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

[Ratvan]

8 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I will. The space in the chamber is very restrictive though, because there are two pipes leading in/out of it. Will also need to get an ultra teeny-tiny container to catch the fish. 😓

Tea Strainer on a stick? 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Super-quick updates:

 

-Dropped by the LFS, borrowed an uber-tiny fish net from the store and managed to rescue my stranded goby.

-Discovered my pipefish was part of a 'bonded' pair and not just a 'pair of pipefish' - and I brought home one half of the pair and separated them by accident yesterday. Brought the second pipefish home today and they have been reunited in my fuge, and are swimming together.

-Became one of the first batch of customers to test out a new product by my LFS: frozen copepods. Frozen pods were accepted by the larger, newer pipefish after a while (I'll just call it a 'she' - I still don't know how to sex them) but the smaller male prefers his food live. 

-Will post pic updates tomorrow - am feeling very, very groggy and it's 30 mins away from midnight here. Will give a more detailed explanation of what happened at the store (with the pipefish issue), new product and my feisty Steinitz's capture. 

 

'Nite, NR. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Regular Update:

 

1. Steinitz Goby Rescue:

-I dropped by my LFS yesterday and borrowed a small square shrimp net from the store. Sterilized it with hot water, vinegar & soap and let it dry under the hot sun, before using it to rescue my goby. It was quite difficult - the net was the perfect size for the rear chamber, but the fish kept jumping and swimming around even as I tried to net it. Eventually it plastered itself to one side of the chamber and got stuck, so I could scoop it out rather easily. After releasing it into my DT, I noticed it kept jumping around the tank.

 

-None of my other fish or inverts were bothering it, but it was just super skittish, and I regretted adding it back into the reef. On hindsight, I should have moved it back into QT, fattened it up some more and then maybe slowly re-introduce it to the 60G via a breeder box, before releasing it into the DT itself. I haven't seen the fish at all today, and haven't checked my rear chamber yet. I won't be the least bit surprised if it has somehow jumped back into there. If it has, I think I'll nurse it back to full health and trade it back into the store for credit.

 

2. Pipefish:

-I had several panicky voice messages on FB from my worker-friend at the LFS. There was a fish I had been QTing for up to a month at home, but I returned it after doing more research & talking to experienced reefers that this particular fish would probably snack on my LPS and duster worm. I weighed in the risks, and decided it wasn't worth it. So I returned the fish and the store was helping me rehome it - and my worker-friend grew rather attached to it.

 

-It died at the store. Cause unknown, because through the pic sent to me, and personal account of my friend, the fish was very, very healthy and behaving normally the night before. She just opened the store in the morning and it was dead. So she panicked and was very upset/emotional because she liked it a lot, and we both managed to keep this fish alive for a total of 2 months combined together, long-story short - that's why I went to the store in person. I wanted to check up on her and make sure she was okay. Because she is my friend by the end of the day, and I value our friendship more than a dead fish. 

 

-She was fine when I arrived - busy with customers, still a bit upset, but appreciated that I swung on by. As I was chatting with another worker, I discovered that my pipefish were a bonded pair, not just a regular 'pair of pipefish'. It was a cringy moment, because I realized that separating bonded pairs probably isn't healthy for the fish. It took three people to catch the last pipefish - 'she' was hiding under a frag rack full of chalices and LPS, and was surprisingly fast. I brought her home, acclimated her and introduced her to my fuge, which held the first fish I purchased the day before. They immediately swam together. And I noticed the first fish perked up a *lot once his partner was with him.

 

-The male eats live pods. The female eats both live pods and frozen pods. Speaking of frozen pods, I became one of the first batch of customers to test a new product by my LFS - frozen copepods packed by the store itself:

 

So far, I find them both fast-eaters (faster than my Dragonfaces were, at least). They snick pods off the glass pretty quickly. And this might sound weird - but can pods go into stasis and come back alive when they frozen, and then thawed out and reintroduced into the tank? I know it sounds ridiculous, but after feeding frozen pods yesterday, I noticed I have a *lot of tiny live pods on my glass and rocks in the fuge today. I didn't have these many - even before introducing the pipes. So weird. 

 

But my microbrittles were happy with the frozen feast:

 

Love how their tiny arms wave in the water! So cute. 

 

I tried to take better close-ups of the pipes today, but the shots weren't too good:

 

Also tried feeding them frozen crab roe today:

 

So far the roe hasn't been really accepted by the pipes - but the microbrittles and pods went nuts. I had all sorts of things crawling out of the rockwork which I didn't even want to know of lol. 

 

3. Moving on, I visited my secondary LFS today to source out some good coral pieces as future additions to the reef. I saw this amazing sea fan:

 

Which was photosynthetic and large, but a bit pricey. I was about to leave the shop and was pretty much at the door when the manager asked me why I wasn't getting anything - I told him I'll be back next week, during my birthday on Sunday. He called me back to one of the main frag tanks and told me to pick out any coral I liked from the row of blasto frags he had. 😮

 

My jaw literally dropped. Tbh, the only people who do nice things to/for me are my close family and the occasional friend(s) I have here. Otherwise, to have someone whom I'm not close to actually be nice is like - well, I can't explain it. But it made me speechless. I thought he was joking and I didn't move for a few seconds. Then I realized he was being serious, so I wandered over to the frags and picked out a small orange-blue blasto to add to my collection. He packed it up and just smiled. And I thanked him and still am in a bit of disbelief, even hours later:

 

 

The colors are very nice in person. It's a tiny 2" frag with 2 heads, but I love it already and added it to my blasto garden. 

 

4. Just a quick flashback to yesterday, my father walked into my room while I was feeding the tank and asked where are all the fish from? I was confused for a moment, then I realized he was asking how did I wind up with so many fish. And yes, I had to stop and actually do a headcount - and I have more than a dozen fish in this thing. I've been stocking my tank, and overstocking it to drive up nutrients, to the point of being careless, and a bit reckless. (Dad still hasn't discovered the pipes in the fuge eek )

 

Definitely made me take a step back. There's a lot of activity in the tank - but my Steinitz gobies and yellow coris are the only three fish that still have some growing to do. Everything else has maxed out in size - my female clown might put on another half an inch, but once she starts reaching full maturity or breeding, we're definitely going to have some issues. And I still have a Yasha to add. 😕 

 

Deep down inside, I still really, really want to do a Leopard. But if I can acquire a healthy one, I'll stop fish-stocking and focus more on coral-stocking and maintenance instead. Sometimes, just because you want something, doesn't mean you can have it (?). Plus, more fish = more work! 

 

(Starting to think I should have somehow squeezed a 120G in my room instead, but then I'd be tempted to do a tang, and this cycle of fish additions will never end. I'm a fishaholic. )

 

 

 

 

 

 

[seabass]

22 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

He packed it up and just smiled.

Aww, that was really nice.

[Snow_Phoenix]

45 minutes ago, seabass said:

Aww, that was really nice.

My primary LFS contacted me last night and told me to come in today because they had a 'surprise' waiting. So after my clinical visit, I dropped by the store and they showed me a whole rack of frags and pointed out this small John Deere Leptastrea I had been eyeing on for months and said that's my birthday gift - 'Collect it next week on your birthday!' 

 

I kid you not. I was quite touched. The three of them (two workers + manager) decided to gift me with something, as a 'happy-birthday-and-thank-you-for-supporting-the-store-gift'. 

 

I honestly didn't expect both stores to give me anything - for my birthday, of all things! And it's not even Dec 15th yet! 

 

-

 

On a separate note, my store had a lot of interesting and expensive fish today:

 

Bellus angel (was purchased by a couple right in front of me - they asked a lot of questions about it and were debating on buying this or the swallowtail):

 

Squareback anthias & orange spot anthias (I think the orange spot was mislabeled because I checked online and it looks like a female squareback):

 

 

Pinnatus batfish (we discussed it very quickly - fish was too 'tall' to fit into the normal display tank, so they moved it to the main DT of the shop that hosts a mix of tangs, foxfaces, parrotfish & medium-sized groupers to give it more swimming room):

 

Deepwater flashlight fish:

 

Chameleon tilefish:

 

Swallowtail angel (cute!), hybrid eibli (purchased by a Singaporean - fish looks like a xanthic morph to me, very strong yellow coloring/pretty!), blue masked angel, juvi red coris and ornate leopard wrasse (!!!):

 

Store was flocked with customers going in and out. The shipment arrived midnight yesterday (they only closed the store at 1+am) because they air-shipped it, and there was a delay. Most of the fish, including the wrasses were quite expensive this round. But all of them were very healthy and some have already began eating pellets (like the tilefish, which was surprising). I picked out the smallest ornate leopard, got a great 20% discount from it, and brought it home.

 

 

 

The fish was very active at the store, but in my QT it kept lying down and breathing hard - this was going on throughout the afternoon to late evening. I shifted it from the 7G QT to my 10G nano between that time frame and there was no improvement. I panicked a little - I admit it. Because even with the discount, this fish was expensive and rare, and I didn't want to lose it too soon. Kept shuffling it from QT to QT and finally I decided, 'Fudge it, I'll risk it.' I acclimated it to my 60G and whaddaya know? The little bugger immediately perked up and started swimming perfectly *normally*, cruised around the rocks for pods, gave me the stink eye through the glass and as soon as the lights dialed down, retired for sleep in my sandbed. 

 

He literally played DEAD so that he could skip QT and get into my tank faster. 

 

 

 

Crossing fingers that he doesn't bring in anything with him. I didn't medicate my Lubbocks much before this except a drop of Prazi, so here's to hoping there won't be any issues with this fish later. I'll be adding my Yasha end of this week - she's improved considerably since I got her. 

 

And the tank is stocked and . No plans on doing anymore fish after this - just focusing on coral, maintenance and maybe picking up the occasional invert that looks cool or interesting. (Like a Halloween hermit/coco worm etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

51 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

My primary LFS contacted me last night and told me to come in today because they had a 'surprise' waiting. So after my clinical visit, I dropped by the store and they showed me a whole rack of frags and pointed out this small John Deere Leptastrea I had been eyeing on for months and said that's my birthday gift - 'Collect it next week on your birthday!' 

 

I kid you not. I was quite touched. The three of them (two workers + manager) decided to gift me with something, as a 'happy-birthday-and-thank-you-for-supporting-the-store-gift'. 

 

I honestly didn't expect both stores to give me anything - for my birthday, of all things! And it's not even Dec 15th yet! 

 

-

 

On a separate note, my store had a lot of interesting and expensive fish today:

 

Bellus angel (was purchased by a couple right in front of me - they asked a lot of questions about it and were debating on buying this or the swallowtail):

 

Squareback anthias & orange spot anthias (I think the orange spot was mislabeled because I checked online and it looks like a female squareback):

 

 

Pinnatus batfish (we discussed it very quickly - fish was too 'tall' to fit into the normal display tank, so they moved it to the main DT of the shop that hosts a mix of tangs, foxfaces, parrotfish & medium-sized groupers to give it more swimming room):

 

Deepwater flashlight fish:

 

Chameleon tilefish:

 

Swallowtail angel (cute!), hybrid eibli (purchased by a Singaporean - fish looks like a xanthic morph to me, very strong yellow coloring/pretty!), blue masked angel, juvi red coris and ornate leopard wrasse (!!!):

 

Store was flocked with customers going in and out. The shipment arrived midnight yesterday (they only closed the store at 1+am) because they air-shipped it, and there was a delay. Most of the fish, including the wrasses were quite expensive this round. But all of them were very healthy and some have already began eating pellets (like the tilefish, which was surprising). I picked out the smallest ornate leopard, got a great 20% discount from it, and brought it home.

 

 

 

The fish was very active at the store, but in my QT it kept lying down and breathing hard - this was going on throughout the afternoon to late evening. I shifted it from the 7G QT to my 10G nano between that time frame and there was no improvement. I panicked a little - I admit it. Because even with the discount, this fish was expensive and rare, and I didn't want to lose it too soon. Kept shuffling it from QT to QT and finally I decided, 'Fudge it, I'll risk it.' I acclimated it to my 60G and whaddaya know? The little bugger immediately perked up and started swimming perfectly *normally*, cruised around the rocks for pods, gave me the stink eye through the glass and as soon as the lights dialed down, retired for sleep in my sandbed. 

 

He literally played DEAD so that he could skip QT and get into my tank faster. 

 

 

 

Crossing fingers that he doesn't bring in anything with him. I didn't medicate my Lubbocks much before this except a drop of Prazi, so here's to hoping there won't be any issues with this fish later. I'll be adding my Yasha end of this week - she's improved considerably since I got her. 

 

And the tank is stocked and . No plans on doing anymore fish after this - just focusing on coral, maintenance and maybe picking up the occasional invert that looks cool or interesting. (Like a Halloween hermit/coco worm etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

yay for free corals!! 😃

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Updates!

 

New blasto looks puffy and nice. And for some reason, it keeps getting turned around and around in my tank. As in - whenever I wake up or check on the tank, it'll be facing a different direction, or angled differently. Still not sure who or what is messing with it, but the coral seems happy enough today:

 

Gary is tentatively okay too. I'm actually a little bit worried about him, because he's not as active as before. That, and I did find him flopped over in the sand/on my shrooms a few times. Not sure if it's a sign of starvation, but today he began moving around the tank again. 

 

My new Ornate Leopard still hasn't eaten anything. I'm not too worried yet, because if my memory serves me correctly, it took a whole month before my previous leopard began actively eating pellets. I will still keep trying to feed it though - planning on adding a bit of frozen mysis/brine tomorrow to the tank. One small issue with this fish is that he's still on Indo-timing. He literally gets up around 8am, and goes to bed around ~3pm. That's been his schedule for the past two days, so he's not present during the evening feeding slot - which is when I feed the tank more heavily as compared to the lunch slot around ~1pm. 

 

Hopefully he'll get onboard with local time soon. He's also extremely skittish and jumpy. Even when my other fish swim by or my cleaner shrimp's antennae touches him, he darts off very quickly and returns back to swimming in the flow. I have observed him circling my rockwork and occasionally pecking it (for pods maybe?), so I believe there's some hope for him. Just need to wean him onto prepared as soon as possible so that he'll be more stable.

 

Another update - this time about my banded pipefish pair in my refugium. If I'm not mistaken, we're on to Day 6 (or was it Day 5? 🤔) and both fish have now began eating frozen copepods. You can see them snicking the pods in the water column down below:

 

I'll work on getting the front panel of the glass clean so that they can be viewed better. I notice they frequently travel to the filter floss region of the sump, and peck the glass for pods there as well during different times of the night. Then they return to the fuge and sort of cruise above the rocks/macro for a bit.

 

I *might* be away for Christmas this year, for around 4 to 6 days. I admit I'm worried about the pipefish the most. I guess I could seed the tank with one/two bottles of live pods before I go, but I'll most likely be keeping both my Prime and fuge light off during this time. I'm concerned the macro might die off during such a long period with no light. Is it wise to keep the fuge light going for 4 to 6 days straight? Worried the light might burst/burn off in the interim, or worse there'll be a trip in the circuit somewhere and the main plug outlet will be damaged. 

 

I do have backup macro growing out in my nano-mantis tank, because whenever I prune my Chaeto or Caulerpa - I just toss it into the nano. Guess I'll have to plan this carefully.

 

And before anyone asks, I don't have a good ATO on hand atm. The Tunze one is very, very expensive and simply put, I can't afford it. I do have a cheap one but it has no set up instructions, and I think the connecting plug is not working from disuse. This is another reason why I'm planning on leaving the lights off - because I'm worried about the evaporation (6 days with continuous light use = roughly 6 to 7 buckets of water evaporated). The salinity swing will be high when I return, and I'll lose the more sensitive animals like my starfish and my pipefish.

 

So I guess it would be best to keep everything except the main pump and wavemaker off (?). 🤔

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Updates - too lazy to type it all down, so descriptions are in the Insta captions:

 

 

(Yasha spam ahead):

 

Lobo:

 

Prowler:

 

Gary:

 

Nose up!

 

FTS:

 

FTV during lunch time:

 

Good things:

 

-Nutrients finally back up

-Refugium is full of pods and other hitchikers

-Macro is flourishing

-Pipefish are eating frozen

-All small nanofish are okay

-Most corals are okay

-Mushrooms are splitting and growing like crazy

-Some LPS are very, very happy, large and puffy

-SPS is finally growing again - red monti is plating out quicker than before

-Softies have full PE

 

Issues:

 

-Elegance showing signs of BJD (ongoing battle for 2 weeks+ now)

-Green Frogspawn and Orange Frogspawn still has poor PE and is retracted in some areas (urchins keep knocking my frogspawn into the sand everyday)

-Red Symphyllia is skeletal around the rim but still eating

-Tank is over-overstocked with 17 fish including pipes, and the yellow coris is a bit of an asshat

-Lubbocks fairy wrasse hates my Chromis

-Derp ate Jerk

-My pistol shrimp stole my expensive red-spotted-yellow discosoma and doesn't want to give it back

 

Things to Do:

 

-Get more snails

-Get more mushrooms

-Rehome 2 to 3 fish if things don't improve (most likely the yellow coris & fairy wrasse)

-Add more macro to the fuge & scrub the glass of the sump

-Do a nice big WC before Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Another quick update for today:

 

I scrubbed the front glass panel of the refugium so that my pipefish can be viewed more clearly - here they are before the standard evening feeding session:

 

And here they are, snicking some frozen pods from the water column:

 

I've named them Prince & Lady. They're doing alright for now, but we still have a long way to go:

 

I notice they're more active at dusk/night rather than morning/afternoon. And they're a very calm pair - very slow and gentle swimmers. I'll pick up more frozen pod packs from my LFS and store it for future use. I *estimate a single pod pack can last up to 3 weeks or even a month, so they'll have a consistent food supply for the next few months or so. I'll keep trying to bait them with roe - and maybe chop up some mysis and try that too. Their mouths are so tiny. And they honestly look very fragile to me. 

 

Also managed to take a few shots of the wrasses today, although some of the pics came out blurry:

 

 

I think I made a mistake - my 'Ornate' Leopard is just a regular leopard wrasse (I compared it with other pics from various sites online, as well as pics of my Ornate leopard last year in the nano), and the pattern on the body doesn't add up. However, it definitely is still transitioning into a male because the spots are more joined-together, and the face is actually green (can't see it properly under my Prime) when a pic is taken with the flash on under regular white light. So I guess I'll just continue referring to it as 'he'. 

 

Not sure how long it'll take when it fully converts into a male though. It's still turning it's nose up at anything I throw into the tank, and prefers sourcing out its own food. But for now, the fish itself is quite plump and appears healthy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

We had a very slow Saturday evening today with the pipes - the male took some time to 'wake up' and move about and eat:

 

Took a couple of minutes, but they were both eating as usual. I noticed Lady's stripes are reddish-brown whilst Prince's stripes are a solid black. The difference is actually quite noticeable when the fish swims close to the glass - nothing unusual about it, I guess, just something of interest. 🤷‍♀️

 

I also managed to get a few shots of Miko the TSB today - and Oh My! He now has a small pot belly! 😮

 

 

Thanos was hanging out by the blasto garden today - he actually blocked my zebra dart's main burrow opening with his bulk 🤣:

 

 

The view today morning:

 

I still have a couple of issues with the four main LPS pieces I have - and my tuxedo urchin managed to pick up my red spotted yellow shroom from the entrance of my pistol shrimp's burrow, and is now toting it around like a new hat, idk. I'm mainly trying to nurse the frogspawns back to health - but I think it'll take a really, really long while before any of them bounce back. The orange one surprised me the most - it's still hanging on and has a large slit for a mouth which still accepts food, although most parts of it is skeletal. The green frogspawn is in limbo - some parts retracted, some parts large and 'fluffy'-looking. The Elegance is still recovering. 

 

Apparently most elegances die within six months here according to the LFS, but you do get the occasional coral that beats the odds and is still alive years later. All I can say is that Indo elegances are definitely much, much more delicate than their Australian counterparts. On hindsight, I haven't seen an Aussie elegance at my primary LFS for quite a while. But if they do bring them in, I wager it'll be at least triple the price of an Indo-variant, which is way out of my budget. 

 

I'll be heading over to another store branch of my primary LFS which usually has a very nice selection of frags. Am planning on picking up some snails (or money cowries, if they have them), and some tiny frags (mostly shrooms). Idk - will just poke around a bit and grab anything of interest, within reasonable financial means. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

Happy Birthday!!!!!! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Happy Birthday!!!!!! 

Thank you so much! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hola NR!

 

Today is my birthday, so I celebrated by dropping by my LFS - the one far from home - and purchased a *lot of tiny frags. Okay, maybe not a lot - but I calculated 12 frags and 1 colony. 

 

Most of them were various types of shrooms, chalices and favias. But I did manage to get a hold of other things, like a unique yellow/red cyphastrea:

 

A large-polyped green galaxea (Am aware it packs a sting) :

 

And this small fluorescent yellow elegance with purple tips <--- this was a gift from my mother, who insisted the tank needs a 'large' coral, as opposed to frags only:

 

Some of the shrooms I picked up include this unique bright blue shroom:

 

A blue-spotted red shroom (similar to the red-spotted yellow one that was stolen by my shrimp/urchin):

 

This really cute dual-colored yuma (orange rimmed with green):

 

As for the favias & chalices - here they are:

 

(I apologize in advance for the bluriness of the pics - but my lights were powering down, and due to the way of how I glued down some of the frags, not all of them can be viewed unless zoomed in from a distance)

 

Here's something very interesting I came across in the LFS: A large male Saron spp. (not to be confused with my Saron marmaratus) measuring at around ~7" including the claws. Since this was a rare find and it was relatively inexpensive, I purchased it with intentions of placing it in the sump (not the fuge, where my pipefish are but the portion Derp the hermit occupies) and sort of build a second macro-like environment for it. Only one big problem:

 

It took me 45 mins to reach home...and the shrimp was dead in the bag, which was a first for my LFS. I immediately took a pic of it, didn't open the bag (but shook it around - just in case it was lying on one side and inactive, as opposed to dead) but nope, it was definitely D.E.A.D. I called up the manager and also texted him a pic of the dead shrimp. He offered a full replacement when I return to the store, but here comes the second problem - this was the only shrimp of its kind at the store. And the only reason it even came was because it was a mislabeled shipment. 

 

It was a shame. Truly was. Because this was a very rare and exotic animal. I'm still not sure why it died so quickly - but then again, my fault here - I was more vested in coral-shopping than invert-shopping, so when I spotted this guy, I just told them to pack it, without observing the shrimp carefully first. Usually I am very careful when selecting animals - I can take up to an hour picking out a fish or invert, and observe them for a long time before deciding on bringing them home. Painful lesson: always observe, and don't rush! 

 

So no Saron spp. for me this round. 😞

 

I'll find Derp some other company - maybe getting him a pet algae tied to a rock or something, idk.

 

Oh! And here's something hilarious I spotted at the store:

 

(Turns out urchins don't only haul corals around! )

 

And here are some cute 1" tominis - this is my first time seeing a tomini this small for sale:

 

I'll try to grab better pics of the corals tomorrow. And one quick note: I was given two sticks (freebies) to try out. One is a green tenuis (looks healthy and vibrant) and another is a green-pink pocci (bleaching at the base - not very healthy). I'm hoping the tenuis would encrust and grow. Otherwise, I'll just keep trying to collect various montis again as far as SPS goes - and maybe try to get a hold of a green Pavona. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Hola NR!

 

Today is my birthday, so I celebrated by dropping by my LFS - the one far from home - and purchased a *lot of tiny frags. Okay, maybe not a lot - but I calculated 12 frags and 1 colony. 

 

Most of them were various types of shrooms, chalices and favias. But I did manage to get a hold of other things, like a unique yellow/red cyphastrea:

 

A large-polyped green galaxea (Am aware it packs a sting) :

 

And this small fluorescent yellow elegance with purple tips <--- this was a gift from my mother, who insisted the tank needs a 'large' coral, as opposed to frags only:

 

Some of the shrooms I picked up include this unique bright blue shroom:

 

A blue-spotted red shroom (similar to the red-spotted yellow one that was stolen by my shrimp/urchin):

 

This really cute dual-colored yuma (orange rimmed with green):

 

As for the favias & chalices - here they are:

 

(I apologize in advance for the bluriness of the pics - but my lights were powering down, and due to the way of how I glued down some of the frags, not all of them can be viewed unless zoomed in from a distance)

 

Here's something very interesting I came across in the LFS: A large male Saron spp. (not to be confused with my Saron marmaratus) measuring at around ~7" including the claws. Since this was a rare find and it was relatively inexpensive, I purchased it with intentions of placing it in the sump (not the fuge, where my pipefish are but the portion Derp the hermit occupies) and sort of build a second macro-like environment for it. Only one big problem:

 

It took me 45 mins to reach home...and the shrimp was dead in the bag, which was a first for my LFS. I immediately took a pic of it, didn't open the bag (but shook it around - just in case it was lying on one side and inactive, as opposed to dead) but nope, it was definitely D.E.A.D. I called up the manager and also texted him a pic of the dead shrimp. He offered a full replacement when I return to the store, but here comes the second problem - this was the only shrimp of its kind at the store. And the only reason it even came was because it was a mislabeled shipment. 

 

It was a shame. Truly was. Because this was a very rare and exotic animal. I'm still not sure why it died so quickly - but then again, my fault here - I was more vested in coral-shopping than invert-shopping, so when I spotted this guy, I just told them to pack it, without observing the shrimp carefully first. Usually I am very careful when selecting animals - I can take up to an hour picking out a fish or invert, and observe them for a long time before deciding on bringing them home. Painful lesson: always observe, and don't rush! 

 

So no Saron spp. for me this round. 😞

 

I'll find Derp some other company - maybe getting him a pet algae tied to a rock or something, idk.

 

Oh! And here's something hilarious I spotted at the store:

 

(Turns out urchins don't only haul corals around! )

 

And here are some cute 1" tominis - this is my first time seeing a tomini this small for sale:

 

I'll try to grab better pics of the corals tomorrow. And one quick note: I was given two sticks (freebies) to try out. One is a green tenuis (looks healthy and vibrant) and another is a green-pink pocci (bleaching at the base - not very healthy). I'm hoping the tenuis would encrust and grow. Otherwise, I'll just keep trying to collect various montis again as far as SPS goes - and maybe try to get a hold of a green Pavona. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing haul!!! And happy birthday!!!!! 🎊🎂🎁🎉 

[Snow_Phoenix]

31 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Amazing haul!!! And happy birthday!!!!! 🎊🎂🎁🎉 

Thank you! 🙂

[Snow_Phoenix]

Managed to get better snapshots of some of the corals I purchased yesterday:

 

The Yuma garden:

 

This piece fell of the rocks - will need to be reglued to mushroom mountain:

 

A microbrittlestar from my fuge:

 

Feeding time for Prince and Lady!

 

 

 

'What's up?'

 

These two are simply amazing:

 

Prince:

 

Lady:

 

I dropped by the LFS again today (the one closer to my home) and picked up 3 more frozen pod packs. The pods were enhanced with spirulina before they were frozen, so that is a plus. I haven't soaked any of the pods in selcon before feeding the fish though - do you think I should do it? Or is the spirulina gut-load more than enough nutrition for them both? 🤔

 

Something amazing happened tonight - my Yasha popped out of my dartfish's burrow! 

 

I was very worried when I didn't see her after the first time I added her to the tank. Honestly, I was about to consider her gone - maybe even finished off by my CUC, and then she surprises me by peeking outside Tic's home! And why I find this amazing is because that 'burrow' currently hosts 4 gobies - my zebra barred dartfish, both my steinitz gobies and now my Yasha. I even saw my Tangaroa swimming over to the burrow last night, but since he's still paired with my Pistol, he lives in a separate burrow on the right side of the tank, while everyone else occupies the left side of the tank. 

 

Thank goodness the fish aren't squabbling for territory. The Steinitz are still a big (?) because they will grow up to 5" according to LA. So I'm not sure how the dynamics of this live-altogether situation will change when those two become almost as large as my zebra dartfish. 

 

My Leopard wrasse is still very finnicky with food. But still plump (phew!). 

 

I saw some amazing multi-colored lobos being sold very cheaply at the discount rack today. *Might buy a pair of them after Christmas. Not sure yet - thinking hard about it, because currently some of my larger LPS still have issues. The only good news is that nothing is dead, and my older elegance is actually improving, although it remains small. My frogspawns are still the same - orange one is still a fighter and hanging on. I have to take a peek at the red symphyllia tomorrow from the top. Sideview doesn't really show me much about the coral, so it's hard to tell if there has been any improvement. 

 

I've added more macro to the fuge as of yesterday. Anything to make the pipefish comfortable and safe. I *might board them at the LFS when I'm gone for my Christmas break. Mostly because I'm worried they won't have enough food, and that the macro will die-off when I'm not around. I've already made arrangements with my LFS, and they are happy to board any fish that needs help. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

The mystery coral is a leptoseris, also I love the pipefish and wish llobos or bowerbankis went on bargain racks here, come to think of it I wish there were bargain racks here...

 

Glad the yasha turned up, sounds like you've got a goby cuddle-factory in your rockwork, need some transparent rocks haha.

[Ratvan]

Beautiful new additions, looking forwards to seeing them settle and grow

[Snow_Phoenix]

8 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

The mystery coral is a leptoseris, also I love the pipefish and fish lobos or bowerbankis went on bargain racks here, come to think of it I wish there were bargain racks here...

Yeah, someone on Insta clarified it was a leptoseris. It's actually bright orange and yellow - my camera phone can't capture the original colors, even with yellow filter lens on. I don't like manipulating pics, so it is what is. I did do more googling though and found a match for it: jack-o-lantern leptoseris. Looks exactly the same color-wise. 🙂 

 

Sorry to hear there are no discount racks there. I sometimes have a habit of picking out corals people don't want - or corals detached from rocks/half-dead corals, so that's how I budget and can still get a hold of some decent stuff without stretching the wallet too much. I usually avoid the premium racks because they're full of gorgeous pieces that I can't buy, and I feel a bit sad. So I content myself with picking out the 'scraps', so to speak, or anything up for discount. *Sometimes, a premium coral *might make it to the discount rack. But only because the coral is either injured, browned out or my LFS manager is in an extremely good mood. 🙂 

7 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Beautiful new additions, looking forwards to seeing them settle and grow

Thank you! I can't wait for the cyphastrea to cover the rocks - I might move that new piece to the front of my tank, away from my red/purple chalice to give the chalice room to grow. Plus the rocks at the front right-half of the tank has a unique shape of 'bulges' which would look cool once it's encrusted with the coral. 🙂

 

I'm not keeping high hopes for the freebie sticks I received yesterday. The tenuis still looks good with full PE, but the Pocci looks miserable. 😕

 

I will be keeping an eye out for montis and Pavonas (other colors) though, because those are the only type of SPS that actually do well and grow in this tank. 

[A.m.P]

Nothing wrong with that, monti and pavona are both beautiful corals.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Little gobies of the reef:

 

Turns out my Yasha has quite a bit of fight left in her. Mouth-off between the two of them during the feeding session:

 

Corals looks so different under heavy evening blues! 

 

I also caught my tricolor blasto attempting to eat a molted shrimp tail: 

 

 

Checked up on the pipes - and they're doing okay. Now they become quite alert when they see me popping open the cabinet doors, and actually hover to the front panel of the fuge to wait patiently for their food. They don't dart away when I dip my fingers in the water either (the frozen pods come out in paste form, and I usually squirt it on my fingertips before dipping it into the water and swishing it around to dislodge the pods), but they're not super-skittish of me either, which I think is a good thing. 

 

Also, I need some help about IDing this cyphastrea. I tried googling it up online and there are no similar pics to it. The closest I could get is peppermint cyphastrea, which is red and white. Mine is red and bright yellow. So maybe - no common name? This piece is just a tiny frag of a whole colony that came to my LFS. If I'm not mistaken, the source is either local or Indo. I'm not sure, but I'm quite certain it's not aquacultured. I can ask my LFS however (might do that in the morning tomorrow). 

 

 

If any of you have any idea what type of cyphastrea it is, please let me know. I'm genuinely curious. 

 

Also, my tenuis and Pocci are still alive! Yay! The tenuis still has full PE, the Pocci has STN at the base (might take it to the store to give it a trim) but the polyps at the top are finally out and it's a very nice shade of pinkish-green. Not sure if these two pieces will survive the reef since they're actually tester frags, and freebies, but I'm hoping they do. Especially the tenuis. It's already encrusting to the bottom of the plug, and I assume growing coral = healthy coral? 🤔

 

Still so new to this SPS-stick thing. 🤷‍♀️

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Head's up! A lot of pics ahead:

 

1. I purchased 2 brain corals today. On clearance sale at my LFS for RM 80 each only:

 

 

 

First one is at home with me already. Second one will be picked up after Christmas. *Might pick up a third one which was purple & green - only because I haven't seen a purple symphyllia until today. *Might. (Take note that these pics are not filtered in any way - they are colorful & vibrant in RL)

 

Pics of the new lobo in my tank, under heavy blues:

 

 

 

 

I was given another late birthday gift by the LFS - a frag of John Deere leptastrea:

 

 

I took some pics of my yuma garden - I have seven now, excluding the babies! 😊

 

Thinking of picking up a neon pink one next:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also took a lot of top-shots of my tank today (taken with yellow filter lens):

 

Managed to snatch a blurry pic of my newest SPS freebie sticks:

 

 

And here is my jack-o-lantern leptoseris:

 

 

Ultra-green torch:

 

 

Multi-colored yuma:

 

 

Red finger leather with full PE:

 

 

New bright blue shroom:

 

 

Unknown cyphastrea:

 

 

Blasto garden from above:

 

 

Fluorescent yellow elegance: 

 

(Btw, do the tips look purple or blue to you? I'm seeing blue, but it was listed as purple. 🤔)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall top-shot of the reef:

 

 

 

 

 

Reef today on 18/12/19:

 

 

My Yasha says hi! 😊

 

 

Things are finally stabilizing again. Some issues need to be tackled:

 

1. Green monti is still brown-rimmed but growing. The color has returned to some parts of the coral but it is bouncing back slowly.

 

2. Red-spotted yellow shroom is still floating about. I slotted it into a LR crevice but I am not sure if it will attach there. 😓

 

3. Red symphyllia is still retracted in some areas. Might take it to the store to trim off the dead skeleton because it is sharp and difficult to handle.

 

4. Green elegance is still recovering from BJD. Retracted & shrunken, but still feeding. 

 

5. The dead head of the orange frogspawn will need to be fragged off. The fragging machine is already back at the store so I will take it there after Christmas. 

 

6. The green frogspawn is so-so. No signs of improvement or deterioration. 

 

7. The toadstool leather coral behind my montis is shrunken and shedding. I am not sure why, but ever since I set this tank up, this particular piece and my green weeping willow adapted poorly. Other leathers have full PE and are growing normally. 🤔

 

Everything else is doing fine. I'm looking overall at the tank and ~90% of the corals have no issues from what I can see. The remaining ~10% is a big (???). 

 

I'll stick with WCs and manual dosing since this seems to work best for this reef. 

 

Fish and inverts are all okay too - only the leopard is still proving tricky to feed. Hopefully he'll cave in and take a bite of prepared soon. 

 

Bonus pic - this is how my tank looks like without the yellow filter lens:

 

 

So much blue! 😮

 

(Which is why I use lens to grab accurate/almost accurate coral color pics) 👍

[kimberbee]

In some pics the tips look blue, in others, purple... 🤷‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

32 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

In some pics the tips look blue, in others, purple... 🤷‍♀️

I know. Could it be the difference in lighting? Because my lighting varies quite a lot throughout the day. I run a modified version of the Saxby schedule (with extra whites) which I tweaked to run with heavy whites during midday, and heavy blues during evenings. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I'm starting to think I should just pitch a tent next to my LFS and live there. 🤐

 

Admittedly, I dropped by to actually frag off the dead head of the orange frogspawn and trim the dead edges of my red symphyllia. (And also pass on two slices of my birthday cake, as well as a container of various homemade cookies for Christmas) 😛

 

I'm quite impressed by the amount of coral they actually had in stock, considering that the racks were nearly wiped clean and we were facing a 'no-corals-anymore' situation with the multiple bans going on. I actually picked up two more extra things from the store (and have well exceeded my budget for the month) - one which I *might take heat for, and another which is just a simple addition to the reef. 

 

I bought the small lavendar/green symphyllia that caught my eye yesterday, and negotiated/haggled, and managed to get it for a discount from a discount. 

 

As for the second thing, it's the last dragonface pipefish which was left cruising around under the LPS frag racks for over a month:

 

 

I've decided to name him Draco. (Not to be confused with my halfmoon betta, Drago). I *think it's a male, but honestly it's very difficult to tell and I'm not an expert in sexing pipefish at all. However, he's adjusting quite well to the fuge, and I'm capping out my pipefish-fuge additions at 3. 

 

My banded pipefish pair were quite curious about him, but otherwise ignored him in favor of feeding on some frozen pods as usual:

 

 

The glass is filthy! I'll definitely scrape off some of the algae tomorrow on both the front and side panel(s). The macro is growing like weeds though. I'll prune it right before I leave for my short Christmas holiday, and hopefully most of it will still be intact when I return. Derp is still languishing in the sump:

 

But I can't add him to the reef because he picks at certain types of coral, or the glue on the underside of frag plugs. I dropped in a larger shell for him to change to, but he seems content to be wearing an undersized one which is encrusted with coralline.

 

My Yasha, Rose, is slowly becoming bolder. I now see her out throughout the day and night outside my dartfish's burrow, and she does swim off when she sees me approaching the glass. My only concern with her is that she's still underweight even though she's eating. It looks like it'll take a while before she's as plump as my Tangaroa.

 

Leopold the leopard wrasse still hasn't eaten any prepared food. I'm going to try something different tomorrow - he may/may not like it, but we'll see how it goes.

 

Also, taken last night:

 

 

 

I know it might seem hard to believe, but this dude is pushing almost 2-years-old and has been through 3 tanks! Hoping he'll live out a few more good years.