Madcat's Fluval Evo 13.5 - new shrimpy

[Lula_Mae]

5 hours ago, Melfy77 said:

Local shop. So ne real way of getting proof

Maybe you could contact Fluval anyway and see if they can help you.

[StinkyBunny]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

Maybe you could contact Fluval anyway and see if they can help you.

That's what I would do. A lot of companys don't like bad press so they'd rather fix the issue and get a good review instead of bad.

[Lula_Mae]

Plus if you have a tank journal, that's sort of proof, right?

[Madcat]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

Plus if you have a tank journal, that's sort of proof, right?

I don't think she(?) does. She posts in mine.

 

Thanksgiving day field trip! I was bored and the fish store was open. I needed Aiptasia X anyway - I discovered a big(ger) one on my acan skeleton that I don't think super glue alone can kill.

 

This was in one of the display tanks, so it wasn't labeled. What is it! It's so pretty.

 

A tiny baby!

 

A watchman goby, blue spotted perhaps? He seems to have bonded with this pistol shrimp.

 

Seagrass filefish babies. There was a whole flock of them!

 

I couldn't get a great picture of this fish, and there was no tag for it. I love it! Fish like this make me want a big tank to put all these pretties in... What is it?

 

A ragged-looking springeri damsel. (Speaking of ragged-looking, the crooked neon dottyback I posted a pic of last time is still there. )

 

Gasp. Could it be?

 

It is!! And it's so cute!!! (Get out of the way, Talbot's damsel!) Come home with me! Not really though because you'd beat Jeff up.

 

Copperband butterflies:

 

A dwarf lionfish:

 

It took me multiple attempts to get a pic of the lionfish without this cleaner wrasse popping up in the frame. I took a pic of him too since it clearly meant so much to the little guy.

 

I love flame angels. UGH I need a big tank.

 

...Then I went back to the six-line wrasse tank and stared longingly for awhile. There were two and they were playing very nicely with all the other fish. I think they liked me. They kept looking at me with their little googly faces! (Azure damsel on the left.)

 

And just so everyone knows, the fish store employee I talked to thinks a six-line wrasse would be a GREAT addition to my tank, so I think you all are wrong and that's why I bought BOTH the six-lines.

...Just kidding. I was surprisingly strong and I resisted their cuteness and the employee's encouragement. I had to forcibly pry myself away, though.  Someone reassure me that their six-line is a model citizen who would never hurt a small weird blenny, ever. :'(

 

I went next-door and found a geometric pygmy hawkfish! (And a teeny skunk clownfish.)

 

Impossible to get a good pic since he was hiding in the back there, but he was adorable. And so wee! They only get 2"! I asked the guy there if they're peaceful and/or eat pods and he was like, why would you want something to eat your pods? So I explained (huge pod outbreak, zoas being swarmed and disappearing)... the guy was like, haha that doesn't happen. Super dismissive, and when I tried to explain WHY I feel like the pods are the problem, he actually told me to "just relax about it"... twice. Like I'm a hysterical female. Honestly. Then he tried to sell me on a couple different fish including an orchid and a springeri dottyback. I told him I'd consider those since I heard they're less aggressive than other dottybacks, and he says, "Where'd you hear that, a chatroom? Don't believe everything you read on the internet."

...Where am I supposed to hear about it?! Should I be getting my ass to the public library every time I wonder if a certain fish species is compatible in a small tank with a clownfish and a Jeff?

 

The upshot to this story is that he says he gets possum wrasses in every couple of weeks and he took my number and will give me a call next time he gets a few healthy ones in. Still grumbling though. And anyway, since I obviously can't trust any of you and should only listen to fish store employees, I think I should go back for the six-line wrasse.

[Melfy77]

4 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Plus if you have a tank journal, that's sort of proof, right?

Lol i don't have a journal. I do have pics and the box hahaha

 

I was on a different forum looking for the light and turns out one guy has the evo 13.5 since february, and is currently on his 4th light!!! So clearly there's an issue with the light fixture. Today was holiday so i'll call tomorrow ?

[Madcat]

46 minutes ago, Melfy77 said:

Lol i don't have a journal.

Psst, you should make one.

 

Tacking onto my last post, because I'm a dumb millennial who believes the things she reads on the internet, SHOULD I maybe consider an orchid dottyback? It would be colourful and active, like I want. I like that they're captive bred. I guess the only sticking point is, will it actively HUNT pods? Or will it just eat pods in the way that "all fish [except Jeff and Puzzle] eat pods"? (I know I seem flaky, but I want my third (permanent) resident to be just right.)

 

I pulled the old stock pump apart tonight and the sponge inside it (why is there a sponge in the pump?!) had an ungodly amount of crud in it. I pulled that out and gave the whole thing a good scrubbin'. Then I put it back in the tank, expecting it to knock my socks off... and it's just as weak as before. What the crap!!! I put the MJ900 back in and it's just as bad. I need a new pump and now I'm MORE grumbly because I already upgraded, darnit.

 

But yeah... orchid dottybacks... opinions?

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, Madcat said:

I don't think she(?) does. She posts in mine.

 

Thanksgiving day field trip! I was bored and the fish store was open. I needed Aiptasia X anyway - I discovered a big(ger) one on my acan skeleton that I don't think super glue alone can kill.

 

This was in one of the display tanks, so it wasn't labeled. What is it! It's so pretty.

 

A tiny baby!

 

A watchman goby, blue spotted perhaps? He seems to have bonded with this pistol shrimp.

 

Seagrass filefish babies. There was a whole flock of them!

 

I couldn't get a great picture of this fish, and there was no tag for it. I love it! Fish like this make me want a big tank to put all these pretties in... What is it?

 

A ragged-looking springeri damsel. (Speaking of ragged-looking, the crooked neon dottyback I posted a pic of last time is still there. )

 

Gasp. Could it be?

 

It is!! And it's so cute!!! (Get out of the way, Talbot's damsel!) Come home with me! Not really though because you'd beat Jeff up.

 

Copperband butterflies:

 

A dwarf lionfish:

 

It took me multiple attempts to get a pic of the lionfish without this cleaner wrasse popping up in the frame. I took a pic of him too since it clearly meant so much to the little guy.

 

I love flame angels. UGH I need a big tank.

 

...Then I went back to the six-line wrasse tank and stared longingly for awhile. There were two and they were playing very nicely with all the other fish. I think they liked me. They kept looking at me with their little googly faces! (Azure damsel on the left.)

 

And just so everyone knows, the fish store employee I talked to thinks a six-line wrasse would be a GREAT addition to my tank, so I think you all are wrong and that's why I bought BOTH the six-lines.

...Just kidding. I was surprisingly strong and I resisted their cuteness and the employee's encouragement. I had to forcibly pry myself away, though.  Someone reassure me that their six-line is a model citizen who would never hurt a small weird blenny, ever. :'(

 

I went next-door and found a geometric pygmy hawkfish! (And a teeny skunk clownfish.)

 

Impossible to get a good pic since he was hiding in the back there, but he was adorable. And so wee! They only get 2"! I asked the guy there if they're peaceful and/or eat pods and he was like, why would you want something to eat your pods? So I explained (huge pod outbreak, zoas being swarmed and disappearing)... the guy was like, haha that doesn't happen. Super dismissive, and when I tried to explain WHY I feel like the pods are the problem, he actually told me to "just relax about it"... twice. Like I'm a hysterical female. Honestly. Then he tried to sell me on a couple different fish including an orchid and a springeri dottyback. I told him I'd consider those since I heard they're less aggressive than other dottybacks, and he says, "Where'd you hear that, a chatroom? Don't believe everything you read on the internet."

...Where am I supposed to hear about it?! Should I be getting my ass to the public library every time I wonder if a certain fish species is compatible in a small tank with a clownfish and a Jeff?

 

The upshot to this story is that he says he gets possum wrasses in every couple of weeks and he took my number and will give me a call next time he gets a few healthy ones in. Still grumbling though. And anyway, since I obviously can't trust any of you and should only listen to fish store employees, I think I should go back for the six-line wrasse.

I think the sixline would probably give Jeff a huge wedgie by pulling his underpants up and over his head, and then stuff him in an empty locker, and maybe give him a swirly in the toilet somewhere in there.  Weird kids don't fare well with bullies.

 

The dottyback might be the same, I've mostly seen them kept solo in nano tanks so I can't remember what they do well with.  I'd think they need some relatively pugnacious fish though, to give them what-for when necessary.

[jesseatam]

My orchid dottyback was an angel for the short amount of time I had him but he was a tiny baby. It comes down to the fishes individual personality, your best bet would be a tiny baby and if it's housed with others the one that is at the bottom of the pecking order. Even then though as it matured and got established it would probably push the other fish around a bit. Just do lots of research, some other species that are known to be more peaceful are springeri, elongate, and striped dottybacks. The ORA website is a great resource to check out.

[StinkyBunny]

That damsel is about the meanest SOB you'll ever find, same with the dottyback. Even in my old 8'  240 they were miserable little fish.

[Madcat]

On 10/11/2017 at 4:10 PM, StinkyBunny said:

That damsel is about the meanest SOB you'll ever find, same with the dottyback. Even in my old 8'  240 they were miserable little fish.

Really? The orchid dottyback? I've heard nothing but good things! Crazy.

 

Early this morning I turned the lights on briefly to check something (it was Pale Snail, lying on his back. RIP I suspect). The whole tank was absolutely CRAWLING with pods. I mean there was an approximate METRIC TON of them. On the sandbed, on the walls, around my corals. And when the scooter blenny poked her head out of the sandbed, what does she decide to do?

 

 

Me: NO SCOOTER! EAT THE PODS! RUN!!

Scooter: What? You want me to levitate creepily?

 

("Yes, that's exactly what I said." "You want the pee bucket on your head??")

 

I can't believe there are still so many pods in my tank! Where do they go during the day? How has she not eradicated them? A SIX-LINE WRASSE WOULDN'T DICK ME AROUND LIKE THIS, SCOOTER.

 

 

All the dots are pods. And that was just a fraction of them. It's unreal.

[Lula_Mae]

21 hours ago, Madcat said:

Really? The orchid dottyback? I've heard nothing but good things! Crazy.

 

Early this morning I turned the lights on briefly to check something (it was Pale Snail, lying on his back. RIP I suspect). The whole tank was absolutely CRAWLING with pods. I mean there was an approximate METRIC TON of them. On the sandbed, on the walls, around my corals. And when the scooter blenny poked her head out of the sandbed, what does she decide to do?

 

 

Me: NO SCOOTER! EAT THE PODS! RUN!!

Scooter: What? You want me to levitate creepily?

 

("Yes, that's exactly what I said." "You want the pee bucket on your head??")

 

I can't believe there are still so many pods in my tank! Where do they go during the day? How has she not eradicated them? A SIX-LINE WRASSE WOULDN'T DICK ME AROUND LIKE THIS, SCOOTER.

 

 

All the dots are pods. And that was just a fraction of them. It's unreal.

Welp, guess she isn't starving if she wanted to boogie around in the tank.

[Madcat]

3 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Welp, guess she isn't starving if she wanted to boogie around in the tank.

Hmf. I guess that's a good way to look at it. I should withhold the mysis for awhile, maybe then she'll DO HER JOB

 

I have a lead on a possum wrasse, maybe! Some retailer posted a stock list that included yellow banded possums a few days ago. A few days too late for me, of course - they're already sold. But the seller expects to get more next week and I think he'll hold one for me. He doesn't know what kind is coming yet, but he said Tanaka's don't come in very often. I'll settle for any of the Wetmorella sp., really - yellow bandeds are still pretty cute.

[sugar]

I can't believe you're at 18 pages already, look at you!  I'll have to go back and catch up.

 

The lid on my old Nano Cube went and I had to take it down... but I was so, so, so close to replacing it with a Fluval 13.5  I love those little tanks!

 

I just dumped everything into my 25g though, and now I want a bigger tank

 

Possum Wrasse, eh???  I would LOVE to have one of those little guys.  I need to do a better job at following along!  Great job, so far!

[Madcat]

16 hours ago, sugar said:

I can't believe you're at 18 pages already, look at you!  I'll have to go back and catch up.

 

The lid on my old Nano Cube went and I had to take it down... but I was so, so, so close to replacing it with a Fluval 13.5  I love those little tanks!

 

I just dumped everything into my 25g though, and now I want a bigger tank

 

Possum Wrasse, eh???  I would LOVE to have one of those little guys.  I need to do a better job at following along!  Great job, so far!

Aw, thanks! I'm pretty terrible at following other people's tanks myself.

 

So this happened:

 

 

NO, JEFF!!! WHY??? YOU HAD SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!! SO MUCH SEAWEED STILL TO EAT!!

 

...Of course he's fine. I turned the powerhead off for feeding, lost track of him when he wandered away like the ADD puppy he is, and found his entire self crammed into the (powerless) powerhead. Still gave me a bit of a startle. Is everyone tailspot blenny like Jeff? Do they all get up to these shenanigans? Or is Jeff just special(ly dumb)?

 

Dat coralline algae though.

 

Tentacles! They fascinate me! Remember when The Saddest Trumpet had NO tentacles?

 

The red zoas, which were the biggest victim of the pod (or other mystery creature, but probably pod) attack - there were 6-7 heads, and only one survived - has a new head, and it's survived infancy and is growing! (On the right.)

 

I'm pretty happy, since I bought that frag because of the red zoas.

 

One last pic. Why are my ugly brown palys so sad? They look so chewed-up and miserable all the time. They were doing so well.

 

 

ps. The seller did not get any possum wrasses this week. I was the most surprised a person has ever been surprised. :|

[fishfreak0114]

I've never seen my TSB go into the powerhead, but now I'll have to look out for it!  It's nice to see the saddest trumpet's improvement!

[Madcat]

Eeek! My caulerpa went sexual! The tank is super cloudy. Puzzle and Jeff look okay. Scooter is breathing a bit hard. Haven't yet laid eyes on the inverts.

 

I tested my params and they came up accordingly:

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

pH: 8.0

 

That hardly seems possible, yet... the caulerpa WAS thriving and it WAS sucking up all my nitrates. I was only gone for four hours - I wonder if I caught it before it could really crash.

 

I've pulled out all the wilting fronds. The rest of the macro looks okay... I'm not sure if I should remove it or not... I feel so stupid, because I saw the spores on some of the fronds, wasn't sure what they were, and decided I would prune it tonight. I should have just pulled them out...

 

Waiting for my replacement water to warm up enough so I can do a 40% WC to try and get rid of some of this cloudiness. Bleh.

[fishfreak0114]

I hope everything is alright!  I'm always afraid that my caulerpa will go sexual.

[Madcat]

Before WC:

 

 

After new ChemiPure Blue packets were put in the filter and a 40% WC performed:

 

 

(Puzzle is such a ham.)

 

I found the hermies, and Claudette at least is visibly okay. I can see right across the tank lengthwise again and was able to verify that all the pale/dying strands of caulerpa were indeed removed. I also spotted a HUGE AIPTASIA! that must have been blocked from view by the macro. Yikes! I'll have to deal with that tomorrow...

 

4 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I hope everything is alright!  I'm always afraid that my caulerpa will go sexual.

What I read seemed to suggest that regular pruning would prevent this from ever happening, but I feel like this was caused directly by my big prune of a couple nights ago. The plant was sending tendrils EVERYWHERE and I finally got around to removing all the creepers. Spores appeared on the leaves not long after.

 

The scooter is still breathing hard, and while I was typing, Jeff came out of hiding and started pecking at the rocks (I guess he wants his dinner). He's breathing hard, too! I'll be gutted if anything happens to Jeff (or the scooter, obviously, but Jeff's pretty special). I've added some aeration - just an airline tube with the end suctioned to the side of the tank (no airstone. I just use this during water changes). It's creating lots of agitation at the surface. I feel like that's all I can do right now to help. Am I right? Anything else I can do? (I think poor Puzzle is scared of the bubbles. )

[fishfreak0114]

I can't think of anything else to do. Other than another water change.  

[Madcat]

So my tank and Jeff and the scooter all recovered just fine from the caulerpa disaster! And then, a week ago...

 

 

That's what a pushy clownfish and a caulerpa about to go sexual look like. This time I didn't hesitate - I pulled the whole thing out. It had a lot of roots in the sandbed and digging it up made the tank real cloudy for awhile, but this time we totally avoided a sexual pea soup situation.

 

...And I have now deprived my tank of a pod breeding grounds. They're still in there, but I know the macro was what they lived and bred in. So...

 

Yesterday I said goodbye to the scooter blenny. The LFS employees were glad to take her and they assured me I was doing the right thing for her. Their own couple scooters were skinny, but I bet they don't eat mysis like mine does (her original friend was skinny too). I was sad to get rid of her, but later I realized that now I don't have to feel guilty whenever I'm not feeding mysis, and I don't have to worry how much she's eating, and it's really taken away some stress, which is cool. And the macro turned out to be a bit of a headache so I probably won't be so anxious to repeat that experiment (unless I find some nice, unlikely-to-go-sexual red macro), so I hopefully don't have to worry about the pods now... hopefully. I'll probably make a post asking for thoughts on a new fish who'll get along with Jeff and Puzzle and eat the same foods they eat. I didn't see any that caught my eye at the store yesterday, but I did find this beauty:

 

 

Are you kidding me? Do you know how long I've been looking for a purple gorg and when I'm not even looking one just pops up? I think it's a purple brush (photosynthetic) gorg. Fluffy polyps:

 

 

I walked into my room and was struck by how much I liked the look of my tank, suddenly. I still need to do some coral surgery to remove frags from plugs and attach them to rock... but I feel like my tank looks more like a reef tank, just by having this addition. I really like it. Worth every penny. It better be photosynthetic!

 

I also got this girl:

 

 

Her name is Dixie and she is the best bird. Pretty much trains herself. She's also the reason I've had no time to do pretty much anything, including post an update on here, for the last couple weeks. Updates may continue to be sporadic... but I'll keep checking in. Hope all your tanks and livestock are well!

[Thunder Goose]

Hello, Dixie! Was she captive bred? Have you done falconry before? I guess you got her 'cause reefkeeping isn't time consuming and cool enough...

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, Madcat said:

So my tank and Jeff and the scooter all recovered just fine from the caulerpa disaster! And then, a week ago...

 

 

That's what a pushy clownfish and a caulerpa about to go sexual look like. This time I didn't hesitate - I pulled the whole thing out. It had a lot of roots in the sandbed and digging it up made the tank real cloudy for awhile, but this time we totally avoided a sexual pea soup situation.

 

...And I have now deprived my tank of a pod breeding grounds. They're still in there, but I know the macro was what they lived and bred in. So...

 

Yesterday I said goodbye to the scooter blenny. The LFS employees were glad to take her and they assured me I was doing the right thing for her. Their own couple scooters were skinny, but I bet they don't eat mysis like mine does (her original friend was skinny too). I was sad to get rid of her, but later I realized that now I don't have to feel guilty whenever I'm not feeding mysis, and I don't have to worry how much she's eating, and it's really taken away some stress, which is cool. And the macro turned out to be a bit of a headache so I probably won't be so anxious to repeat that experiment (unless I find some nice, unlikely-to-go-sexual red macro), so I hopefully don't have to worry about the pods now... hopefully. I'll probably make a post asking for thoughts on a new fish who'll get along with Jeff and Puzzle and eat the same foods they eat. I didn't see any that caught my eye at the store yesterday, but I did find this beauty:

 

 

Are you kidding me? Do you know how long I've been looking for a purple gorg and when I'm not even looking one just pops up? I think it's a purple brush (photosynthetic) gorg. Fluffy polyps:

 

 

I walked into my room and was struck by how much I liked the look of my tank, suddenly. I still need to do some coral surgery to remove frags from plugs and attach them to rock... but I feel like my tank looks more like a reef tank, just by having this addition. I really like it. Worth every penny. It better be photosynthetic!

 

I also got this girl:

 

 

Her name is Dixie and she is the best bird. Pretty much trains herself. She's also the reason I've had no time to do pretty much anything, including post an update on here, for the last couple weeks. Updates may continue to be sporadic... but I'll keep checking in. Hope all your tanks and livestock are well!

She's beautiful!  My husband and I watched a presentation on falconry at the ren faire a few weeks ago.  They had a little vulture that hopped down from the perch and ran up the aisle like a chicken.

 

Also, good work on avoiding a tank crash!  Sorry the scooter had to go but you'll be much more at ease, I think.

[Madcat]

2 hours ago, Thunder Goose said:

Hello, Dixie! Was she captive bred? Have you done falconry before? I guess you got her 'cause reefkeeping isn't time consuming and cool enough...

I'm an apprentice - I've worked with raptors in the past, and spent all last season getting out with experienced falconers, but she's my first bird. She's a wild passage (juvenile) bird. They're the best birds for beginner falconers, because they're so forgiving, and because they know how to hunt but they also know how it feels to go hungry. So when they make the connection that you will reliably dispense food, they become invested pretty fast. Dixie made the connection in all of 2 days and pretty much never looked back, lol! I started flying her outside this week and she hasn't tried to bail once. I feel like I've been officially chosen over wild hawk life.

 

The other thing about passage red-tailed hawks is that 60-70% of them won't survive their first winter. So it's a quid pro quo kind of thing. Soon we'll be hunting together and she can do what she does naturally. But if she doesn't catch anything she still gets to come home to a safe dry enclosure and some food. If all goes well, this time next year she'll be a mature hawk, older and wiser, healthy and parasite-free, and with the confidence to tackle big game!

 

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

She's beautiful!  My husband and I watched a presentation on falconry at the ren faire a few weeks ago.  They had a little vulture that hopped down from the perch and ran up the aisle like a chicken.

 

Also, good work on avoiding a tank crash!  Sorry the scooter had to go but you'll be much more at ease, I think.

Vultures are the freaking best birds. I used to work with a couple of turkey vultures and they're one of my favourite animals. They're social and smart! Useless for falconry, of course, since they don't actually catch anything... but if there was like a little micro-vulture I could have...

 

And yes! Not having the scooter is a surprising weight off. Maybe I'll get Puzzle a little husband next.

[dvs1986]

On 10/9/2017 at 8:07 AM, Melfy77 said:

Local shop. So ne real way of getting proof

i still have my light after i upgraded to an AI Prime. it works and i've never used it. Id contact Fluval first, but if nothing comes from it, maybe we could work something out.

[Lula_Mae]

39 minutes ago, Madcat said:

I'm an apprentice - I've worked with raptors in the past, and spent all last season getting out with experienced falconers, but she's my first bird. She's a wild passage (juvenile) bird. They're the best birds for beginner falconers, because they're so forgiving, and because they know how to hunt but they also know how it feels to go hungry. So when they make the connection that you will reliably dispense food, they become invested pretty fast. Dixie made the connection in all of 2 days and pretty much never looked back, lol! I started flying her outside this week and she hasn't tried to bail once. I feel like I've been officially chosen over wild hawk life.

 

The other thing about passage red-tailed hawks is that 60-70% of them won't survive their first winter. So it's a quid pro quo kind of thing. Soon we'll be hunting together and she can do what she does naturally. But if she doesn't catch anything she still gets to come home to a safe dry enclosure and some food. If all goes well, this time next year she'll be a mature hawk, older and wiser, healthy and parasite-free, and with the confidence to tackle big game!

 

Vultures are the freaking best birds. I used to work with a couple of turkey vultures and they're one of my favourite animals. They're social and smart! Useless for falconry, of course, since they don't actually catch anything... but if there was like a little micro-vulture I could have...

 

And yes! Not having the scooter is a surprising weight off. Maybe I'll get Puzzle a little husband next.

I don't remember what kind of vulture she was, she had a black head, but it was funny because the guy was talking about how vultures have very weak feet, "more suited for...(she lands on the ground and starts racing up the aisle) walking."

 

I vote yes on a Puzzle husband!  My little girl needs one soon.  After the blenny has spent a few weeks in quarantine, I think.