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

[chipz]

Wow, that Coral Beauty adds so much activity!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Corals are still opening up:

 

 

Someone was on the lookout for algae today morning:

 

And eventually found a good place to chomp for a while:

 

 

I put in some fresh seaweed on the clip - he finally figured out clip = food. 😊

 

Also discovered the 'P' a.k.a. polyps in my GSP were missing today morning. Either Beau got the munchies, thinking the GSP was some delicious algae, or the coral simply melted because it was too close to my hammer. 🤔

 

Either way, I'll be keeping a closer eye on the fish, just in case. I notice he's more interested in the green film algae coating certain parts of the rocks - and the seaweed, which he has newly discovered. 

 

Still wouldn't put it past an angel to take a nip at one of the corals every now and then. 

 

Also, I spotted Helios (yellow coris) emerge from under (!!!) my cynarina frag! I've always wondered where he slept - now I know. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

3 minutes ago, chipz said:

Wow, that Coral Beauty adds so much activity!

Yeah, he is! I love watching him weave between the rockwork. 😊

[A.m.P]

My damsel has recently taking to plucking the polyps out of my GSP, also that Angel is chubby and massive and I love it.

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Amphrites said:

My damsel has recently taking to plucking the polyps out of my GSP, also that Angel is chubby and massive and I love it.

Some of the GSP opened up just now - so I still have a few polyps left. I often find it strange when fish nip at a particular coral - especially well-fed fish. Do they think the coral polyp resembles food? Or are they simply being buttheads? 🤔

 

Thanks! I love how big and bold he is - especially today (he's no longer skittish). My starry blenny is still the most dominant fish in the tank, but the angel now comes in as a second. Like a lieutenant of sorts. 😛

 

Both him & Thanos also finished off the entire strip of seaweed I clipped in in the morning. Greedy guys. At least they now have bulging bellies to match. 😂

[A.m.P]

My damsel is just a ball of sass; bites the baster for the corals, moves coral frags around, nocks things over, pecks at the snails, fluffs up and flashes territorially at me and my wife. But also plays hide and seek, watches outside the tank constantly and follows us around, pokes in and out of the rocks.

 

Heck, she can feel us walking out of the room and we'll walk out to an inquisitive little face straining to tryin' see around the corner. Our own fluffy little living room welcome wagon every morning.

 

She's adorable and a pain in the butt.

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

My damsel is just a ball of sass; bites the baster for the corals, moves coral frags around, nocks things over, pecks at the snails, fluffs up and flashes territorially at me and my wife. But also plays hide and seek, watches outside the tank constantly and follows us around, pokes in and out of the rocks.

 

She's adorable and a pain in the butt.

Damsels are actually very cool fish. They're readily available here - but they always turn out to be terrors in my tanks, no matter how small/large the tank is. 😕

 

I even tried keeping a talbot damsel in my nano - which was supposed to be the *peaceful type - and in the beginning it was okay. Then it started terrorizing my clownfish, so I had to return it. 😞

 

They're very beautiful though - I love the Allen's damsel. That extra *shine is stunning under LEDs. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #1:

 

Bicolor hammer was very large and wide today: 😄

 

 

 

 

The Big Guy gave me the puppy-dog-eyes until I fed him more today evening. 😅

 

 

At least Goblin was more sedate. He still loves the elegance though:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2:

 

Caught Hermes out and about:

 

 

Still trying to grab a good shot of Beau - he slowed down a little when I turned the pumps off, but this was the best I could manage:

 

 

 

 

He's definitely a pleasure to watch though:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #3: 

 

Let it rain pellets! 😄

 

Poseidon & Bella were certainly taking their time to dine today:

 

Just a quick shot of the reef - a partial FTS of sorts: 🤗

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

On 8/21/2020 at 7:28 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

Spyder trying so hard to blend into my fuge - dude still won't let go of his dream to spread cyano in the sump: 🤣

 

 

 

 

Then I took a closer look at his legs, and he has tiny grape caulerpas on them! 😅

 

 

 

 

I hope this means he'll eventually favor the correct algae in the fuge! 😄

 

Reminds me of this:

 

 

😂

[Snow_Phoenix]

17 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Reminds me of this:

 

 

😂

🤣🤣🤣

[Snow_Phoenix]

Big this morning:

 

 

😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

He literally demolished an entire seaweed strip and hardly left anything for Beau, the coral beauty. And now he's begging for more. 😅

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just relaxing in front of the tank:

 

😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I scraped the glass today and decided to re-glue all fallen frags back to their original places. For some reason, my yumas & chalices kept getting knocked off the rocks and into the sandbed - I suspect this was the handiwork of Mr. Prickles, my purple rock urchin. He has a habit of bowling things over when he comes out at night to munch on my coralline/film algae. 😕

 

Anyhow, the yumas are back on the rocks:

 

 

 

 

And I'm thinking of picking up more of them in different colors, provided they aren't too expensive. 

 

And...most folklores have trolls living under bridges, but I have a giant brittlestar under my Yuma Bridge: 😮

 

 

Still can't believe how quickly these guys can grow. 

 

This red shroom has been with me for a long time:

 

 

And never really propogated, although it did grow in size. 

 

Also took a quick of my Superman shroom with a lil' baby shroom next to it: 🥰

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tic was very sedate today. Mostly peeking out of his burrow and watching me: 🤷‍♀️

 

 

Shot this from the opposite side of the tank (zoomed in) for a change: 

 

 

Fish & corals are all okay so far. Debating if I should drop by the LFS this week and pick up another LPS frag/colony for this tank, and maybe a zoa fraglet for the pico. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

This guy always makes me giggle - he looks so goofy when you stare at him directly: 😄

 

 

A quick close up of my bicolor hammer this morning:

 

 

Corals are still opening up under the morning lights - PE isn't full yet on any of the LPS pieces:

 

 

I scraped the glass yesterday and today I had a lot of fish playing/chasing their own reflections along the glass. They always do this in the early morning, late evenings, or right after having a full meal:

 

 

I *think Bella is gravid again. Looks like this might be a common affair for her from now on - but I think there's a high chance she'll reabsorb the eggs again like last time, so no 🐲🐉babies, unfortunately: 😕

 

 

However, I am secretly thankful that she is healthy and doing well. When I first started keeping dragonets in this reef, I was worried they'd be outcompeted for food by my other fish, especially my wrasses, which are also avid pod-eaters. 

 

It took a while, but the dragonets eventually adapted to my tank and accepted prepared food - which was a huge step up for me. It certainly eased up on the wallet a lot, because procuring pods was, and still is very expensive. 

 

But at least now I get a chance to feed them anything live, frozen and dry, and most of the time they'll accept it without issues. Pods are still an essential part of their diet - I feed them frozen copepods - Valdiviella insignis, to be more specific. 

 

 

The pods are actually cultured, packaged & sold by my LFS. But they are also repackaged & re-sold by third parties as well. 👍

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Thanos flared white today morning - the usual territorial display to say he owns the reef: 😄

 

 

 

Beau was very active today too:

 

 

 

I enjoyed watching him: 🤗

 

He still has two missing scales from brushing against the rockwork at the back of the tank, but I think that should grow back without issue. 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Goblin peeking in to say a quick hello: 🤗

 

 

 

 

LPS looks good today: 🥰

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Poseidon: 🤗

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanos & Icarus:

 

 

I've already put in a reminder for an order of a female ruby dragonet with my LFS. Just have to wait until a fresh batch of rubys come in - which may take weeks to months, depending on the supplier. Glad my store is still managing to get some new fish & corals in though. 

 

They have a nice tricolor acanthophyllia in stock - but it's ultra-premium and looks quite expensive. Wonder who'll get it. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Bella's super huge again: 🤗

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite happy she's doing okay. Her food consumption spikes up whenever she's gravid, so I try to feed her a little bit extra. 👍

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

More sponges, less cyano now: 😅

 

[debbeach13]

She is so big she looks like she might POP!

[Snow_Phoenix]

19 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

She is so big she looks like she might POP!

I know! It's quite amazing actually - I still haven't caught her releasing any eggs into the water column at night, so I'm just assuming she keeps reabsorbing them (or she might be releasing them when I'm not around - I'm not in my room 24/7  and usually slip downstairs at night to socialize with my parents). Although, it would be very cool if I could spot a baby dragonet in this tank someday. The chances of that happening are nil though. Most fish eggs/baby fish become quick snacks for the bigger fish/animals in the tank.