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

[Snow_Phoenix]

Puffy cynarina. 💦

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

TTM-ed safely. 😊

 

 

 

Turns out she didn't eat the guppy yesterday - found that tiny fish dead and sucked up by the filter intake this morning. 😕

 

I tried dropping in 2 guppies and 2 shrimp today. She only ate 1 shrimp and ignored the guppies. Hopefully she'll like krill. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I transfered Lady into a new, cleaner breeder box today evening and dropped these guys in as snacks: 

 

 

She ate the large one on the left and one of the juvis. The fry (on the far right) was too small and escaped through the holes on the lid of the box. The remaining juvi guppy died and I pulled it out - it actually fell out of the container downstairs when I was trying to fish out a fry, and was pretty much half-dead at that point. 😕

 

Lady was quite sated. She even pooped lol! 😅

 

 

^Pretty sure that was yesterday's meal though. 

 

I'm not disturbing Lily today because I'm giving her time to adjust to her new bin. 

 

I also managed to scrape the glass, so I'm hoping to get a clearer shot of the cynarinas tomorrow. All 6 mollies are fine, although the orange one tends to swim on his own, and the speckled ones have formed a 'gang' of sorts. 😅

 

I'm still struggling to feed Cleo, but I'm going to try slicing up some clam meat and see if she goes for it. 

 

I found the magnetic mesh pouch/seaweed feeder online. It's extremely expensive. I'll need to save up to get it. Hopefully Cleo can hold on until then. I truly wish she'll go after the aiptasia. 😔

 

She keeps skirting by it and seems to be more interested in random rock crevices - or even my sandbed. I think I'll try stuffing bits of clam meat in different crevices - maybe her foraging behavior will kick in, and she *might go for it. 🤷‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

My DIY clam feeder. 😅

 

 

 

 

 

Items needed: mesh, zip ties & a magnetic seaweed clip. 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hawke the lyretail hawkfish:

 

 

 

 

 

PJ the pajama cardinal:

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Cleo the copperband and Foxy the yellow foxface. 💦

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All pics were taken using yellow lens filter, under heavy blues. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Lady and her elaborate fins. 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Corals still opening up. The pink kenya tree was accidently knocked down into the sandbed, so I'll have to retrieve that & re-glue it to the rocks later. 👍

 

 

 

 

 

Will be feeding a frozen food cocktail, shredded clam & some krill to the fish later. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Krill and shredded clams! 👍

 

 

 

Had to keep adjusting the position of the feeder throughout the tank, because I wasn't sure *where exactly to put it:

 

 

 

 

It's not a raging success so far - most of my fish seem more wary of it than anything. ☹

 

I did try to feed Lady some krill but she was quite furious - flared fins, mock charges and an all around temper tantrum. After I removed the krill using forceps and dropped in a live shrimp, she settled down immediately and now has a small, bulging belly. 

 

Lily ate 2 live shrimp in QT today. I dropped in a 3rd, but I'm unsure if she ate it. 

 

Some of my feeders escaped into the DT of my FW tank, while a few others died. Quite a headache to keep everything together, but I'm trying my best. 

 

Tomorrow I'll be dosing Lily's bin with Prazi - I'll make sure she eats first before dosing because Prazi messes with a fish's appetite. 

 

My dad dropped by my room and commented on how 'clean' the tank looked. That did make me happy a bit. 

 

(Thank goodness I scraped the glass yesterday! 😅)

[Snow_Phoenix]

The mollies are surprisingly efficient at munching on all the fuzzy algae covering the rocks, walls, wavemaker etc. I'm truly beginning to like these guys! 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

Also, this fancy one is the boss of tge group:

 

 

His name is Dot. He's a real butthead, but he does an excellent job in keeping the group in line. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

My mangroves. 🌱

 

 

 

Misted daily with dechlorinated tap water & supplemented with half a cap of ChaetoGro every mid-evening as well. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Apologies for more posts, but just wanted to drop these in here and say I love watching these guys. It's so peaceful. 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For all the hassle and setbacks this hobby presents sometimes, I believe it's worth it. My rocks are still covered in fuzz, there's still crud in the sump, the corals still have issues, and all sorts of things still need to be tackled, but I look at the fish and see the motions, the way they go about their daily routines, and it makes me feel calm. 

 

Certainly takes away the stress and reduces my anxiety. 🌺

 

Also, Cleo learnt to hover upside down to get to crevices under ledges, and then immediately corrects herself once she has snicked up a live pod. Quite interesting to watch. 🥰

[Snow_Phoenix]

Glued the pink kenya to the central rock ledge. Hoping the shift in position will encourage it to grow faster. We'll see. 😅

 

 

Green kenya has grown taller. 🥰

 

 

PJ's second dorsal fin is becoming more elongated. 😊

 

 

 

The odd guy out:

 

 

Not sure if I should have picked up a large fancy female for him. They had 3 of those - all plus-sized ladies, at the store, at elevated prices. 🤐

 

Perhaps the next time I head there, I'll pick one up for him...? He doesn't seem to swim along with the rest of the speckled group. Poor dude. 😕

[Xj reefing]

13 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

He's a real butthead

I have found that my saltwater molly is trying to become the bully of the tank but keeps getting shut down by my chromis and female clown. He does manage to bully my yellow coris wrasse so he does not get to each much food when he is out and about.

[Snow_Phoenix]

15 hours ago, Xj reefing said:

I have found that my saltwater molly is trying to become the bully of the tank but keeps getting shut down by my chromis and female clown. He does manage to bully my yellow coris wrasse so he does not get to each much food when he is out and about.

My main male molly does try to be pushy, but my hawk sets him straight. I know this might sound weird, but I think when it comes to SW setups, mollies (especially male sailfins) *might actually be more suited to semi-aggressive tanks. I don't think an all-out peaceful tank will fare too well with a male molly in it - especially when the fish are docile like tiny gobies, blennies, dragonets etc. Just my thoughts. 🤷‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

Lily is doing well. She ate one live shrimp today, and left the other one aside (eventually pulled that one out because I didn't want it to foul the bin's water).

 

 

 

 

Also dosed prazi today. Tomorrow will be the second peroxide bath for Lily. 

 

Lady is now steady on live food. Still not accepting frozen properly, but I'll keep trying:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Neon green kenya up close:

 

 

Very puffy today. 🥰

 

 

GSP patches on the back wall. I think the GHA might be stifling its growth, although I'm not sure. 🤔

 

 

The molly crew actually ate most of the algae covering the wavemaker! 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Suspicious. 👀

 

 

^I'm so happy he has a little belly now! 🥰

 

His colors have improved a lot too. 🥰

 

Foxy:

 

 

PJ:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

When you have an aiptasia problem...

 

 

...and you get a fish...

 

 

...yes, this fish...

 

 

 

 

...which is supposed to eat your aiptasia...

 

 

...but...! 

 

 

Nope. She just nosedives sideways into the rock instead because there's something way more *interesting in there. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

Puffy. 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiny kenya (zoomed in, hence the blurry pic) :

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hawke is up early:

 

 

 

Lady waiting for food:

 

 

I'll start mixing up some SW to begin the next phase of TTM for Lily in QT. Also need to prepare the peroxide bath. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took some pics under heavy whites. Here's Lady:

 

 

PJ:

 

 

Dot:

 

 

Lone Joe:

 

 

Hawke:

 

 

Cleo:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The cynarinas under heavy whites look a bit lackluster. 

 

 

 

But I suppose that's normal. 

 

Lily did well during the peroxide bath. Pre-bath shot:

 

 

During the bath:

 

 

 

Leftover castings in the older bin - after dosing with prazi yesterday. Few white clumps noted. Could be dead worms being shed, or simply dead shrimp leftovers after being processed by the gut:

 

 

TTMed to new bin after the bath:

 

 

I did drop a live shrimp in, but the silly thing jetted out and I found 1 crunchy shrimp on the floor much later. The remaining 2 shrimp & 1 guppy went to Lady, who did swallow all 3 with gusto:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I also topped up the water in the tidepool tank. Noticed one of the crabs have gone through a successful molt. 😊👍

 

 

The crabs were quite alert and active once I topped off. This might sound a bit silly, but none of them have used the FW puddle yet, and I was a bit worried. So yes, I manually uprooted each lil' dude, dunked him gently in the FW bath and swished/rolled them a bit for ~5 seconds, then slowly placed them back on the sandbed:

 

 

 

 

Most of them weren't too thrilled over their *bath, but then they went back to scutltling around, find a spot and quickly dug themselves in. 

 

FW is imperative for these guys, although they primarily reside in shallow SW. 

 

I have a tiny turtle filter otw to my home via courier, so once that is set up, the *wave-effect should resume in this tank. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Crabs in action! 🦀

 

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