Wingy's "Old School Pico Reef" now a 5 gallon rimless

[Wingy]

What the heck is this worm looking thing with the legs?  Is it a bristle worm?  When I adjust the lighting to get a better picture it goes back into hiding.  

 

[SeaFurn]

Looks like a bristle worm. They are good...detritus eaters! 

[Wingy]

Thanks I think. 😁  That sucker is huge.  I could see about an inch and a half of it and there was still more under the rock.  I believe that thing may have been the inspiration for the Tremors movies.  

[SeaFurn]

Yeah, they creep me out a bit. 

Sometimes when I feel like I have too many I’ll grab some with long tweezers and drop them into my rock flower anemones! 

[Wingy]

One of the sexies has taken up residence in the back of the xenia and that stalk is clearly not pleased with the shrimps choice of residence.  The new zoa has only opened a tiny bit because one of the sexies likes to dance on it.  I have moved it over a bit to see if that helps.  Everyone was fed last night and the mushroom is fat and beautiful.  The pom pom crab has been having fun climbing to the top of the highest rock, doing a one legged dangle and then free falling to the bottom only to scramble to the top and do it again.  Silly crab.  The snails have been keeping the glass super clean.  

 

FTS 

 

 

 

 

[MetaTank]

On 5/4/2019 at 10:56 AM, Wingy said:

One of the sexies has taken up residence in the back of the xenia and that stalk is clearly not pleased with the shrimps choice of residence.  The new zoa has only opened a tiny bit because one of the sexies likes to dance on it.  I have moved it over a bit to see if that helps.  Everyone was fed last night and the mushroom is fat and beautiful.  The pom pom crab has been having fun climbing to the top of the highest rock, doing a one legged dangle and then free falling to the bottom only to scramble to the top and do it again.  Silly crab.  The snails have been keeping the glass super clean.  

 

FTS 

 

 

 

 

That’s funny, I had a hermit do the same thing for a couple of days... climb to the top only to jump off a ledge...haha

[Wingy]

The mushroom that was fat and happy last night has detached this morning.  I hope it can find a place it likes better.  It is beautiful during the day and evening but crankier than a toddler without a nap.overnight and in the mornings.  

[Wingy]

What I thought was GSP is not.  It is Knopia. It opens quickly and is nice and full.  It is on its own small piece of rubble but I would like to give it some room to expand.  I have some sea shells I collected from the beach in Florida 20 years ago and am thinking of reading up to see if they can be cleaned and used.  I think encrusted shells would look nice and give the sexies and silly crab a bigger caves to molt/hide in.  

 

The cranky mushroom didn't go far, just edged partly off its ceramic block.  Tonight it is back to being a happy puddle.  

 

[Wingy]

What is the name of this zoa?  I swear it closes if you look at it wrong.  I have never seen all 4 heads fully open but it must be getting what it needs because 2 more have started to form in the past week.  

 

 

[fishfreak0114]

Armour of God maybe?

[Wingy]

Today was water change day.  Mister Grumpy Pants mushroom has been angry since yesterday morning and the water change has pushed it over the edge.  It is releasing long trails of clear slime.  I have it in the area with the least amount of flow and moved everything out of its slime path.  I am not sure what else I should be doing for it.  

[Wingy]

I rescaped the tank to bring Mister Cranky Pants off the substrate so it can finish its move off of its ceramic disk.  It finally stoped throwing off streamers of slime and was looking a bit better, not quite as shriveled, but after lights out one of the sexys parked itself on it.  I don't know what I will find in the morning. 

Now for the interesting news.  There is a tiny piece of encrusted something that is a neon orange on the side of the ceramic disk the mushroom is almost off of.  It is roughly the size of a split pea, way to small for me to get a good look at it.  

 

I fear I may have accidentally flushed the asterina starfish.  I had all the corals in cups while I changed the water and I know it was tucked in the stems of the xenia.  I forgot to look for it when putting everything back in and afterward dumped the water out in the toilet.  I feel bad.  It was a cute little thing and fun to watch.  

[Wingy]

I woke up prepared for the worst but Mister Cranky Pants looks happy.  All the slime is gone, its flesh is smooth, and its mouth is plump  There is just the tiniest bit of foot left on its disk which may be the portion it leaves behind.  It is in the process of closing up on itself now but I'm thinking it just caught breakfast .  Its foot looks plump and smooth, unlike yesterday.  The pom pom crab finally came out of its hole to explore the new scape and I found the starfish.  The lights will be coming on soon and hopefully everything will open up.  

[MetaTank]

1 hour ago, Wingy said:

I woke up prepared for the worst but Mister Cranky Pants looks happy.  All the slime is gone, its flesh is smooth, and its mouth is plump  There is just the tiniest bit of foot left on its disk which may be the portion it leaves behind.  It is in the process of closing up on itself now but I'm thinking it just caught breakfast .  Its foot looks plump and smooth, unlike yesterday.  The pom pom crab finally came out of its hole to explore the new scape and I found the starfish.  The lights will be coming on soon and hopefully everything will open up.  

Glad everything seems to be coming together, and glad you didn’t flush the starfish!

[Wingy]

Mister Cranky Panty mushroom detatched sometime today and has positioned itself on the bottom.  Is it alright to leave it sitting there in the substrate without something solid to attach to?  I don't have any rubble to put under it but I could slide the ceramic piece it was on underneath it.  

 

I dug out my bag of shells and have a few soaking in distilled water.  It is either one of those or the cap from the box of saltwater.  

[SeaFurn]

It should be fine on the substrate until you figure out where you want it. You just don’t want it blowing around in there! 

[Wingy]

It isn't blowing around and almost looks settled where it is.  

[Lostandfound]

Best of luck on the mushroom. Rarely see them in that nice pastel purple color locally.

Other than being creepy nightmare creatures, the bristleworms shouldn't harm anything. They get in all those hard to reach buildup spots and go to town. Dont go poking them....

Consider boiling/scrubbing the beachcombers goods before adding them to your tank

[Wingy]

I placed the mushroom in the shell and it wanted none of that.  It curled itself into a ball and looked like it was trying to roll.  I put it back in the substrate and the pom pom crab pushed it under a ledge when it flattened itself out.  The crab is still there and is either standing guard or going to eat it.  The light is off for the night but I have placed a piece of paper over that side of the tank to reduce the light just in case it is still alive tomorrow.  

 

[Wingy]

The other morning I found the crab playing with the mushroom like a beach ball.  It scooched itself next to the rock and seems content to lay unattached in the substrate.  The flow is gentle there and it isn't blowing around.  If it is happy then I am happy.  It now hosts the smallest of the shrimp trio.  

 

The collonista snails went missing about the time that I brought home the sexys and pom pom and now I have some brownish algae that looks orange under the blues and something that orange that is faintly glows under the blues.  My other half bought me a snail, a chunk of off a beautiful piece of gsp that is long and flowy and a piece of gsp that is tube shaped.  Hopefully the the sexy that tries to sit in the xenia will move over to the gsp.  

[Wingy]

A quick update.  

The mushroom has found a place it likes and has attached itself to the rock behind it.  It is still mostly on the substrate but now it can stretch to the left when it wants less flow or light and stretch to the right when it wants more.  I guess it got tired of being played with like a beach ball by the pom pom crab.  The pom pom xenia is looking rough because it is being beat to heck and ripped apart by the sexy shrimp who think its a playground.  I have moved the xenia, again, and put the heater back in the display in hopes that they will play on that instead.  I have seen at least 1 spaghetti worm and there is some dark grey creature that has antenna, moves super fast and lives mostly in the top third of the rocks.  4 heads of the zoa are now open about 3/4 and it is still working on growing out 2 more.  

 

 

What the heck?   There is a predator.  Watch the upper left when it zooms out for a better look at it.

 

 

[Wingy]

The pom pom dove into the hole after what ever this thing is.  I am guessing the carcas in the video above is some type of pod but before it was tossed it was trying to find a place to hide.  

 

 

[seabass]

IDK, rock worm (Eunicid)?

[Wingy]

10 minutes ago, seabass said:

IDK, rock worm (Eunicid)?

I looked up Enuicid and I don't think that is it.  The body is round and mostly smooth but it does have legs.  It isn't in a tube, did come completely out of the rock, has antenna, a tail, is grey in color and moves super fast.  

[Wingy]

It could be a Gammarid which would explain why the glue is gone from the base of the zoas 

 

https://youtube/62kaq0T1gU0

 

 

I could order coral rx or I could do a hypersalinity dip on the rock but since I don't have much rock in there I really don't want to nuke it.  The son of a gun is faster than I am so I haven't been able to catch it or even smoosh it.