Diver's Paradise - The Original

[gena]

Lily's so young and still has a ton of energy, so she's not usually a lap cat. She'll sit with me for a few minutes and then she has to bounce off to check out something else. I'm looking forward to when she's older and will just sit on my lap for hours.

You'll curse the day My son, who is too nice, asks ME to get the cat off of him because he's tired of her sitting on him everytime he lays down to watch tv!!!!!!!! She's a major lap cat.

 

 

(She's hiding inside her kitty crinkle sack if you were wondering.)

That starfish is gorgeous and so is she

[Felicia]

I don't ever get sick of having a cat on my lap. The cat I had growing up would sit on my lap for hours while I did my homework after school. If I was sitting he was pretty much on my lap.

 

And Lily says thank you very much for the compliment

[gena]

I don't ever get sick of having a cat on my lap. The cat I had growing up would sit on my lap for hours while I did my homework after school. If I was sitting he was pretty much on my lap.

 

And Lily says thank you very much for the compliment

I especially appreciate the lap cat when it's a cold winter night

 

I just noticed you changed your sig a little. I like it!!!!!

[Felicia]

I especially appreciate the lap cat when it's a cold winter night

 

I just noticed you changed your sig a little. I like it!!!!!

I haven't changed it since I made the one with the starfish except adding the link for the seahorse tank build underneath. Thanks though!

[gena]

I haven't changed it since I made the one with the starfish except adding the link for the seahorse tank build underneath. Thanks though!

I guess I was being unobservant! I thought the clownfish picture on the right was new. I was so mesmerized by the gorgeous starfish that I didn't even notice the clownfish

[Felicia]

I guess I was being unobservant! I thought the clownfish picture on the right was new. I was so mesmerized by the gorgeous starfish that I didn't even notice the clownfish

Its ok! The starfish was meant to be the star of this sig. I thought that was a cute picture of June hosting the zoas though, so I'm glad you noticed

[FlCandy]

OMG your cat is a nutter!

 

Love the starfish as well!

[Felicia]

OMG your cat is a nutter!

 

Love the starfish as well!

Thanks Randi! And yes, Lily is a bit nutty sometimes

[surgicalsense]

Lily and her key cutie pie self.

[Felicia]

Ok well I'm WAY overdue for an update on the tank. First off, I went to my first frag swap this past weekend a got some nice goodies. It was put on by the Bay Area Reefers (BAR) and was a ton of fun. I enjoyed getting to meet some new people and talk aquariums. They provided lunch and everyone got to hang out and talk and then each time your group got called you got to go pick a coral. The frags I got were:

1) Tubbs Blue Zoas

2) Bam Bam Zoas

3) Purple Ricordea

4) Green polyp toadstool

5) Green/yellow pocillopora

6) Green and purple platygyra (brain worm coral)

7) Assorted montis

 

Here's a photo of people picking corals at the swap (I'm on the right in the bright green shirt, holding up a frag container to look at it better):

 

I'm going to get some new FTS's and coral photos up tomorrow evening, but in the meantime, here's a few updates about the tank.

1) If you start counting from when I started the tank in the 10 gallon on September 5th 2011, then my tank is now 1 year old! Man time has flown.

 

2) Everything is growing like crazy and is filling in the tank really nicely. My zoa/paly rock has basically filled in and is the home of my two clownfish. My ricordea garden is growing nicely since several of my Florida ricordeas have split. Also, my pastel rainbow yumas have started walking around on the rocks and leaving little babies behind! My GSP is trying to take over and I have to constantly peel a bunch of it off the rocks to keep it contained where its supposed to be. My frogspawn was originally 2 heads is now somewhere around 8-9. My originally 3 headed duncan now has about 10 heads. My fuzzy mushrooms keep splitting and I have 4 now after I took the 5th one to the frag swap. My SPS corals actually seem to be growing the fastest. My montis and undata are getting huge and encrusting all over the place. Also my bali slimer, birdsnests, and efflo are just exploding in size and have totally filled in my SPS section of the tank.

 

3) My clownfish are getting huge (especially June, the orange female) compared to when I bought them. I keep thinking they may start laying eggs soon based on their behavior. All my other fish and my shrimp are all doing well.

 

4) My brittle stars have been breeding. I keep finding babies all over the tank. I'm interested to see how many of them make it to adult size.

 

5) I thought my pom pom crab had died because I hadn't seen him in months, but then tonight he made a brief appearance right front and center in the tank. He's gotten much bigger and he's still got both his nems which have gotten huge. Here's a quick photo I snapped of him:

 

There was a request for scuba adventure updates, so here's a picture I took of a really pretty red sea cucumber when I went diving in Mendocino, CA this summer. That was my first time visiting/diving in Mendocino county and its absolutely gorgeous up there. I'll have to go up there more often to check out a bunch of other dive sites.

 

Finally, for those of you who appreciate Lily's antics, here she is hanging out in my water change bucket

[gena]

 

Your update sounds amazing!!!!!! I can't wait to see!!!!!!

 

The frag swap sounds like a lot of fun. Were you supposed to bring a certain number of frags with you to trade? I really need to get in on something like that...join a reef club already

 

Thanks for the update...I'm so glad you are back

[Felicia]

 

Your update sounds amazing!!!!!! I can't wait to see!!!!!!

 

The frag swap sounds like a lot of fun. Were you supposed to bring a certain number of frags with you to trade? I really need to get in on something like that...join a reef club already

 

Thanks for the update...I'm so glad you are back

Thanks Gena! Sorry for the lack of FTS's tonight. I got all OCD about taking the first pictures in months and messed with some stuff trying to get it all looking perfect and managed to make a bunch of my corals close up and stir up some sand. Oops! Well it'll look good once things settle and I'll get the photos tomorrow.

 

The frag swap was a great set up. Yearly dues for BAR are only $20 and the swap was totally free and included a huge lunch. They have 2 swaps each year apparently. This was the members only one, so it was smaller and then there will be an open swap later in the year. The requirement was that each person who wanted to participate had to bring at least 3 frags to contribute. There were certain really common corals like GSP, Xenia, and Kenya trees which couldn't count towards your 3 frags but could be brought and put on a table as freebies for anyone who wanted them. The frags were then divided onto tables by type and each person pulled a letter (A-J) out of a hat. They then went through the letters giving each group a couple minutes to choose a coral. They would go A-J and then reverse (J-A) until the corals were getting low and then there was a free-for-all where everyone could go in at once and grab what they wanted. I thought it was a really fair way to trade frags and it was a lot of fun and I liked that you didn't have to pay to participate like some of the other clubs. It was really low key and fun! You should definitely check one out.

[gena]

Oh wow!!!! I want to belong to YOUR club

 

Which frags did you contribute?

 

No problem on the FTS/photos. I can wait until tomorrow....I think

[Felicia]

Oh wow!!!! I want to belong to YOUR club

 

Which frags did you contribute?

 

No problem on the FTS/photos. I can wait until tomorrow....I think

Yeah I wish I had joined earlier. It was so low key and I met all kinds of fun people to talk reef aquariums with

 

I took a frag of my bali green slimer, some purple zoas, a green fuzzy mushroom, and an unknown LPS that I got as a freebie from a local store that hasn't been doing so well in my tank since I didn't have a good spot for it.

 

Glad to hear you can wait. At least I did a partial update

[gena]

Yeah I wish I had joined earlier. It was so low key and I met all kinds of fun people to talk reef aquariums with

 

I took a frag of my bali green slimer, some purple zoas, a green fuzzy mushroom, and an unknown LPS that I got as a freebie from a local store that hasn't been doing so well in my tank since I didn't have a good spot for it.

 

Glad to hear you can wait. At least I did a partial update

Nice stuff you brought!!!!! I thoroughly enjoyed your amazing partial update

 

I like seeing Lily too!!!! That's the photo you posted on FB, right? Updated photos of Lily are much appreciated too

[Felicia]

Nice stuff you brought!!!!! I thoroughly enjoyed your amazing partial update

 

I like seeing Lily too!!!! That's the photo you posted on FB, right? Updated photos of Lily are much appreciated too

Yeah, I thought I managed to take some decent frags for how young my tank is. My SPS have been growing like crazy, which works out well.

 

And yes, I did post that photo of Lily on Facebook. I'll have to snap some photos of her tomorrow when I'm taking pictures of the tank. And be ready for Halloween, I just bought Lily's costume

[Denzil]

Yeah, it was definitely a fun swap! Glad you were able to make it, Felicia!

[Spirofucci]

So glad to have you back in the saddle again!!!!

[gena]

And be ready for Halloween, I just bought Lily's costume

[Felicia]

Yeah, it was definitely a fun swap! Glad you were able to make it, Felicia!

Thanks! I'm glad I finally got around to going to a BAR event. I'll definitely be at the Breeder and Propagation workshop next month.

 

So glad to have you back in the saddle again!!!!

Its flattering that you guys missed me. I probably won't have time to be on here every day, but I'll try to make myself stick to checking in at least once a week even when I get busy.

 

[Felicia]

Oh, so I forgot to tell you all in my update last night...

 

So, you guys remember my big orange starfish, right? Its the one in my signature. Anyway, so after having him for about 2 months (he was healthy and eating that whole time), he suddenly got sick and I thought he had died. He fell down onto the sand and wasn't moving and he kind of just disintegrated and my cleaner shrimp were eating him. It was super gross and he was down in the back behind some rocks where I couldn't get the body out, so I decided to leave it and just not feed the tank for a few days. The body was completely gone in less than 24 hours thanks to my shrimp and hermit crabs, except that one leg was left behind in perfect shape. I spent a couple days wondering why that leg wasn't decaying or being eaten and then all of a sudden it started walking around the tank. So now for the last month or so, I've had a starfish leg that climbs around on the glass and eats and is VERY slowly regenerating the center part of its body. At the rate its going I may have an entire starfish again in 5 years, haha. Weirdest thing ever. I'm honestly not sure what happened and the single leg crawling around looks super funny/creepy.

[gena]

oh wow...that's crazy!!!!! Good thing you weren't able to get to it and remove it...otherwise you wouldn't have a zombie starfish roaming your tank right now

 

Reminder bump for pictures

[Felicia]

Yeah, I'm really glad I didn't flush that leg. I think the starfish's name will now be Zombie. So weird...

 

And I'm about to go start taking photos. I was waiting for it to get dark and I just finished dinner. So photos should be up around like 10 pm PST

[gena]

Yeah, I'm really glad I didn't flush that leg. I think the starfish's name will now be Zombie. So weird...

 

And I'm about to go start taking photos. I was waiting for it to get dark and I just finished dinner. So photos should be up around like 10 pm PST

Woohooo....can't wait!!!! I'll check in before I go to bed

[Felicia]

ITS FINALLY TIME FOR A NEW FTS AND PHOTOS!

 

Drum roll please..................

 

FTS 9/11/12

 

Coral Photos

Pastel Rainbow Yuma

 

Bali Green Slimer and Sour Apple Birdsnest

 

Other SPS Corals

 

Zoa and Paly Rock

 

ATL Undata

 

War Paint Scoly

 

Rainbow Monti

 

New Frags from Frag Swap

Bam Bam Zoas

 

Worm Brain Coral

 

Green Polyp Toadstool

 

Critters

Clowns

 

Red Brittle Starfish

 

Zombie Starfish Leg

 

Tank video and photos of Lily coming momentarily...