to go along with it. I can't set up the auto feeder till I get back to college and my mini fridge, so for now I'm going to try to be really diligent about daily phyto and rotifer feedings - I want to keep the sponges alive! I'm also going to keep the heavy duty canister filter on the tank at least till I get back to college - then I may replace it with just carbon. All depends on the DSB I guess. As far as future plans - perhaps in CA I can get ahold of some corynactis and a gorgonian, but other than that, I don't think I can fit much else! Thanks for looking. Link to comment
yoshii Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Nice pics! I really like the view of the left side Sculpins are very cute! When I had mine they ate right out of my hand Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Woohoo sculpins I'm going snorkeling today at the place where I saw sculpins last time. Hopefully I see some today. You are REALLY making me want to do a temperate tank lol. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 Nice pics! I really like the view of the left side Sculpins are very cute! When I had mine they ate right out of my hand Cool! Hopefully mine will too, at the moment they're not interested in floating food, but I wouldn't be either with all that live food that's still around. Woohoo sculpins I'm going snorkeling today at the place where I saw sculpins last time. Hopefully I see some today. You are REALLY making me want to do a temperate tank lol. Cool, I hope you see some! And you should! Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Cool! Hopefully mine will too, at the moment they're not interested in floating food, but I wouldn't be either with all that live food that's still around. Cool, I hope you see some! And you should! I only saw one sculpin but I saw 5 other fish. Every fish I saw was a completely different species. All of them were around half an inch. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 Cool, but wow, that's tiny! What sort of environment are you snorkeling in? waves/calm, rocky/sandy, etc? Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Cool, but wow, that's tiny! What sort of environment are you snorkeling in? waves/calm, rocky/sandy, etc? Well its a really interesting place. It usually has plants everywhere and and very rocky bottom but last time I went it was completely sand bottom in shallow areas and getting deeper there was a rocky bottom. At about 6' i noticed a lobster trap (with lobsters in it!) and their was seagrass everywhere. Unfortunetly I was getting just too cold so I couldn't explore it much. That's where I'm gonna try and find things in next time. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Cool! I hope you find some good stuff. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 Picked up a nice little starfish (blood star I think?) while freediving today. Also had a great encounter with a giant pacific octopus, which you can read in more detail in the snorkeling thread. And in tank news, well, let's just say that I found out the hard way that tidepool sculpins are not, in fact, anemone-proof. The gunnel is still around though, but not eating prepared foods. I hope he's getting enough nutrition from the algae in the tank, I read that they eat macroalgae... Tank is going to make the move down to california next wednesday, wish me luck! Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 Good luck My Rock Prickleback ( which I thought was a gunnel ) will eat huge chunks of dried nori like its going out of style right from my hand. Try some of that stuff, its super cheap at the asian sea food markets over off powell. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 12, 2011 Author Share Posted August 12, 2011 Haha, cool! I'll definitely try that, thanks for the idea. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 Well, I tried nori ( he wasn't interested) and he still won't eat mysis, but he's still alive, so he must be eating something! I'll try a few more things when I get down to school. Got the dosing pump today and it's awesome! New chiller (Pacific Coast never gave me mine back and wouldn't return my calls.... ) is also here and running (thanks syris1377!). Hopefully Currents are a little more long lived than pacific coasts. The move to southern california begins tomorrow! It's going to be a three day trip, but I think the tank will be okay. I've got a nice big stryrofoam box for it, and icepacks, and I'll be able to plug the chiller in every night. Wish me luck! And here are some parting shots. The sponges are all gone, despite daily feedings of phyto and rotifers. And, as previously mentioned, the sculpins were both eaten by anemones. That leaves the penpoint gunnel, along with the miniscule prickleback as the two fish. I'm really surprised that the prickleback hasn't been eaten by something yet. I saw it for the second time ever yesterday, and it looked bigger, but it's still only an inch long, and for an eel-shaped fish that's really not much. But maybe with incredible luck it will make it, we'll see. As always, thanks for looking! Link to comment
HVani Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Wow those pictures are awesome! Link to comment
yoshii Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 ^very I like the Lined Chiton! Does it eat coralline? Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Wow those pictures are awesome! Thanks! ^very I like the Lined Chiton! Does it eat coralline? Well, it's supposed to, but there's no coralline in my tank. Hopefully it can manage with other algae, it seems kind of unhappy, though. When I collected it, there wasn't any coralline nearby, so maybe it's not that important? I guess we'll find out. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 20, 2011 Author Share Posted August 20, 2011 The tank survived the trip! Looks like everything made it, I'll post a more detailed update once I get finished moving in. Link to comment
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