Melson's Caribbean Oasis

[melson]

MEGA update!

 

So a lot, and at the same time not a lot has changed. I suppose I should do bad news first. 

 

What I've lost:

• Probably the saddest loss was the Gold Coral Banded Shrimp. My favorite inhabitant went MIA I want to say late summer? So that was two months of having him. 
• Shortly after I lost my first sailfin blenny. I feel like he was just too small and never established territory.
• My Rock flower Anemone I had for around five years went and shriveled and withered away. I tried moving it to an area with more light but that might have aggravated it.
• Two Ricordea. I for the life of me cannot find the ideal spot to put these guys so they 1. Stay and 2. maintain their color, I'm still figuring that all out.
• My Rusty Gorgonian! I picked at it too much. Gorgonians grow best when one isn't agitating/disrupting their lifestyle. 

In terms of those losses what have I learned? Well not much! Lol in all seriousness I believe the CBS and Blenny were still adjusting to the tank. Because if there was a problem with my tank with inverts the crabs would be dead too, which wasn't the case. And I have no idea why the RFA went kaput. Especially when it was a transfer from the 8g, it was one of the first inhabitants in the tank.

 

What I got rid of:

• Caulerpa Prolifera. I still have my chaeto reactor (I should make a post about what I have learned from that alone) and really think the caulerpa and chaeto were competing for nutrients, causing both to be stunted in terms of growth. Also nobody tells anyone this but having stuff in your sandbed makes cleaning your sandbed difficult! 

I have made some new additions though!

• I snatched up two sailfin blennies from KPA in september and they are doing just fine. No aggression between the two and both are already very fat from daily feedings.
• I also got two peppermint shrimp. I'll admit peppermint shrimp never really interested me but they seem great for SW hobbyists that want shrimp in their tank. My ideal shrimp would be Pederson or another gold CBS but until I find someone successful long term with either of those I think I'll wait and try to learn from my peppermint shrimp.
• I also made a GCE/live-plants.com order and got a "Spiny Gorgonian" to replace my rusty gorgonian. It's funny Google research shows the two are similar if not the same, but different in coloration.
• Finally from the live-plants order I got a tan candelabra aka Eunicea. That is growing out of control on the left side of my tank, I may have to cut it back soon!

Future plans are more ricordea and learning where to place them. I think I'm set on gorgonians for now, they definitely dominate the tank. My zoas are all doing well, some are growing more rapidly then others. Lately I have been just letting things be. I find during the late fall/winter is when I let the tank do its thing and think of how I can improve upon it come spring time. 

 

Any suggestions please feel free to chime in! I'm always looking for ways to make it feel and look more natural. My ultimate goal is when someone looks at it they immediately think Caribbean reefs.

 

Oh and here's the latest photos! 😉

 

 

 

 

And a top down shot. Not the best but you can see my neon goby in the back right!

 

[Poodges]

Love this tank. Don’t have an gorgonians but I’ve always found them beautiful and they look so great in a reef.  You have some of my favorite fish too.  Great job.

[billygoat]

Amazing update! Sorry to hear about your losses, but on balance it seems like everything is going really well for you, and that's great to hear. Your gorgonians look incredible! 😊 And I love that huge mountain of green zoas in the back corner.

 

Definitely very strange to hear about your RFA. I wonder what would have caused it to spontaneously shrivel like that after so many years of being just fine? Seems very weird to me. 🤔

 

Ricordea can be a little bit tricky as well. You're definitely not the only one that's been having trouble with them... I wish I could offer some coherent advice on their care, but mine have been doing well without much special attention being paid to them. Perhaps because my lighting is much weaker? I'm using a Kessil A80, which is considerably less powerful than your AI Prime.

 

I'd love to hear more about your experiences growing chaeto in the rear chambers of the C-Vue as well! That's something that I have been trying out recently with... mixed success. 😅

[DNR88]

Very nice natural looking tank, great job! 🙂

[melson]

Thank you for the compliments everyone! I know the photo quality isn't the best. It's tough to showcase it with an older phone. 

 

Thanks @billygoat! I've been lurking around your thread monitoring your tank progress as well! And yeah the RFA death is a mystery. I do plan to buy more ricordea when I have a warm spell, this time using GCE for my order. They seem to have ones that are found in more shallow water which might be what I need! I also have a few "dark" places around my tank that experience more shadows, I will try to place them there as well.

[melson]

Well I got my GCE order in and it all looks terrific!

 

And in doing so I figured out what caused my rock flower anemone to disappear! Peppermint shrimp! As SOON as I placed my "brand new" RFA in the tank one of the peppermint's came over and started TEARING into its soft flesh!

 

I had to remove 90% of the rockwork to capture both shrimp and then threw them in the back chambers for the time being. I'm a bit irritated because I have never had luck with Ricordea and that was the last thing I wanted to do is disrupt the new ones I just got from GCE. But it's my fault for not researching enough about Peppermint shrimp. And now the mystery is solved and it probably explains why my Ricordea were disappearing slowly too.

 

I'll post pictures once everything settles and everyone is happy! I still plan to get some kind of shrimp species in my tank and I have a couple ideas that I'm still floating around!

[Pjanssen]

Very nice, can't believe I never saw this before! I've not had success with Ricordea before either. The 3 that's I just put in my tank will be the last one way or another-hopefully they make it. I use to have a pair of gold coral banded shrimp as well-one of my sadder losses. I'll be following along- We Gorgonia lovers need to stick together!

[melson]

Update!

 

Everything going well and everything is happy and thriving. I'm considering fragging a bit and planting those frags throughout for a more natural full look. From my research of Google images and whatever else I can find Caribbean reefs in the wild usually have multiple of the same species on one rock. 

 

20200131_162712 by John Stand, on Flickr

 

And a photo of the right side:

 

20200131_162726 by John Stand, on Flickr

[billygoat]

4 hours ago, melson said:

Everything going well and everything is happy and thriving. I'm considering fragging a bit and planting those frags throughout for a more natural full look. From my research of Google images and whatever else I can find Caribbean reefs in the wild usually have multiple of the same species on one rock. 

Looking great @melson! I really love that massive Eunicea all the way over on the left hand side. It's going crazy! I bet if you fragged some of these large gorgs the frags would just take off.

 

I am wondering: how often do you feed your gorgs, and what do you feed them with?

[Pjanssen]

Looks great! I'm happy to see that the jawfish is doing well. I thought they needed a deep sanded so I've always held off on getting one. You mentioned in a previous post about waiting to see if anyone has kept a Pedersen shrimp long term. I'll have to go through my thread to find the exact timeline, but I've had mine over a year.

[melson]

Appreciate it @Pjanssen! Yeah I tried to keep Pederson shrimp in my 8g but the salinity swings were too much for them at the time which is 100% my fault and not having an ATO. I'm still debating between Pederson or Gold CBS. I've been leaning towards a Gold CBS just because my chalk bass has become an absolute monster during feeding times. He's never been aggressive and is completely docile (everyone is docile except my two blennies towards each other) but I'd hate to buy a shrimp from the Key West, and have it travel all the way to Michigan just to get eaten!

 

Thanks @billygoat! Yeah that Eucinea has been growing like a weed. It's unbelievable how fast it has grown! So for the most part I alternate between Mysis and Brine frozen and maybe once a week feed reef roids with some Spectrum color enhancing pellets. I have only recently begun feeding reef roids maybe the last year-ish? I don't detect any huge change in the gorgonians. The only time I've lost gorgonians (approximately 3 the last 4 years) was due to either lack of flow, too much change (moving tanks and/or going too hard with the turkey baster) or died from the shipping process. IME I haven't seen a gorgonian die from lack of feeding. My research has always shown good lighting is for the most part sufficient and I've intentionally stayed away from the non-photosynthetic gorgonians.

 

I'm thinking about placing in order in the next month or so when the weather starts warming up. I'm thinking another RFA, a species of shrimp and maybe another gorgonian. I feel like too many species of gorgonians would pull it away from the natural look I'm shooting for, as I currently have 6 different types. But at the same time I'd love a rusty gorgonian or better yet a black sea rod on the left side of my tank.

[melson]

It's my day off and I'm snowed in so I thought I'd take some photos!

 

Top down of Ricordea on the left side of my tank.

 

 

Jawfish aka Peekaboo wondering where the food is.

 

Pygmy aka Wolverine pecking at algae. This is about the only time he will "stay still." Even then it's hard to get a photo of him.

 

Blenny #1

 

Blenny #2

 

 

My Blennies remind me of a Yellow Watchman Goby. Always grumpy, never smiling! Haha

[melson]

Wow! I haven't done an update in close to a year!

 

A lot has happened, especially the last couple months. I'll make the story short.

 

My Pygmy Angel turned into a territorial, demonic serial killer. And I unfortunately didn't make the connection until I tried to add a new Yellowhead Jawfish. So to those that have one, heed my warning! They need more space then 25 gallons! I was hoping I had a friendly little guy and for a while it seemed that way. Something about the Pygmy reaching adulthood I think set him off.

 

So I'm left with one terrified Chalk Bass (I hope he comes around), a Neon Goby and just recently added Royal Gramma. Still got a few hermit crabs kicking around along with some snails.

 

I've been dealing with a rust colored algae on my sandbed that reaches a peak at full light then goes away by nightfall. I don't know if it's dinos or cyano but I've removed my Purigen and restarted my chaeto reactor. Added a cap full of Chaetogro and hoping for the best!

 

Here are a couple photos. I know my photos continue to look wonky and different from post to post. Still playing around with Flickr and using an old phone! 🤣

 

 

[billygoat]

Looking good, @melson! I love that mount of green zoas in the back corner. They've really grown together beautifully. 

 

I recognize that brown slime from my own tank; I believe it's a strain of cyanobacteria. Hopefully reinstating your refugium will help clear it away. Keep us posted! 😁

[melson]

You know I've even increased the temp in my tank to 81.9°-82° f because I read several articles that this algae we've been dealing with is from the change to leds and the popularity of keeping our tanks now at 78° f. 

 

I'd say it has helped a little but it hasn't been a miracle worker. I'll keep you posted!

[ererer]

@melson, any updates? I like your tank!

[michael_cb_125]

Not sure how I missed this tank, as it is right up my alley!!

 

Nice looking setup, sorry to hear about the pygmy. They definitely tend to have little man syndrome. 

 

~Michael

[DannoOMG]

May I hijack this thread and ask a question about your peppermint shrimp?

 

I was told that they can sometimes turn their attention to coral and start eating them. That was told to me by a local fish store guy.

 

Is there any truth to that statement?

 

I have some aiptasia but I am hesitant on getting a peppermint shrimp.

[melson]

Wow! Almost a year to the day since I've posted! For those that woke this thread up from the dead thank you for kicking my butt in gear! @ererer and @michael_cb_125 !!

 

As far as the tank goes, things have gotten easier and calmer since the pygmy angel is gone. I did lose my neon goby from old age which has since been replaced with a Yellowstripe neon goby (also from the Caribbean).

 

I have added a golden CBS and another yellowhead jawfish which are both doing wonderful!

 

I've cut the light brightness settings to about half of what they were and all of my corals seem to love it.

 

@DannoOMG, yes if you look far enough back my peppermint shrimp were eating all my soft corals. Mushrooms and my anemones were absolutely getting destroyed by them. I threw them in the back chambers where they later died before I had a plan on what to do with them.

 

Enjoy the lackluster photos. I'm just not a good photographer guys, sorry about that.

[michael_cb_125]

Looking good. 

It is nice to see beautifully simple reefs with a planned course come together over time.

 

Your tank looks like parts of the Caribbean to me, and I have fished and hunted all over it!

 

~Michael

[ererer]

On 1/21/2022 at 6:40 AM, DannoOMG said:

May I hijack this thread and ask a question about your peppermint shrimp?

 

I was told that they can sometimes turn their attention to coral and start eating them. That was told to me by a local fish store guy.

 

Is there any truth to that statement?

 

I have some aiptasia but I am hesitant on getting a peppermint shrimp.

@DannoOMG Reef Beef covered aptasia on an episode, here's the segment:

 

Rich Ross recommends using kalk paste to cover them. In a more recent video, he also mentioned trying and liking f aptasia.

[DannoOMG]

26 minutes ago, ererer said:

@DannoOMG Reef Beef covered aptasia on an episode, here's the segment:

 

Rich Ross recommends using kalk paste to cover them. In a more recent video, he also mentioned trying and liking f aptasia.

I ended up throwing a portion of rock out that had a cluster of them on there. I had one hiding under a chalice coral and glued it shut in its hole. Hope that helps until I get a nudibranch.