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Lula Mae's "Jarden" of Enjoyment--dinos :(


Lula_Mae

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16 hours ago, vlangel said:

Wow, with your frags mounted your jar is really lookin' good.  I am guessing that you are going for a paly/zoa mountain surrounded by a grassy meadow of gsp?  Its a cool idea.

I find halimeda to be that way, parts turn white, part grow algae, parts break off.  I just pinch off the appendages that I don't like the looks of and go from there.

More like I was going for a "what will survive in here" with all the issues I had early on lol. It has sort of morphed into that though. Good to know about the halimeda!

 

13 hours ago, Lorekeeper said:

Beautiful tank!

Thanks! :happy:

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've had a horrible cold for a couple weeks and the tanks have all been pretty neglected, getting only some top-offs and feedings, but since this jar is on my desk I get to look at it a lot and I have to say that this little guy (the blenny) is absolutely wonderful, such a delight!  I highly recommend bimaculatus blennies to anybody.  He loves to perch on the granny apple smith palys (which have two babies forming!) and will dart around the tank and has been known to perch on snails as they climb the glass. :lol: The little milli frag did not make it. :( The birdsnest got knocked against the glass and by the time I noticed was already growing flat.  Oops lol.  Whenever I drop in some flakes, the hermit and the blue coral banded shrimp morph out of nowhere, ready to eat--they and the fish get so excited!  It's hilarious to watch.  The metallic GSP is making its way up the side of the jar as ell.  Added a couple macros purchased from LA Reefs a few weeks ago.  Haven't tried to extract the pom pom crab from the frag tank but he will go in here once I do.  I just haven't had the energy to tackle things lately.

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On 2/21/2018 at 1:55 AM, Clown79 said:

Hope you feel better soon.

 

I got hit too, almost a month of being sick and recovery.

 

Tanks definitely get neglected when you're sick.

 

On 2/21/2018 at 7:25 AM, vlangel said:

Wishing healing thoughts your way!

 

On 2/21/2018 at 9:10 AM, Pjanssen said:

Hope you're feeling better. Yep, hit me for about a month. Little cough still lingering. Tank sound great. Ready to see some pics again!

I am feeling better now!  But have been working overtime the last couple weeks and this week probably will too lol.  So quicky update, tank is doing well, I have some hair algae but the biggest clumps were easy to pull out. I haven't tried to scrub or peroxide the rocks at all.  Blenny continues to be adorable and entertaining, blue CBS is becoming a lot less shy, and one of the snails has a sprout of macro coming off his shell.  The metallic GSP is climbing the walls so it may be time for a trim.  The feather dusters are doing well.  I added a piece of red branching macro but it's sitting on its frag plug in the sand and hasn't been placed yet.

 

February FTS:

IMG_20180305_002631230_HDR

 

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38 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Hey, I am really loving your jar!

Thanks!  It is a lot of fun to watch!

 

28 minutes ago, OldManSea said:

Wow, looking very nice!

Thank you!

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The contest is coming to a close!  March 31st will be the official end of the competition and then the voting will begin.  In order to help the community decide what tanks to vote for, each remaining contestant will need to do the following:

  1. PM me three (3) final photos that you think summarize your container reef.  The composition for two of these is up to you, but one of them should be a final FTS taken sometime during the month of March.
  2. PM me a written summary of your container reef build and experiences throughout the competition.  This should be no more than 250 words.
  3. These items must be private messaged to me by midnight (Pacific Standard Time) on March 31st.
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Well I have been slacking but wanted to share a few pics.  Jar and other tanks all need a good cleaning and water change soon as I can get to it lol.  Many of the zoas are growing and developing new heads! Some are a little aggravated right now and not fully opening, maybe from the need for a water change.  I have some hair algae on the right side but it pulls off pretty well.  The blue coral banded shrimp has claimed the bottom underside of the rock right in front where I can see him!  He's gotten much bolder now that he's comfortable.  A few weeks ago I got to go to Fintastic in Raleigh (or Cary or whichever town it's actually in) @JoeR and they had pom pom crabs on sale for $10 each so I got two--they're tiny!--and added one here and one to the 15L.  Hadn't seen either of them till a few days ago the one in the jar came blazing out from his hiding spot and scared the blue CBS out of his spot!  He looked pretty miffed over it. :lol: The still un-named blenny is an adorable heart-stealer and anybody thinking about one should definitely add one to a tank in the future! @gena He gets so excited for his algae flakes and will chase them down and wrestle flakes bigger than his head, which looks hilarious.  The macros I've put in are mostly covered in some annoying micro algae but it might go away if (again) I do more water changes lol.  The GSP is growing!  Getting big and fluffy.  When I move stuff out of the jar I'll probably glue it to the back wall so it can grow there.  Even the little purple monti digitata has happy polyp extension, although it's always been brown rather than purple for me.  The astrea snail has sprouted some sort of macro out of his shell that looks like a little lily pad, it's at least an inch long now.  I find it very entertaining.  The heater is still keeping temps at a rock-steady 79 degrees so anyone with a pico project in mind should definitely consider it!

Here you can see the shrimp in the bottom front of the rock.

IMG_20180307_205049778_HDR

 

ERMAGERD what is this terrifying creature brandishing his weapons at me!?!?!

IMG_20180311_211203946

 

He stole my spot!!!

IMG_20180311_211312431

 

I don't even know what to do with this intruder, halp! Halp!

IMG_20180311_211319687

 

(please note the spindly anemones on the pom pom--I have no idea what kind they are but I've never seen long tentacles like this on pom pom nems!).

 

The most exciting news is that I went to Nemo's Reef the other day and found....VICE ZOAS!!!!  I used to have some way back before Coral Morphologic even called them Vice zoas, and they had several varieties for $30 a frag for good sized frags, so I grabbed on for the jar.  I'm so excited!!!  It doesn't show quite as much pink as it did under the bluer lights there but still looks good.

 

IMG_20180313_021826058

 

The tutti frutti's on the left are also happy, and the chalice thingy has a beard of hair algae lol.

 

So there's a quick mid-March update.  I have to start working on my write up for the finale, I cannot even believe that the contest is almost over!  It's been so fun!

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42 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Well I have been slacking but wanted to share a few pics.  Jar and other tanks all need a good cleaning and water change soon as I can get to it lol.  Many of the zoas are growing and developing new heads! Some are a little aggravated right now and not fully opening, maybe from the need for a water change.  I have some hair algae on the right side but it pulls off pretty well.  The blue coral banded shrimp has claimed the bottom underside of the rock right in front where I can see him!  He's gotten much bolder now that he's comfortable.  A few weeks ago I got to go to Fintastic in Raleigh (or Cary or whichever town it's actually in) @JoeR and they had pom pom crabs on sale for $10 each so I got two--they're tiny!--and added one here and one to the 15L.  Hadn't seen either of them till a few days ago the one in the jar came blazing out from his hiding spot and scared the blue CBS out of his spot!  He looked pretty miffed over it. :lol: The still un-named blenny is an adorable heart-stealer and anybody thinking about one should definitely add one to a tank in the future! @gena He gets so excited for his algae flakes and will chase them down and wrestle flakes bigger than his head, which looks hilarious.  The macros I've put in are mostly covered in some annoying micro algae but it might go away if (again) I do more water changes lol.  The GSP is growing!  Getting big and fluffy.  When I move stuff out of the jar I'll probably glue it to the back wall so it can grow there.  Even the little purple monti digitata has happy polyp extension, although it's always been brown rather than purple for me.  The astrea snail has sprouted some sort of macro out of his shell that looks like a little lily pad, it's at least an inch long now.  I find it very entertaining.  The heater is still keeping temps at a rock-steady 79 degrees so anyone with a pico project in mind should definitely consider it!

Here you can see the shrimp in the bottom front of the rock.

IMG_20180307_205049778_HDR

 

ERMAGERD what is this terrifying creature brandishing his weapons at me!?!?!

IMG_20180311_211203946

 

He stole my spot!!!

IMG_20180311_211312431

 

I don't even know what to do with this intruder, halp! Halp!

IMG_20180311_211319687

 

(please note the spindly anemones on the pom pom--I have no idea what kind they are but I've never seen long tentacles like this on pom pom nems!).

 

The most exciting news is that I went to Nemo's Reef the other day and found....VICE ZOAS!!!!  I used to have some way back before Coral Morphologic even called them Vice zoas, and they had several varieties for $30 a frag for good sized frags, so I grabbed on for the jar.  I'm so excited!!!  It doesn't show quite as much pink as it did under the bluer lights there but still looks good.

 

IMG_20180313_021826058

 

The tutti frutti's on the left are also happy, and the chalice thingy has a beard of hair algae lol.

 

So there's a quick mid-March update.  I have to start working on my write up for the finale, I cannot even believe that the contest is almost over!  It's been so fun!

Did you go when they had the ORA clams too?? Some weeks are hit or miss but every once in a while they have fantastic deals. I love my pom but I see it so little about the time I think it’s dead I see her again. They are super cool though, hope yours stay hidden less than mine!

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15 minutes ago, JoeR said:

Did you go when they had the ORA clams too?? Some weeks are hit or miss but every once in a while they have fantastic deals. I love my pom but I see it so little about the time I think it’s dead I see her again. They are super cool though, hope yours stay hidden less than mine!

Yeah I think they did have some ORA clams, I heard them talking about how some shipments did better than others lol.  Someday I hope to get a pretty little crocea!  Been a long time dream of mine.  Pom poms are the best.  I've had at least a dozen over the years now and all wonderful (even Shelby the troublemaker lol).

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5 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Those vice zoas :wub:  Your jar looks great! The lil’ blue CBS is so cute!

Thanks!  I'm so happy to finally have them again after, oh, eight years (or 9?), they are SO pretty!  And yeah, I really like the blue CBS, I highly recommend him!  Someday I hope to try a little yellow one and see if they are similar.

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3 minutes ago, JBM said:

Another pretty tank. I enjoyed reading through this. 

 

Are you you going to keep it set up long term?

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do but I know I'm not happy with the distortion of the glass.  Right now the most likely candidate is that I will revamp my 5.5 and combine this into it (the 5.5 doesn't have much in it as I moved a lot into the 15L).  For someone who doesn't mind the distortion, this tank would be perfect!  So basically, I plan to keep it going but not in its current form, if that makes sense lol.  And I'm thinking of combining with the 5.5 because I can't maintain 3 tanks, it's just too much work for my life right now.

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11 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

(please note the spindly anemones on the pom pom--I have no idea what kind they are but I've never seen long tentacles like this on pom pom nems!)

Those ARE very spindly little anemones!! I wonder if pom pom crabs normally have he same type of nems in their hands and maybe your crab just has more mature nems than most?

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13 hours ago, kimberbee said:

Those ARE very spindly little anemones!! I wonder if pom pom crabs normally have he same type of nems in their hands and maybe your crab just has more mature nems than most?

Not sure, I've never seen them like that even on year-old pom pom crabs so I wonder if they're a different species or something.

 

12 hours ago, ChristopherDido said:

Looks great! Can't believe this contest is almost over!

Thanks!  I know, it's hard to believe!  Just a couple more weeks to go!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looking good, can't wait for the final pics. And I am so excited you found vice zoas! I have their aquafresh ones which I think are the same as yours, they're one of my favorites. 

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