Indo-Pacific Goby Biotope (SHUT DOWN 2019.10.04)

[Ratvan]

Hi Guys and Girls,

 

I am hoping for your input and expertise please. 

 

Looking to set up my 5.5G Cube as a Indo-Pacific Biotope to house my Green Clown Gobies and would like some recommendations for soft corals.

 

So far I have traced down

·         Toadstool Mushroom Leather (Sarcophyton sp.)

·         Chilli Coral (Nephthyigorgia sp.)

·         Christmas Tree Coral (Sphaerella sp.)

·         Devil’s Hand Leather (Lobophytum sp.)

·         Cabbage Leather (Sinularia Brassica)

·         Anthelia (Anthelia sp.)

·         Pipe Organ Coral (Tubipora musica)

 

But i would like some further options if possible, I am going to stay away from SPS for the time being (mainly because GCG have been known to nip at Acro's) so some "easy" LPS would not go a miss either. 

 

Clean Up Crew

2 Algae Hermit Crabs

2 Trocus Snails

2 Nassarius Snails

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Wohoo! I'm from the Indo-Pac region, so I'd love to see this. Shrooms - here in Indo-Pac, we have an assortment of rhodactis and yumas in various colors. Also various zoa colonies too. 🙂 

[billygoat]

This is great! 😁 I can't wait to see it in action!

 

For clean-up crew members I would recommend Stomatella, Turbo, or Trochus snails. Avoid Ceriths and Nerites as those are mostly sourced from the Caribbean. +1 to mushroom anemones as well; there is an extremely wide variety of mushrooms in the Indo-Pacific and some of them have amazing colors.

 

Softies such as Sarcophyton are notorious for producing allelopathic toxins, so I'd run some carbon on this system for sure. Hopefully that shouldn't be too much of a problem though.

[billygoat]

One thing that I found super helpful when I was setting up my biotope was Googling images and videos of the species I wanted to keep (in your case, GCGs) in their natural habitat. Usually you can find some sort of amateur dive video or something along those lines, often on YouTube. These obviously won't be documentary-quality photographs, but by observing the animals where they are found in nature you can get some great ideas about what to put in your tank in order to match their wild habitat as closely as possible.

[MetaTank]

Subbed

[Ratvan]

7 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Wohoo! I'm from the Indo-Pac region, so I'd love to see this. Shrooms - here in Indo-Pac, we have an assortment of rhodactis and yumas in various colors. Also various zoa colonies too. 🙂 

Awesome thank you, how light sensitive are mushrooms out of interest? I might try Zoas again and possibly might have found my one colony... I'm still skeptical about trying them again. They are an unusual colour as well.

6 hours ago, billygoat said:

This is great! 😁 I can't wait to see it in action!

 

For clean-up crew members I would recommend Stomatella, Turbo, or Trochus snails. Avoid Ceriths and Nerites as those are mostly sourced from the Caribbean. +1 to mushroom anemones as well; there is an extremely wide variety of mushrooms in the Indo-Pacific and some of them have amazing colors.

 

Softies such as Sarcophyton are notorious for producing allelopathic toxins, so I'd run some carbon on this system for sure. Hopefully that shouldn't be too much of a problem though.

Stomatellas are amazing. They are so in.  Another Toxin? Wow I sure do seem to like the stuff that's got a funky defense.

5 hours ago, billygoat said:

One thing that I found super helpful when I was setting up my biotope was Googling images and videos of the species I wanted to keep (in your case, GCGs) in their natural habitat. Usually you can find some sort of amateur dive video or something along those lines, often on YouTube. These obviously won't be documentary-quality photographs, but by observing the animals where they are found in nature you can get some great ideas about what to put in your tank in order to match their wild habitat as closely as possible.

Incidentally I've been diving in Sumatra and Bawa. I still remember all of the yellow and red that I saw on the reefs. I love your biotope and was one of the reasons that I wanted to try it. 

 

I've thought about it and going BB on this so the tank is the tip of the reef so to speak. 

1 hour ago, MetaTank said:

Subbed

Ah shit. Would have been better off not knowing that.

[Ratvan]

We are wet. Started with "live" rock. Not convinced by it so starting a "dry" cycle with some food, old media, old water blah blah blah

 

[Ratvan]

Picked up a barnacle skeleton, gives some natural caves and caverns for the GCG. Need to split it into half, maybe into three and spread it through the rock work slightly. 

 

Apologies for the blue photo. Running it on full too see light spill and if it will distract me or others from working. 

 

Also LFS softie tank as some form of inspiration

 

[Ratvan]

The Cycle continues

 

So having a think about this, i plan on holding out until approximately September to add the Green Clown Gobies. Between then and now I have three weeks booked off (not together sadly) as well as a couple of bank/public holidays and training courses. 

 

I can of course stock corals and shoot for growth between now and then (also build up a cache of store credit)

 

Also made a New Box for my Aiptasia/Mushrooms

 

Parts. Craft Mesh, Glass Coffee Jar Lid

 

End Result

 

The useful thing with these lids is that they can be stacked within the tank. This is useful for the amount of Baby Mushrooms that I currently have, looking at picking up some specimen cups and see if I can get the babies growing in that. Anyone know of any small Ceramic Tubes?

[MetaTank]

7 hours ago, Ratvan said:

The Cycle continues

 

So having a think about this, i plan on holding out until approximately September to add the Green Clown Gobies. Between then and now I have three weeks booked off (not together sadly) as well as a couple of bank/public holidays and training courses. 

 

I can of course stock corals and shoot for growth between now and then (also build up a cache of store credit)

 

Also made a New Box for my Aiptasia/Mushrooms

 

Parts. Craft Mesh, Glass Coffee Jar Lid

 

End Result

 

The useful thing with these lids is that they can be stacked within the tank. This is useful for the amount of Baby Mushrooms that I currently have, looking at picking up some specimen cups and see if I can get the babies growing in that. Anyone know of any small Ceramic Tubes?

Tiny ceramic flower pots?

[Ratvan]

On 7/2/2019 at 5:00 PM, MetaTank said:

Tiny ceramic flower pots?

Good idea, will see if I can locate some reef safe paint to hide em better. Going to look to add CUC today if I can find anything locally

 

 

[MainelyReefer]

Don’t GCG’s associate with pocillipora in the wild for a home/place to breed?  If you are doing a GCG biotope I would think pocillopora would be necessary.  My GCG loves perching especially in branched corals and I hardly see him in the softies so maybe a few stony corals for it would be cool.

[Ratvan]

12 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

Don’t GCG’s associate with pocillipora in the wild for a home/place to breed?  If you are doing a GCG biotope I would think pocillopora would be necessary.  My GCG loves perching especially in branched corals and I hardly see him in the softies so maybe a few stony corals for it would be cool.

Can't find it in price range currently, I can order from a EU based company E140 plus delivery at E50 (nearly £220 for a 4" section) 

Am looking at other options such as Acro's at the moment, I can afford those 

[MainelyReefer]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

Can't find it in price range currently, I can order from a EU based company E140 plus delivery at E50 (nearly £220 for a 4" section) 

Am looking at other options such as Acro's at the moment, I can afford those 

Crazy they are really cheap here in the greatest country on earth at only 15-20$ a frag.  In one of my LFS the pocillopora have self propagated throughout one of their displays

[Ratvan]

3 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

Crazy they are really cheap here in the greatest country on earth at only 15-20$ a frag.  In one of my LFS the pocillopora have self propagated throughout one of their displays

Russia?

[Ratvan]

Well so since I was de algaeing my rocks I accidentally broke the rock and fragged a Ricordea off..... oops

So I stuffed the mushroom and mushroom box into this 

 

Under 100% Blues

100% Blue and 10% White

[Ratvan]

I added a couple of Trocus snails a few weeks back and basically let the tank work itself out of "the uglies". I had a huge Diatoms bloom for a couple of weeks before that eventually subsided and gave way to Green Hair Algae, the two snails have been keeping the tank relatively clean except for the patches of GHA. 

 

Hopefully the weather is better today for the LFS and I can pick something up for Clean Up Duties. Hoping for some Algae Hermit Crabs, Astera Snail and maybe another Turbo.  

 

[Ratvan]

Added some Algae Hermits today, two in the 5.5G and one for the Pico 

 

Of course instantly I lost the two in the 5.5G so here is the lucky guy with the Pico to himself (and Penny)

[Tamberav]

Nice little start!

 

How about a fiji yellow toad 🙂 Adds a nice splash of yellow. I really like Nepthea too. 

[Ratvan]

Thanks. I am on the look out for a Figi Yellow. Have Kenya Tree and "Pussy Coral" at my LFS but their tanks also have a lot of cyano atm so.... 🤷‍♂️

 

Also found another online seller that I want to try. They have some nice cabbages. And mushrooms. 

 

Trying not to spend at the minute 

 

I did throw in a couple of Yumas today as a test so I'll see how they fare 

[Ratvan]

So I picked up some new corals today after a trade with someone nearby, I got rid

 of a spare heater, HOB and various other fish related items (nets, siphons, hatchery etc) so I can now actually fit my legs under my desk 😄

 

Apologies for the lighting, mid thunderstorm at the minute. It's sending my phone's camera weird. 

 

So I picked up a Pussy Coral (Cauliflower Colt Coral/ Klyxum sp.). No idea how to mount this so stuffed the "trunk" into the frag holder that I had knocking around from the failed Zoa attempt

 

I also picked up some Xenia, I think I have three morphs. 

 

Here we have a Blue and Pink colour morph on the same Rock

 

Different Lengths, Possibly Xenia Elongata?

[Ratvan]

Ok so the electrical storm has buggered off now. Can get some better pictures. 

 

You can also see where the snails have been busy, Not ventured far from cover so far. 

[billygoat]

Off to a good start so far! That colt coral will grow like a weed once it gets settled in, but they are very beautiful. And the same goes for the Xenia of all varieties as well, of course! 😄

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Off to a good start so far! That colt coral will grow like a weed once it gets settled in, but they are very beautiful. And the same goes for the Xenia of all varieties as well, of course! 😄

Thanks. Slowly is the name of the game so have put in the fastest growing corals first...... 

 

I cant decide if I want a sand bed or not, I might try a more coarse material and see if I like that. Mind you I am trying for a rubble zone meets reef look

 

I have reserved a couple of spots for a Kenya tree or two that I might have to purchase Monday. I also want some height and movement in the background and looking at macro again to cover that. 

 

I am willing to try Zoas again and have found a colony of cheap ones to add and hopefully keep alive. 

 

Need to move that stick on them as well that will be zoa corner. 

[Ratvan]

I need to get better at checking frags for pest algae