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

[Snow_Phoenix]

This just came in via courier:

 

 

 

I'm hoping my dragonets will take to it, especially Icarus. The pellet size seems small enough (~0.5mm) for him to eat, but it is up to the fish to decide if it'll go for the food or not. 🤷‍♀️

 

Also spotted Bella actively cruising the tank for pods:

 

 

 

I love how much progress she has made so far. 😊👍

 

Also spotted Goblin enjoying his new 'couch' : 🤗

 

 

 

He's staying clear of the cynarina's mouth, which was pretty smart for a little fish. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tiny elegance today evening - it's doing well so far, and I'm in love with it: 🥰

 

 

Odin peeking out of Tic's (my zebra barred dartfish) burrow:

 

 

Nero stealing pellets from my brown palys: 

 

Hungry Bella treating herself to some pellets:

 

Stalking Poseidon for a bit:

 

Tank is doing okay. The glass is very dirty though - so I'm going to scrape it in a bit. 👍

 

My Saron shrimp molted today as well - dude keeps getting bigger and bigger. 🤷‍♀️

 

I noticed my cup coral has flared out about an inch or so ever since I added an extra light over this tank. I *might have to move it to the central rock ledge to give it more room to grow. 🤔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Lots of pics ahead, so I'm splitting it into several updates:

 

Update #1: Dragons. 🐲🐉

 

Bella: 🥰

 

 

Icarus: 🔥

 

 

Poseidon: 💦

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illaron was such a recluse. I tried stalking him for about half an hour, but then gave up. He's fine, btw. Lateral lines can't be seen and his belly isn't sunken, but he's still not as thick as Bella. 😕

 

I'm literally throwing everything I have at him - he's eating, but still remains lean. Maybe he'll like the new NLS pellets I bought? 🤔

 

God, I hope so. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2: Fish. 🐠

 

Thanos: 😎

 

 

Goblin: 🥰

 

 

Bo & Dude:

 

 

Odin:

 

 

Helios: ☀️

 

 

Helios is still missing a few scales from the one time he jumped and scraped himself on my lid, but overall, health and behavior-wise, he seems to be doing okay. 👍

 

Goblin is currently having another flare up of lympho, but he's still active & eating. All other fish are fine, but...I miss my pink streak wrasse, Miu. 😓

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #3: Corals. 

 

I scraped the glass yesterday and it turned out to be extremely filthy. The good news is that today I could see my corals very clearly, and it was honestly like looking into a whole new reef. 😊

 

Bubble coral: 😊

 

 

 

Elegance coral:

 

 

 

Yuma: 

 

 

😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hello. I haz moar pics. 😋

 

Elegance coral:

 

 

 

 

^A little bit worried over this piece. Truth be told, this was a *fragged piece when I purchased it, and some corners of the skeleton can be seen when the coral retracts for the night. But I'm hoping it'll grow over the rim & recover in time. 

 

Bubbles! 🥰 :

 

 

 

Puffed up:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

This guy makes me giggle whenever I see him. His googly eyes makes him look so derpy! 🤣 :

 

 

Leopold is insanely hard to film because he moves too fast. I would love to get an ultra-clear pic of him one day:

 

 

Triple threat: 😮

 

 

Shrooms! 🥰 :

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Moar shrooms! 

 

(Well, mainly yumas, but still!) : 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have another small purple yuma with an orange & green rim, but I couldn't get a pic of it from the side. A topview might be okay though. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Find the blenny: 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sleepy with a full belly tonight: 🥰

 

 

Puffed up cynarina:

 

 

Cubert on patrol:

 

 

The monster:

 

 

Bella snacking:

 

Territorial Thanos:

 

A quick snack:

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Bo sleeping out in the open? 🤔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I made so many mistakes today and in short, it was a f*cking nightmare.

 

1. I lost my baby fire eel & 3.5-year-old (going on 4) mature, 6" torpedo barb from my 70G FW tank. We've hit rainy season and pre-monsoon season in the tropics, and it's very cold outdoors - my tank temp. plummeted from it's usual 29'C to 30'C, to 24'C over 12 hours. I lost two fish, and a few others broke out in white spots - whole tank slid downhill in the morning.

 

2. I purchased a very, very small <3" occellated butterflyfish from my LFS today. It had a ripped tail because it was being nipped by the larger fish in the DT it was in at the store, but I've done some *light research on this fish before, and other than the fact that it gets nippy towards SPS like acros (which I have none of), it's general temperament was *supposed to be peaceful. I was wrong, so very, very wrong.

 

The fish was nuts. The moment it went into the tank, it immediately established territory over the central open space, right above my giant bubble coral in the sandbed. Then it started actively chasing after all my wrasses, and even my clownfish! 

 

It was acting exactly like a damsel. Honestly, the damn thing was probably a damsel in disguise. I had to spend over 2+ hours, tearing up my entire scape, using 3 different nets and multiple holding buckets to hold my rocks and coral while I chased it all over the stupid cube to catch it.

 

3. I forgot I had nanofish that hide in rocks. When I placed my rocks in buckets and bins, they were only partially immersed in SW. I was very focused on getting this one fish out, that I disregarded the fact that my nano-sized nanofish - like little gobies and blenny, will be hiding in the rockwork. When I caught the fish and isolated it in a cup, and re-scaped my tank, I was horrified when I spotted my circus barred goby plop into the water, spin around upside down and sink to the bottom, with its gills working overtime. 

 

The 60G was very cloudy because I messed with the rockwork & sandbed, so I knew Prowler would die in this tank. He was so weak that he didn't swim away when I cupped him out of the water using my hand, and I ran to the opposite side of the bedroom and dropped him into my Pico. That's when it struck. How many other fish did I have which were probably stuck in rocks out of the water due to my carelessness? 

 

Did a headcount - found every fish - including my GCG, except for Miko, my TSB. 😞

 

I checked the rugs around the tank first - just in case he somehow fell out while I lifted the rocks from the bin to re-add them back to the tank. No-go. I looked for him throughout the evening - and couldn't find him. I was hoping he'd pop up somehow, like he usually does. 

 

Finally, just a couple of mins. ago, when my lights were both off for the day, I used the torchlight on my phone to take a closer look at all the crevices in my rockwork. I found him, dead and stuck inside one of the holes in my rock - just as I feared. 

 

 

His body is still jammed tight in there - and the only way to remove it would be using forceps. I'm dead exhausted. Today started out as one of those days which completely spirals out of control, and I paid for it by losing 3 fish. 

 

R.I.P. Little Miko. Swim free. 🐟

 

P.S. Prowler survived in the pico & is now breathing normally, has ripped fins, but will recover fully in time. 

[debbeach13]

That’s so terrible. I lost a fish once the same way. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

19 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

That’s so terrible. I lost a fish once the same way. 

I seem to be having a lot of bad luck with fish lately - I'm not even sure why. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

This was the occellated butterflyfish:

 

^DON'T GET THIS FISH. 

 

[Tamberav]

Damn.. that's crazy. Sorry it happened 😞 Who would have known such a cute little fish would be a monster. I don't think the US really gets those guys in. 

 

I had a Bellus angel that would terrorize little fish... I really like them but afraid to try another because of it. My kole tang will kill anything put in AFTER it so I have to pull it out every time I want to add a fish which sucks. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

10 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Damn.. that's crazy. Sorry it happened 😞 Who would have known such a cute little fish would be a monster. I don't think the US really gets those guys in. 

 

I had a Bellus angel that would terrorize little fish... I really like them but afraid to try another because of it. My kole tang will kill anything put in AFTER it so I have to pull it out every time I want to add a fish which sucks. 

I returned it to the store today and traded it in. 😞

 

My LFS Manager kept calling it a 'baby copperband' until I showed him pics and explained it was a different fish altogether. I told him it has the temperament of a damsel though. 

 

I thought Bellus angels were supposed to be peaceful? I get that tangs can be real buttheads though. You should see the purple tangs at both of my LFSes - they always, always kill off the yellow ones in the DTs, even though the yellow tangs are more established and have been introduced earlier. Fish are weird - and individual fish with individual temperaments make it difficult to stock tanks sometimes. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

All four of my dragonets this morning (before I went to the LFS) - Poseidon (Spotted Mandy), Icarus (Ruby Dragonet), Bella (Fem. Scooter) & Illaron (Male Scooter) :

 

 

So I went back to my secondary LFS today to return the butterflyfish. They offered a trade in equivalent of the amount I paid for the butterfly. I picked up an adult blue Mandy (~Poseidon's size) & a browned out Acro frag with bits of green & pink left on it ---> I placed the coral in my pico, where it'll have a greater chance of recovery since that tank is much cleaner than the 60G, and I do full WCs every weekly/biweekly. 

 

The Mandy I picked up has a broken dorsal fin - I *think it was caught from the wild using the spearfishing technique (?) --> just guessing here, but the dorsal fin is damaged. The belly is a bit sunken, but from a dorsal viewpoint, he looks very thick and vibrant:

 

He definitely has some spunk to him - and a bit of a wild streak (here he is, spitting water/bubbles at me when I hovered too close) :

 

 

So while I was acclimating the new Mandy in a bucket, I watched Poseidon give a pep-talk to Icarus: 

 

And I've often wondered between my Starry Blenny & my Spotted Mandy - which one of the two was the most dominant fish of all in the tank? 🤔 :

 

 

I found out today - it's actually my Mandy, Poseidon. Hands down, he wins, and even takes over Thanos. He was *not happy at all when I added the new Mandy to the reef. Nope, nope, nope!

 

So the safest place I could think of placing the new Mandy was my fuge. It took him a while, but he settled right in:

 

And he seems to like (?) it there. I think having a lot of macro as cover + rockwork teeming with pods and microfauna helped the fish settle in faster. I'll have to work on conditioning him and weaning him onto prepared food though, which *might take a while. My track record with wild Blue Mandys is that they're often stubborn and don't really eat/fare well in captivity. 😕

 

And now there's the added challenge of 'finding' him, because he blends in so well with the caulerpa in the fuge, that he's become difficult to spot. If I have too much difficulty finding him to feed him, then I'll isolate him in a breeder box in the fuge itself. I personally don't like restricting a fish this active to a tiny box, but getting him to eat ASAP takes precedence over everything else when owning a dragonet. 

 

If I succeed, and the fish is successfully weaned onto frozen (or even pellets), then I'll transfer him to my 10G nano. The nano is macroalgae dominant and crawling with pods. If I can get a hold of a nice aquarium cabinet or stand, then I was thinking of upgrading the nano to a standard 2' ft long, which is roughly 16G. The extra 6G might not seem like much, but I can use the space to pack in more types of macro. New tank will also probably be set up via TTM - I have excess established LR and macro from the two fuges of my 60G which I could always pull over. 

 

I really want to do right by this fish - it's one that I've tried to so hard to keep, but have a lot of difficulty in doing so because they're difficult to get onto prepared fast enough before their body condition deteriorates. All wild-caught Mandys here have that same issue, but I noticed Spotted Mandys seem to fare better than the other types. Their bodies are generally thicker at full health too. 🤔

 

Also, there is something else I purchased from the LFS today, which wasn't a trade in, and is most certainly not a fish. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I picked up a very large purplish/bluish-tipped neon green elegance coral today: 

 

It's huge! 😄

 

 

^It still hasn't opened up fully in my tank - I'm pretty sure it was *slightly larger than this at the store. I'm very, very happy with this purchase. Here's my two elegances now - Elegance Sr. on the upper left, and Elegance Jr. on the sandbed:

 

Elegance Jr. looks similar to Elegance Sr., but has bright pink tips and noticeable striations on the main body of the coral. 

 

I'm still keen on picking up more shrooms to repopulate mushroom mountain, and a healthy, large frogspawn to occupy the back central ledge in the tank. 

 

 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

On 7/29/2020 at 8:00 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

I made so many mistakes today and in short, it was a f*cking nightmare.

 

1. I lost my baby fire eel & 3.5-year-old (going on 4) mature, 6" torpedo barb from my 70G FW tank. We've hit rainy season and pre-monsoon season in the tropics, and it's very cold outdoors - my tank temp. plummeted from it's usual 29'C to 30'C, to 24'C over 12 hours. I lost two fish, and a few others broke out in white spots - whole tank slid downhill in the morning.

 

2. I purchased a very, very small <3" occellated butterflyfish from my LFS today. It had a ripped tail because it was being nipped by the larger fish in the DT it was in at the store, but I've done some *light research on this fish before, and other than the fact that it gets nippy towards SPS like acros (which I have none of), it's general temperament was *supposed to be peaceful. I was wrong, so very, very wrong.

 

The fish was nuts. The moment it went into the tank, it immediately established territory over the central open space, right above my giant bubble coral in the sandbed. Then it started actively chasing after all my wrasses, and even my clownfish! 

 

It was acting exactly like a damsel. Honestly, the damn thing was probably a damsel in disguise. I had to spend over 2+ hours, tearing up my entire scape, using 3 different nets and multiple holding buckets to hold my rocks and coral while I chased it all over the stupid cube to catch it.

 

3. I forgot I had nanofish that hide in rocks. When I placed my rocks in buckets and bins, they were only partially immersed in SW. I was very focused on getting this one fish out, that I disregarded the fact that my nano-sized nanofish - like little gobies and blenny, will be hiding in the rockwork. When I caught the fish and isolated it in a cup, and re-scaped my tank, I was horrified when I spotted my circus barred goby plop into the water, spin around upside down and sink to the bottom, with its gills working overtime. 

 

The 60G was very cloudy because I messed with the rockwork & sandbed, so I knew Prowler would die in this tank. He was so weak that he didn't swim away when I cupped him out of the water using my hand, and I ran to the opposite side of the bedroom and dropped him into my Pico. That's when it struck. How many other fish did I have which were probably stuck in rocks out of the water due to my carelessness? 

 

Did a headcount - found every fish - including my GCG, except for Miko, my TSB. 😞

 

I checked the rugs around the tank first - just in case he somehow fell out while I lifted the rocks from the bin to re-add them back to the tank. No-go. I looked for him throughout the evening - and couldn't find him. I was hoping he'd pop up somehow, like he usually does. 

 

Finally, just a couple of mins. ago, when my lights were both off for the day, I used the torchlight on my phone to take a closer look at all the crevices in my rockwork. I found him, dead and stuck inside one of the holes in my rock - just as I feared. 

 

 

His body is still jammed tight in there - and the only way to remove it would be using forceps. I'm dead exhausted. Today started out as one of those days which completely spirals out of control, and I paid for it by losing 3 fish. 

 

R.I.P. Little Miko. Swim free. 🐟

 

P.S. Prowler survived in the pico & is now breathing normally, has ripped fins, but will recover fully in time. 

Nooooooooo!!!!! And you just about can’t replace a TSB these days!!! I’m SO SO SO sorry!!!

[Snow_Phoenix]

25 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Nooooooooo!!!!! And you just about can’t replace a TSB these days!!! I’m SO SO SO sorry!!!

I know - my secondary LFS doesn't want to order in any nanofish because they usually don't make it through the shipment alive/healthy. 😞

 

I thought of putting in a small order of nanofish through my primary LFS when they re-open, but I'm not sure if they can get a new pink streaked wrasse or TSB for me. 😕

 

Sigh. 

[debbeach13]

Good luck with the new fish. Love that new elegance! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

18 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Good luck with the new fish. Love that new elegance! 

Thanks, and I love it too! 🙂 

[Tamberav]

10 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I returned it to the store today and traded it in. 😞

 

My LFS Manager kept calling it a 'baby copperband' until I showed him pics and explained it was a different fish altogether. I told him it has the temperament of a damsel though. 

 

I thought Bellus angels were supposed to be peaceful? I get that tangs can be real buttheads though. You should see the purple tangs at both of my LFSes - they always, always kill off the yellow ones in the DTs, even though the yellow tangs are more established and have been introduced earlier. Fish are weird - and individual fish with individual temperaments make it difficult to stock tanks sometimes. 

 

They are planktivors and sometimes attack other fish they see as competition. She really hated a firefish and a goby. Probably an individual fish thing. She was tiny too.. maybe 2 inches at best but a little terror. I will probably try one again someday as the fish I have now are larger and more bold and could give an angel a run for their money. 

 

I had her in a 75g (when I had one for a short while b4 I had to move again) so it wasn't like a tiny tank. Her companions were clowns, blennies, gobies, firefish, filefish etc... so she was the biggest/fastest thing in there so maybe it went to her head 🙄

[Snow_Phoenix]

My view from the bed today morning: 🥰

 

 

Remember this guy? 

 

 

 

Well, his grand plan of sowing red algae all over the tank failed...and he's not too happy about it. 😅

 

 

^Also, notice that large cave at the bottom left of the pic? The Blue Mandy is currently taking refuge in that cave. I saw him move about earlier - he seems to be okay. It'll take time for his dorsal fin to recover though. 

 

I've decided to name him Titus - after a book character in a series that I used to read. 😊  

 

Oh, and here's a random shot of one of my yumas: 

 

 

Need to collect more of these guys. 😊