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Dawn's coral pony corral!


vlangel

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Nothing new in the pony tank except I am seeing a fair amount of pods which is exciting. My peppermint shrimp never come out but tonight I caught a glimpse of at least one down in the rock under some of the macro algae. Probably they are all there. Parameters are very good and the coral look great so all is well. Sure wish there were ponies in it though!

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natalia_la_loca

Nothing new in the pony tank except I am seeing a fair amount of pods which is exciting. My peppermint shrimp never come out but tonight I caught a glimpse of at least one down in the rock under some of the macro algae. Probably they are all there. Parameters are very good and the coral look great so all is well. Sure wish there were ponies in it though!

Yay, tank looks great :) how long before the horsies?

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Yay, tank looks great :) how long before the horsies?

 

Its killing me but I can't order them until the middle of September. I will be in Colombia, South America from the 4th -13th and don't want to leave the ponies in someone else's care that long.

I will use the interim time to purchase meds and first aid kit to have on hand and to use a probiotic in the tanks to get both tanks in as healthy a state as possible. My fish in the LPS tank are all seemingly healthy and not manifesting any disease but I had added a midas blenny in February and it had a mild case of ich when it first arrived. I plan to get a pair of mustangs from Ocean Rider. I changed my mind about 2 females after I read about the whole courtship ritual seahorses go through. As a result I plan to be somewhat prepared to set up a nursery as well so there is lots to do between now and Sept.

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natalia_la_loca

Its killing me but I can't order them until the middle of September. I will be in Colombia, South America from the 4th -13th and don't want to leave the ponies in someone else's care that long. I will use the interim time to purchase meds and first aid kit to have on hand and to use a probiotic in the tanks to get both tanks in as healthy a state as possible. My fish in the LPS tank are all seemingly healthy and not manifesting any disease but I had added a midas blenny in February and it had a mild case of ich when it first arrived. I plan to get a pair of mustangs from Ocean Rider. I changed my mind about 2 females after I read about the whole courtship ritual seahorses go through. As a result I plan to be somewhat prepared to set up a nursery as well so there is lots to do between now and Sept.

Yup, it definitely doesn't hurt to wait if you're leaving the country, and especially if you're thinking of setting up a nursery. Although having only females doesn't necessarily mean you would miss out on courtship rituals...my females do the whole mating dance despite lacking the requisite naughty bits :)

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Yup, it definitely doesn't hurt to wait if you're leaving the country, and especially if you're thinking of setting up a nursery. Although having only females doesn't necessarily mean you would miss out on courtship rituals...my females do the whole mating dance despite lacking the requisite naughty bits :)

I had heard that 2 females may still do the mating dance but I thought it probably would not be a given, not that getting a stallion and mare guarantees anything either. After all, what if he's a dud instead of a stud!

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bonsaidarrell

My peppermint shrimp never come out but tonight I caught a glimpse of at least one down in the rock under some of the macro algae. Probably they are all there.

 

Don't see much of mine until there is mysis floating around the tank! They do a great job of cleaning up the leftovers.

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natalia_la_loca

I had heard that 2 females may still do the mating dance but I thought it probably would not be a given, not that getting a stallion and mare guarantees anything either. After all, what if he's a dud instead of a stud!

 

yup, I've heard of that happening too.

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Don't see much of mine until there is mysis floating around the tank! They do a great job of cleaning up the leftovers.

 

So maybe if I throw something good like mysis in there instead of boring pellets and flakes I might see them????

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Ah ha, I discovered where the peppermint shrimp hide! They are all up inside the barnacle with the calerpa growing on it. At least one of them is growing because he left his empty molted shell on the artificial fan.

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I noticed a lot of those green dots on the glass of the tank, (the ones that are a pain to clean) and decided my lights needed cut back a bit. Now both blue and daylight come on at noon and go off at 9pm. When I got a timer to have the daylight come on at 2pm and go off at 7pm I found out the fixture is defective. Even though it has separate plugs for the blue and daylight they both need plugged in for either to work! I can turn a switch off but not unplug it. Anyway using timers for separate times is out so I called the company. They agreed that it must have an electrical problem so they are sending out a new one. Until then I will manually have to use the on/off switch.

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The new T5 fixture came this afternoon. I carefully removed it from the box so I can reuse it to send the defective fixture back, put the legs on and tested it. IT WORKS! Everything is plugged in, timers are set so tomorrow the lights should be fully automatic.

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Thanks! I am really liking how it turned out also. I did make one small change in that I switched the tall rock work and placed it on the box and moved the smaller piece down on the bottom of the tank. I decided since the tank is so tall to maximize the aquascape's height and create two very distinct heights. Then I put the colt coral on the clam shell, (I found a rock that is cup shaped for their feeding trough). Maybe I should take a pic of it?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I set up a 10g shrimp tank to house red volcano shrimp for the ponies. I will order the shrimp from Ocean Rider when I order the seahorses. The shrimp tank is just dead rock, with one large pc of live rock to seed it around a sponge filter. I filled the 10g with water from my marine system to help seed it. Hopefully it will be cycled and stable by September when I am ready to place my order! Its simple but supposedly these shrimp don't need much. In fact algae is a plus because then they don't even need fed much.

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My pod population is really getting established. Even with my lights on full daylight and the tank at its brightest, there are pods crawling on the walls, floor and equipment everywhere. They are not all just speck size either, many are about 1/8th an inch. As the corals and macros grow the pods will have more hiding places along with the rubble rock and the whisper filter. That should help my seahorses settle in comfortably and get them off to a good start.

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This morning I earned my certification for finishing the Ocean Rider seahorse training lessons. I feel very informed and equipped to keep seahorses now and am anxious to order my OR mustangs!

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Nanofreak79

Exciting news! Taking your time and doing things right is the way to got can't wait for the ponies to show up and see some pictures.

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I stopped by my LFS just to browse, (which is always dangerous) and they just got new gorgonians in. They were all purple ones which I was wanting some purple in my tank. I bought a purple plume but am thinking of going back and getting one of the other ones too.

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A cool thing is happening in the pony corral. Some cheato got caught at the ends of the fake fan I bought for a pony hitch. I didn't think much of it but that cheato is growing there. Its a very cool look and helps naturalize the fake fan :-)

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Exciting news! Taking your time and doing things right is the way to got can't wait for the ponies to show up and see some pictures.

I know Nanofreak, this is the most patience and self control I have ever done in regards to my fish tanks. Whenever I get over anxious I go to the fish store and see if there is a coral I can buy instead. Staring at the tank counting pods isn't always satisfying.

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