Penny's IM14-Retired 7/18/2021

[Pjanssen]

Deep Fried OREOS!

[billygoat]

3 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

looks like I was wrong @billygoat, I do still have a few blue Zoas! 😃

Hey look at that! Tenacious little buggers aren't they? That gives me hope that mine might stick around as well. 😁

 

3 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

This Muricea looks really good btw. Very nice polyp extension! I love it! 👌

 

Also deep fried Oreos, hot damn. What a world we live in! 😂

[Pjanssen]

The corky continues to slowly recede

 

 

But the worms have developed new crowns

 

[spectra]

Wonder if trimming the corky would help ? I had one in my 100 and if I remember correctly it did the same thing but came back. 

[Pjanssen]

50 minutes ago, spectra said:

Wonder if trimming the corky would help ? I had one in my 100 and if I remember correctly it did the same thing but came back. 

I was wondering the same thing

[Pjanssen]

What I referred to as a Corky in my previous post is actually a Knobby Sea Rod, and it is not doing well. Today I cut off all of the dead and dying parts, which has left me with about 1/4 of the original piece. I moved it to a higher flow area where it will also get a little more light. Fingers crossed.

[Pjanssen]

Other Sad news, my Pederson Anemone shrimp has died 😥. I know they have a natural life span of less than 2 years, and I've had him only 7 months. I don't know how old he was when I got him. I really loved that little guy, probably even more than my fish (Not that I have favorites with my kids).

[debbeach13]

Sorry to hear about the shrimp he was a cute little bugger. Do you think you will get another?

[Pjanssen]

31 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Sorry to hear about the shrimp he was a cute little bugger. Do you think you will get another?

Thanks, he was so cute. Yes, I think I will get another, but maybe not until May when my work load dies down a little. Of course if I happen to come across one before then...

[Pjanssen]

Aggghhhhh. My Shark Nose Goby is missing! WHAT IS GOING ON?

[billygoat]

22 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Aggghhhhh. My Shark Nose Goby is missing! WHAT IS GOING ON?

Gosh, what sour luck! Is something eating your stuff in there? I remember you pulled some fireworms out a few months back; any chance that there might be more of them? Fireworms would eat both your fish and your gorgonians if you gave them a chance.

[Pjanssen]

4 hours ago, billygoat said:

Gosh, what sour luck! Is something eating your stuff in there? I remember you pulled some fireworms out a few months back; any chance that there might be more of them? Fireworms would eat both your fish and your gorgonians if you gave them a chance.

I guess anything is possible, but i think I would have seen it/them by now. I'd had this goby for about a year and half, and I think they only have a life span of about 2 years. But I would think I would have noticed signs of decline if he were aging out, but he still ate voraciously. I'm stumped. Glad i have a decent cleanup crew though.

[Pjanssen]

Considering tese to replace sharkie!

https://www.liveaquaria.com/divers-den/product/496888/biota-captive-bred-cuban-basslet-bonded-pair

[Ratvan]

2 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Considering tese to replace sharkie!

https://www.liveaquaria.com/divers-den/product/496888/biota-captive-bred-cuban-basslet-bonded-pair

Gorgeous, buw wow! 

[Pjanssen]

I’m going out of town next week for 4 days. I generally feed Phyto to this tank daily, turning the filter pump off for about a half hour. I’m not sure I trust the pet sitter to remember to turn the pumps back on. Considering taking the filter media out and just having her feed it with the pumps on. Or would I be better off just not feeding the Phyto for a few days?

[SeaFurn]

Seems like you’d be fine running dirty for a few days. 

[melson]

Leave everything on and just don't feed phyto. Your gorgs will be fine for 4 days without it. 

[spectra]

Either way should work...... I have a few gorgonians and dont feed phyto at all.......

[billygoat]

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

I’m going out of town next week for 4 days. I generally feed Phyto to this tank daily, turning the filter pump off for about a half hour. I’m not sure I trust the pet sitter to remember to turn the pumps back on. Considering taking the filter media out and just having her feed it with the pumps on. Or would I be better off just not feeding the Phyto for a few days?

To be honest with you, I'm fairly sure that most gorgonians (especially photosynthetic varieties) don't actually eat phytoplankton. I think that all but the smallest-polyped gorgs prefer a larger particle sized food, like in the neighborhood of 100-200 micrometers. Most phyto supplements are somewhere in the 5-30 micrometer range, so they are generally too small for most gorgs. I could be wrong about this as sometimes it's really hard to tell whether the corals are actually eating, but in my experience I have seen a much stronger feeding response with slightly larger foods, like Reef Roids.

 

Recently I've taken to soaking my Roids in a combination of bottled phyto mixed with a few drops of Selcon for several minutes before feeding my gorgonians. This seems to be a pretty effective way of getting them to actually eat those phytonutrients.

[Pjanssen]

3 minutes ago, billygoat said:

To be honest with you, I'm fairly sure that most gorgonians (especially photosynthetic varieties) don't actually eat phytoplankton. I think that all but the smallest-polyped gorgs prefer a larger particle sized food, like in the neighborhood of 100-200 micrometers. Most phyto supplements are somewhere in the 5-30 micrometer range, so they are generally too small for most gorgs. I could be wrong about this as sometimes it's really hard to tell whether the corals are actually eating, but in my experience I have seen a much stronger feeding response with slightly larger foods, like Reef Roids.

 

Recently I've taken to soaking my Roids in a combination of bottled phyto mixed with a few drops of Selcon for several minutes before feeding my gorgonians. This seems to be a pretty effective way of getting them to actually eat those phytonutrients.

Thanks. I also feed reef chili, but only every 3 days or so, so I wasn't worried about missing a feeding of that. I thought everything pretty much ate phyto? Mainly I feed it for all of the feather dusters and such in the tank though. What does the Selcon do?

[billygoat]

14 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Thanks. I also feed reef chili, but only every 3 days or so, so I wasn't worried about missing a feeding of that. I thought everything pretty much ate phyto? Mainly I feed it for all of the feather dusters and such in the tank though.

Ah, that makes sense! I know feather dusters and other fine-particle filter feeders (e.g. sponges) will eat phyto for sure. In fact feeding phyto will almost certainly improve those feather duster worms' chances of long-term survival by quite a bit. I think many gorgs will indeed eat phyto, but the phyto alone is not always enough to trigger their feeding response because the particles are so small.

 

If you're only going away for a few days though, I think simply not feeding phyto for a bit will be perfectly fine. 😊

 

14 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

What does the Selcon do?

Honestly, I'm not a hundred percent sure! All of my gorgs seem to demonstrate a strong feeding response when Selcon is in the water though, so I've started to add it to the their food as well as the stuff I give to the fish. 😅 I know it's full of vitamins and fatty acids, so I guess they must be into that stuff.

[seabass]

You might consider having her feed phyto, but leave all the pumps running.  That way she won't forget to turn them back on.

[Pjanssen]

8 hours ago, seabass said:

You might consider having her feed phyto, but leave all the pumps running.  That way she won't forget to turn them back on.

Yeah, I thought about that, but then I feel it all just gets wasted in the filter floss. Thought about just removing the floss and carbon too. I don't think I'm gonna stress too much about.

[jack1978]

22 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

I’m going out of town next week for 4 days. I generally feed Phyto to this tank daily, turning the filter pump off for about a half hour. I’m not sure I trust the pet sitter to remember to turn the pumps back on. Considering taking the filter media out and just having her feed it with the pumps on. Or would I be better off just not feeding the Phyto for a few days?

I never fed my gorgs a thing except for light.  They’ve all grown great.  
-I did just start using reef roids or whatever the hell its called..... but for the past 2 or 3 years, just light. 

[Felicia]

I've never worried about feeding my photosynthetic gorgonians over the years, so I'd say just skip the phyto while you're gone.  I'd think the feather dusters should be just fine for the amount of time you're gone.  The gorgonians will definitely be fine!  Honestly, for photosynthetic gorgonians, they pretty much just need enough flow to shed and not grow algae and sufficient light.  I don't think feeding them is necessary.  I just like to make everything as simple as possible for my tank sitter so I don't have to stress.  My tank sitter just throws in a pinch of flakes once a day when I'm out of town and that's it.