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Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down


Snow_Phoenix

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Snow_Phoenix

Few snapshots today evening:

 

Nero & Sushi:

 

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The Big Guy of the reef:

 

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Corals:

 

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New blasto + purple monti. Too close to my chalice (?), I think.

 

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New shrooms:

 

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Sideshots of the 60G:

 

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FTS today:

 

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I am sorry about the little guy.  You gave him a better chance at life than most reefers could have.  I like your new additions to the tank.

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Snow_Phoenix
7 hours ago, kimdawg said:

I am sorry about the little guy.  You gave him a better chance at life than most reefers could have.  I like your new additions to the tank.

Thanks, Kim. I truly wish I could have done better for the brotulid - but I really, genuinely don't what else could have been done - especially since PraziGold doesn't work. I will be more cautious though - I did send feedback to my LFS over the fish and they were struggling too with several dragonets which had weird, cyst-like formations on their scales. To my knowledge, they did manage to save a Mandarin - said Mandarin is now in their major DT at the store.

 

I think the issue was with the supplier - not really the store. But we're comparing notes and trying to come up with a better solution if faced with a similar situation again. Parasites that are med-resistant can be a real pain to treat.

 

Currently, I have no plans to get another fish just yet - but I think I *might try a Yellow Coris (in QT) (or some other small wrasse species) in the far future. 

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Snow_Phoenix

We are having a water shortage over the next 23 hours due to contamination in the local river. So no WCs over the next 1 to 2 weeks, barring emergencies only. 

 

Back on to lighter things, here's Thanos in his white and natural purple forms:

 

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And here is Crabcake, glorifying the 'Ole Water Gods of the East 😋:

 

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And here is one of the latest Palys I picked up:

 

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On a non-reefing related note, we are finally reaching the tail-end of the durian and rambutan season here:

 

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(Sorry if the images aren't super sharp - snapped a pic through the windscreen of the car)

 

😊

 

 

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Snow_Phoenix

 Update 1: (Lots of pics ahead!)

 

Here was my tuxedo, stealing one of my shrooms:

 

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Gary & Lola are doing well:

 

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Here's Mr. Prickles, who is still as prickly as ever:

 

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Ever wondered how a brittle starfish leg looked like up close? 🤗

 

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Here is the brittle star in concern:

 

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Thanos playing peek-a-boo:

 

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Snow_Phoenix

Update 2:

 

Finally glued down the shroom that was being used as a hat:

 

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Here is my main bullseye shroom:

 

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Lobo looking puffy:

 

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Gary doing yoga again: 🤣

 

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One of the zoa frags I acquired last week - huge red polyps with 3 new polyps in less than 5 days! 😮

 

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This is how my elegance looks like up close:

 

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And lastly, I picked up my dual-colored cynarina today 😊:

 

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I also bought 3 new wrasses which are currently in QT. They were all new arrivals at the store last night, but appeared healthy. I will be honest, I usually have shitty luck with wrasses. Most of them come loaded with parasites and perish prematurely in QT. 

 

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*But I am not giving up on trying to own a medium-sized wrasse in my tank. If all 3 of them survive the QT period, all 3 will be added at the tank - preferably 1 at a time. 

 

Also, filamented sand eel fish at my LFS today: (a first) 

 

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😊

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Sad to see Rambutan season end, one of my favorite fruits on island, definitely miss them now that I'm back on the mainland...
As for durian... I prefer jackfruit and chempadek lol... (different family of plants, but hey artocarpus are close enough)

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Snow_Phoenix
9 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Sad to see Rambutan season end, one of my favorite fruits on island, definitely miss them now that I'm back on the mainland...
As for durian... I prefer jackfruit and chempadek lol... (different family of plants, but hey artocarpus are close enough)

I love cempedak - especially when it is fried with flour! 😋

7 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Usually if I cant think of much to say I pick a favourite photo. My problem here is every picture posted is as good as the last. Incredible skills

Thanks! I am still trying my best to improve. 😊

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Only ever had it raw, though I know breadfruit are great fried so it would make sense for chemps to be great that way too, so much variation in flavor from plant to plant with that particular tree. I'm currently growing a red jackfruit (one of my favorite fruits) and durian-chemp, I'll likely never see fruit from either of them (some get jacks to fruit in pots, and chemps are actually known for it, so fingers-crossed), but they've been a fun challenge in the American Northeast haha.

Myrtles are an incredible family of plants, so many different fruit, there's even a few species of fruiting myrtle which have the aesthetic-quality to pose as crepe-myrtle look-alikes!

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Snow_Phoenix

So quick update: my Carpenter's is faring very, very poorly - I suspect some internal parasites at work. My rubyhead is taking refuge under one of my plastic caves, so I can't see him. But my yellow coris is up and about, and is very active. 

 

I truly wish we had a healthier selection of wrasses here. We get a good variety, but getting one to live long-term has always been a challenge. 😔

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Snow_Phoenix
51 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Only ever had it raw, though I know breadfruit are great fried so it would make sense for chemps to be great that way too, so much variation in flavor from plant to plant with that particular tree. I'm currently growing a red jackfruit (one of my favorite fruits) and durian-chemp, I'll likely never see fruit from either of them (some get jacks to fruit in pots, and chemps are actually known for it, so fingers-crossed), but they've been a fun challenge in the American Northeast haha.

Myrtles are an incredible family of plants, so many different fruit, there's even a few species of fruiting myrtle which have the aesthetic-quality to pose as crepe-myrtle look-alikes!

I saw a 'red' durian the other day for sale. As in, the flesh was red. Not sure what they crossed it with, but it was expensive so we didn't buy it.

 

Jackfruit is very tasty but leaves a strong smell on your fingers after eating. I like duku, mata kucing (especially when iced) and mangosteen (need to be careful with this one since it stains clothing). My little sis loves ciku. She kept asking my mother to plant a ciku tree outside our home but there is an awful maid several doors away that steals fruits, plants and flowers from the gardens of other neighbors, so it was a no-go, unfortunately. 😥

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Strong smell and enough latex to pick at for a few days lol, that and breaking it down is a labor of love. You don't actually need to cross durio with anything for different colors, there are just varieties in darn-near every shade of the rainbow, haven't seen any blue ones "yet" lol.
I'm a big fan of mangosteen, but never had the opportunity to have the mahogany-family equivalent, I considered growing it but it can take decades to bear fruit if I recall correctly. (Quite cold-tolerant though, they grow it up in Canada)

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1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

So quick update: my Carpenter's is faring very, very poorly - I suspect some internal parasites at work. My rubyhead is taking refuge under one of my plastic caves, so I can't see him. But my yellow coris is up and about, and is very active. 

 

I truly wish we had a healthier selection of wrasses here. We get a good variety, but getting one to live long-term has always been a challenge. 😔

Wrasses are hard to catch...could be the side-effects of cyanide collection.  

 

Can you post a full tank shot where the wrasse is now?

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Snow_Phoenix
13 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Strong smell and enough latex to pick at for a few days lol, that and breaking it down is a labor of love. You don't actually need to cross durio with anything for different colors, there are just varieties in darn-near every shade of the rainbow, haven't seen any blue ones "yet" lol.
I'm a big fan of mangosteen, but never had the opportunity to have the mahogany-family equivalent, I considered growing it but it can take decades to bear fruit if I recall correctly. (Quite cold-tolerant though, they grow it up in Canada)

Yeah, it does take a while to bear fruit - but the fruit is delicious! You should swing by SE Asia sometime, especially during the rainy seasons. That's when you can enjoy the most of all the local fruits we have to offer. 🙂 

4 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Wrasses are hard to catch...could be the side-effects of cyanide collection.  

 

Can you post a full tank shot where the wrasse is now?

They're all in a QT bin, which isn't exactly transparent, so the shot might come out very blurry. I'll try to snap a pic and upload it as soon as I can - need to head out and run some errands shortly. 

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Snow_Phoenix
1 hour ago, 1.0reef said:

The fast metabolism and sorta delicate nature of wrasses doesn’t help, the rest of the reef looks great tho! 

Nice to see you swing by my journal, 1.0! And thank you. And I do agree wrasses are delicate. I personally think I got very lucky with my pink streaked wrasse. She was shy, but doing well. 

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Snow_Phoenix
9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Wrasses are hard to catch...could be the side-effects of cyanide collection.  

 

Can you post a full tank shot where the wrasse is now?

 

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Okay, here is a FTS of the QT bin. I purposely didn't fill it all the way up because both the coris and the carpenter were very jumpy at the store. I have 3 lids on this bin, weighed down by a very old LED light and I plugged the small gap by the inlet of the HOB with a wad of rolled tissue. 

 

Here is the Carpenter's. He is in the PVC pipe and looks better than this morning (a little):

 

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The ruby is sleeping in the cave. It is very difficult to see him or snap a good pic because the bin isn't fully transparent and the lighting is dim. My coris is very active though. 

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Snow_Phoenix

I started using this today. The yellow coris loved it. I didn't see the other two come out to eat (but they are both alive - I checked) but all the food was gone by the time I returned to turn the pumps back on.

 

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Tomorrow I will be dosing 1 drop of PraziGold. The Carpenter's looks much better now too - he is just very shy like the rubyhead. 

 

I will have to pick up some fine sand and add a small sandbox into the QT. The leftover sand I have is currently too coarse - I am worried it will cause scratches/tears/lesions on the fish when they dive in to sleep. 

 

As for the 60G, I just salvaged a few shrooms from my pico and glued the rocks they were attached to to the back left column of rock there. Planning to make a mini mountain of overlapping discosomas and rhodactises. 

 

All other livestock in the 60G are doing fine. Our tap water is still a bit yellow, so I don't want to WC the system yet until the water is clear. My next coral will tentatively be a red gorg. I will need to put down a deposit for it at the store, and might need several installments to pay in full before I can bring it back. 

 

Small frags are cheap but colonies or large frags (of anything) can be very expensive here. So I budget and plan accordingly, and usually pick up corals on clearance sales because they are offered at a steep discount. (Also helps when you have a good rapport with the LFS and are a long-term customer). 

 

So most of the colonies you have seen me purchasing hover between RM 80 to RM120. Ordinarily, such pieces can be between RM 180 to RM 250. 😊

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Sounds like things are going alright, but I wanted to share some thoughts just the same. 😉

 

It seems like the QT is a little small and could be updated with some more naturalistic details… I'm thinking of plastic aquarium plants or anything like that. Especially if you were running multiple fish in there at once.  If you stick with this method in the future I would probably run no more than one fish per bin for best results. 

 

These things are literally not a big deal but still add up to small stresses which compromise the fishes ability to cope, repair, heal, etc.... so generally anything you can do to reduce or eliminate those stresses adds directly up to health and quicker healing.

 

Likewise for what you feed them.  Something live (blackworms are popular) is very superior to something dry or processed. Whole-frozen is a very good second-best though. 

 

Also curious what is the rest of your process for them before they move on successfully to the main tank?  I would place even more emphasis on taking additional stress reduction measures if you plan to subject them to more medications before they get out.

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I love the side-conversation by the way.

 

I first got access to frozen jackfruit about a year ago – it's fascinating all the way around.

 

One of the first things I did with jackfruit was to make a smoothie with it and dragon fruit — not a good combo in less you were looking for something that tastes like tomato-based spaghetti sauce.  Not what I was expecting.

 

I wanted to have a better approach for my next allotment of jackfruit so I haven't gotten any more since then.

 

Can you make a recommendation for more complementary fruits Or otherwise expound on what jackfruit flavor is like so I can try to do better next time? 😁

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Snow_Phoenix
24 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Sounds like things are going alright, but I wanted to share some thoughts just the same. 😉

 

It seems like the QT is a little small and could be updated with some more naturalistic details… I'm thinking of plastic aquarium plants or anything like that. Especially if you were running multiple fish in there at once.  If you stick with this method in the future I would probably run no more than one fish per bin for best results. 

 

These things are literally not a big deal but still add up to small stresses which compromise the fishes ability to cope, repair, heal, etc.... so generally anything you can do to reduce or eliminate those stresses adds directly up to health and quicker healing.

 

Likewise for what you feed them.  Something live (blackworms are popular) is very superior to something dry or processed. Whole-frozen is a very good second-best though. 

 

Also curious what is the rest of your process for them before they move on successfully to the main tank?  I would place even more emphasis on taking additional stress reduction measures if you plan to subject them to more medications before they get out.

Hi, sorry if my responses are slightly skewed - am half-asleep atm. 

 

Usually I do use larger bins (10G - 12G or even 20G). The reason I opted for a smaller bin this round is because I'm still disinfecting my larger bin after the fluke incident with the brotulid. I don't want anything to be 'carried over' from that fish (viruses or bacteria) so I'm still drying it out in the hot sun. My 20G bin was just scrubbed off and disinfected as well - I was using it to cultivate algae, just in case, to feed my Starry Blenny. But the algae that grew in there was bluish (?) so I scrapped it all off and will be cleaning it for 3x rounds just in case. 

 

So I was left with the smallest bin, which is around 7.5G - 8G, and used to be my vermidigester. It was the only bin I had left that wasn't tainted and could be spared. 

 

I can't get a hold of live blackworms here but I can get hold of tisbe pods and rotifers (live) on occasion, and my freezer is packed with a variety of frozen fish food - mysis, brine, baby brine, cyclops, bloodworms, diced shrimp etc. I wanted to go slow on the feeding - because the fish are still in a very new environment, and it usually takes a while for them to eat. 

 

As for the process, I plan on doing 3x rounds of PraziGold (full 100% WC every 3 days after 1 drop of med is added). I have Quick Cure, given to me in a tiny bottle by the store, but I won't be using that unless the fish shows signs of external parasites like flukes. I'll be adding a small sandbox and will put another plastic cave inside the QT. I used to have a small LR piece that I kept in the QT bins, but I dried it out and have inserted it into the sump of my 60G. 

 

The treatment plan will be based on the fish itself. If they show no signs of illness or unusual behavior within 2 weeks+, then I will add them 1 by 1 to my 60G reeftank. 

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Snow_Phoenix
10 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I love the side-conversation by the way.

 

I first got access to frozen jackfruit about a year ago – it's fascinating all the way around.

 

One of the first things I did with jackfruit was to make a smoothie with it and dragon fruit — not a good combo in less you were looking for something that tastes like tomato-based spaghetti sauce.  Not what I was expecting.

 

I wanted to have a better approach for my next allotment of jackfruit so I haven't gotten any more since then.

 

Can you make a recommendation for more complementary fruits Or otherwise expound on what jackfruit flavor is like so I can try to do better next time? 😁

Well, tbh - I have never attempted to blend jackfruit or turn it into a smoothie lol. 

 

But maybe if you combine it with something more delicate like red apples, it might work? 🤔

 

There's a store in a mall near my home that dedicates itself to creating the oddest fruit and veggie smoothies I've ever seen. But drinking a glass of carrot + kiwi + milk has never sounded appealing to me lol.

 

You could try making a longan drink though - Mix longan and lychee with tender sea coconut (not to be confused with regular coconut) and mata kucing. It's very, very refreshing - although it can be a bit thick and sweet, especially if you put too much sea coconut in the mix. :happy:

 

Another drink which I really like here is sugar cane juice (tebu). But it's very high in glucose/sugar, and gives a great energy boost - especially if it's an extremely hot day and you're working out/extremely sick and losing fluids. 

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Jackfruit is usually described as a mix of cantelope, apples, banana, and in very ripe fruit a bit of cream and onion-y funk.

It actually blends very well by itself with just a bit of milk and ice, otherwise it mixes well with citrus, peaches, and papaya (also pretty okay with green tea or yogurt).

Honestly if you can find a fruit to break down you can get it for $2 a pound and it's quite amazing by itself, just be cautious if you have a mrytle or latex sensitivity. (both working with and eating, I recommend olive oil on your hands to keep the latex off)

 

Dragon fruit are kind of bland imo, but the flowers are incredible and I love the cactus itself (it grew like a weed on island).
There are better cactus fruit out there for sure; blueberry cactus fruit, Cereus Peruvianus in florida, saguaro fruit is great, heck even the common prickly pear is fantastic.

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  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

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