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

[Snow_Phoenix]

Fading out:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

My male saron shrimp lurking in the shadows:

 

 

He's huge now. 😮

[Snow_Phoenix]

Bella having dinner today:

 

 

Icarus on the prowl: 🐲🐉

 

 

Nero spitting out some food:

 

[debbeach13]

Don't they always act like they haven't eaten in days!

[Snow_Phoenix]

15 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Don't they always act like they haven't eaten in days!

Yes, they do! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #1: Dragons in the Morning. 🥰🐲🐉

 

Poseidon: 🤗

 

 

 

Illaron: 😊

 

 

 

 

 

Still needs to add more weight, and most importantly, eat more. I think the main reason Poseidon (male mandarin) & Bella (female scooter) are chunkier than Illaron is because they are more aggressive eaters during the feeding session. 🤔

 

Icarus (ruby) seems to be somewhere between Bella & Illaron. I have seen him really go to town with the NLS pellets though! 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2: Shrooms. 😊

 

Rainbow yuma sideview:

 

 

Leopard discosoma - still hasn't regained original colors:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Perching:

 

 

Someone really needs to lay off the pellets. 🤣 :

 

 

 

Icarus: 🐲🐉

 

 

 

I think he's lost some weight. I still couldn't get a close look at him today because he scoots away, fast, from the glass when he sees me coming with my phone out. But if I'm not mistaken, he looks a bit bony - almost like Illaron, but not quite. 🤔

 

I'll increase frozen feedings and increase the frequency of target-feedings. My nitrates must be crazy high by now - tbh, I'm too afraid to check. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hungry cynarina: 

 

 

Both bubble corals looking bubbly: 😊

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I have some bad news - Miu, my pink streaked wrasse, passed away today in a freak accident in the tank. He was spooked by me trying to sink some pellets into the water for the dragonets to eat (I was stirring the surface of the water with a large bamboo chopstick - I've done this numerous times before with no incidents/issues until today) and bolted right into the glass at full speed. 

 

The impact damaged his mouth instantly. He couldn't close it, and drifted down to my cynarina:

 

Before I could even pull him out of the DT to isolate him, he died within seconds after this pic was taken. I didn't even have the time to get on the forum for advice - he jerked very violently several times (almost like a *seizure - I didn't even know fish could do this, and I was horrified) and just flipped upside down and died in front of me. 

 

I was honestly speechless for a few solid minutes. I've owned fish since I was a child, and I've never, ever, *ever, in my entire journey as an aquarist/hobbyist, ever seen a fish die from hitting the glass. I didn't even *think that was possible until today. 😞

 

The whole experience actually made me question whether I was even good enough to keep any SW fish to begin with. The last few days has actually been hell on a personal front, due to a lot of background issues, but I was hyperfocused on pulling my remaining tanks *together and improving them one by one. I started with my 70G FW eel tank, and although there were some ups and downs re-setting the tank (including rescaping it, and bringing home new eels), I was happy and decided to move forward with my Picoreef next, before tackling my 60G reeftank. I basically had a schedule set up to get my tanks back on track one by one over the course of the next ~4 weeks or so. 

 

I feel bad. My mother told me repeatedly to be careful - and I agree, this one was on me. I've been so comfortable sticking my hands or objects (eg. forceps, chopsticks, pipettes etc.) freely in the water, and the fish have never showed any signs of stress from it, so I just kept doing it, and I took it for granted. 

 

I lost Miu today because I was careless. And Miu was such an amazing fish - peaceful, colorful, very active, and also extremely rare and expensive. I'm not even sure if my LFS could ever pull in another pink streak, or if I could afford it again if they do. 

 

R.I.P. Miu. Swim free. (17/04/2019 - 18/07/20)

 

I'm sorry. 😞 

 

[chipz]

That's devestating! But you are exactly right that it was a freak accident. Please don't blame yourself, what you were doing was taking care of some of the other inhabitants of your tank, and it sounds like it really was a fluke that Miu startled. My fish, too, always seem perfectly at ease with gloved hands/tweezers/turkey basters/tubing etc. invading their tank. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

12 minutes ago, chipz said:

That's devestating! But you are exactly right that it was a freak accident. Please don't blame yourself, what you were doing was taking care of some of the other inhabitants of your tank, and it sounds like it really was a fluke that Miu startled. My fish, too, always seem perfectly at ease with gloved hands/tweezers/turkey basters/tubing etc. invading their tank. 

None of my fish have ever bolted into the glass like that before - jumped and hit the lid, yes (my black clownfish is a jumper) but swim directly into the glass at full speed, hit it and just die? Never. 

 

If possible, I don't ever want to go through that again. It was horrible watching her die in seconds, without being able to help her in any way. I was mostly in shock, tbh. Seeing her spasm was the worst. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I keep switching up with the 'him' and 'her'. Sorry about that. I'm still a bit flustered.

 

Today actually started off as a good day, but it just went downhill after 4pm. 

[Ratvan]

So sorry @Snow_Phoenix Miu was gorgeous. At least it was relatively quick by the sounds of it. It really doesn't sound like it was your fault either to be honest

[Snow_Phoenix]

There was a scheduled power outtage today for a couple of hours, so I set up a battery pump & large airstone to aerate the tank throughout the morning and afternoon: 

 

The fish were okay, but the corals weren't too happy. But the power kicked back in a little bit earlier, and everything returned back to normal. 👍

 

Bella:

 

 

Icarus:

 

 

Poseidon: 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some good news - Bella has gained some weight: 🤗

 

 

 

I don't think she'll be as thick as Poseidon though:

 

 

But I'm hoping she'll prove me wrong. The two of them are lunch buddies: 😊

 

Unfortunately, Icarus, my ruby appears to have lost a bit of weight. 😕

 

I'm hoping his feeding instincts will kick in harder, and he'll be a more aggressive eater in time. From what I've seen, he doesn't forage for pods as much as Bella does, but he is still very vibrant active. There *might be hope for him still, to survive and thrive long-term in this tank. 

 

Also, I found Goblin & Casper having a gathering near the rocks: 😄

 

 

Also spotted Goblin hanging around the mushroom-encrusted tunicate, which was unusual, because he's usually more comfortable between the polyps of my cup coral: 

 

 

I'll keep working on Icarus (the ruby) & Illaron (male scooter). They're not super-skinny, but they're not chubby & fat either. Fat dragon 🐲🐉 = happy dragon 🔥. 👍

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Poseidon looking hungry: 

 

 

Cubert hard at work:

 

 

 

Red devil shroom:

 

 

Goblin peeking behind the polyps: 🥰

 

 

Nero & Sushi swimming together (sorry about the dirty glass!) :

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Poseidon & Bella dining together:

 

Icarus dining solo:

 

 

I also cleaned out the sump a bit today and did a small 5G WC. Mostly siphoned out the cyano (you can't have these many dragons with a 'hyper-clean' tank due to all the extra food = excess nutrients), changed the sock and scraped the glass of the fuge. 

 

Will try to do another small WC on the DT soon. Also - I might pick up an elegance from my LFS:

 

 

 

^Should be either one of the big ones in the pics. I want to view the animals first to check if they're healthy first - Indo elegances can be quite tricky to keep long-term. 

 

Also looking into procuring an octospawn from another reefer who's breaking down his tank. Will see how it goes first. 🤔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Casper returned home today:

 

 

Goblin enjoying the cup coral:

 

 

 

Yuma: 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Followed Icarus around today morning - sorry if some of the pics are blurry. I had to zoom all the way in because he was quite far from the front glass panel:

 

 

 

 

These two hanging out together: 😊

 

 

Thanos last night: 😎

 

 

He's still ~6.5". I think he's hit max. size and won't grow any further. 👍

[debbeach13]

Thanos is a big boy!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Picked up a giant bag of macro from the LFS today, FOC : 😄

 

 

Turns out they gave me a bit *too much macro, so I wound up setting up a second mini-fuge in the sump today: 🤗

 

 

 

Also, I bought a few new corals for my pico, and had a cool purple-striped asterina hitchike on one of them. I transferred it over to the fuge of the 60G: 

 

 

 

 

For a tiny guy, it sure can move fast though! 😮

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I also picked up a super small pink-tipped green elegance for this reef today:

 

 

 

I wanted to get a large one, but they weren't too healthy. 🤔

5 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Thanos is a big boy!

Yep, he is! You should see how big his belly is after meals! 🤐

[debbeach13]

I know you wanted anther elegance. That looks like a nice one.

[Snow_Phoenix]

38 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I know you wanted anther elegance. That looks like a nice one.

Yep, I did! Glad I managed to get one. Now...the hunt for a frogspawn begins.