ZephNYC Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 A little bit of humor for the day... Most of us out there have had nerite snails in our aquariums, freshwater or saltwater. In keeping these snails, you'll make the observation that they periodically make their way to the surface of the water, and hang out at the top of the tank above the water line. This is commonplace for the species kept in freshwater and those kept in saltwater. Well, it turns out the only thing keeping them in your tank when they decide to come to the surface to rest, is your tank trim... I have 6 nerites in my 25 gallon rimless tank, and every day I pick up anywhere from 2, to all 6 of them, and toss them back into the aquarium. Luckily they are a species capable of creating a waxy layer at the shell door/entry to trap remaining moisture in their shell, and thus are capable of surviving water free for days. It surprises me how far they get sometimes; mostly when they are on the floor and a few feet away from the tank stand (assuming they fell and bounced - they are usually on their backs). Many times I find them stuck to the outside of the tank in random spots on the glass. Sometimes at the top, sometimes at the bottom, sometimes alone, sometimes in a pile all together. This morning I found one on the floor, and then did another quick check around the outside of the tank. I was surprised to see that one was stuck to the aquarium stand. I finally decided I should take a picture and post it up for others to enjoy. I wish I started taking pics of this much earlier on; I'd have an album by now! Anyways, this is what I woke up to today: That reminds me of the time I found my Blue Lobster walking across the floor. LOL! Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 I am happy to say that I kicked Lyngbya's butt and reclaimed my reef from the clutches of that filthy brown stringy garbage. I snapped a quick pick (lights are almost out) just to mark this day in reefing history! Well... at least in my reefing history.Also, I saw an interesting post on corals with protein infections that cause discoloration in pigments a while back and thought it was quite interesting. The coral highlighted in the post was an orange Montipora setosa with patches of green pigments; it was a very neat situation that I figured was fairly uncommon. Apparently I may have a coral in my collection with a similar type of discoloration. I acquired a red/orange plating Montipora a while ago and never noticed, until recently, that it has very small green patches. There are probably 20 or so of these markings across the entire coral. The Montipora is about 5" x 4" and relatively flat compared to my foliosa. Just thought it was interesting and worth sharing. Link to comment
Rehype Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Im glad you were able to get that algae under control im currently battling cyano and glad to say its in the final stage. Did the article say whether or not it would spread over the entire coral?is it harmful? tank looks great BTW Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 Im glad you were able to get that algae under control im currently battling cyano and glad to say its in the final stage. Did the article say whether or not it would spread over the entire coral?is it harmful? tank looks great BTW Thanks, Hype! Tank has a long way to go still, but I am glad I can finally start adding more SPS and gluing things down without worrying about that awful algae. As for the "protein infection"... If you google grafted setosa or grafted montipora you'll see what I am referring to. It isn't harmful to the coral at all and is something you can manufacture intentionally if you have two color variations of the same coral subspecies. Quick article on coral grafting: http://www.reef2reef.com/blog/grafting-corals-the-art-of-coral-grafting/ And on protein infections in corals: http://www.orafarm.com/blog/2011/01/20/gfp-green-fluorescent-protein-infection/ Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 I have been meaning to get a video of my 'pet' Eunice worm for a long time now, but never had the opportunity for several reasons. He was elusive, disliked light, and hardly came out of his hole. About a month ago I changed his aquascape so that it was more open and vertical, and since then he has been making himself more viewable and easier to film. A little history on Smaug (named after the dragon under the mountain)Close to two years ago, I purchased a bunch of live rock from an LFS to start my 20 gallon reef system. I happily picked out several prime pieces of live rock, completely unaware of the hitchhiker that lurked within. After several months and a few disappearances, I finally caught my first glimpse of a skinny, 10" long worm with 5 points sticking out of it's face... knowing what a Eunice worm looks like from a previous encounter years ago, I understood I had to remove it as soon as possible.In the process of removing the Eunice worm from my tank, I had broken it up into a pile of pieces. I threw 90% of the worm out, but its little head and tiny 1/2" section of body seemed to remain steadfast in its struggle for survival. I decided to set up a small 5 gallon tank and tossed what was left of the worm into the new tank. A few weeks later I looked into the tank and was surprised to see that a good portion of the worm had already regrown, and jumping ahead to today, he is almost 2' in length and the circumference of a sharpie! He eats just about everything from shrimp pellets to culled guppy fry. I intend to keep him for his entire life span and am fascinated by him on a daily basis.Without further delay, I present to you, Smaug! Link to comment
ZephNYC Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 That was friggin awesome ! Perfect music too. It reminded me of the Movie King Kong with Jack Black when they fell into that pit of crazy insects. Very nice veriety of life in there. Link to comment
londonloco Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 The water box keeper in me wants to say "really cool", but I just kept thinking....creeepyyyyyyy Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Holy crap dude! Very cool. I praise you for your care of this amazing animal. Well done and awesome video. Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 That was friggin awesome ! Perfect music too. It reminded me of the Movie King Kong with Jack Black when they fell into that pit of crazy insects. Very nice veriety of life in there. Glad you liked it! The water box keeper in me wants to say "really cool", but I just kept thinking....creeepyyyyyyy Most of the people who have met Smaug feel that way... lol Holy crap dude! Very cool. I praise you for your care of this amazing animal. Well done and awesome video. Thanks a ton; it is an amazing creature and it is a real pleasure to be able to observe it on a daily basis! I have been waiting patiently for him to be camera ready and was so stoked that I could finally get a video up! Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Wtffff !!! That is by far the weirdest thing I have ever seen !! Link to comment
metrokat Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Holy cow TJ! Don't put me in pet jail for killing my E worm. It too came on my first shipment of live rock 2.5 years ago. Killed it with fire pretty much. Link to comment
JR! Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Omg, I <3 smaug! same here. i want one of my own now. he will rule my sump.......with fear. Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Haha, He seems to be getting some exposure! 180+ views when I checked the video this morning. Pretty cool I want to get another species as well, Eunice aphroditois, a known polyp eater to boot! Should be a fun worm to work with if I manage to find one! Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted February 26, 2014 Author Share Posted February 26, 2014 I have decided that I want to get a controller on this bad boy!As much as I like my Medusa, and the AquaMedic dosing system, I really think I'd like a good controller that I can connect with via the web. Something that is going to graph out levels and readings and give me more control over my system... This is going to be a surprise, so I won't say which controller I am going with, but I will show you what my touch screen will look like! Hopefully I will have it up and running in a few months. Plenty of time for me to play with my tank and get things well started before I go all tech-crazy on this reef! Link to comment
Zia Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Damnn good/clean looking tank TJ! Love that grafted monti, what a incredible find! Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Haha! I Just saw that Smaug made it onto Reef Builders! Link to comment
Lalani Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I just saw that too, Smaug is famous! Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 Wow, well over a thousand views on that video! Wasn't really expecting that, hahaha. Tonight I am going to glue some things down in my reef and finally have a pic worth posting! It's been a challenging start, but well worth it. I have more plating corals than I have places to put them at the moment, but maybe ill just run with it lol. No point in letting them go to waste! Link to comment
Rehype Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I have been meaning to get a video of my 'pet' Eunice worm for a long time now, but never had the opportunity for several reasons. He was elusive, disliked light, and hardly came out of his hole. About a month ago I changed his aquascape so that it was more open and vertical, and since then he has been making himself more viewable and easier to film. A little history on Smaug (named after the dragon under the mountain) Close to two years ago, I purchased a bunch of live rock from an LFS to start my 20 gallon reef system. I happily picked out several prime pieces of live rock, completely unaware of the hitchhiker that lurked within. After several months and a few disappearances, I finally caught my first glimpse of a skinny, 10" long worm with 5 points sticking out of it's face... knowing what a Eunice worm looks like from a previous encounter years ago, I understood I had to remove it as soon as possible. In the process of removing the Eunice worm from my tank, I had broken it up into a pile of pieces. I threw 90% of the worm out, but its little head and tiny 1/2" section of body seemed to remain steadfast in its struggle for survival. I decided to set up a small 5 gallon tank and tossed what was left of the worm into the new tank. A few weeks later I looked into the tank and was surprised to see that a good portion of the worm had already regrown, and jumping ahead to today, he is almost 2' in length and the circumference of a sharpie! He eats just about everything from shrimp pellets to culled guppy fry. I intend to keep him for his entire life span and am fascinated by him on a daily basis. Without further delay, I present to you, Smaug! That vid is awesome...i actually watched it on reefbuilders first. Great job on the feature Link to comment
metrokat Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Haha! I Just saw that Smaug made it onto Reef Builders! Congratulations! Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Alright, I have loafed enough... tonight I will post some pics of where the tank currently stands (already started gluing corals down). It isn't looking perfect, but I might as well document it from start to finish, rather than just take pics when it is looking prime. At least that way, everyone can see what the corals looked like when they were originally placed in the tank, and how they grow over time in said placement. Good to have for my own records methinks. So this is what it looked like prior to me gluing things in place. I also decided not to use ALL of the montipora caps that I have, some are currently in the sump until further notice. Link to comment
hey Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 That worm is terrifying, yet I am in love with the colors. Whenever you see the 5 ft pics of em laid out on the ground they just look brown I had no idea they were kind of colored kind of opalescent. I had to laugh with all the life going on around the entrance of the cave scurrying around out of smaugs way. Link to comment
CrazyCarl Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Looks like the worm from Star Wars when they are in the asteroid. I was waiting for the Millennium Falcon to come flying out of its mouth. LOL Link to comment
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