Fishfreak's foxy BC29: Brine Shrimp!

[Weetabix7]

5 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I found Zeus!  He's alive and well (and adorable)

 

One of the baby plates was getting quite large, and since all the bigger ones are smooshing the little ones, I thought it was time to experiment with popping one off myself.  I used my little knife thingie from the dollar store, and wedged it at the base.  It came off pretty easy.  I have it tucked in a bottle cap in hopes it won't get lost.  I hope I didn't hurt it at all

 

I decided to use the macro mode on my camera after feeding tonight.

 

Here's a real quick top down.

 

Not a great pic (he never sits still) but here's the betta I picked up at Total Pet the other day.  I still need to rehome my knight goby so I can move the bettas into a divided 10g, but Dumbledore seems pretty happy in the 1g for now.  He has been making a bubble nest.  Draco, my other betta, is also doing well in his vase.  I can't wait to have them in a better tank though.  This picture doesn't do Dumbledore's colors justice

 

As always, I am quite struck by how very healthy and beautiful everything looks. 

If we could bottle what you do, we'd make a killilng!!

[fishfreak0114]

4 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

As always, I am quite struck by how very healthy and beautiful everything looks. 

If we could bottle what you do, we'd make a killilng!!

 Thanks.  My tank is nowhere as beautiful as many on here, but I do try to make sure everything is healthy and enjoying life.

[fishfreak0114]

Got the zoas!  The blue hornets and yodas are already beginning to unfurl, but the utter chaos not so much.  The guy who fragged them accidentally put mine on with someone else's, so the guy picking it all up cut it into two separate frags in the car.  Unfortunately, they were fully encased in glue  I did my best using my little dollar store knife thingie to chip the glue off.  I think I got most of it off, but I'm not sure if the polyp was damaged in the process.  I'll have a better idea of how it's doing in the morning.  All three frags got an iodine dip.  Yay zoas!!!

[WV Reefer]

On 5/27/2017 at 1:34 AM, fishfreak0114 said:

The watermelon favia is stinging its neighbor again  great...

to be dealt with tomorrow.  I was thinking maybe a small piece of plastic to block the sweeper tentacles?  Like at brandon429 mentioned on a thread at some point.  No sure how that would look, maybe if I glued zoas to it it would be not too noticable?

My Favia is the meanest thing in my tank......it regularly attacks a little Leptastrea above it. 

[fishfreak0114]

I swear its sweepers are coming out more and more often.  I think the barrier is working so far, and it's not too noticable.

[fishfreak0114]

Pics! 

In happy news, I think the utter chaos is gonna be okay!  It took most of the day, but slowly it opened more and more until it looked almost normal.  I realized there is actually two polyps, but I don't think the smaller one is doing as well.

 

The blue hornets and yodas opened up right away

 

The plate I broke off is doing well!  It puffed up like usual.  It is kind of hard to keep it in the bottle cap though, tomorrow I may put in a dish that's a bit deeper, and break off a few more so the little ones have room to grow.

 

I got a better pic of Dumbledore

[Lula_Mae]

Yay new zoas!

[fishfreak0114]

Tomorrow I leave for a school trip and I'll be gone until Wednesday.  We're camping somewhere without cell service, so naturally I'm super worried that something will go wrong with the tank and I won't be able to do anything about it.  The tank running pretty smooth, so in theory everything should be ok, but you never know.  I wish I hadn't signed up for this trip, I did it before my anxiety got really bad.  It's been causing me crazy amounts of anxiety for months, and now that I'm leaving tomorrow, I feel like I'm going to puke and it's hard to breathe.  Oh well, I just have to suffer through 3 days, and then I'll be home. And once I see the that the tank survived without a hitch, I'll feel a lot better.

 

I glued the zoas to the zoa island.  I also popped off a couple more little plates, but I think I'm going to hold off on the rest because it's not as easy as I thought it'd be.  I think one got damaged  

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Tomorrow I leave for a school trip and I'll be gone until Wednesday.  We're camping somewhere without cell service, so naturally I'm super worried that something will go wrong with the tank and I won't be able to do anything about it.  The tank running pretty smooth, so in theory everything should be ok, but you never know.  I wish I hadn't signed up for this trip, I did it before my anxiety got really bad.  It's been causing me crazy amounts of anxiety for months, and now that I'm leaving tomorrow, I feel like I'm going to puke and it's hard to breathe.  Oh well, I just have to suffer through 3 days, and then I'll be home. And once I see the that the tank survived without a hitch, I'll feel a lot better.

 

I glued the zoas to the zoa island.  I also popped off a couple more little plates, but I think I'm going to hold off on the rest because it's not as easy as I thought it'd be.  I think one got damaged  

Hope everything goes fine and you have fun on the trip!  And hope the little plate is ok.

[fishfreak0114]

Thanks All the plates I popped off (I think 4 now) are puffy and doing well.

[fishfreak0114]

And an additional thing I will be worrying about.  I just noticed today the the larger lobo seems to be developing pale spots?  And it hasn't been puffing up, and the skeleton is poking through the tissue.  So I moved it further back in the cave where there is less flow/light in hopes it won't get worse while I'm away.  Also, because despite my regular feeding attempts (I say attempts, because it doesn't seem to eat, ideas welcome) don't seem to be helping it recover and grow over the exposed skeleton, I decided to use the bone cutters and crush off the sharp ridges around the edge of the skeleton.  When the other brain was having issues last year, it didn't heal over the skeleton until I trimmed the ridges off, I'm assuming because the sharpness was cutting it?  Anyways, I've done what I can, and I'll hope for the best

[fishfreak0114]

I'm back!  I had a blast!  Best part was probably playing capture the flag and man tracker in the dark, and everyone screaming in terror about spiders!  I don't think I've ever seen so many spiders! They don't bug me though so it was alright. 

 

The tank is doing well!  The lobo looks about the same though   Good and bad I suppose. 

 

I forgot to mention that before I left, I fragged the big leather. It was touching the corky finger and making it mad. I'm not sure if it was actually hurting it or if being prodded was just irritating it, but either way, it's not touching anymore. The corky finger still hasn't opened though  

For once, I managed to rubber band leather without it floating away! After two days, all pieces are accounted for  

[Lula_Mae]

3 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I'm back!  I had a blast!  Best part was probably playing capture the flag and man tracker in the dark, and everyone screaming in terror about spiders!  I don't think I've ever seen so many spiders! They don't bug me though so it was alright. 

 

The tank is doing well!  The lobo looks about the same though   Good and bad I suppose. 

 

I forgot to mention that before I left, I fragged the big leather. It was touching the corky finger and making it mad. I'm not sure if it was actually hurting it or if being prodded was just irritating it, but either way, it's not touching anymore. The corky finger still hasn't opened though  

For once, I managed to rubber band leather without it floating away! After two days, all pieces are accounted for  

Yay!  Glad you had fun!  And glad everything made it through unscathed.  Hope the corky finger perks up soon.

[pappadumplingz]

Haven't seen spiders until you have come to Aus lol

[Pjanssen]

7 hours ago, pappadumplingz said:

Haven't seen spiders until you have come to Aus lol

True Dat! My daughter is currently living in Bondi Beach and is always sending me pictures of the huntsman spiders that crawl into her wetsuit. Eeek!

[vlangel]

I am glad that you enjoyed your trip.  I know leaving a tank is worrisome but if they keep us chained to our houses then they become more of a bondage than an enjoyable hobby and that is not good.  My philosophy is prepare the aquarium as well as possible before the trip and then just go and have fun.  Deal with whatever happens when you get home.

 

Nice pics BTW!

[fishfreak0114]

Thanks @vlangel  I felt pretty good leaving it with my mom, but I always feel like something will go wrong simply because I'm not there to fix it.  Amazingly, I barely even thought about the tank while I was away. 

[Weetabix7]

17 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Thanks @vlangel  I felt pretty good leaving it with my mom, but I always feel like something will go wrong simply because I'm not there to fix it.  Amazingly, I barely even thought about the tank while I was away. 

 

I know exactly what you mean!!!

I am going on vacation for 5 days next week, and I am very grateful that I have 2 local friends who know Reef Tanks and will be checking in on it daily. SO grateful!!

Really glad you had fun and that tank did well, other than the Lobo. 

Have you tried doing a lugol's dip on it?

It sounds like it is weak, maybe some kind of opportunistic bacteria is bugging it and it's too weak to fight it off or eat. 

Lugol's is pretty mild so I doubt it would stress it, but it would kill bacteria, at least to some extent. 

You may already know how to do this, but for a mild lugol's dip I use a container outside the tank with about 1 cup tankwater, add 3-5 drops lugol's iodine and soak for 5 mins or so. You can add a few more drops of lugol's if you want, and you can safely return it to the tank without rinsing it.

[fishfreak0114]

I hope your tank does well while you're gone @Weetabix7!  I did do an iodine dip on the lobo, but perhaps I should do another...

[fishfreak0114]

Good news and bad news.

 

good:

the baby plates are doing well, I glued them to frag plugs

The leather frags are also doing well

overall, the tank is good

the blasto has continued to heal, slowly but surely

 

bad:

the utter chaos melted  

the lobo is still declining, quicker now (will dip)

the corky finger still hasn't opened

[Lula_Mae]

9 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Good news and bad news.

 

good:

the baby plates are doing well, I glued them to frag plugs

The leather frags are also doing well

overall, the tank is good

the blasto has continued to heal, slowly but surely

 

bad:

the utter chaos melted  

the lobo is still declining, quicker now (will dip)

the corky finger still hasn't opened

Awww   So sorry about the utter chaos!  For being beginner corals, zoas can sure be finicky sometimes!  Hopefully you can get some again sometime!  Hope the lobo recovers.  Could the corky finger need to shed maybe?  I've never kept it so I'm not sure.

 

[fishfreak0114]

I don't think it needs to shed @Lula_Mae. The top is open, it's just the areas it was being touched by the leather that it stays closed.  But who knows with these things!  I'm just gonna keep an eye on it and hope for the best. 

[fishfreak0114]

Today was water change day.  Usually, it takes me less than an hour now.  I tested calcium and alk before the water change, and it's not looking too good.  Calcium was fine at 425, but alk was a mere 5.1?!  Either I'm messing up the test, or the corals are consuming a lot more alk than my water changes put in.  I'll retest parameters later today if I remember.  I guess for now I'll be doing some extra water changes, perhaps another 5g mid week or next weekend.  It may be time to look into dosing.

 

The baby plates are doing really well on the frag plugs, but I sure wish I had a frag rack!  There's 5 of them in my sandbed, all on separate plugs.

 

In interesting freshwater news:

About a month ago, I noticed that my largest yellow lab was holding babies in her mouth.  I decided not to try and raise the fry, because I have no idea who I would give them to.  Fast forward to today.  I was doing a water change, shifting some rocks around, and out comes this little translucent yellow fish, about a centimeter long!  I found a couple more.  I'm just going to leave them in, and if they're smart and know how to hide they'll reach adulthood.  I did build a rock pile for them though.  If they can make it until they're 2cm, I'd say they're in the clear.  My labs aren't terribly big.  It was so neat!

[Lula_Mae]

8 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Today was water change day.  Usually, it takes me less than an hour now.  I tested calcium and alk before the water change, and it's not looking too good.  Calcium was fine at 425, but alk was a mere 5.1?!  Either I'm messing up the test, or the corals are consuming a lot more alk than my water changes put in.  I'll retest parameters later today if I remember.  I guess for now I'll be doing some extra water changes, perhaps another 5g mid week or next weekend.  It may be time to look into dosing.

 

The baby plates are doing really well on the frag plugs, but I sure wish I had a frag rack!  There's 5 of them in my sandbed, all on separate plugs.

 

In interesting freshwater news:

About a month ago, I noticed that my largest yellow lab was holding babies in her mouth.  I decided not to try and raise the fry, because I have no idea who I would give them to.  Fast forward to today.  I was doing a water change, shifting some rocks around, and out comes this little translucent yellow fish, about a centimeter long!  I found a couple more.  I'm just going to leave them in, and if they're smart and know how to hide they'll reach adulthood.  I did build a rock pile for them though.  If they can make it until they're 2cm, I'd say they're in the clear.  My labs aren't terribly big.  It was so neat!

In a pinch, you can use a clear plastic suction cup soap dish stuck on the wall of your tank.  That's my go-to when I need to isolate something or have new stuffs!

[fishfreak0114]

1 minute ago, Lula_Mae said:

In a pinch, you can use a clear plastic suction cup soap dish stuck on the wall of your tank.  That's my go-to when I need to isolate something or have new stuffs!

Smart!  Perhaps I'll pick one up from the dollar store