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Cultivated Reef

msscha's 24 gallon office cube


msscha

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ScubaEthan

Yay photos! Your duncans are my favorite. And the damsel is pretty whatever it is. Isn't it so weird how fish can completely change how they look from juvenile to adult? Crazy.

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Those actinic shots are awesome! That finger leather is a nice one :happy:

 

I'm still getting used to your new avatar! I forget it's you until I see your name!

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Tank is still looking awesome. Hope the damsel works out!

Thank you!

 

Those actinic shots are awesome! That finger leather is a nice one :happy:

 

I'm still getting used to your new avatar! I forget it's you until I see your name!

Thank you! I'm not sure why I changed the avatar...I still surprised when I see it, too :D!

 

Yay photos! Your duncans are my favorite. And the damsel is pretty whatever it is. Isn't it so weird how fish can completely change how they look from juvenile to adult? Crazy.

Yes, it is really weird. And it seems like the lfs either don't know or don't inform people of the eventual outcome. Again, a good reason for thinking before purchasing, which seems to be a challenge of mine!

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Quick trip to the LFS yesterday for water check and new salt water. Everything tested well except for a slight measurable amount of phosphate. May need to add something to help that, though I'm not seeing cyano popping up anywhere.

 

Had a fun discussion about Gilda yesterday, and pretty much decided that for the time being, I'm going to keep her (the damsel). The biggest factor is how difficult it would be to get her out of the tank. She can slip in and out of rock -- it would be as hard as getting the trimma out! I'd have to remove all the rock, and I just don't want to do that. If I wait until she is bigger, she should be easier to catch. So far, she is not damaging anything. Bozette has adjusted and is kind of leaving her alone except when she thinks food is coming! The damsel is very fun to watch eat b/c she can dart and turn so quickly. she picks at the rock and macro, not the corals. I think as long as I keep her well fed, she'll leave the coral alone. Also, someone suggested that tank-raised damsels aren't quite as fierce as the wild types -- they haven't had the same intense environmental training to protect territory. The lfs also had a couple of adult sized Damsels that look like what she could grow into, and they were fairly pretty. Of course, he also had a rockin' blue with gold face pygmy angel -- why didn't I get that one ;)? I am not actually experience buyer's remorse over Gilda, though. We'll just see what happens.

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Wuthering Depths -- the story of two girls just trying to get along

 

I'd noticed that depressions in the sand had appeared beneath two outcroppings at the base of the rock...then, I caught Gilda vigorously swishing her tail to enlarge the space. Indeed, Gilda has created two spots where she can dive and hover when Bozette is feeling beeetchy (as she is this afternoon :D). Bozette tries to get in there, but Gilda is slender, Bozette too round. The picture below is what it looks like! An empty hole, a head peeking out, escape, then the chase is back on!

 

gilda_holeseries.bmp

Edited by msscha
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My damsel does that too! I didn't connect it to the clowns though, I just thought Saphira was being a brat, but it makes sense, since the Arya doesn't fit in those spots now that i think of it :P

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Not much to report this morning! Everyone was alive when I got in this morning; no corals were tipped over. I don't see the remaining astrea, but I won't worry about that since it turned up last week after a couple of days (I swear there's a portal to Gena's tank somewhere and the snails don't make it back after a weekend of partying).

 

Only oddness was my water level had plummeted so the pump was spitting air. Very weird since it was maxed out before I left on Friday afternoon. I filled it back up -- don't normally have that much evaporation, so not sure what caused this.

 

Otherwise, Gilda actually snapped back at Bozette today -- her majesty Queen B didn't back off much, but it was interesting to see.

 

One of the duncan heads seems to have a couple burned tips -- I'll push the ricordea back a bit. Are rics aggressive? Or maybe the duncan is just particularly sensitive.

 

Update: had time to take a couple pictures of the duncan -- and threw one in of the toadstool in full-on munching mode about 3 minutes after zooplantos-m!

 

damaged_duncan.bmp

damaged_duncan2.bmp

 

toadstool_feeding.bmp

 

Update -- maybe I am seeing things, but I swear I see a pale pink wash starting on Gilda's anal pectoral fin!

Edited by msscha
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The duncan looks a bit better today. The burned looking bits have fallen off, and the color is good -- bright green and remaining tentacles are fluffy.

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The duncan looks a bit better today. The burned looking bits have fallen off, and the color is good -- bright green and remaining tentacles are fluffy.

 

Gotta love chemical warfare.

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Poor duncan. How do you get such clear pictures? what camera are you using?

 

I bet Gilda will be able to hold her own soon enough. She's a cutie.

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Poor duncan. How do you get such clear pictures? what camera are you using?

 

I bet Gilda will be able to hold her own soon enough. She's a cutie.

GIlda thanks you! She thinks she is cute, too, especially now that colors are starting to emerge that weren't there when she first landed in the tank. The yellow line is getting brighter, there's a yellow wash starting on her tail, and the anal fin definitely has some kind of pinkish hue!

 

My camera is a basic Kodak digital that has been dropped and really is not that great a camera! What helps is that I use the macro-scene "flower" setting which helps compensate for the bright white light in the tank -- and the magnifying glass, of course! That may have been the best $5 I've ever spent, calculated by how well it does the job of increasing the power of the macro setting. It's a simple 5X magnifying glass with a 4" diameter so there isn't huge warping at the edges.

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I might have to invest in a magnifying glass, those photos are great! I try to use the macro setting on my camera but when i get too close it blurs, maybe the magnifying glass would help with that.

 

Isn't it fun when fish start to change their colour? I have a female betta and she's changed so much in the year i've had her, it's been fun to watch. Plus Lizzy is getting thick black on her fins and tail.

 

My macros and snail army just arrived, can't wait to get them in the tank. :)

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I might have to invest in a magnifying glass, those photos are great! I try to use the macro setting on my camera but when i get too close it blurs, maybe the magnifying glass would help with that.

 

Isn't it fun when fish start to change their colour? I have a female betta and she's changed so much in the year i've had her, it's been fun to watch. Plus Lizzy is getting thick black on her fins and tail.

 

My macros and snail army just arrived, can't wait to get them in the tank. :)

That's exactly what I got the magnifying glass for -- to see if it would help with the blurring. It did! I'm not sure why I thought of it, but glad I did :).

 

My lfs just got in a HUGE shipment of CUC -- they have about 100 astreas with really pretty white shells. If my current astrea doesn't make it, I'll get one. The last two days, I've had to flip it off its back 3 times -- twice, it was just in the middle of the sand, so it wasn't clear how/why it turned in the first place. The last time I read about this happening, the snail died shortly thereafter.

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Nothing new to report -- the duncan is recovering, the astrea was tipped again this morning on nearly open sand (I think it is dying), all other denizens account for. So, I spent some time looking through National Geographics underwater photo expeditions, beginning with deep water warm vents in the Gulf of California, then following links elsewhere around the world. The Canadian purple octopus and Antarctic anemones were wild!

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Beautiful picture.

Still seeing some pest anemones in your tank, thought of adding a nudibranch?

Thank you! And yes, the berghia is likely to be my next strategy. The peppermints did a good job, but aren't able to co-exist with the gold coral banded shrimp. the lfs says he is looking into it, but the wholesale and retails prices are so close that it isn't a very good deal, so I may just order directly. I am wondering about the majanos -- will the berghia eat those, too?

 

Friday Feast!

 

So funny -- in prep for the long weekend, I gave the tank an extra big helping of frozen brine shrimp for lunch. Gilda and Bozette managed to clear it all up, but I can actually see their bellies bulging! It's kind of funny :lol:.

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So funny -- in prep for the long weekend, I gave the tank an extra big helping of frozen brine shrimp for lunch. Gilda and Bozette managed to clear it all up, but I can actually see their bellies bulging! It's kind of funny :lol:.

 

I try to feed my fish and then throw in some crab pellets for the crabs and snails, but the greedy fish often manage to grab a pellet on it's way down. The pellets are too big for their mouths and I'm always a bit afraid they are going to choke themselves, but they always manage. Afterwards, they look like actual 'clowns' - waddling around with their bulging bellies and garish striped outfits :lol:

 

It's funny - for you a long weekend means time away from your tank, for me it means I finally get some time with my tank...

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(I swear there's a portal to Gena's tank somewhere and the snails don't make it back after a weekend of partying).

:lol:

 

That must be typical damsel behavior because my yellow tail damsel would clear out a depression in the sand with his tail too. They are fascinating creatures :happy:

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