kimberbee Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Ok, so is anyone else having massive issues with photobucket? I can't get anything to upload for the last couple weeks, so I got forced to switch to Image Shack. Then I noticed random photos weren't displaying from Image Shack so I switched over to Flickr. That seems to be working well, but now old photos of mine on photobucket aren't displaying. Looks like my signature has officially disappeared. Lots of people are having that issue. I dunno why you all just don't switch to flickr. I've been using flickr for yeeeears and NEVER have had any issues! Please don't switch to FlLickr, I won;t be able to see them at work. imgur is free, I switched to that from imageshack because of the random display issue. Of course there are other folks here that have imgur blocked, I'm just being selfish. I can't see imgur at work, but flickr is ok. To solve this problem, Felicia, you have to use both! 2 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted January 29, 2016 Author Share Posted January 29, 2016 Please don't switch to FlLickr, I won;t be able to see them at work. imgur is free, I switched to that from imageshack because of the random display issue. Of course there are other folks here that have imgur blocked, I'm just being selfish. Lots of people are having that issue. I dunno why you all just don't switch to flickr. I've been using flickr for yeeeears and NEVER have had any issues! I can't see imgur at work, but flickr is ok. To solve this problem, Felicia, you have to use both! Oh goodness! Well this was why photobucket was great until it decided to have a full blown meltdown. I was patient at first but its been acting up for weeks, so I'm over it. Ok so photobucket is broken, Image Shack has display issues, Flickr and Igmur are great but some people's works block them. Any other options out there? Photobucket just needs to get its act back together since years of my photos are on there! Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 I don't think any filters block Google's photo hosting via picasa web It is not quite as easy to get the links to post, as you have to right click and copy the URL of each photo and paste it into the reply with the img code already in place, but they're always available and you can resize the long edge on the fly just by changing the numbers near the end of the URL. 1 Quote Link to comment
Angeles Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Not that this was related or anything, but I saw your fiji and it's really nice. I saw this on DD, and while expensive I just thought it was a good looking piece. http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+7&ddid=294728 1 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Not that this was related or anything, but I saw your fiji and it's really nice. I saw this on DD, and while expensive I just thought it was a good looking piece. http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+7&ddid=294728 Whoever is taking photos for Diver's Den now seriously needs to be moved to a different department. I purchase a clone of that (it is a maricultured piece, even though it is not in the maricultured section) same coral and it doesn't look like either of their stock pictures. 2 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Yes Felicia, I have not been able to even get into my photobucket all day. 1 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Geez, I've been wondering WTH is up with Photobucket myself, I just thought it was my laptop or connection since I changed wireless providers. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share Posted January 30, 2016 I don't think any filters block Google's photo hosting via picasa web It is not quite as easy to get the links to post, as you have to right click and copy the URL of each photo and paste it into the reply with the img code already in place, but they're always available and you can resize the long edge on the fly just by changing the numbers near the end of the URL. This is a good thought! I may have to try this if Photobucket doesn't come back up soon. I don't mind adding the img code to the link, but I like how the other sites give you a code that does the photo size for the forums. I don't really want to manually resize. I guess once I know what size works its not that hard to change. Not that this was related or anything, but I saw your fiji and it's really nice. I saw this on DD, and while expensive I just thought it was a good looking piece. http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+7&ddid=294728 Pretty leather! I want them all, but I really have no space! I need a bigger tank Whoever is taking photos for Diver's Den now seriously needs to be moved to a different department. I purchase a clone of that (it is a maricultured piece, even though it is not in the maricultured section) same coral and it doesn't look like either of their stock pictures. That particular leather? What does it look like in person? I'm guessing it was the color that's inaccurately represented? I feel like its hard to find really nicely colored leathers. There are a ton that are just tan or very bland. Yes Felicia, I have not been able to even get into my photobucket all day. Geez, I've been wondering WTH is up with Photobucket myself, I just thought it was my laptop or connection since I changed wireless providers. Sounds like photobucket is making all of NR very frustrated! Hopefully they'll get it together. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 A have a small equipment update on my tank. I don't know if you all remember, but I had my Phosban 150 reactor teed off of the return pump line. However, the return pump is on the opposite side of the tank from the reactor, so there was a pretty long stretch of tubing that had to be pumped through. I've noticed that the water flow through the reactor was really minimal to keep the biopellets tumbling and over time they tend to stick and clump. I've been unclumping them and they would tumble lightly until it happened again, so I decided it was finally time to address the issue. I ended up deciding to close off the tee on the return and get a separate pump to power the reactor. I got a really inexpensive Rio 1100, which pumps 395 gph. Adding that pump in makes the sump more crowded, but its got the biopellets tumbling much more effectively, so its a good solution for the time being. I got the new Rio pump in the mail from Amazon earlier this week, but I hadn't realized that its smallest bard fitting was 3/4", while the Phosban reactor uses 1/2" tubing. I made a run to my LFS yesterday to get a 3/4" to 1/2" barb fitting (its a weird fitting that they didn't have at home depot) and then got everything all hooked up last night. While I was at the LFS I saw this cutie and just wanted to share a photo. Its a fuzzy dwarf lionfish. And no, I did not buy it because I have no more space and dwarf fuzzies will fight with dwarf zebras. IMG_1476 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr 5 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I am glad you got the issue with the reactor straightened out. I am thinking that the flow out of your return into the display tank should have increased when you closed off the reactor? That might be a good thing, right? That is a cute lionfish. "So many cute lionfish but O so little space!", she laments. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 I am glad you got the issue with the reactor straightened out. I am thinking that the flow out of your return into the display tank should have increased when you closed off the reactor? That might be a good thing, right? That is a cute lionfish. "So many cute lionfish but O so little space!", she laments. Yep, closing off the reactor increased the return flow into the tank, but it was already pretty strong, so I turned it back down a bit. Luckily my return pump is a DC pump so I can adjust the flow just like on a MP10 The issue was that I was only running the return pump at about 50% power with the gate valve on the reactor tee completely open. That was plenty of flow for the tank, but not enough for the reactor. I didn't think to put a gate valve on the return line into the tank, so there was no way to dial down the tank flow while increasing the reactor flow anymore. Also, it just seemed very inefficient because it had to pump through such a long length of 1/2" tubing. Now this way the pump goes straight into the reactor with minimal tubing, so its not losing nearly so much pumping power. I know! I need more space! But even with more space, a dwarf fuzzy would most likely not do well with my dwarf zebra, so its more like I'd need a second tank. Lesson learned there, so I left him at the LFS 2 Quote Link to comment
TFish77 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Beautiful picks as always. I was showing off your thread yesterday to a friend who swore up and down you couldn't keep any type of lion (or eel for that matter) in a smaller tank. Needless to say your pics shut him up very quickly. 3 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I know! I need more space! But even with more space, a dwarf fuzzy would most likely not do well with my dwarf zebra, so its more like I'd need a second tank. Lesson learned there, so I left him at the LFS I applaud your self control! 2 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 I applaud your self control! Why thank you. I'm definitely doing better on the multiple-tank syndrome front. However, I did buy a itsy bitsy baby albino pleco for my freshwater tank. I had one in that tank that passed away suddenly a while back, but I hadn't seen another one small enough to replace it. My LFS had a customer who's plecos were breeding in his tank so he brought in 100's of the little things to my LFS. They are the tiniest plecos I have ever seen. I couldn't resist getting one for my 4 gallon FW planted tank. My need to buy something was satisfied! Beautiful picks as always. I was showing off your thread yesterday to a friend who swore up and down you couldn't keep any type of lion (or eel for that matter) in a smaller tank. Needless to say your pics shut him up very quickly. Thank you! Well the snowflake eel will eventually outgrow this tank, so he was right on that front if he meant long term. The only eel that would do good in a 40B at full adult size would be the Golden Dwarf Moray eel. The dwarf lionfish however are totally fine in this size tank even when they are full grown. He was probably more familiar with the large lionfish like the Volitans, which definitely needs a very large tank once its full grown. Those get huge! My Fu Manchu is pretty much full grown now and the minimum tank size for him is 30 gallons. My dwarf zebra will grow more, but my 40B is basically the minimum tank size for him. The antennata however is medium body lionfish and really should be in a 55 gallon as a minimum tank size, but she has a long way to go before she might start to feel cramped. 2 Quote Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I hope you get to keep your antennata or eel for a long time, but if you decide to rehome them I'll take them. I've been admiring this tank since you set it up and you have inspired me to start my own predator reef... on a much larger scale. There will be no worries of these guys outgrowing the beast I'm currently putting together. 2 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 I hope you get to keep your antennata or eel for a long time, but if you decide to rehome them I'll take them. I've been admiring this tank since you set it up and you have inspired me to start my own predator reef... on a much larger scale. There will be no worries of these guys outgrowing the beast I'm currently putting together. Good to know I have an option if there is an issue, but I'm so attached to them at this point that I plan to eventually upgrade for them. I'm already planning a 75 gallon system. I just wouldn't want to do it until probably fall of this year at the earliest. The antennata will definitely be fine in the 40B for that long. She hasn't noticeably grown at all in the 9 months that I've had her, so she's got a long time until she's big. Its the eel that is growing super fast. He's basically doubled in size in 9 months. Glad to hear you're starting a predator build! Now I want to hear the details! Let me know as soon as you have a thread! Exciting! 1 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 This is a good thought! I may have to try this if Photobucket doesn't come back up soon. I don't mind adding the img code to the link, but I like how the other sites give you a code that does the photo size for the forums. I don't really want to manually resize. I guess once I know what size works its not that hard to change. That particular leather? What does it look like in person? I'm guessing it was the color that's inaccurately represented? I feel like its hard to find really nicely colored leathers. There are a ton that are just tan or very bland. It's really easy to resize in Picasa without resizing the original. Goes like this: For a 1280 pixel wide image (which is how I uploaded it): [img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ahoxwGx7s8/VquDyrqHkqI/AAAAAAAAzY8/q17bJsJsiWk/s1280-Ic42/IMG_5498-low.jpg[/img] and for a 320 pixel wide version of the same image: [img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ahoxwGx7s8/VquDyrqHkqI/AAAAAAAAzY8/q17bJsJsiWk/s320-Ic42/IMG_5498-low.jpg[/img] Which turn into this: And yes, that is me in an eagle costume sitting at the Superintendent of Schools' desk. FREEDOM! MERICA! As for the Sinularia, it still looks really good, just not nearly like the photo lol. I will have to get a good photo of mine this week to show you. 4 Quote Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Good to know I have an option if there is an issue, but I'm so attached to them at this point that I plan to eventually upgrade for them. I'm already planning a 75 gallon system. I just wouldn't want to do it until probably fall of this year at the earliest. The antennata will definitely be fine in the 40B for that long. She hasn't noticeably grown at all in the 9 months that I've had her, so she's got a long time until she's big. Its the eel that is growing super fast. He's basically doubled in size in 9 months. Glad to hear you're starting a predator build! Now I want to hear the details! Let me know as soon as you have a thread! Exciting! I sure will. Construction started this weekend. Tank will go in next weekend. By then I should have a ton of pics and equipment details to start the thread...stoked. 3 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 I sure will. Construction started this weekend. Tank will go in next weekend. By then I should have a ton of pics and equipment details to start the thread...stoked. That's so exciting! Can't wait to see what you're up to! Let me know if you have any questions at all about my experience with the lionfish and eel. It's really easy to resize in Picasa without resizing the original. Goes like this: For a 1280 pixel wide image (which is how I uploaded it): [img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ahoxwGx7s8/VquDyrqHkqI/AAAAAAAAzY8/q17bJsJsiWk/s1280-Ic42/IMG_5498-low.jpg[/img] and for a 320 pixel wide version of the same image: [img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ahoxwGx7s8/VquDyrqHkqI/AAAAAAAAzY8/q17bJsJsiWk/s320-Ic42/IMG_5498-low.jpg[/img] Which turn into this: And yes, that is me in an eagle costume sitting at the Superintendent of Schools' desk. FREEDOM! MERICA! As for the Sinularia, it still looks really good, just not nearly like the photo lol. I will have to get a good photo of mine this week to show you. This doesn't seem too bad, but still quite a bit of work when I'm posting like 30 photos. Hmmm... I'll look into it if Photobucket isn't back to normal soon. I noticed my older photos are showing back up again, so seems like they're fixing their issues. And that is a ridiculous photo! haha! That's quite the elaborate costume Yeah I'd love to see a photo of the sinularia. The one I have is just a tannish/pink color. The most common and bland version, but I like it and its in the back corner to fill in some space and add depth. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 Slowtwitch pm'ed me asking about how I trained the lionfish onto frozen food. I know I've explained that all here, but I hadn't written it out in a detailed and organized manner, so I wanted to share what I wrote for him. I figure if anyone is interested, this could be helpful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Weaning Lionfish Onto Frozen Food In terms of training, I read a lot of different ways to do it, but here's what I ended up doing: Step 1 - Live Ghost Shrimp I kept the shrimp in a 5 gallon tank for a while and then I ended up ordering saltwater ghost shrimp online from Floridapets.com and keeping them in a breeder box in my sump. Keeping them in my sump was easier since I didn't have to maintain another tank and I had to have them on hand for several months. Ghost shrimp aren't all that nutritional, so I would feed them some high quality flake or pellet food like Ocean Nutrition right before feeding them to the lionfish to make sure they were gut loaded. When I first got the dwarf zebra and antennata, they were too shy to take food from my feeding tongs. I'd grab the shrimp by the tail with the tongs and then drop it in front of the lion so they saw it and let them hunt. After just a couple times of this, they realized the tongs meant food and would just take the live shrimp right from the tongs without me releasing it. I did this for a while to keep them to really associate the tongs with food. The tongs I have are about 12" long and look like big tweezers. Step 2 - Starvation It seems mean, but to get the lionfish interested in frozen food, you usually have to starve them for a while and get them nice and hungry. I kept feeding frozen to my eel and fu manchu who were entirely on frozen food, but I wouldn't offer any live food. I'd offer the frozen food to the antennata and dwarf zebra, but if they wouldn't eat it, they just wouldn't get any food. Lionfish can go several weeks without eating, so it doesn't do them any harm to starve them for a week or so. If they hadn't eaten anything after a week, I'd give them a live shrimp and then start over again. Step 3 - Variation in Frozen Food Offered It took a bit to figure out what frozen food they would go for. I kept starving them and offering a variety of different frozen foods using the feeding tongs. After not very long, the antennata decided to go for PE mysis. I think this worked well because a lot of the mysis in PE mysis are whole and look a lot like a live ghost shrimp. I'd pick out the whole PE mysis and hold one by the tail and wiggle it gently in front of the antennata so it would look like a live shrimp. Once she ate the first one, she was pretty quick to realize this was food and always take PE mysis when offered. However, my dwarf zebra was super stubborn and still wouldn't go for anything frozen. He'd starve for a week, eat the live ghost shrimp, and then repeat. Step 4 - Patience The dwarf zebra took months to convert onto frozen, so patience is key. I just kept trying and finally ended up offering him some frozen krill, which is really unhealthy but fish like to go crazy for it. Its like potato chips. If you feed lionfish too much krill or only krill, it can end up causing them to be very unhealthy and die, but its ok once in a while or to wean them. Anyway, I FINALLY got the dwarf zebra to take some krill. This took several times of him striking at it and then spitting it out. Or he'd swallow it but realize it wasn't what he wanted and not take any more. After lots of patience he started eating the krill regularly, but then I had to convince him to eat something more nutritionally complete. Step 5 - Transitioning to Healthy Food I started stuffing the krill with pellets and mysis to try to make sure the dwarf zebra was getting the right nutrition. Then I just kept offering PE mysis and other frozen foods along with the krill to try to get him to take something else. After some more patience, he finally took PE mysis. Again, it took a while to get him eating it regularly, so patience is key. At this point I was able to take away the krill and I had both the dwarf zebra and antennata eating PE mysis without any issues. Step 6 - Varying the Diet For quite a while, they'd only take PE mysis that were whole shrimp, but after getting used to eating frozen, they've slowly started accepting other foods that I offer. At this point they now eat anything I give them. They still eat lots of PE mysis, but they also get squid, scallop, salmon, and prawn chunks regularly. It just took them a while to realize that chunks of food that don't look like a whole shrimp were still food. The take away message here is that every lionfish is different. My fu manchu was already eating frozen silversides at the LFS, so I didn't have to wean him. He was there for a couple weeks and they were able to get him eating frozen. The antennata was really very easy and took only a couple weeks to wean. However, my dwarf zebra took MONTHS. You just have to have patience and stick with it and keep trying different things. I hope this helps! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Quote Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Awesome write up. Thank you so much. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 Awesome write up. Thank you so much. No problem! I enjoy figuring things like this out for more unique fish and then compiling the information and sharing 1 Quote Link to comment
Rehype Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 IMG_1476 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Shes a beauty! Great write up Felicia...totally nailed it. 1 Quote Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 No problem! I enjoy figuring things like this out for more unique fish and then compiling the information and sharing I was told the antennatas were tough to train by the guy I'm buying my stock from. If things go well with the ones I'm getting I will likely try one in the future. I'll make sure to have some ghost shrimp on hand just in case. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 Shes a beauty! Great write up Felicia...totally nailed it. Too bad I don't have space for her. Hopefully someone gives her a good home Thanks! Glad to hear you agree with the writeup. I know everyone's experience is probably a bit different. I was told the antennatas were tough to train by the guy I'm buying my stock from. If things go well with the ones I'm getting I will likely try one in the future. I'll make sure to have some ghost shrimp on hand just in case. Yeah there seem to be generalizations about which species are easier or harder than others, but I feel like its more determined by the individual fish. Fu manchus are supposed to be really difficult, but my LFS had him on frozen without too much effort, and my antennata was easy. Unless you get super lucky, you'll probably need the ghost shrimp at least for a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment
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