Humble 5 Gallon Pico Tank

[Poison Dart Frog]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Pretty cool. And is that a stomatella in front of it? Such long antennae! I'd like a couple like that, where did you get it? 

Thanks. Yes it is, and it just appeared in the tank one day. I had to post here to find out what it is, lol. I added a couple of turbo snails and I saw the stomatella a day or two later and at first I thought it was one of the turbo snails that had crawled out its shell (thankfully it wasn't and the turbos are still in their shells). 

[Tired]

Must have been hiding on some rock. Too bad it's not something that's sold by anyone- it's about as close as you can get to an easily-maintained sea slug, and those antennae are fun. Ah well, maybe I'll get lucky with hitchhikers. 

 

I don't think it's physically possible for snails to come out of their shells without considerable external forces. Certainly not intact. I've met people who think that's what a slug is, a snail that came out of its shell, but that is of course not where slugs come from.

[Poison Dart Frog]

2 hours ago, Tired said:

Must have been hiding on some rock. Too bad it's not something that's sold by anyone- it's about as close as you can get to an easily-maintained sea slug, and those antennae are fun. Ah well, maybe I'll get lucky with hitchhikers. 

 

I don't think it's physically possible for snails to come out of their shells without considerable external forces. Certainly not intact. I've met people who think that's what a slug is, a snail that came out of its shell, but that is of course not where slugs come from.

It is fascinating. It stretches itself between rocks when moving from one to the next and it is constantly on the move. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

I set up another small tank in my home office. It's an old acrylic bow front I've had for years, 6 gallons maybe. I used live sand, dry rock and sea water, then added biospira right before I added a fish. Not much to look at yet. I got a $29 light on amazon for it.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I got this candy cane frag. I assume it takes a week or so before it opens any? Just put it in last night. 

[Ratvan]

Close. That's is a trympet Caulastrea curvata, while candy cane is Caulastrea furcata.

 

trumpets look like well trumpet, yours are fully open but can inflate further. Candy canes are more of an inflated donut shape.

[Poison Dart Frog]

14 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Close. That's is a trympet Caulastrea curvata, while candy cane is Caulastrea furcata.

 

trumpets look like well trumpet, yours are fully open but can inflate further. Candy canes are more of an inflated donut shape.

Ah, good to know, thanks. Petco was selling these as candy canes. So far they haven't really inflated further.

[Poison Dart Frog]

This is the light I bought for my other tank that I just got going. It got pretty good reviews on Amazon. The instruction manual said it is 120 PAR under the center, but doesn't say at what distance. I would like to have rock flower anemones (and maybe a maxi mini carpet). I am letting it cycle for a few weeks before I add anything else.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I moved my mushrooms away from my nephthea tree. I thought maybe they were stinging each other and the tree had been drooping over more than normal at night (it has been growing steadily though).

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

My other tank appears to have cycled. I added biospira and a fish last wednesday and it had almost no nitrates Friday. Today I tested and ammonia had dropped and nitrates were way up. This is the result before and after a small water change. I added some biomedia in the filter which had been in my other tank for a couple months when I set it up a week ago which may have helped some. Soon i hope to add a small clean up crew.

[Poison Dart Frog]

My small purple gorgonian has not sprouted polyps for days, but it did start to shed which I think is a good sign. My large gorgonian sheds every week and closes up during that time, and it reliably opens its polyps soon after. I hope the little guy does that same thing. Prior to this it had reliably had tan polyps all over almost all the time, even at night. A few days ago I moves to a spot with higher light and flow hoping it would like those conditions better. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

The small gorgonian finished shedding which revealed lighter colored purple flesh afterwards. Now it's starting to put out polyps again. It seems to like a lot of water flow but not direct current.

[banasophia]

10 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

The small gorgonian finished shedding which revealed lighter colored purple flesh afterwards. Now it's starting to put out polyps again. It seems to like a lot of water flow but not direct current.

Are you sure that’s a photosynthetic one? It looks kinda similar to one of mine that I think is non photosynthetic... could try a little phyto or zooplankton and see if it likes it.

[Poison Dart Frog]

12 hours ago, banasophia said:

Are you sure that’s a photosynthetic one? It looks kinda similar to one of mine that I think is non photosynthetic... could try a little phyto or zooplankton and see if it likes it.

That's a good question. I assumed it was photosynthetic because it has tan polyps, but it may require feeding. Would reef roids be okay for it?

[Poison Dart Frog]

The tan colored polyps are a little more visible today 

[banasophia]

9 minutes ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

The tan colored polyps are a little more visible today 

Well if it’s opening back up again I’d probably just keep doing what you’re doing rather than adding extra feedings 🙂

[billygoat]

Looks to me like a sea feather (Pseudopterogorgia sp.). It is photosynthetic, and the closed polyps are likely the result of a sloughing cycle which is now ending. I recommend hitting it with a turkey baster to help peel off the remaining waxy tissue on the outside. After that it should open up nice and wide, as long as light and flow are fairly good. 👌 

 

Feeding it with some Reef Roids once it is open again is not a bad idea at all though! I feed Roids to my photosynthetic gorgonians twice a week. Your other, larger gorg looks like Pterogorgia anceps, which is a species that also benefits greatly from periodic feeding with fine particulate foods.

[Poison Dart Frog]

6 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Looks to me like a sea feather (Pseudopterogorgia sp.). It is photosynthetic, and the closed polyps are likely the result of a sloughing cycle which is now ending. I recommend hitting it with a turkey baster to help peel off the remaining waxy tissue on the outside. After that it should open up nice and wide, as long as light and flow are fairly good. 👌 

 

Feeding it with some Reef Roids once it is open again is not a bad idea at all though! I feed Roids to my photosynthetic gorgonians twice a week. Your other, larger gorg looks like Pterogorgia anceps, which is a species that also benefits greatly from periodic feeding with fine particulate foods.

Thank you! I will do exactly that. 

When I cut it off its base so that I could glue it to the rock, 2 branches broke off which I put in my other newly cycled tank with worse water parameters (I just stuck them in the sand bed) and they've had polyps fully extended for days. Weird. 

 

The large gorg has grown quite a bit with its top branches almost to the surface of the water. Curious how fast the sea feather will grow.

[Poison Dart Frog]

The trumpet coral has started to open up more. It's taken about a week to start this. 

[billygoat]

21 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Thank you! I will do exactly that. 

When I cut it off its base so that I could glue it to the rock, 2 branches broke off which I put in my other newly cycled tank with worse water parameters (I just stuck them in the sand bed) and they've had polyps fully extended for days. Weird. 

 

The large gorg has grown quite a bit with its top branches almost to the surface of the water. Curious how fast the sea feather will grow.

Propagating gorgonians by fragmentation is quite easy, as you've discovered! Gorgonians in nature are frequently broken into pieces by storms or strong waves and scattered all about, giving rise to many clonal colonies in the same area. In fact some species actively encourage fragmentation by forming tissue constrictions on their branches that make them easier to break. They're such cool animals! 😁

 

Most photosynthetic gorgs grow rapidly, and the sea feather you've got is one of the fastest growers of all. I wouldn't be surprised if it starts to quickly shoot upwards once it gets settled down and established. I added a similar sea feather to my tank earlier this year; it took about three months for it to double in size.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I removed the largest rock and added a smaller flatter rock that I can glue zoas onto. The tank has been going 3 months now. I figure it takes 6 months to start looking sorta good and probably about a year to look grown in. 

 

I added 2 snails to my other tank also.

[Poison Dart Frog]

The pom pom crab used to live in a little hole in the large rock but it had to choose a new cave after I removed it. 

[Tired]

Looks pretty decent to me right now. 

 

How is that rock anchored on the back? Is it just glued up?