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

[Snow_Phoenix]

Lady had a moderately-sized live ghost shrimp for breakfast today! 😊

 

 

 

Also, check out that bulging belly! 

 

 

Fully sated:

 

 

I fed the other fish a frozen food mix. I It was only when I had a good topview of the tank did I notice how thin my hawkfish truly was. 😔

 

He ate very little today too. Right now both the hawk & copperband worry me the most in the tank. It'll take a while to fatten them both up, but I hope they won't thin out too much before learning to *fully accept prepared food. 

 

Also, the sand for the tidepool tank finally arrived:

 

 

But I think I've lost some of my crabs. I need to double check. The tiny damsels and snails are fine - I dropped a pinch of food in the tank, but the new fish didn't eat. 

 

I might end up turning the damsel in at my LFS. It seems too aggressive to me. Even though it's super small, I noticed it was trying to nip the crabs from time to time. Definitely not reefsafe, if you ask me. 🤔

[spectra]

Love the lion fish............ 

[Snow_Phoenix]

30 minutes ago, spectra said:

Love the lion fish............ 

Thanks! I love her too. Tentatively thinking of picking up another - either a male of the same kind, or a fuzzy/fu manchu. 😊

[spectra]

My local dealer keeps trying to get me to get one.......... someday maybe.............. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, spectra said:

My local dealer keeps trying to get me to get one.......... someday maybe.............. 

It can be difficult to acquire one. Even here, we get a small group of dwarf zebras come in three to four times a year - unless someone orders them in. Fu Manchus and dwarf fuzzies are much, much rarer. I've seen volitans and radiatas come in occasionally - but those are extremely large and need large tanks. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Me: Gets a copperband to eat aiptasia. 

 

Also me: Ends up with that one copperband that doesn't eat aiptasia. 🤦‍♀️

 

Oh, well, at least Cleo seems happy in the tank. Constantly scoping the rocks for pods and she's very bold that she swims up directly to the glass to greet me. 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foxy likes accompanying her. They get along quite well so far. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hawke ate a *lot of pellets today evening, so I'm relieved. 👍

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

A few quick pics of the corals. 💦

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tamberav]

When I feed my Copperband clam.. I buy fresh live like you did but then I put it on the freezer (you can buy a bunch and store them that way) inside the shell and all. Once frozen I slice away small thin pieces… paper thin if you can but it’s difficult so I just do my best and I feed it that way so the Copperband can sort of easily slurp it down. It’s very nutritious. The clams are kind of hard to get open so carful with that too. I cut my hand opening one before. 
 

Also have a food called LRS here which is basically a bunch of seafood blended and frozen. I bought a plastic mesh pouch with good size holes and I put a chunk in there frozen and the Copperband can eat out of it while the food is stationary. A lot easier for them with the beak. They do take a bit learning how to do it. 

They also love live white or black worms. I just restarted my white worm culture. 
 

Just some ideas. 

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Me: Gets a copperband to eat aiptasia. 

 

Also me: Ends up with that one copperband that doesn't eat aiptasia. 🤦‍♀️

 

 

Oh well, she’s pretty.  🤷🏻‍♀️😊

[Tamberav]

haha I noticed they don't always eat the BIG ones but chow the babies. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

When I feed my Copperband clam.. I buy fresh live like you did but then I put it on the freezer (you can buy a bunch and store them that way) inside the shell and all. Once frozen I slice away small thin pieces… paper thin if you can but it’s difficult so I just do my best and I feed it that way so the Copperband can sort of easily slurp it down. It’s very nutritious. The clams are kind of hard to get open so carful with that too. I cut my hand opening one before. 
 

Also have a food called LRS here which is basically a bunch of seafood blended and frozen. I bought a plastic mesh pouch with good size holes and I put a chunk in there frozen and the Copperband can eat out of it while the food is stationary. A lot easier for them with the beak. They do take a bit learning how to do it. 

They also love live white or black worms. I just restarted my white worm culture. 
 

Just some ideas. 

Yeah, I have some clams in the freezer, but they came without the shell. I tried strapping one of them to a clam shell once and dropping it in the QT about a week ago, but she didn't seem too keen about it. I'll try it again tomorrow morning. I noticed she is actively eating - I can see her poke her snout in crevices, then pull back out and jerk a bit as if she's swallowing something. 

 

She actually took a mild interest in pellets today - tried a few, but then went back to circling around the rocks. 

 

I think I'll restart my grindal worm culture. Just need to source them out from a good vendor first.

 

I haven't seen live black worms available here. Right now I have her on a frozen mix, but she's 50/50 on it. She's not too fond of 'big' frozen pieces, so I sort of make the mysis/brine/pod into a slurry so that it's more appealing for her.

 

That plastic mesh pouch idea sounds excellent though! Will definitely try that. Thanks for all of the tips & info! 🙂 

 

 

2 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Oh well, she’s pretty.  🤷🏻‍♀️😊

Indeed she is! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just now, Tamberav said:

haha I noticed they don't always eat the BIG ones but chow the babies. 

I know, right? 🤦‍♀️

At the store, you see a copperband nip off a tiny aiptasia and you're so happy. But put them in a tank with giant aiptasia and when they brush up against it, they're all like:



🤦‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

I'm not sure if my eyes are seeing correctly, but the store uploaded some vids and I *think they have a new *male lion in stock! 🥰

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The tiny tropical tidepool tank has been set up properly! 😊👍

 

Before adding critters:

 

 

After adding critters: 😅

 

 

Some of the crabs immediately buried themselves in the sandbed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're actually quite cute. The fake ledge actually holds freshwater. The rest is SW taken from the 60G. 👍

 

Sideview:

 

 

I think I should have made the sandbar thicker, but I wasn't sure. Also found some potential bin upgrades for this tiny tank at a DIY store:

 

 

But I don't think this small sidetable can handle the weight of such a large bin. 🤔

 

If I add more sand in one corner, I suppose I can shove at least 2 mangrove stalks in this, but...I have a feeling my periwinkle snails and crabs will escape. Also, we do have wildlife that visits our side porch.

 

Tank without lid = exposed critters = yummy snacks for bigger creatures. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I'm not sure if my eyes are seeing correctly, but the store uploaded some vids and I *think they have a new *male lion in stock! 🥰

 

Reserved this guy. Will try to pick him up this Wednesday - but I haven't put down a deposit for him, so I'm worried another walk-in customer will get him before then. 

 

Mum isn't too thrilled that I'm picking up another fish so soon, because I haven't rested/recovered fully from the 2 weeks of stress/anxiety caused by the latest hybrid-TTM marathon. 😕

 

She has a fair point. I am exhausted. But it's very difficult to acquire a lion within the same size, and a male one at that. Just figured I didn't want to miss this chance. 🤷‍♀️

 

Also, since I'm only picking up a single fish, the QT process should be easier on my part. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Good night from Hawke. 🥰

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The tiny motor pump I added to the crab tank burnt out overnight. ☹

 

I think the intake became clogged with fine sand particles and caused the motor to overheat. I cleaned out the pump and am currently drying it outside, but I'm unsure if it can be used again. 😕

 

In the meantime, I'm making do with 2 airstones which hardly provides circulation (no *tide-effect), but is enough to oxygenate the tank:

 

 

I also added a much thicker layer of sand to the tank:

 

 

The tank looks a bit messy:

 

 

But the crabs actually love it! 🥰

 

Most of them immediately buried themselves in the thickened sandbed and had their little feelers out to filter-feed from the water column:

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I did lose 1 crab last night due to the pump's failure. 😕

 

Luckily most of them survived. I was thinking of adding a pinch of coral food (like Reef Roids or Reef Snow) to the water for the crabs, but I'm unsure. Another option is live rotifers. 🤔

 

They're very tiny, so I don't think they can (or are able to) process anything solid. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Quick vid of one of the crabs filter-feeding:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdXb2zLrALL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

I also set up the QT for the next lionfish (dear God, I hope I didn't see the video wrongly and the fish turns out to be female instead of male ). 

 

Feeling both anxious, nervous and excited to pick *him up tomorrow. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I have a spy! 👀

 

 

 

😅

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

17 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Feeling both anxious, nervous and excited to pick *him up tomorrow. 

I’m pulling for you! *fingers crossed* 

[Snow_Phoenix]

5 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

I’m pulling for you! *fingers crossed* 

Thank you! 

 

They had three lions at the store - one was fairly large, the other 2 were around the same size as my current one. The video pans over all three specimens very quickly so I had to keep viewing and freezing it several times to get a decent look at the fish. I'm quite sure the second small lion is female. This one had ~6 bars on the pectoral fin, but there's no way of truly telling until I see it up close tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed as well, regardless. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Taken under orange filter lens during heavy blues today evening. 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Lady the lion. (Will be feeding her another live shrimp tomorrow!) 

 

 

Hawke:

 

 

Cleo and Foxy:

 

 

Dropping in more frozen food & a clam for her tomorrow as well. 

 

Still nervous about the new-possible-lion-to-come. I hope he's in good health at the store, and most importantly, a *he. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The fish are up early this morning! 😅

 

Hawke looks very vivid today. Now that he's more settled and eating, his colors have truly popped up. 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

Lady swam up to greet me (please ignore the unsightly rubber band strapped around the box). I'll be gut-loading a live shrimp shortly, then will drop it into her box. 👍

 

 

 

PJ was a bit shy because the lights are still dim. Once the tank brightens up, she should be back out to swimming in the open. 😊