Snow_Phoenix Posted April 8, 2022 Author Share Posted April 8, 2022 Puffy this morning. 🥰 1 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 9, 2022 Author Share Posted April 9, 2022 Slightly more puffy today than yesterday: I think it's finally getting used to the tank! 🥰 So tempted to book another, but in red color this time. 😅 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 10, 2022 Author Share Posted April 10, 2022 Omg. My sea urchin - Mr. Prickles - I've actually had him since 2015 (!!!!) 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. 😊👍 3 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 A testament to your dedication and reefing skills. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 10, 2022 Author Share Posted April 10, 2022 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. 😅 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 11, 2022 Author Share Posted April 11, 2022 Taken under orange filter lens in the early morning, behind dirty glass. 😅 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 Scraping the glass shortly. I like the greenish streaks. 😊 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 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: At least the kenya trees are happy! 😊 The pinkish one now has full PE: And the green one is still growing: The urchin is doing a very good job at munching on the algae, but I still need more CUC: 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! 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 15, 2022 Author Share Posted April 15, 2022 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: Under *orange lens filter: 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. 🥰 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 15, 2022 Author Share Posted April 15, 2022 Titan: One of the snails tackling the fuzzy algae on the back wall: 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 16, 2022 Author Share Posted April 16, 2022 Super puffy under morning blues. 🥰 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 17, 2022 Author Share Posted April 17, 2022 Under afternoon whites: Harold molted - yay! 🦀 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 17, 2022 Author Share Posted April 17, 2022 Foxy out cruising for a swim. 💦 PJ looking good. 👍 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 17, 2022 Author Share Posted April 17, 2022 Kenya trees, unite! 🌱 Tiny leptastrea is still tiny. 🤐 Nitrates are high in this tank; coral growth rate is a bit on the slow-side, as expected. 🤷♀️ 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 18, 2022 Author Share Posted April 18, 2022 Looks like the cynarina is slowly developing a reddish hue as well. 🥰 Only 4 polyps. Zoa & paly growth rates are terrible in this tank. 🤦♀️ Tiny yuma needs more friends (?) 🤔 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 19, 2022 Author Share Posted April 19, 2022 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. 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. 😔 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 21, 2022 Author Share Posted April 21, 2022 Green kenya with reddish polyps: More reddish hues have developed in the cynarina. Quite eager to see if a third hue will pop up in the weeks to come. 🥰 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 Glowing under actinics. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 My store uploaded a small series of videos via chat. Had a few cool things in the mix including several lyretail hawks: Some lovely skunk clowns: And omg - these guys (!!!) - which pretty much throws all my previous stocking plans into complete disarray if I were to snag them: 😅 They also had some healthier blennies in this round, by the looks of things: 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. 1 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 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. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 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. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 24, 2022 Author Share Posted April 24, 2022 Taken through orange filter lens, hence the strong orangish hue over everything. At least the cynarina is as puffy as ever! 🥰 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 25, 2022 Author Share Posted April 25, 2022 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: And... I got a fuzzy dwarf!!! 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. 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. 👍 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 25, 2022 Author Share Posted April 25, 2022 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: 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. 👍 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted April 25, 2022 Author Share Posted April 25, 2022 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. 😊👍 4 Quote Link to comment
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