DonnieP Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thats really a good thing, I wish we had stricter laws on domestics just like the Chinese big head and silver carp that got loose from a single enclosure here in the states, they are taking over our river systems and wiping out native fish. You have probably seen the videos of them when you run a boat motor near them they jump out of the water even into the boats, they get over 50lbs, that can hurt. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Donnie I haven't brushed up on my gulf reef history but is that reef you mentioned off galveston or something? and, are there stony corals or is it all just gorgs and anems? Link to comment
DonnieP Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Brandon, I'm attaching a link to the reef site. Its called The Flower Garden Banks. It was discovered by Snapper fishermen. I have fished these banks myself in my younger days.Check it out. Flower Garden Banks Here is the article on Lionfish. Lionfish invade Texas coast. Link to comment
DonnieP Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 castiel Sorry to hijack your thread for a minute but this is cool reading! Ya'll might be interested in this article to about beautiful Acropra corals growing inside the Miami Florida city limits, talk about some hardy Acro's .Acro's inside Miami city limits! Link to comment
castiel Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 Hey no worries! I saw that article somewhere else, and it is very cool reading. Awesome to see what can live (thrive even) in the most unusual places. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 Got some syringes delivered yesterday so attempted my first target feeding this morning of the ric and polyps (the wife is going to be feeding her gorg when she gets her ass out of bed!). I used this combo - one pellet with about 10 drops of phyto. The feeding was okay, though I couldn't quite get my hand far enough in to be direct on the ric. But hopefully still better than broadcast feeding with so few inhabitants. Would the hermit eat a shrimp pellet? Or half? Link to comment
castiel Posted August 20, 2011 Author Share Posted August 20, 2011 DIY mini algae scraper. Take one squeegee, $1.50. Cut off ends. Voila! Link to comment
castiel Posted August 21, 2011 Author Share Posted August 21, 2011 Got a bit carried away at a couple of LFS today ... My tank: +Hammer, +Xenia, +Yellow Coral Goby! Ang's: +Zoa colony, +Xenia, +Yellow Coral Goby! Will post some pics and maybe a video soon. One of the stores had LOADS of Mandarins ... they are very cool, and I am sad to think about how many will be bought by people who don't know what they are doing and die. Cheap too, which surprised me. EDIT Sneak Preview: Link to comment
castiel Posted August 21, 2011 Author Share Posted August 21, 2011 Ang's tank FTS: Small xenia Zoa colony YCG hiding out My tank FTS Hammer YCG hiding behind his shell Xenia, Polyps, Morph Side shot Close up of the morph which today was huge (after a dayin the tank being scrunched up) As I mentioned, I was not going to get a fish yet, but Ang was set on one. So we went hunting in the LFSs without luck - lots of unsuitable gobies and blennies, masses of mandarins at one LFS, but we'd given up when happened to call into the last LFS only to find they had these little guys in their tanks. So Ang was sold, whereas I was going to get a shrimp instead ... but they only had red banded cleaner shrimp that were massive, so I decided to get a fish too. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 They eat things called cyclops or cyclopeze.Shrimp works to but it took mine a while.Cyclops was the first thing i was succesful on having them eat.Mine still wont eat flake food. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 22, 2011 Author Share Posted August 22, 2011 I got some brine shrimp, which I was going to mix with the phytoplankton solution to feed with a syringe (or try to). But every thread I read on here suggests Cycop Eez so I'll definitely be getting some of that too. LFS said they eat okay, but we'll see. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 Ya mine kind of just looked at the brine swiming around.Maybe ill by some again since there bigger now.I awalys like brine swimming in the tank. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 I went to adjust the pump flow direction this morning in Ang's tank, only to find the water cold! Realised that when we unplugged the pumps last night for feeding, we unplugged the heater too. It had got to around 72F =0/ Hopefully everything is okay though, all looked okay. We'll see when we get home how the heating back up went. On the feeding note, the gobies didn't take any of the brine shrimp we syringed in. But I think I saw my goby this morning picking at the copepods, or shrimp from last night. It seemed to eat something and spit it out again (as fish do), which I hope is a promising sign. Going to try feeding them every other day - does that sound sensible to start with at least? Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 I would buy some cyclops its really the only thing you will have luck with in the begining.Looking at the other corals the only thing you will probally have to feed is that red sea fan.The dense corky if thats what it is just requires alot of light and should do fine with out direct feeding.The mushrooms are optional.Some take food and some dont.Depends on there state or some may not eat at all but i would just feed the fish.Frgospawn doesnt really need anything i feed mine like once a month. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 I have some on order (freeze dried Cyclop Eeze), hope it arrives in the next few days or that they live in copepods in the meantime. Can't find any of it at LFSs. On another note, anyone ever kept Neomeris Annulata? One LFS we visited this last weekend had loads of it in their tanks, little pieces here and there. Looks kinda cool. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 I would buy some cyclops its really the only thing you will have luck with in the begining.Looking at the other corals the only thing you will probally have to feed is that red sea fan.The dense corky if thats what it is just requires alot of light and should do fine with out direct feeding.The mushrooms are optional.Some take food and some dont.Depends on there state or some may not eat at all but i would just feed the fish.Frgospawn doesnt really need anything i feed mine like once a month. Yeah I'm making sure to feed the gorg every couple of days along with the YCG. My current mix is phyto and frozen brine shrimp, so the cyclopeeze will be added to that (or in place of the brine sometimes), so the gorg benefits from the phtyo at least. I've tried target feeding the rics, hammer and polyps but they don't seem to do much, so will probably just let them 'catch' whatever is floating around in future. Cheers Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Ya they should be fine like that.The sea fans are such a pain to take care of.......and even then they die off.But that real thinck one with all the polyps that one will do good as long as it has good light and no algae takes it over.Those green plants in the other picture are cool they grow pretty slow in my opinion. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 I am very happy to report that the YCG is eating! Both of them are. Just fed them brine shrimp and they darted around the tank hunting it down as it flowed past (funnily enough they only did this once the pumps were back on, stayed hidden away while they were off. More pics to follow but here's YCG#1 zooming in on a shrimp: Link to comment
castiel Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 My tank, starting with a nice FTS: That little shell fell over a while back, but works really well as a 'perch'! Ang's tank: So happy they are eating! I have some cyclop eeze on order, along with some nano fish pellets, so they should be getting porky in no time. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 Came home at lunchtime today (which I don't normally do) and was amazed at how big the Hammer and my Ric were stretched out! I guess they have shrunk back again by the time I normally get home. If you compare to previous pics ^, you'll see that the hammer in particular is twice the size it was. Also Ang's ric was doing some weird stretches, which coincided with me feeding the YCGs some brine shrimp ... was it trying to catch some in the flow you think? YCGs ate again, in fact they hunted down every last piece of shrimp I put in there! Including a half body with eyes that my YCG ate, spate out, ate, spate out, ate, spate out about 30 times haha. Link to comment
castiel Posted August 26, 2011 Author Share Posted August 26, 2011 YCGs have found new perching places more out in the open, which I take as a good sign that htey are settling in well. Mine likes to perch on top of this small mushroom (it's under there, promise) Whereas Ang's has found a very comfy looking spot nestled into the ric. Here's just another pic of Ang's YCG hiding out near the duster: Link to comment
castiel Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 Raided the 'bargain bin' at a LFS today. Average of $10 each for: Torch for Ang's tank: She also got a couple of small orange Morphs which are currently closed up. I got some cute little zoas (which seemed to be attached to a coral skeleton, very brittle like shell) which I think look great at the 'cave' entrance. Squirt posed for a picture too (new name for the YCG) And I also got a Green Open Brain, which as you can see has some damage but I still think looks great. From what I read this won't heal up (or is unlikely to), but that's okay, I like the colour it adds and fills a nice space at the front of the tank. Also managed to find a turkey baster (you'd be surprised how uncommon they are down here!), and at the fourth attempt Ang managed to suck the aiptasia out from the sand. New FTSs Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Nice to see these little reefs coming along. I like those gobies a lot. Very tempting to get perhaps the green morph for my 8g. llj Link to comment
clayphx Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Great thread and tanks! Are you using the stock lighting still? Link to comment
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