Snow_Phoenix Posted September 19, 2021 Author Share Posted September 19, 2021 Managed to get a few shots of Illaron as well: Illaron scoping out the rocks for pods to eat: Mercury was quite evasive this morning, so I could only watch him, but not film him. He's doing fine however. Not chunky or super thick, but above average in terms of girth & size. I'm not sure if he can get any larger; he's already around ~3.5". Hmm. Guess I'll just have to wait and see. 🤔 5 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 19, 2021 Author Share Posted September 19, 2021 These two were a point of interest this morning: The giant tunicate is still existing and alive. It's covered in a mix of things, including algae, tiny clams, some shrivelled up shrooms, ball nems, duster worms & tiny sponges. Very cool. 😊 The yellow sponge came as a super tiny patch on one of the rocks (hitchiker) and it has spread out & grown ever since. I think it's quite unique & pretty. I don't do anything specific to feed it or the tunicate, but since I pump the tank with a lot of food on a daily basis, I assume it somehow manages to consume some tiny food particles suspended in the water column. I truly wish sponges could be kept long-term in reef aquaria. BME, the fancy colorful ones at stores seldom last. But the tiny hitchiking ones are hardier. Just less colorful. 🤔 5 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 20, 2021 Author Share Posted September 20, 2021 I caved. He's currently in the nano though, but my damsel is being a jerk. Will move him into the 60G when I WC the nano this week. He managed to find the network of tunnels within my main LR: Believe it or not, I splurged a bit and decided to try out an angelfish again: This dude's currently taking refuge under my main LR ledge at the back of my 60G. 2 1 2 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 That's great. Good luck with the new additions. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 20, 2021 Author Share Posted September 20, 2021 14 minutes ago, debbeach13 said: That's great. Good luck with the new additions. Thanks, Deb! The angel is busy exploring the tank. The blenny is still settling in in the nano: He's tiny, but feisty. Still in camomode. Lights are already off for the night in both tanks. 5 Quote Link to comment
chipz Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 Yay, the blenny is so cute! And those clove polyps (?) look awesome. My fingers are crossed my LFS will still have a midas blenny in stock on Wednesday. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 21, 2021 Author Share Posted September 21, 2021 25 minutes ago, chipz said: Yay, the blenny is so cute! And those clove polyps (?) look awesome. My fingers are crossed my LFS will still have a midas blenny in stock on Wednesday. I haven't seen a midas for a while here - they are notoriously poor shippers though. 😕 Was quite excited to finally acquire the blenny though! Still waiting on a starry. 😊 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 21, 2021 Author Share Posted September 21, 2021 Blurry pics, but here's a CUC team up for the morning: The new angel, Charlie, is doing well & now actively grazing on the algae coating the rocks: 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 21, 2021 Author Share Posted September 21, 2021 I'm planning on heading down to my primary LFS some time in October. Made a quick list of a few critters I'd like to get my hands on - most of which comprise of CUC in a way: 1. Cleaner Shrimp x1 2. Turbo or Turban Snails x4 3. Tuxedo Urchin x1 or x2 4. Hermit Crab x2 5. Decorator Crab x1 As for fish, I'll be keeping an eye out on these two as my last 2 fish for my tank: 1. Starry Blenny 2. Geometric Pygmy Perchlet If ever I'm lucky enough to snag a perchlet, I will *most likely transfer it to my nano though, but I haven't quite made up my mind yet. 🤷♀️ Also, if everything goes well, this December, I'll try to drop by my primary LFS again, but this time I'll be picking up a 25kg of Fritz RPM salt (blue box), several yumas (I'll be observing both my angel & foxface very carefully over these next few months - if they don't touch my pre-existing yumas, then I'll risk adding 2 or 3 more new ones, just for a splash of color in the tank) & also *maybe 1 or 2 leathers. The leathers are very risky because of the angel. I can add very small, cheap frags, and see what can be worked from there. Basically, the tank will still remain a FOWLR for the most part - just with less than 10 or so odd corals here and there in it. Strictly *no duster worms, zoas/palys, LPS, clams, gorgs, fancy sponges or SPS! Those will not even last an hour in the tank with the stock that I currently have. I might not follow through with the softies addition, tbh. Because I'm trying to keep this tank as low-maintenance as possible, to ease off the stress of managing it too much. With shrooms, it's easy because most shrooms are hardy and tolerate parameter swings quite well. More advanced corals are picky and don't fare as well. Either way, I'll have to set aside some finances for October. The prices of livestock have increased a lot, and CUC isn't cheap either. The cleaner shrimp isn't exactly necessary, but the urchins and snails are a must. The decorator crab would be a welcomed bonus because my previous one did help seed my fuge with various macro while it was alive, and easily the most beneficial critter in my sump. Hermits are sort of 50/50 for me. If they're too expensive, I'll pass. 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 22, 2021 Author Share Posted September 22, 2021 Mornin'. Tiny asterina eating algae on the rocks: Illaron foraging for pods: Mercury hunting below: I realize in the first pic, he looks like he has a split tail fin, but I double checked and his tail is intact. Looks like a lighting issue from my phone's camera. 😅 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 22, 2021 Author Share Posted September 22, 2021 Charlie the angelfish is still a bit shy. He seems to like picking algae off my giant tunicate though. 😊 I have to zoom in to take pics of him because he's not too comfortable with me lingering too close to the glass yet. I wonder if I can entice him with some nori. 🤔 One good thing about this tank is it's full of algae, so there's a constant supply of food for him, Foxy (foxface), the snails, and the urchins. Foxy has actually thickened out a lot since I first brought her home. She's roughly 6.5" now - should hit 7" by the end of this year, I think. 🤔 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 28, 2021 Author Share Posted September 28, 2021 Charlie the angelfish says hello! 😊 6 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 29, 2021 Author Share Posted September 29, 2021 More pics of Charlie (today morning). 😊 Currently trying to find a safe way to chip my yumas from the rock to move them to my nanoreef. I think they'll grow and thrive better there. 🤔 5 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 4, 2021 Author Share Posted October 4, 2021 New guy! 😅 7 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 4, 2021 Author Share Posted October 4, 2021 Forgot to add - I was initially planning on picking up 2 urchins from the store. But they had only 2 tuxedos left - one of which already belonged to another customer (he's boarding his livestock at the store while he heads overseas for 2 months). The rest were extremely large halloween urchins - some of which was the size of a small softball. I was quite hesitant over choosing one of those, because they seemed to be too large, and quite possibly, too old already. I *did see some snails in stock, but all of them were the type that 'can't-flip-themselves-back up-if-they-get-knocked-down-and-will-quietly-rot-in-your-tank'. So naturally, I wasn't too keen on getting those, and I rather wait for a stock of mexican turbo/turban snails. There wasn't really much else, CUC-wise. Most of the shipment this round focused heavily on fish, and also the display of pre-existing coral frags & colonies. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 New Tux is reasonably active and has begun tackling the algae on my rockwork. 👍 Patrick lounging about: Tank is doing okay. I saw a yellow longnose butterfly & a harlequin filefish at the store yesterday! 😊 Surprisingly quite affordable. Before anyone asks, no, I didn't purchase any fish for this tank - I have too many already. The only fish I'll truly cave in for is a blenny. My LFS did have an amazing selection of coral as always though. 😊👍 4 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 Just ordered some Brightwell's Chaetogro online. Should arrive in a few days - some of the macro in the fuge has began to die off mysteriously. I lost 50% of the original mass slightly more than 2 weeks ago, and regrowth is slower than normal. Since I currently don't have access to any suitable macro, I'll have to make do with what I have. Thankfully the dragonets seem fine and are content to be on a mix of live pods & prepared. Will need to order in a spider decorator crab from my primary LFS as well. I think the crab was one of the main reasons why my macro was thriving and growing extremely fast last year - it used to seed all areas of the sump with bits of macro, even pest algae like GHA and cotton candy. Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 6, 2021 Author Share Posted October 6, 2021 Taken through incredibly dirty glass: 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 7, 2021 Author Share Posted October 7, 2021 Casper the tangaroa goby just died. I've had him since 07/05/19 - which is roughly ~2.5 years. He was a good fish. 😔 Swim free, Casper. R.I.P. 💦 5 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 8, 2021 Author Share Posted October 8, 2021 Finally here! 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 12, 2021 Author Share Posted October 12, 2021 I got fed up staring at this everyday for weeks without end: I mean, I literally can't even see what's going on in there. My ankle is still very sore and painful, but I managed to use my good leg to get on/off a chair to slowly scrape the glass, bit by bit, with plenty of breaks in between. The film algae was rather thick and it took several hours for the water to clear up. Took a quick FTS when the tank was still clearing up - Charlie the angelfish seemed to be enjoying eating all the free algae 'sheets' floating around the tank: 😅 The rocks are quite fuzzy. Adding a new tuxedo urchin didn't have as much of an impact as I originally thought it would. I noticed the yumas look very lackluster in terms of coloration. When I'm stronger, I'll definitely work on pulling out the rock and chiseling off both shrooms. I think the colors should return once I transfer them to the nano. 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 12, 2021 Author Share Posted October 12, 2021 Foxy is very thick now! 🥰 Nero turns 3-years-old this December: 🥰 Charlie: 👀 The vermiculate pattern is settling in very well. 👍 7 Quote Link to comment
Critteraholic Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 Heyyyy, cut the poor urchin some slack! You've only had him for about 8 days! 😊 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 13, 2021 Author Share Posted October 13, 2021 Dragonet Update! 🥰 Poseidon on the hunt for pods: 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted October 13, 2021 Author Share Posted October 13, 2021 Illaron: Mercury: (Sorry for the blurry pics - had to zoom in from a distance because Mercury is still skittish around me). 2 Quote Link to comment
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