Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

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


Snow_Phoenix

Recommended Posts

Snow_Phoenix

Omg. My sea urchin - Mr. Prickles - I've actually had him since 2015 (!!!!) :eek:

 

20220410_105044.thumb.jpg.19e0bdf99115d43cb71f3e94c91ca4f6.jpg

 

I didn't even realize he was this 'old' - I thought I acquired him much later, but it was a gross miscalculation. If the FB memory feature hadn't updated today, I'd have never known. This isn't the exact date I purchased him either. 

 

I scrolled through the album of my older nano, and I had bought him earlier than 10/04/2015. I can't view the exact date on my phone, but hopefully after I log into my laptop and dig through my older albums, I can find the exact date. 

 

This means Mr. Prickles has been with me for roughly ~7 years! Quite insane, given that most inverts don't really exceed 5 years in home aquariums. 😅

 

Hoping for many more years to come with Mr. Prickles! 🥰

 

His spikes have changed to full purple over the years too. Given that Mr. Prickles was the only purple rock urchin I've owned in my entire reefing journey, I'm quite sure he's the same guy I picked up from the LFS all those years ago. 😊👍

  • Wow 3
Link to comment
  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Indo-Malayan Lair of the Dragons 🐲🐉 - Mr. Prickles.
Snow_Phoenix
1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

A testament to your dedication and reefing skills. 

Thanks, Deb. But personally, I think I just got off super-lucky with Mr. Prickles. He practically outlived everything that I had. 😅

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix

Cleaned the glass for both tanks & stirred the sandbed. The lights are now mostly on a heavy whites schedule since it's mid-afternoon. The cynarina is still a bit puffy, but the pinched area remains pinched:

 

20220414_144452.thumb.jpg.63f9972adffbfa3f4a21849668a2c953.jpg

 

At least the kenya trees are happy! 😊

 

The pinkish one now has full PE:

 

20220414_144420.thumb.jpg.ee9d10111282d21de2fa057f4ea0ecb5.jpg

 

And the green one is still growing:

 

20220414_144306.thumb.jpg.4c5e006a326b8d174a60baeb3563eb95.jpg

 

20220414_144259.thumb.jpg.73836abd689251d7aece7f04e41287a1.jpg

 

20220414_144251.thumb.jpg.ab2d1e4687a90e9abf36e0376abdd836.jpg

 

The urchin is doing a very good job at munching on the algae, but I still need more CUC:

 

20220414_144437.thumb.jpg.1c3be73666dbbff7bc348e3f2ede8f42.jpg

 

Thought of naming the urchin 'Titan', on account of his large size. 😅

 

Still thinking of a good name for the hermit. He's starting to look like a 'Harold' to me! 🦀

 

Tiny rainbow yuma is doing well too!

 

20220414_144507.thumb.jpg.4a03b26729ba5171eee1ddee435d9aba.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix

The cynarina was very happy this morning. 🥰

 

I took several pics using yellow & orange lens filter. Although the yellow lens filter doesn't completely neutralize the blues, it is better than the orange one because the orange lens leaves a strong orangish hue behind in each shot. 

 

Under *yellow lens filter:

 

20220415_101801.thumb.jpg.ee3972d53c6fd2669dc9362096cb9e14.jpg

 

20220415_101942.thumb.jpg.c86e1a6ee4335c1675b44aa33ea4bd00.jpg

 

20220415_101911.thumb.jpg.26199543113da6fb9d665de076d75b8b.jpg

 

Under *orange lens filter:

 

20220415_101811.thumb.jpg.6f79c66f80d761f4c6798df76fc723ab.jpg

 

20220415_101841.thumb.jpg.6cb2a40a446b01d0a3cf8352ac1c2f8a.jpg

 

20220415_101826.thumb.jpg.efc8fd12662ac7c55f017e686fc97339.jpg

 

See the difference? It's either too blue or too brown. 🤷‍♀️

 

The coral still has mint green/cyan highlights though! But the base color is muddy orange (like how it was in the LFS). Might not be too pretty, but I still like it. 🥰

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix

Looks like the cynarina is slowly developing a reddish hue as well. 🥰

 

20220418_102215.thumb.jpg.ca5e4715709f18e6b2e06be57226ea1f.jpg

 

20220418_102203.thumb.jpg.7e897e396995e586c4b9222ea346f333.jpg

 

20220418_102122.thumb.jpg.71ed07ffa5d9f0f1d6c535d2b957a162.jpg

 

20220418_102103.thumb.jpg.d46a4de4277d5d70109b39091cd45f6d.jpg

 

Only 4 polyps. Zoa & paly growth rates are terrible in this tank. 🤦‍♀️

 

20220418_102135.thumb.jpg.784f09ce8d88fbfdefc5b07748533c16.jpg

 

Tiny yuma needs more friends (?) 🤔

 

20220418_102150.thumb.jpg.2009bd47ca41a19087973ec4cfa66bd0.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix

A bit of bad news this morning - the hermit didn't make it through his molt. I only found out today, when his entire body slid out of the shell and was blown about in the tank by the flow. :tears:

 

I did think it was odd that the crab didn't move at all after molting. It was in a fixed position and made no attempt to grab for pellets or walk about etc. 

 

I'm planning on doing a 2-part WC soon. Quite lethargic today, and I have a medical appt. tomorrow, so I think I'll start WCing on Thursday. I'll start preparing all the media replacements & equipment though. 

 

Other inverts seem fine, but I don't want to lose any of them - especially Beast the urchin. I've grown rather fond of the big guy. 

 

Fish and corals are fine too. The hermit was quite expensive though, and I'm cringing inwardly a little. It was worth 4x snails. 😕

 

Maybe that's what I'll focus on for CUC next time. Hermits always seemed to struggle in this tank for some reason, despite the amount of algae in it & my heavy feeding schedule. Not sure why. 😔

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Indo-Malayan Lair of the Dragons 🐲🐉 - Cynarina..
Snow_Phoenix

My store uploaded a small series of videos via chat. Had a few cool things in the mix including several lyretail hawks:

 

20220423_190839.thumb.jpg.4e671ed51af58c501ec0300c1d958a22.jpg

 

Some lovely skunk clowns:

 

20220423_190848.thumb.jpg.3880f0b6c2eb155350e1809a157f7c56.jpg

 

And omg - these guys (!!!) - which pretty much throws all my previous stocking plans into complete disarray if I were to snag them: 😅

 

20220423_190821.thumb.jpg.8299e1a35322cf2e9207a52e6b0e1966.jpg

 

They also had some healthier blennies in this round, by the looks of things:

 

20220423_190901.thumb.jpg.e207c05f60f50ed51c13952b43fc7ce7.jpg

 

I *might drop by the LFS, might not. Am a bit undecided. 

 

The fuzzy pair is honestly very, very tempting. But if I cave in to them, I won't be able to acquire any other fish that I like in the future because they'll be eaten. Plus, I'll have to shift the direction of this tank again and re-evaluate everything. 😕

 

Still, those are the cutest fuzzies ever. If my estimation is correct, they are around <3" each. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
20 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

The fuzzy pair is honestly very, very tempting. But if I cave in to them, I won't be able to acquire any other fish that I like in the future because they'll be eaten. Plus, I'll have to shift the direction of this tank again and re-evaluate everything. 😕

Wow I didn't expect this. They are beautiful. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix
47 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Wow I didn't expect this. They are beautiful. 

Neither did I! Sorry if the pics are awful and blurry - they were in video form and I had to screenshot them. I'd definitely love to get a closer look at them if possible! So pretty. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Indo-Malayan Lair of the Dragons 🐲🐉 - New Guys in QT!.
Snow_Phoenix

Hi guys! I managed to drop by my LFS this afternoon. Came home with 3 turban snails and 4 fish!!! 😅

 

Here are the new guys:

 

20220425_161106.thumb.jpg.3c2abe85f30b11e8c8b04f357abab536.jpg

 

20220425_161121.thumb.jpg.2fe65c136f59a2fcb99f479af49ab388.jpg

 

20220425_161036.thumb.jpg.8edafd94ff0a1bdce04c42b6617c479b.jpg

 

20220425_161052.thumb.jpg.1a90c08bcdced3639344ca60d4346637.jpg

 

And...

 

 

20220425_161021.thumb.jpg.5fea960e6cc92e27210450c63746f8b6.jpg

 

I got a fuzzy dwarf!!!omgomgomg

 

Quick run-down: the tiny blur is actually a very tiny talbot damsel which will be transferred to my nano once it clears QT. 

 

The slightly pale pink fish with the eyespot in the 4th pic is a lyretail hawk. It was actually very active and dark pinkish-red at the store. Colors should return once it feels safe in the QT bin. 

 

As for the copperband - it was readily eating fresh oysters and mysis shrimp at the LFS. omgomgomg

 

This tank has a nasty aiptasia issue which I originally planned to tackle using peppermint shrimp after the usual lemon juice in a syringe trick didn't work. Peppermint shrimp are difficult to come by and extremely expensive, so I have been juggling with the idea of either a copperband or filefish for this tank for a while. 

 

I got lucky this round, seeing a wild copperband go straight for prepared. Fish appeared healthy too, so I decided to get it. 

 

As for the fuzzy, it was the only one left - it's partner had been sold already. It's not eating yet, but it's quite active. 😊

 

I'll be dropping by my regular FW LFS to pick up some live ghost shrimp, so hopefully it'll go for those, and I can safely shift its meal preferences to frozen. 👍

  • Like 1
  • Wow 1
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix

All 4 fish are currently sharing the same QT bin and will go through 2 weeks of hybrid-TTM. The lionfish is very tiny (~2.75") and is isolated in a breeder box:

 

20220425_160900.thumb.jpg.a9bdd1578a0a712e94b84d2f20a51453.jpg

 

20220425_160926.thumb.jpg.785368e65f3104310b07686fa7aafdc7.jpg

 

20220425_160952.thumb.jpg.e7d436f5a1c54c1121c1b310179accf5.jpg

 

I have triple lids on the bin, but I feel that the bin itself is too small to host 4 fish. 😕

 

The breeder box itself occupies easily 1/3rd of the bin's space, so it's quite crammed and the copperband is relegated to one open spot near the filter intake. 

 

During the next TTM, I'll be sure to shift everyone to a much more spacious bin. The damsel, copperband and lionfish are reasonably active, but the hawk is staying out of sight behind the PVC pipe. 👍

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix

Looks like the direction of this tank has shifted to a semi-aggressive predatory setup. The fuzzy actually reminds me of a little underwater dragon somewhat, so I guess the thread's title stays. 🤷‍♀️

 

I think with my current stocking choices, I'm almost full. I'm taking into account that the hawk can hit 6" and the lion at 8" at full maturity, so the bioload will be reasonably high.

 

I decided to just add 3 more fish from here on out - a large species of blenny (starry or lawnmower), a large clown  species (clarkii, tomato, fire (?) or sebae etc.) and possibly a medium-sized sand dweller of some sort. 

 

I have my work cut out for me though. QTing 4 fish at a go will be a challenge, but I do hope all of them make it and will be content in their respective tanks later. 😊👍

  • Like 4
Link to comment
  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...