SeaFurn's 100 Days of Nanos Contest Tank: 40 Baby RFAs

[SeaFurn]

On 7/8/2017 at 4:02 PM, Weetabix7 said:

 

Looks kinda like a Gammarus Amphipod to me. 

Google pics of those and see if it matches. 

Those are usually harmless. 

I have them in my Waterfall with my RFA and they've never bothered it. 

There's lots of them in the compartment it's in. 

 

2 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

Those Gammarus amphipods are herbivores and detritivores.

Yep...I'm such a newb!

 

Good news for change - my 4 remaining RFAs made it another week and this - 

 

He didn't eat much today but there's an entire line of snail eggs missing. Dinner perhaps?

[SeaFurn]

FTS #9 - This is about an hour after I released my first fish into the tank! He/she is pretty cool and way more mellow than I expected. Just kinda wiggles around the tank checking things out. Hasn't eaten much during feedings so far but I think that's because he's eating the snail eggs off the glass at some point during the night or day. 

The remaining 4 RFA's seem good. I'm keeping a close eye on them. The orange one next to the big green one in the front of the tank spends a lot time in the shape of a mushroom compared to the others who spread themselves out.  Not sure if that's normal behavior or not. 

I'm just glad they have stayed put and haven't moved. Moving has always been a first sign of pending disaster for me. 

I harvested a bunch of cheato during this week's water change. I was surprised how much it grew in such a short period of time. There did appear to be a little GHA growing on some of it I got rid of. Not sure what that means or what I should do about it. I didn't expect it. There's not a lot of fast flow through that chamber though. Any advice on that? 

[seabass]

Yay for the new fish!

 

1 hour ago, SeaFurn said:

FTS #9 - First fish! So tiny!

This is about an hour after releasing him/her into the tank (lights off to minimize stress) on Saturday.

My remaining 4 RFAs survived the week and there no apparent signs of distress right now. Still on pins and needles with them though. 

 

I'd probably go through the chaeto and try to get rid of any remaining hair algae.

[VIPReef]

On 7/1/2017 at 4:07 PM, SeaFurn said:

Today was water change day. 

Checked the sand and rocks. 

Did find these two worms on the bottom of one. Bristleworms? 

Assuming they are I've heard they are good...but I'm really hesitant to put them back into the tank. 

 

 

Doing better now that you pulled these out?

 

It's been my experience in newly setup aquarium that they can eat corals if insufficient food is around. They most likely came in your rocks and it's always a good idea top dip the rocks when newly introduced in an aquarium. Biological filtration won't be harmed much by doing this. Chances are you still have some in your rocks, but hopefully not.

 

I also noticed you were dipping the ones that didn't look good? I haven't found any dip yet that has saved them when going south.

 

If you find one in the future that starts sliming from bacterial infections don't blow the slime off and spread it all over the tank. Instead remove the specimen and discard. Once they go south there's no saving them, IMHO.

 

Hope this helps you and others who are following this thread.

 

Frank

VIP Reef

 

 

[SeaFurn]

12 hours ago, VIPReef said:

 

 

Doing better now that you pulled these out?

 

It's been my experience in newly setup aquarium that they can eat corals if insufficient food is around. They most likely came in your rocks and it's always a good idea top dip the rocks when newly introduced in an aquarium. Biological filtration won't be harmed much by doing this. Chances are you still have some in your rocks, but hopefully not.

 

I also noticed you were dipping the ones that didn't look good? I haven't found any dip yet that has saved them when going south.

 

If you find one in the future that starts sliming from bacterial infections don't blow the slime off and spread it all over the tank. Instead remove the specimen and discard. Once they go south there's no saving them, IMHO.

 

Hope this helps you and others who are following this thread.

 

Frank

VIP Reef

 

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Yes, the 4 that remain seem fine right now. My only concern would be with the orange one which doesn't open fully often - it always seems a little deflated and in the shape of a mushroom. If it moves from the spot it's in I'm gonna freak.  

 

So besides dipping my rocks initially, it sounds like I might have been better off getting a fish or two first so that the bristle worms had some food and weren't so RFA hungry....

 

I guess I'll dip the other rocks that don't have an anemone on them.

 

I tried the iodine dip as a last resort. I had no idea if it would have any effect or not. 

 

I'd like to get some more at some point. How will I know when it's "safe" to try? 

[SeaFurn]

Fish update: The little guy spends most his time chilling behind a rock. He comes out when I turn off the pump to feed him but hasn't really seemed very interested and just waggles around. Takes a bite and spits it out usually. Tried a variety of food. I'm hoping he's still just getting comfortable with the tank. Maybe i should give him a name...

[Weetabix7]

18 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Fish update: The little guy spends most his time chilling behind a rock. He comes out when I turn off the pump to feed him but hasn't really seemed very interested and just waggles around. Takes a bite and spits it out usually. Tried a variety of food. I'm hoping he's still just getting comfortable with the tank. Maybe i should give him a name...

 

That's exactly what my Clownfish did at first.

If you have any frozen Mysis, try thawing it, then kinda taking it out of the water and mushing it up into smaller pieces and then feed it to him. 

If your LFS has it in stock, try frozen Cyclops, that worked well for me. 

If those fail, try Capelin Roe from the frozen food section at an Asian Market. 

[SeaFurn]

2 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

That's exactly what my Clownfish did at first.

If you have any frozen Mysis, try thawing it, then kinda taking it out of the water and mushing it up into smaller pieces and then feed it to him. 

If your LFS has it in stock, try frozen Cyclops, that worked well for me. 

If those fail, try Capelin Roe from the frozen food section at an Asian Market. 

Did yours come out when the lights went off?  That's the other time mine's coming out.

 

I tried the mysis and was shocked when he didn't go for that.  All the snail eggs are gone from my glass now so I think that's contributing to the lack of interest.  BTW...congrats on your baby snails....that's so cool!   Will try the other food you recommend if he doesn't come around. 

 

[Weetabix7]

3 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Did yours come out when the lights went off?  That's the other time mine's coming out.

 

I tried the mysis and was shocked when he didn't go for that.  All the snail eggs are gone from my glass now so I think that's contributing to the lack of interest.  BTW...congrats on your baby snails....that's so cool!   Will try the other food you recommend if he doesn't come around. 

 

 

Mine slept when lights went off. 

[seabass]

Don't worry about him not eating.  Just keep trying once or twice a day until he stopps spitting it out.  Unless he's very young, there shouldn't be a need to buy other food.  I'd probably stick with one food, and he'll eventually realize that's what he gets to eat.  Once they start eating, they aren't picky at all.

[StinkyBunny]

OK, I missed that picture. Fire worms are NOT reef safe. I've had them eat Elegance corals before. You might want to try baiting them out into the open to get rid of them. As Frank said they will eat corals and I'm 99% sure that's what happened to your RFAs. Regular bristleworms have a uniform appearance, Fireworms have those tufts of bristles.

[SeaFurn]

2 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

OK, I missed that picture. Fire worms are NOT reef safe. I've had them eat Elegance corals before. You might want to try baiting them out into the open to get rid of them. As Frank said they will eat corals and I'm 99% sure that's what happened to your RFAs. Regular bristleworms have a uniform appearance, Fireworms have those tufts of bristles.

It sucks but I'm glad to have a strong theory as to what happened to several of them. 

How do you bait the worms to come out? Daytime or at night?

(I suppose I could just do a quick search on it, huh?) 

[StinkyBunny]

You can use a piece of shrimp or krill and net them when they come out for it after the lights go out. Those worms are bad news. I have no doubt that they're what killed your anemones.

[Weetabix7]

1 hour ago, StinkyBunny said:

You can use a piece of shrimp or krill and net them when they come out for it after the lights go out. Those worms are bad news. I have no doubt that they're what killed your anemones.

 

I actually haven't seen fireworms before, so I didn't recognize them for what they were. 

Glad you could lend your expertise. 

[StinkyBunny]

Yea, there is a difference in the 2 and I didn't notice it until I went back and checked the photos. I've seen Fireworms 8" long before, they get quite large.

[SeaFurn]

4 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

You can use a piece of shrimp or krill and net them when they come out for it after the lights go out. Those worms are bad news. I have no doubt that they're what killed your anemones.

Should I put a cup over the bait to keep the crabs off of it? I assume the worms would crawl through the sand under the cup to get it. 

[StinkyBunny]

You could try that and see how it works. If the crabs are small, you could invert the cup and put it in that to get the scent into the water and then capture the worms when they come out. The main thing is to get the scent into the water to draw them out of the rocks.

[SeaFurn]

Oh no - here we go - anemone on the move this morning. Moved out of the little dimple in the rock below  its foot and is headed down the back side of the rock. The crab is following along.

Fingers crossed this is just for a change of scenery...

[seabass]

Fingers crossed.  Like you said, there's a possibility that it's OK and it is just looking for a better spot.

 

I suspected a predator from early on.  I guessed it might be a hitchhiking crab, but I suspect that StinkyBunny identified the culprit(s).

[StinkyBunny]

Sometimes anemones just decide to go on walk about as the Aussies say. I have a Condylactus anemone that will stay put for months, then one day it'll wander around and go right back to where it was. You tell me if that makes any sense?

[Weetabix7]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

Fingers crossed.  Like you said, there's a possibility that it's OK and it is just looking for a better spot.

 

I suspected a predator from early on.  I guessed it might be a hitchhiking crab, but I suspect that StinkyBunny identified the culprit(s).

 

It looks healthy in this pic. 

My RFA, which has been healthy from the start, goes walkabout around once a week now I'd say.

[lkoechle]

I didnt see a picture, but I havr had success with capturing fire worms with dead shrimp in panty hose.  their birstles get caught when climbing on the panty hose and I used a cup to scoop the area around it out so it didnt escape.

[StinkyBunny]

4 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

I didnt see a picture, but I havr had success with capturing fire worms with dead shrimp in panty hose.  their birstles get caught when climbing on the panty hose and I used a cup to scoop the area around it out so it didnt escape.

This is another way I've used as well. One thing to remember, if you break one into pieces, it will grow back so make sure it comes all the way out and get the whole worm. They might show up again some time later due to eggs hatching.

[seabass]

4 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

It looks healthy in this pic. 

My RFA, which has been healthy from the start, goes walkabout around once a week now I'd say.

I agree; that looks like a healthy anemone.  I also see mine move from time to time.  However, I've found that there's usually a reason behind why they move.  It could be changes in flow, lighting, available food, irritants, maybe even reproductive reasons.

[lkoechle]

58 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

This is another way I've used as well. One thing to remember, if you break one into pieces, it will grow back so make sure it comes all the way out and get the whole worm. They might show up again some time later due to eggs hatching.

Yep, thats why you want to scoop it out, not pick it out.