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


Snow_Phoenix

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Snow_Phoenix

Just fed the tank a mix of mysis/brine/cyclops/bloodworm/shrimp juice + selcon slush. The fish seemed to love it - especially the darts. :happy:

 

Also, need to come clean with all of you - I made two small impulse purchases when I bought my filefish few days ago. One of those purchases stays tiny, and I have experience with them, so I guess it *should be alright. Now, the second purchase has the potential to grow big. I didn't realize how big exactly until I returned home and read up I actually might need a tank double my present size to house it when it hits maturity. (No, it is not a tang)

 

I bought it because it was skinny, malnourished and felt bad for it. Honestly, me feeling bad for things is the main reason why I have such an assortment of weird, mismatched critters at home. But all three of them are doing okay, and with the exception of the filefish, they're all eating pellets and frozen. 

 

I'll post more pics only about them after the QT period is over - I feel like I keep jinxing stuff whenever I document them too early. 

 

I think it's safe to say at this point that my tank is well beyond stocked. I'm actually quite happy with the fish choices, even though they might look 'messy' to some. 

 

As for my corals - my Utter Chaos has bopped out a new head (yay!) but my Rainbow Implosions are being overriden by some sort of fungus which doesn't affect other corals except that particular zoa frag. I've already lost a few polyps, and the remaining few remain closed. I'm not sure why, because my other Zoas are all open. 🤔

 

Also, no sign of my mystery predator today - not sure when it will strike again, so I'm staying sharp for any signs of weird activity in the tank.

 

Here are some quick pics of Crabcake, my new nem crab - you can see how many limbs she has lost at the store: :scarry:

 

 

 

 

And here's Lola settling into her sedentary life of starfish-dom:

 

 

So I guess that's it for now. 

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No reason to share all of your endevors; people just like to learn from others' experiences. QT is for caretaker observation and response anyways - I agree that excitement has little to do with success. IMO, it's okay to test your ability to address particularities in caring for life; just don't stop trying your best. I had some Lola starfishes once upon a time - they are cool animals. Everything is looking good - will wait patiently for certain updates :]

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Snow_Phoenix
9 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

No reason to share all of your endevors; people just like to learn from others' experiences. QT is for caretaker observation and response anyways - I agree that excitement has little to do with success. IMO, it's okay to test your ability to address particularities in caring for life; just don't stop trying your best. I had some Lola starfishes once upon a time - they are cool animals. Everything is looking good - will wait patiently for certain updates :]

Thank you! Updates should come soon - I think I've pushed this tank enough by going without a proper WC for 5 weeks+ now. I finally have a very thin layer of film algae on my rocks! :scarry:

 

Tbh, a lot of fish that arrive here are very sick or carry a parasite of some sort. Even my LFS manager told me that he's more impressed by reefers who can keep a fish healthy and stable long-term rather than reefers who keep fishless tanks. I now QT and treat all fish before placing them in my DT - usually with PraziGold, and tank-transfer method (for fish like clownfish). And the QT is also up for observation purposes, as you've said. If anything acts weird in there, I won't put it in my DT until it acts normal again. 

 

The starfishes are doing okay - the bigger one is more active/mobile than the smaller one. I noticed they love clinging on to a particular rock surface for hours at a time before inching away onto the sandbed. I still do target feed them though - yesterday I pretty much broadcast-fed the tank and they both had a positive response to it (arms waving in the water, moving about to find some scraps on the sandbed). 

 

And here's a pic of the second fish I purchased with my filefish. I'm quite hesitant to post about the third though - will see how it fares in QT, and how it fares in the DT later. 

 

 

 

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Snow_Phoenix

Update #3:


Fishies!

 

Goblin: (in five days, he turns 10-months-old (amount of time with me)): :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanos: (With me for ~10.5 months already): :happy:

 

How difficult is it to film zebra barred darts in motion? Very, apparently. I just can't focus on them or the pattern on their bodies, so it's difficult to appreciate their full beauty, unless you're staring at them in person:

 

 

Lastly, how many fish do you see in this pic? 

 

 

Is it three...or more? 🤔

 

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Snow_Phoenix

My apologies for not being able to condense all my updates in a single post. BME, it crashes my broswer and causes a severe lag due to too many pic/link inserts. 

 

The Filefish has been added to the tank already. He's small in there, but has a surprisingly amazing personality. Since he's very curious, I've decided to name him George. It's still very difficult to get an accurate pic of him because he's constantly buzzing up and down the tank. I just hope he finds my aiptasia before my zoas. 

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9 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

My apologies for not being able to condense all my updates in a single post. BME, it crashes my broswer and causes a severe lag due to too many pic/link inserts. 

 

The Filefish has been added to the tank already. He's small in there, but has a surprisingly amazing personality. Since he's very curious, I've decided to name him George. It's still very difficult to get an accurate pic of him because he's constantly buzzing up and down the tank. I just hope he finds my aiptasia before my zoas. 

I’m starting to find aptasia popping up in my tank 🙁 I’m curious if the filefish helps out with controlling them! Definitely keep us updated!

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Snow_Phoenix
28 minutes ago, Hannahhhh said:

I’m starting to find aptasia popping up in my tank 🙁 I’m curious if the filefish helps out with controlling them! Definitely keep us updated!

Well. mine is currently still busy exploring the tank (new environment/new things to see) - I'll definitely keep you posted. 🙂

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Snow_Phoenix

George found my largest aiptasia sometime last night and had a hearty supper. 🙂

 

He's still 50/50 on NLS pellets, mostly because he's much, much slower than my other fish. So I have to be patient and baste some pellets in his direction so that he gets some food as well:

 

 

 

Thanos is looking fab as always:

 

 

And Prickles still does his rounds at night:

 

 

View from the bed looks good:

 

 

The only issues I had yesterday was that the fungus finally won, and I lost my Rainbow Implosions in its entirety. I'll definitely pick up a new frag of Implosions in the future, because I loved mine, and they were the fastest growing zoas I had. Also facing a small issue with my smallest blue/red lobo - it's looking a bit too skeletal for my liking because Jerk the hermit dumped some sand in its mouth two days ago. Might have to shift it to a hospital tank and give it an iodine dip to let it recover, like I did with my finger leather colony. Otherwise, all other corals are doing okay. My darts now sleep under my red symphyllia - they've sort of made a tunnel under the coral and sleep together. I *think they've slowly become a bonded pair, but it's still too early to tell. 

 

 

 

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Snow_Phoenix

I've decided to name the little Hector's goby Henri. My mother seems to like him - I have yet to see him eat prepared in the 60G though:

 

Also, did I mention Casper the tangaroa is a territorial badass? Here's him, mouthing off to Goblin for straying too close to his new burrow: :lol:

 

Thanos has taken up to perching by Lola:

 

And here's George today, snacking on some NLS pellets (yup, I haven't cleaned my glass yet):

 

 

Closer look at George's unique body coloration - he's actually quite green, but this doesn't quite show under my blues:

 

So, that's it for now. :happy:

 

 

 

 

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Snow_Phoenix

This was my first WC in ~6 weeks:

 

 

To be honest, I wasn't feeling well at all since morning. But my lobo was on the verge of death and two of my turbo snails died with 12 hours of each other. My Symphallias weren't their usual 'puffy' selves. This were all warning signs that my tank had hit its limit and needed a WC to export the nutrient buildup over the past 6 weeks. If I kept pushing for another week without a WC, I'd risk a crash - and that's not something I want to put my livestock or myself through. So I pushed myself to get this done and it took me 3+ hours. Granted, I had a LOT of crud to siphon out from the sump. There was so much dirt buildup at the bottom that it looked quite horrendous. My floss was surprisingly clean and didn't trap much detritus, which was weird. 

 

I also swapped out the mini wavemaker in the sump with a spare one because my present one was not working. The mini wavemaker is useful because it keeps the water in the fuge circulating and reduces the chances of a nasty buildup like before. 

 

I am still going skimmerless, btw. I think I might continue to go skimmerless for a while until my finances ease up. The corals grew very slowly over the first few weeks of no WC, then went into a sort-of stasis where most of them (except a few zoas, softies and my monticaps/pavona) didn't grow at all. I noticed that my LPS - frogspawn and hammer benefited the most from the 'dirty' water and showed full PE even though I estimate my nitrates to be >100ppm. 

 

So I think I've decided to do bi- or tri-weekly WCs. I'll only slide back to monthly WCs if I'm extremely sick or in hospital. But I will try my best not to go beyond the fourth week of no WC. One good news is that the fish are all doing okay. 

 

Here's my current fish stock list:

 

2x Zebra Darts

2x Occy Clownfish

1x Starry Blenny

1x GCG

1x Pink Streaked Wrasse

1x Tangaroa Goby

1x Hector's Goby

1x Green Filefish

 

(10 fish)

 

TBA:

 

1x M-sized Wrasse (Leopard/Exquisite/Yellow Coris/Fairy/Flasher)

*1x Coral Beauty Angel

 

*Thinking hard about this one, because angels are notorious nippers sometimes. 

 

For now, I won't be doing any dragonets in this tank because I'm not healthy enough to meet the demands of this fish, and there's simply not enough pods to go around because the tank is in its infancy. I *might consider a small species of dragonet in the future, but this is a big *might which may or may not happen. Right now, I'm quite content with the level of activity I have going on in the tank. I have various fish occupying all levels - upper, mid- and bottom of the tank. And no territorial squabbles either. Phew. :scarry:

 

Also, I will most likely add a larger, colorful, non-cryptic ornamental shrimp of some sort in the future. The toss up is between a Cleaner and a Fire (pricey) from Sri Lanka (specimens from this shipment are extremely large and have strong colors). Still saving up for such a purchase. I think adding inverts should be fine. 🤔

 

Will go slower on fish additions - I just looked back through my Insta posts and noticed I have been rushing again without truly realizing it. 

 

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Glad you were able to do some needed maintenance on your tank, hopefully you’ll be feeling better and back to full strength in soon.

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Snow_Phoenix

Some of the fish today:

 

George:

 

IMG_20190701_142357_788.thumb.jpg.beac5c090fc7f855c5e869707c8a7ba5.jpg

 

Nero & Sushi:

 

IMG_20190701_142628_238.thumb.jpg.f9370a29000b2a4f6707ef79e2623396.jpg

 

Thanos:

 

IMG_20190701_142849_810.thumb.jpg.a785fe752f02f15ef847d1375bcfcbf1.jpg

 

Goblin:

 

IMG_20190701_143000_323.thumb.jpg.38e7bed9337c0b0f5a8b9bee8c343481.jpg

 

Also, it appears that my darts are spawning. I am uncertain if there are eggs in the cave under the rocks, but the larger of the two (Tic) appears to be guarding something whilst the smaller one (Tac) is at the surface. They both are together at the top when it is feeding time though. Strangest thing is that I thought Tic was a male and Tac was the female because Tic has that black whiskered extension under his chin when he flashes at Tac. 

 

Not 100% sure but this behavior only began two days ago. Will monitor the two of them closely. 

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Snow_Phoenix

Feeding time today evening:

 

 

 

Also, looks like my darts had been spawning. I saw the larger one flash his 'whisker' under the jaw at the smaller one since the first day I brought them home. Didn't think much of it until they both started getting kinky under the rocks for the past 2 days, and now what appears to be the male - is guarding something in the burrow. 

 

IMG_20190701_180923_147.thumb.jpg.4086e92bf89f1bf1c7c7e673bfdb33f6.jpg

 

My guess is that there are eggs in there because from the behavior and limited resources about dartfish coupling I have read online, it seems to add up to a possible breeding attempt. I could in theory lift the rock, but I will have to undo my entire scape on the left side of the tank. And if there are eggs, I might accidently crush them if I put the rocks back. So it is best to leave the pair be and let nature take its course.

 

I have no intention of raising any fry - doesn't help that there is nil info on zebra darts and their mating habits online. 😓

 

But, if - and this is a very loose if - some fry make it to juvi stage, then yes, I will take over raising them. I am documenting everything though. Just wish I had done a proper parameter check 2 days ago so that the conditions can be replicated in the future.

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Snow_Phoenix

Hmm. Looks like George the filefish has attempted to eat my RFA. RFA is still existing but lost most of its tentacles and is scrunched up. 😔

 

Anyone have any idea how to safely remove a nem from the tank without injuring its foot? (I think I will move it to the pico). 

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45 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Hmm. Looks like George the filefish has attempted to eat my RFA. RFA is still existing but lost most of its tentacles and is scrunched up. 😔

 

Anyone have any idea how to safely remove a nem from the tank without injuring its foot? (I think I will move it to the pico). 

Can you gently pry under its foot? Otherwise chisel a piece of the rock it is on off carefully. Thats how I get mine off if I can't get to the food to slowly peel it up. You could try the powerhead thing but I found RFA's to be a lot more stubborn than BTA's. 

 

Also Thanos somehow even managed to make this tank look small 😛😄

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Snow_Phoenix
15 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Can you gently pry under its foot? Otherwise chisel a piece of the rock it is on off carefully. Thats how I get mine off if I can't get to the food to slowly peel it up. You could try the powerhead thing but I found RFA's to be a lot more stubborn than BTA's. 

I'll try the gently prying first - and then the chiseling. Not sure if I can even chisel off the rock because it's so dense and it's also my base rock, but I'll definitely try. Right now it's a RM30 fish VS. RM320 nem. :scarry:

 

I have no plans to get rid of both of them, so the only way is separation. Can I dip the nem in iodine before placing it into my Pico though? It's foot is mostly intact, but it's surface is a bit blobby-looking. 😞 

 

15 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Also Thanos somehow even managed to make this tank look small 😛😄

I swear - I think he might actually keep growing and quite possibly hit 8" someday. He's such a little piggy - non-stop eating! Even now he's begging me for food! :lol:

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Snow_Phoenix
4 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I have never dipped a nem in anything, not sure about that.

 

 

In that case, I'll skip the dipping. Hopefully it comes off the rock easily. George hasn't discovered my mini red carpet nem yet. It's super tiny and hiding right under my frogspawn, so it has stayed unnoticed for quite a while. I did see the fish circling around my RBTA several times, but thanks to the flow from my wavemaker, he kept getting his butt tossed back to the opposite side of the tank. Strange thing is I do feed him - *a lot - and he eats pellets very well. Not sure if it's a filefish thing, but I noticed he circles around corals with skirts/tentacles (my duncan, zoas, nems are prime targets) - my guess is maybe because they look like aiptasia to him? Not sure. 🤔

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23 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

In that case, I'll skip the dipping. Hopefully it comes off the rock easily. George hasn't discovered my mini red carpet nem yet. It's super tiny and hiding right under my frogspawn, so it has stayed unnoticed for quite a while. I did see the fish circling around my RBTA several times, but thanks to the flow from my wavemaker, he kept getting his butt tossed back to the opposite side of the tank. Strange thing is I do feed him - *a lot - and he eats pellets very well. Not sure if it's a filefish thing, but I noticed he circles around corals with skirts/tentacles (my duncan, zoas, nems are prime targets) - my guess is maybe because they look like aiptasia to him? Not sure. 🤔

 

Probably just doing what fish do, it's instinct and part of his natural diet. I could feed my cats all day and they would still try to kill a mouse if they saw one. 

 

Funny you mention how much it eats, my pygmy filefish eat TONS of food... they are tiny and idk where it all goes. I swear they eat their bodyweight in mysis. 

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Snow_Phoenix
2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

 

Probably just doing what fish do, it's instinct and part of his natural diet. I could feed my cats all day and they would still try to kill a mouse if they saw one. 

 

Funny you mention how much it eats, my pygmy filefish eat TONS of food... they are tiny and idk where it all goes. I swear they eat their bodyweight in mysis. 

I think they have quite high metabolisms. I haven't seen mine poop at all, and yet he eats, and eats...and eats. I know my darts are quite voracious eaters too. Oh, and of course my blenny, but then again, he's a chunker, so gotta keep up that body mass. :coolguy:

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  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

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