Lula Mae's full circle 5.5--the end.

[gone_PHiSHin]

question for you guys: what do you consider the tank anniversary?  

 

from the moment it had water, rocks, and sand in it?  

 

when the cycle was done?

 

when you added your first fish or corals?

[Subsea]

On 11/2/2017 at 6:31 PM, StinkyBunny said:

You can't trust a quarantined fish either, there's always the risk that they're carrying something. I bring in fish from all over the globe, Australia, Sri Lanka, Red Sea, The Philippines, Indonesia, Bali, The Solomon Islands, Vietnam, Haiti, Florida and Fiji. Fiji fish are SUPER clean as are The Philippines. Indo and Bali are dirty as a used needle laying in the gutter, their corals are the same way, chock full of cooties. Australia is hit or miss, it comes down to connecting flights and delays.

 

 Stress is what kills fish, weaken their immune system and you WILL have trouble at some point. Case and point, I can take a Powder Blue tang that I've had for 6 months, move it to another tank in the same system it's been in and I'd bet my shop that it'll have ich in the morning.

 

Some fish don't ship well, wrasses are HORRIBLE shippers, Copperband butterflies are another one. Cleaner wrasses come in and they look like they're dead, 20 mins into an hour acclimation and they're up and around, Powder Blues are the same way. Y'all would stroke out if you saw the way some fish came in. Unless it's gills are open and the water's milky, I never count a fish out. I got an order for a Gem tang a week ago and he was eating 10 mins after I dumped him in the system.

With respect to not trusting a quarantined fish, let me take that one step further.  In the instance where you mentioned a Tang being stressed and showing ich spots which disappeared not to long after.   I would say that ich is alive and in a dormat state in your system.  IMO, if fish immune systems are operating properly, they will not show ich.  What does this say about the fallow tank 28 day period.  I have read several scientific papers on ich life cycle.  When it comes to the dormant stage of ich in the substrate, the scientific literature reads, “most incubate in X days”.  It only takes one.  I recall the line in Jurassic Park when the scientist realize that clones were now reproducing, “Nature will find a way”.

[ninjamyst]

26 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

I just realized this tank has hit its six month tank-iversary!  Hooray!

woohoo!  congrats! and many more to come!

 

 

4 minutes ago, Subsea said:

With respect to not trusting a quarantined fish, let me take that one step further.  In the instance where you mentioned a Tang being stressed and showing ich spots which disappeared not to long after.   I would say that ich is alive and in a dormat state in your system.  IMO, if fish immune systems are operating properly, they will not show ich.  What does this say about the fallow tank 28 day period.  I have read several scientific papers on ich life cycle.  When it comes to the dormant stage of ich in the substrate, the scientific literature reads, “most incubate in X days”.  It only takes one.  I recall the line in Jurassic Park when the scientist realize that clones were now reproducing, “Nature will find a way”.

IMO, ich is in 99% of tanks out there.  It's a matter of stress triggering an outbreak.  Kind of like Walking Dead....we are all infected =P.

[fishfreak0114]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

I just realized this tank has hit its six month tank-iversary!  Hooray!

Congratulations!   Tank-iversaries are so exciting! 

1 hour ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

question for you guys: what do you consider the tank anniversary?  

 

from the moment it had water, rocks, and sand in it?  

 

when the cycle was done?

 

when you added your first fish or corals?

My tankiversary is the day I set my tank up.

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

question for you guys: what do you consider the tank anniversary?  

 

from the moment it had water, rocks, and sand in it?  

 

when the cycle was done?

 

when you added your first fish or corals?

I'm going from the day the tank was started, though I don't remember the actual day I know it was just a few days before I started this thread.

[teenyreef]

Congrats on the tankiversary! I'm glad your TSB is eating, too. I feed frozen and my TSB loves it all.

 

I hope your new pom pom makes it. I kept two poms in my 4g tank, but I had a to try a couple time before I had a pair that got along. Once I got the right combination, they did fine long term, and the female got pregnant on a regular basis (free fish food!)

[Lula_Mae]

49 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Congrats on the tankiversary! I'm glad your TSB is eating, too. I feed frozen and my TSB loves it all.

 

I hope your new pom pom makes it. I kept two poms in my 4g tank, but I had a to try a couple time before I had a pair that got along. Once I got the right combination, they did fine long term, and the female got pregnant on a regular basis (free fish food!)

Yeah so far I think I'm 0 for 2 on pom pom pairs that get along lol. Maybe the 15 will be large enough for a couple of them. 

[teenyreef]

2 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Yeah so far I think I'm 0 for 2 on pom pom pairs that get along lol. Maybe the 15 will be large enough for a couple of them. 

I don't think it's only a matter of tank size. Mine got along fine in a 4g. But a bigger tank might keep them from getting territorial, that's for sure. The problem is that in a bigger tank you don't ever really see them.

[StinkyBunny]

15 hours ago, Subsea said:

With respect to not trusting a quarantined fish, let me take that one step further.  In the instance where you mentioned a Tang being stressed and showing ich spots which disappeared not to long after.   I would say that ich is alive and in a dormat state in your system.  IMO, if fish immune systems are operating properly, they will not show ich.  What does this say about the fallow tank 28 day period.  I have read several scientific papers on ich life cycle.  When it comes to the dormant stage of ich in the substrate, the scientific literature reads, “most incubate in X days”.  It only takes one.  I recall the line in Jurassic Park when the scientist realize that clones were now reproducing, “Nature will find a way”.

I've seen too many cooties get through quarantine periods. Powder Blues WILL get ich, no ifs, ands or buts about it, it' WILL happen. When ich drops off it encysts and there is some chemical trigger that causes them to "hatch" and seek their host. Leaving a tank fallow does jack shit when it comes to protozoan infections. They haven't lasted billions of years by being push overs, that's a hell of a long time to get it right.

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I don't think it's only a matter of tank size. Mine got along fine in a 4g. But a bigger tank might keep them from getting territorial, that's for sure. The problem is that in a bigger tank you don't ever really see them.

Yeah, I'm not sure if I will even put one in the 15.  WHICH I finished spraying today AND got the stand reinforced and if I can get some more water I think it will get wet tonight!  Woohoo!

 

First I have to change the water on the jar because cloudy is no bueno.

[StinkyBunny]

Crab sexing lessons 101:

Males have a narrow apron under their carapace, the little segmented piece in the middle of their underside between their legs, narrow like a penis.

A females is wider like a V shape.

Crabs can only mate right after the female molts.

 

Crabs are miserable shits, they're always trying to eat each other. They're very territorial and will try to off each other. I would try to get a male and female pair, if not, 2 females will get along better than 2 males.

 

Here's a picture of the difference. It's about the same for all crabs, Blue crabs are a tad more pronounced than others.

 

[Lula_Mae]

5 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

Crab sexing lessons 101:

Males have a narrow apron under their carapace, the little segmented piece in the middle of their underside between their legs, narrow like a penis.

A females is wider like a V shape.

Crabs can only mate right after the female molts.

 

Crabs are miserable shits, they're always trying to eat each other. They're very territorial and will try to off each other. I would try to get a male and female pair, if not, 2 females will get along better than 2 males.

 

Here's a picture of the difference. It's about the same for all crabs, Blue crabs are a tad more pronounced than others.

 

I remember finding pics of male and female pom poms a long while back which showed the same thing.  Biggest problem is getting the crabs to show you those parts! I did see the pom pom tonight for a minute after I topped off, I think it knows it owns this tank lol.

[Lula_Mae]

It's up!

 

 

 

 

[StinkyBunny]

Get a Lee's specimen cup for inspecting livestock, I'd be lost without mine. They have a hanger on them so you can hang them on a tank. I don't use nets to catch fish, those are what I use. A lot less stressful for the animal.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lees-Convalescent-Home-Specimen-Container-Large-/122799828865?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c1

[Lula_Mae]

Mini update time!  The tank is sort of in a holding pattern while the 15 cycles, then I will start moving stuff out of here and into it after treating for algae lol.  Back when I ordered from Legendary Corals in the summer, I got a hitchhiking yellow nudibranch that did not get added in here and eventually disappeared from the bowl I had it in.  Well, the other week I was looking in the tank before lights on, and saw another of those little nudibranches!  This one was larger than the first had been.

 

 

One day I fed everybody mysis, which I haven't done in a while.

 

Mushrooms look so funny when they close up around food!

 

 

Some of you may remember that when this was the 2.3-3.5-1.6 gallon tank (ever changing lol), I had some blue scroll macro that did not do well.  Well, it decided it likes my green-purple rics and has been growing back!

 

Saw the pom pom out and about...when I went to take a photo, Jacques had to be in it too, silly photobomber.

 

 

If you look carefully between the rocks, there's a pom pom visible on the right hand rock.

 

One day I caught the pom pom freshly molted!  I think it was the same day as the above pic, actually.

 

 

 

 

The right hand soap dish is hanging a little cattywompus despite my attempts to fix it.  Suits the pom pom just fine lol.

 

The other day when feeding the clown, I spotted...MY FIRST SPOT OF CORALLINE!  WOOHOO!!!

 

And finally...last night my husband excitedly texted me to say he had seen BOTH pom pom crabs and BOTH had POMS!!!  So of course I had to look when I got home from work and saw...

One here under the toadstool:

 

And one here under the rock (very hard to see but in the middle of the pic):

 

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see there are...ahem...some algae issues to be worked on and the glass is in epic need of a scraping, but most things are doing well and I'm happy for that!

[Lula_Mae]

Silly thing posted before I was done.

[vlangel]

I loved these pics Lula!  The pom poms are so cute and the coral look very happy.  So there is a little algae, it just makes it look very natural.

[Lula_Mae]

2 hours ago, vlangel said:

I loved these pics Lula!  The pom poms are so cute and the coral look very happy.  So there is a little algae, it just makes it look very natural.

It is au naturel, like @metrokat and @Mariaface's dongs! 

 

And thanks, I am so happy knowing that the pom poms really did share and didn't kill each other!

[StinkyBunny]

DONGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Kat got those from me, I should have more soon. 

 

Pom pom crabs frag their anemones. I watched in horror the first time I saw one tear its anemone in half, lol. 

 

Algaes come and go. we just had a run with Dragon's Breath, 2 weeks later it's gone.

[Lula_Mae]

14 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

DONGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Kat got those from me, I should have more soon. 

 

Pom pom crabs frag their anemones. I watched in horror the first time I saw one tear its anemone in half, lol. 

 

Algaes come and go. we just had a run with Dragon's Breath, 2 weeks later it's gone.

Yeah, I know pom pom crabs can frag and share, but the last time I tried, one tried to frag the other crab lol.  Oh, Shelby. 

 

WTB large ball of dragon's breath macro. 

[StinkyBunny]

If it starts growing again I'll send you a baggie of it. Pete the Purple tang took a liking to it so monkey see, monkey do, Sam the Fiji Sailfin tang ate it too, lol.

[Lula_Mae]

9 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

If it starts growing again I'll send you a baggie of it. Pete the Purple tang took a liking to it so monkey see, monkey do, Sam the Fiji Sailfin tang ate it too, lol.

Silly tangs!  I'll keep my fingers crossed!

[teenyreef]

That's great that the pom poms are getting along and splitting their poms!

 

I love that little yellow nudi 

 

And I like saying "nudi" 

[Lula_Mae]

On 12/2/2017 at 3:45 PM, teenyreef said:

That's great that the pom poms are getting along and splitting their poms!

 

I love that little yellow nudi 

 

And I like saying "nudi" 

I'm so happy about it!  And nudi is a fun word to say, especially in the same sentence with dongs...

 

I forgot to post my November FTS but am too lazy to upload it right now.  Soon...

[Cannedfish]

On 11/10/2017 at 5:11 PM, StinkyBunny said:

 

Crabs are miserable shits, they're always trying to eat each other.

 

On 12/1/2017 at 9:58 AM, Lula_Mae said:

Yeah, I know pom pom crabs can frag and share, but the last time I tried, one tried to frag the other crab lol.

 

 Our PPC only fragged his friends; now he has no more friends. His poms, however, are magnificent. 

 

Crabs be crabs, yo.