Polyclad Adventures - along came Pauly

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

An Introduction:

 

 

 

Yup.  The red arrows of hitchhiking doom.  I'm telling you, if you have these in your tank, get them out asap.  Red cellophane, water changes, carbon, Bic lighters, prayer, sage burning.  The arrows, not the stowaway.

 

My name is Chad the polyclad, but I have been called worse.

 

My story starts out like most well intentioned stories.  I was hungry.  My roommates were pulling an all-nighter and I thought I would sneak into the kitchen to get a snack.  Nope!  They saw me.  That is when my life changed.  

 

I was spotted four weeks ago.  I've been living here for ten months!  Now I am being accused of anything that has gone wrong in these living quarters.  I'm not admitting anything but the list is at minimum:  Krabdasian the porcelain crab, Waldo the pistol shrimp, a few turbo snails here and there.  I knew I was in trouble when Big Woof the hi-fin goby disappeared about a week ago thereby widowing Little Woof.  They were a pair.

 

So last Friday night, the rock I live in was collected and transported to solitary confinement.  Like I said I'm in trouble.

 

I don't know what is in store for me.  I can't even say you'll be interested because let's be honest, I'm a polyclad.  But something is going on and I hope I get my story out before it is too late or I get caught using the internet.

 

-Chad

[WV Reefer]

10 minutes ago, EfrainChicagoDeepdish said:

An Introduction:

 

 

 

Yup.  The red arrows of hitchhiking doom.  I'm telling you, if you have these in your tank, get them out asap.  Red cellophane, water changes, carbon, Bic lighters, prayer, sage burning.  The arrows, not the stowaway.

 

My name is Chad the polyclad, but I have been called worse.

 

My story starts out like most well intentioned stories.  I was hungry.  My roommates were pulling an all-nighter and I thought I would sneak into the kitchen to get a snack.  Nope!  They saw me.  That is when my life changed.  

 

I was spotted four weeks ago.  I've been living here for ten months!  Now I am being accused of anything that has gone wrong in these living quarters.  I'm not admitting anything but the list is at minimum:  Krabdasian the porcelain crab, Waldo the pistol shrimp, a few turbo snails here and there.  I knew I was in trouble when Big Woof the hi-fin goby disappeared about a week ago thereby widowing Little Woof.  They were a pair.

 

So last Friday night, the rock I live in was collected and transported to solitary confinement.  Like I said I'm in trouble.

 

I don't know what is in store for me.  I can't even say you'll be interested because let's be honest, I'm a polyclad.  But something is going on and I hope I get my story out before it is too late or I get caught using the internet.

 

-Chad

 

#istandwithchad

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

#chadisrad

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

The night after I was rehomed, the heavens apologized by delivering a clam in a half shell...right outside where I hang out in the rock.  I took my time and resisted the urge to not slide over to the sacrificial offering but I'm only a polyclad and couldn't help myself.  

 

I should've known it was a trap.  One of the roommates, SanFran Rice O'Roni went out for the night leaving ECDD home alone.  

 

Next thing you know,  I'm in a gallon jar.  Can they downsize my living quarters any more?  Should I have went vegetarian?  Could I even give up shellfish when it is so delish?  Anyways here are my mugshots/selfies.  One of which my mouth is full (rude!).

 

-Chad

 

 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Where’s the update Chad? It’s been a couple of days. Are they treating you all right? How’s the tight quarters?! 

[Wendy]

Oh WOW, @EfrainChicagoDeepdish!

You had just evicted the D-bag Chad!

 

Did you notice if it bothered any of your coral? 

I guess with crab, shrimp & snails as options it may of been satisfied...

 

I may just have to get a small yummy clam for the bottle trap in my pico...

.... sigh....

[mndfreeze]

Chad's only hope now is to befriend Kyle the monster energy drinking mantis shrimp.  He will punch through any walls of confinment and set you free Chad.

 

 

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

16 hours ago, mndfreeze said:

Chad's only hope now is to befriend Kyle the monster energy drinking mantis shrimp.  He will punch through any walls of confinment and set you free Chad.

 

 

I need a tech deck spoon to eat my snails with.  

 

-Chad

[Brock0019]

these guys get huge. I had them destroy a few torches in a different tank. chad you're a jerk. 

[Wendy]

Hey Chad,

I caught your brother Brad over the weekend! He enjoyed a lovely freshwater bath after his snail meal 🙂

[Ratvan]

Out of interest if you were to keep a pest tank with one of these in, how would you do it?

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

Whoa whoa whoa.  What's up with the hate?  You all put polyclads in your tanks.  I'm just doing what I do.  

 

@Wendy.  You humans are too smart.  Congrats on getting one over on us.  We aren't complex creatures.  Fresh water is a nice touch.  Efrain offered to cast me in resin and give me to SanFran Rice A Roni as a paper weight before.  There's worse out there.

 

I'm doing good.  Living in a vase.  Got a rock now to kind of hide in with an airstone.  Efrain threw some bumblebee snails in a week or two ago.  I was like "hell yeah!" except they are bumblebees and I do not like them.  So imagine my surprise when I "rushed" over to get my grub on.  Immediate u-turn.  It's like human's response to kale.  No thank you.  Anyways not sure why I say no to them.  Could be they are predatory and I possibly fall on their food chain or ...  yeah I got nothing.  So I went to bed hungry that night.  

 

@Ratvan. Having a pest tank with a polyclad would not be as exciting as having me.  My day goes like this:  I like my rock.  I don't like bright lights.  I don't travel far.  I like my food to come to me.  I love limpets and clams (frozen is cool) and I don't like bumblebee snails.  That's about it.  I'm continuing to discover more about myself as Efrain attempts to learn about me as well.  Stay turned or not.  It's a marathon,  not a race. 

 

Laterz

-Chad

[mndfreeze]

I need a Chad update in my life.  Why doesn't he insta?

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

@mndfreeze.  Yo yo.  I'm just chillin' like a villain in this jar.  Eating snails from the heavens.

 

I am trying to figure out how to RSVP (without Facebook) for the Storm Area 51 thing in September.  I'd like to be reunited with my relatives.  Efrain won't help due to an extraterrestrial xenophobia so I am going to either need to rideshare or hack the Uber.  

 

Other than that I am hoping the roommates take advantage of the Clamstraviganza at the LFS here this weekend.  Yum!  

 

Btw I did since sleuthing and saw you are local to us and probably know Efrain and SanFran as they do the local club thing.  

 

Here's my selfie.  Try not to be jealous of my living quarters. 

 

-Chad

[mndfreeze]

Possibly.  I'm in a ton of phoenix reef groups on facebook and have met a lot of people over the years but I rarely go to events or meet people anymore.  I work graveyard shift and over the weekends so it's not easy being freezy when it comes to meeting up with the local reefers.

 

You ever eat those bumblebee snails?  I'm super curious as to why they are not delectable treats like the others.  Surprised as a polyclad you would be so picky.  Perhaps you are french and some snails just aren't up to snuff when it comes to fine polyclad cuisine.

 

 

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

I did end up eating a bumblebee snail.  Efrain said he'll give me one this weekend as he wants to watch.  I just ate a half shelled clam so hopefully I'll be hungry by then or I'll just eat him later in private. 

 

Efrain gave me a mollie that lost its life to the MP10 and I didn't eat it after two days so it was pulled.  

 

I should've ate it because rumor is I might get banished to a sump with a system the roommates are building, IF I was to help keep it clean.  I still only have an appetite for shellfish.  

 

-Chad

[mndfreeze]

I think we are due an update on Chad with photo pictorial.  I'm starting to wonder if his landlord is really a slumlord due to the lack of updates.

 

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

Greetings my spined spectators,

 

Efrain is a total slumlord.  San Fran Rice jokes that he has the equivalent of dial up.  Which makes it hard to send updates even when I have the energy.  Also everything slows to buffer when Boston Baked Beans uses the microwave.  Netflix and patience.  I don't pay rent but it has to be cruel and unusual punishment.  Either way, when you live in a tank for the better part of a year, you get squatter's rights.  

 

So update time.  Another bumblebee.  Another day of intermittent fasting.  

 

In Efrain's attempt to collect all "pest" in the hobby (tally as follows dating back to 2001):

Gorilla crab - hitchhiker

Mantis shrimp - intentional

Eunice worm - intentional! He actually bought a rock with a mushroom because he saw a worm unlike anything he had seen before and wanting biodiversity he purchased it only to lose sleep for a few months to figure out what he had added to his tank.  

Pistol - intentional.  Rumored delicious.  Once again, I admit to nothing.

The standard - aiptasia, digitate hydroids, colonial hydroids - hitchhikers

 

And drum roll, the newest addition... montipora nudibranches!  So Efrain pulled all montiporas on this one rock, dipped, and threw into a spare tank with a power head.  And had me join like I was going to do something about it.  Spoiler, I'm not.  

 

Here's some entertainment.  

 

-Chad

 

 

[EfrainChicagoDeepdish]

Hola,

 

I am either writing from the afterlife where I await my next life experience assignment (hoping I get drawn as an entrepreneur.  Black turtle necks for the win) or in a cup somewhere in Texas.

-

 

There's this one punchline joke that is said around the hobby.  It goes like this: a polyclad/anemone find their way into a wave marker...and say WTF!  Efrain didn't believe it would likely be my demise.  I think he thought he was about to enjoy the "poly" in clad.  He did not get his wish.

 

A week or so later Efrain passed by my old stomping grounds while lights were out and saw another polyclad on a euphyllia.  In his haste to rid Tank 1 of another prowler/collect a replacement, he reached a gloved hand in and plucked the flatworm and mortally injured the poor little fella.  

 

It has been a real bummer for Efrain to not have me around and I hope he doesn't find out I'm at @Tired 's house with better internet.  Speaking of, adopt me from Tired. If your new year's resolution was to check a tank and see nothing as changed from the last time you looked, I'm your guy.

 

Anyhoo, thanks for following in my adventures and my last thought: 

 

Please be humane to the creatures you find in your glass cages.  We are just doing what we are intended to do.  

 

Ciao,

Chad Bartholomew Lanier-Hernandez

[WV Reefer]

RIP Chad. 

[Tired]

(I do, in fact, have a polyclad. Sort of. I had it in a cup, floated the cup in the tank to keep the temperature even, and it crawled out of the water to escape. I intend to try and trap it out again. If I ever catch it again, it's up for grabs. Maybe I can catch it when it's typing on wherever it's keeping what must be a tiny little keyboard.)

C'mon back out, Chad! Wasn't getting caught with a spoon fun the first time? 

[mndfreeze]

I miss Chad.

[sublunary]

11 minutes ago, mndfreeze said:

I miss Chad.

I'm so happy you bumped this thread. It made my night.

 

[mndfreeze]

More people need to keep oddball/pest tanks and write good stories.  

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

The tank keeper definitely needs to get back to posting more on Nano-Reef. She posted a couple times on our two tanks one thread, build journal, but she hasn’t posted in a long time. I’m hoping that you guys enjoying her story telling, will encourage her to pick it back up.