Anthrax & Gangs! 50G SCA

[ninjamyst]

Welcome back!!  

[vlangel]

5 hours ago, mwhitelock said:

Whoa- my computer somehow saved my password. 

It's been a while. Tank is going stronger than ever though. 

 

I kind of decided to care less about replacing things that hate me/die (SPS) and just stock up on corals that seem to like me (LPS).

 

And clams. I now have 5. Which is probably why I get away with running the tank the way I do. I know the research on clams is very up in the air about how much they actually filter/etc. but they've all been happy for over a year at minimum. I still have all three Harry sent me too 🙂

 

The only piece of SPS i have is a red monti cap that is huge and growing out of control and even into itself.... I have a tiny nugget of sunset monti that i forgot was alive.... probably why its so tiny, it was buried. Everything else is mostly LPS.

 

Strangely enough, Goniopora seems to really enjoy my tank. I have a large colony of red aquacultured and a smaller frag of green Hurlock goniopora. I've seen blues and greens and I'm considering ordering them... does anyone know if they do OK touching? I've heard not to let the green and red that I currently have touch, but I've seen mixed experiences in my reading online so far. I love the movement, and the fact that unlike an anemone, they won't walk around.... So some blue/purple color would be excellent visually

 

I'm not out at the archery range as often these due to a car accident kind of screwing up my back and shoulder, so I'll try to be better about updating through the winter months instead of getting distracted and forgetting to log in for.... literally years. 😂

 

I finally caved and got an instagram a few years ago- can I share photos/video from there on here..? I vaguely remember photos being a pain and having to host them somewhere else... 

 

 

Welcome back Morgan!  I am so happy that your tank w/clams and gonis is doing so well.  I do well with LPS too and have long sinced crossed off SPS as possibilities in my tank.  Lots of folks post their instagram photos.  I have flickr host mine since photobucket quit doing it for free.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident and injury.  I hope all else is well.

[thecoralbeauty]

2 hours ago, vlangel said:

Welcome back Morgan!  I am so happy that your tank w/clams and gonis is doing so well.  I do well with LPS too and have long sinced crossed off SPS as possibilities in my tank.  Lots of folks post their instagram photos.  I have flickr host mine since photobucket quit doing it for free.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident and injury.  I hope all else is well.

 

3 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Welcome back!!  

Thank you both! 

I'll have to figure out how to host photos again. I pulled the trigger and ordered some blue/teal goni's since a sale that offset the shipping cost is going on and weather in Colorado this week is *supposed to be* mild. 

 

I will let you know what happens.

 

I'm happy to see both of you are still on here! Not sure why I drifted away, but I'm glad I'm drifting back. 

 

I could take some shots of the current set up, but am tempted to wait until the blue goni's arrive. If memory serves though, they'll likely be mad at me for a week or two before they start fluffing up and being pretty. Goni's seem to hold grudges like that longer than other corals seem to for me... 

 

Here is an attempt to link a video from a few weeks ago?  (embedding didn't work... here is the whole instagram account- https://www.instagram.com/morgan_w91/)

 

and I'm attaching the video... or trying to. 

<a data-flickr-embed="true"  href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/167790658@N08/30665421557/in/dateposted-public/" title="TankMovieSep18"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1938/30665421557_1ce2061e06_b.jpg" width="720" height="720" alt="TankMovieSep18"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

TankMovieSep18 by Morgan Whitelock, on Flickr

 

 

 

Not sure if any of this is working.

 

 

 

 

[vlangel]

I very much enjoyed your instagram videos and pics.  We have lots of white tail deer here in PA and all summer the doe bring their fawns down through our property, checking the fruit trees and drinking from my garden pond.  I loved the fawn calling for mama and how it hopped, ha ha!  I should video ours when they are being frisky and bad.  Their mamas don't always appreciate their antics.

 

I loved your mom's rose garden.  I think your mom and I would be good friends because I also love to garden.  It was beautiful with the lyrics to the lovely hymn, 'In the Garden'.

 

Your tank is as beautiful as ever.  I really liked your clam garden.  I have recently set up 2 tanks so I can have fish and coral that are not seahorse safe.  I may get another clam or 2 also.  Thanks for sharing your instagram.

[thecoralbeauty]

1 minute ago, vlangel said:

I very much enjoyed your instagram videos and pics.  We have lots of white tail deer here in PA and all summer the doe bring their fawns down through our property, checking the fruit trees and drinking from my garden pond.  I loved the fawn calling for mama and how it hopped, ha ha!  I should video ours when they are being frisky and bad.  Their mamas don't always appreciate their antics.

 

I loved your mom's rose garden.  I think your mom and I would be good friends because I also love to garden.  It was beautiful with the lyrics to the lovely hymn, 'In the Garden'.

 

Your tank is as beautiful as ever.  I really liked your clam garden.  I have recently set up 2 tanks so I can have fish and coral that are not seahorse safe.  I may get another clam or 2 also.  Thanks for sharing your instagram.

You should absolutely video them! The story behind our mule deer fawns: I am the PR director for our outdoor range, its about 13 acres and fenced in. Each year we have a few does that decide to have their fawns on our property because the fence cuts down on lots of predators, they know they are safe. We put water out for them and we have plenty of apple trees and yummy vegetation for them to eat. Every september/october we have a buck or two that shows up and the cycle continues. 

 

This year we had two does- one had triplets, the other had twins. Early August, I discovered one of the twins had been killed- I came upon the carcass shortly after the kill, she was still warm and beginning to be stiff. I was pretty freaked out, not seeing any teeth marks and the initial "bite" out of her was a really clean cut- my initial thought was a knife. Thinking we had some sicko human killing our babies on the loose, I called our range captain and he set up a camera on the carcass. Turns out we had a momma mountain lion and her kitten- they were probably up in the tree watching me that morning. Their mouths would be big enough to strangle them without any punctures from teeth- which explains what I saw.

 

We called CPW to trap them, but in the time it took to coordinate that, they took out the twin's mother too. So, we had an orphan fawn. The cats were captured and relocated many hours away- CPW thinks they chose our range since the mother was 15 years old (old for a cat) and the juvenile was 8 months- and the fence kept the fawns from being able to run away and the does- being protective- from jumping the fence to flee either, so easy hunting practice for them both. Lucky, the orphan fawn was adopted by the triplet's mother- she looked rather harassed the last I saw her, but all four little ones were with her. It's cool that they do that.  Funnier still- we are all hunters- but we are also very attached to those little stinkers. I often get calls from passersby, concerned for the deer's safety- it's always interesting to hear their reactions when I explain just how much we care that they're safe and doing well on our property, even though we are an archery range. They sure do get into trouble though, and even seem to play tag sometimes! 😍

 

[vlangel]

I am guessing the cougar with the collar was the 15 year old mom.  We don't have any big cats here and even a bob cat is extremely rare, (I've never seen one).  Although I would love to see any wild cat, there just are not the undeveloped tracts of land here anymore.  We did have a juvenile black bear pass through our property one evening which was pretty cool.

 

The funniest thing I saw a deer do, was just this year.  Mom brought her babies onto our property to check out the apple tree.  One of the twins saw a big apple and grabbed it right away.  Didn't Mom walk over and paw Jr in the face until he dropped the apple so she could have it.  I was somewhat shocked that she was so selfish and shameless about it.  Jr did not look malnourished however so I guess it was ok.  She does not get my vote for Mama of the year however!

[thecoralbeauty]

9 hours ago, vlangel said:

I am guessing the cougar with the collar was the 15 year old mom.  We don't have any big cats here and even a bob cat is extremely rare, (I've never seen one).  Although I would love to see any wild cat, there just are not the undeveloped tracts of land here anymore.  We did have a juvenile black bear pass through our property one evening which was pretty cool.

 

The funniest thing I saw a deer do, was just this year.  Mom brought her babies onto our property to check out the apple tree.  One of the twins saw a big apple and grabbed it right away.  Didn't Mom walk over and paw Jr in the face until he dropped the apple so she could have it.  I was somewhat shocked that she was so selfish and shameless about it.  Jr did not look malnourished however so I guess it was ok.  She does not get my vote for Mama of the year however!

Yep- the collared cat was mom, I guess that collar was from 5ish years ago, but the battery had since died so CPW was unsure where she had been or what she had been up to... now we know! 🙂 

Haha- well, maybe the little fawn had it coming? Maybe she stole mom's apple before? haha ours try to eat apples that are way too big for their mouths- that's always a laugh. 

 

 

Back to tank news: I have a Dendro that I picked up about 4 months ago at a discount because the guy was pretty sure it was dead- well, it's definitely not dead, but I'm still trying to convince it to open up during the day. Currently I've only been able to feed him because I go work out from 4-5AM before work, so I can give him some shrimp when I get back because the lights are still out.

Don't these guys like high flow? (He's in a different place than the last video I posted.... he's shaded, but he could definitely be MORE shaded if I moved him...) 

 

 

[vlangel]

I love dendros but have never had one and don't know anything about their needs except that they are NPS.  Hopefully someone else chimes in.

[Firefish15]

Very nice looking tank! 7 years, that's a long time! Hopefully mine can do as well as that!

[thecoralbeauty]

1 minute ago, Firefish15 said:

Very nice looking tank! 7 years, that's a long time! Hopefully mine can do as well as that!

  Thank you! This this only 3 years as of Thursday this week, Nov 1. But it has my rocks from my original 10g in it from 7 years ago. Lol not sure that counts though

[A Little Blue]

You can definitely place Dendro in higher flow area and it doesn’t necessary “needs” shade as well. Not sure how healthy your Dendro is at the moment and if it fully recovered. Something to consider when planing on moving it to more turbulent spot. 

[Firefish15]

16 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

  Thank you! This this only 3 years as of Thursday this week, Nov 1. But it has my rocks from my original 10g in it from 7 years ago. Lol not sure that counts though

Eh, still about 3 years older than mine!

[thecoralbeauty]

7 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

You can definitely place Dendro in higher flow area and it doesn’t necessary “needs” shade as well. Not sure how healthy your Dendro is at the moment and if it fully recovered. Something to consider when planing on moving it to more turbulent spot. 

Its eating ok, he's still recovering and his tissue is growing and looking better and better, but he's not what I would call healthy yet. I'm still trying to figure out how to post media from insta and Flickr, I actually took a time lapse of him eating a few weeks ago during the daytime. Thanks for the patience... And any pointers if you have them haha. 

 

I may may move him when I place the gonis when they arrive. Not sure yet. 

[thecoralbeauty]

 

 

This was a chunk of kryptonite candy that I accidentally broke off back in March.... it’s exploded too, you can see, since then.

Here’s the dendro!

 

 

[A Little Blue]

1 hour ago, mwhitelock said:

Its eating ok, he's still recovering and his tissue is growing and looking better and better, but he's not what I would call healthy yet. I'm still trying to figure out how to post media from insta and Flickr, I actually took a time lapse of him eating a few weeks ago during the daytime. Thanks for the patience... And any pointers if you have them haha. 

 

I may may move him when I place the gonis when they arrive. Not sure yet. 

Have you tried “Vimeo” video sharing app/site? 

Back to your Dendro.... well, It’s health depends on nutritions you feed it.  As far as I know, it’s not too finicky about aggression coming from neighboring species so that isn’t a big concern. And going back to feeding, you can try various food (I actually never fed it raw shrimp) of various sizes. It will accept most of it. In fact, I haven’t come across an instance when it would not accept a certain food. 

I would try to get it to full health before making any drastic changes tho. Seems like whatever you’re doing, brought it back to life and making any changes at this point might be counterproductive. 

When it gets back to its glorious self, then, you might play around with placement and such. Ofcause, this is my opinion and it doesn’t really mean much as you are the best judge what is best for your little guy. 

[thecoralbeauty]

6 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Have you tried “Vimeo” video sharing app/site? 

Mad to to your Dendro.... well, It’s health depends on nutritions you feed it.  As far as I know, it’s not too finicky about aggression coming from neighboring species so that isn’t a big concern. And going back to feeding, you can try various food (I actually never fed it raw shrimp) of various sizes. It will accept most of it. In fact, I haven’t come across an instance when it would accept a certain food. 

I would try to get it to full health before making any drastic changes tho. Seems like whatever you’re doing, brought it back to life and making any changes at this point might be counterproductive. 

When it gets back to its glorious self then, you might play around with placement and such. Ofcause, this is my opinion and it doesn’t really mean much as you are the best judge what is best for your little guy. 

 

Ill have to try varying more foods- typically he’s been eating brine and mysis. (Mysis in the time lapse)- did those posts show up correctly? 

 

Varying foods is generally a good idea with most organisms.... us included! 🙂

 

 

[A Little Blue]

6 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

 

Ill have to try varying more foods- typically he’s been eating brine and mysis. (Mysis in the time lapse)- did those posts show up correctly? 

 

Varying foods is generally a good idea with most organisms.... us included! 🙂

 

 

Vids work. Time lapse is cool. 👍

[thecoralbeauty]

in coral news:

goni's have shipped!! tomorrow's temp is saying 40's to 60's.... and I should be home from work an hour-ish earlier than normal because we had some weird circumstances that i stayed quite a bit late for this afternoon. hopefully they'll arrive in good condition!

I've begun making a list of everything I want to move/take care of tomorrow when my hands are in the tank with acclimating. I have quite a bit of coral re-arranging that I'd been putting off for a while anyway.

 

in fish news:

I asked metrokat about this on instagram... but my solaris wrasse is beating the crap out of my orange back wrasse. Was considering adding another wrasse or perhaps a bangaii cardinal or two in the coming weeks but am not sure I should until this situation has settled down a bit... if it ever does. I've already tried putting the solaris in sump-time-out for a few days and no luck. Soon as he is back in the display, he's a jerk. 

 

Ideas/insight?

 

[thecoralbeauty]

So, lots has changed in the last month- I added lots more rock, and have been collecting nice frags and pulled the trigger and got my hands on my favorite coral of all time- a purple tipped elegance with marbling. The solar wrasse was re-homed, added some cardinals and a filefish in hopes he'd munch on my aphasia gardens, but so far, I haven't seen him do so. He's really fascinating to watch swim, so I'm not incredibly upset about it. 

 

Things look so much different and more filled out- and while I'm sure part of that is the additional frags, a lot has to do with the rock.

 

I took out all the carbon and got a skimmer and a doser back in place. Also finally put an ATO on this thing, and now I'm wondering why on earth I lived without one for so long. I've been putting trace elements in the top-off water, and overall things are looking very bushy and happy in response! I'm keeping up with 5 gallon weekly water changes, but might try backing off in another month or so- I threw some macro's in the refugium to help with nutrient export, so once they get established I might have a better idea of whether I need to continue doing that. I'd been using Red Sea, and the alk is super high. Now that I'm dosing though, it might be possible to stretch water changes to every other week...... just don't know yet.

 

With the new scape, it looks like a whole new tank. I kept the idea of one bigger rock structure on the back and a smaller island in the foreground, but it still feels very different to me. Like it finally grew into itself. (Three years later....)

 

I also have used some space on my overflow box and back wall with NanoRox- am very impressed with the quality and appreciate  being able to use that open space, making looking at my tank from the side much more enjoyable. 

 

I'll try to update with a good video soon in the next few days. Have been on a break from classes the last few weeks, but work has been crazy- holidays seem to bring out the worst in people sometimes.... 

 

OH! Probably the coolest news ever- When I was rescaping and adding all this extra rock, I accidentally squished my pink tube anemone. I've had my purple and pink tube anemones for ages now and they've always been one of my favorite things in my tanks. 

I was placing some rocks in the sand and when I finished, I realized I had cut the head off of the pink one's tube. I was distraught- it looked wilted and upset, and the next morning the tentacles/mouth had completely detached from the tube. I thought I had killed him. I buried the head in the sand as best as I could to keep him from blowing around, and he seemed to slowly perk up. Wasn't eating, but didn't look so pitiful. In a few more days- he was eating.... and there were also new pink tentacles coming out of the tube part of him that I hadn't bothered to remove from the other side of the rock. So, his head has been regrowing his tube, and his tube has been regrowing a head... and I now have TWO pink tube anemones.  

[Christopher Marks]

Big changes, looking forward to seeing it all @mwhitelock! 😊 

 

How did the new aquacultured gonioporas work out?

 

Let me know if you have any more trouble sharing photos, it’s easy to upload directly now, even from your phone, or simply paste a Flickr or Instagram share link into the editor and it will embed automatically 🙂 

[teenyreef]

Sounds like some great changes! I"m looking forward to hearing how your filefish does, I've spotted a few aiptasia in my 40g tank and I've been thinking about getting a filefish for that tank.

 

How's the dendro doing? I've found I can train them to open up at certain times by always feeding them (even if they're closed) at the times I want them to open. I turn off the pumps, put a little food on their closed mouths, and wait ten or fifteen minutes. They usually start to open a bit by then, and I add a little more food. After a week or so, they are usually completely open at feeding time. The ones in my 40g hardly ever close now because I feed them every day.

[thecoralbeauty]

7 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Sounds like some great changes! I"m looking forward to hearing how your filefish does, I've spotted a few aiptasia in my 40g tank and I've been thinking about getting a filefish for that tank.

 

How's the dendro doing? I've found I can train them to open up at certain times by always feeding them (even if they're closed) at the times I want them to open. I turn off the pumps, put a little food on their closed mouths, and wait ten or fifteen minutes. They usually start to open a bit by then, and I add a little more food. After a week or so, they are usually completely open at feeding time. The ones in my 40g hardly ever close now because I feed them every day.

I did a water change this morning so, things aren't completely happy at the moment- I took a video anyway. 

 

I actually had misidentified it. It is a balanophylia. I have a dendro now as well, and its basically open the whole time and the colors are much more saturated instead of the clear flesh like the balano. The balano is strictly nocturnal, no matter what or how or when i feed it or flow i put it in. Was sold to me as a fat head dendro- but with it side by side with an actual dendro, it's easier to see differences.  They both eat flake food in addition to frozen meat offerings. Had no idea. 🙂

[thecoralbeauty]

Video - tap to view

[thecoralbeauty]

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by mwhitelock
wrong links

[thecoralbeauty]

Longer video: