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Muddy Macros - 12g Long


cosmicbread

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27 minutes ago, billygoat said:

This situation smacks of mantis! Could be a number of other things too though... and some of them are kind of gnarly. 😅

 

The tank looks so beautiful! And you mentioned that you work at that desk? Honestly I have no idea how you get anything done. I would just be staring at those rocks and algae all day long. 😂

Haha. ^__^; And you are absolutely correct. I've been taking my work to a local coffee shop or even just the dining room table lately. I can't totally blame the tank, it's difficult for me to work at home most times.

EDIT @billygoat  what are the other gnarly things???

 

See, there was a tiny gorilla crab in that hole the other day, but I never saw it doing any sort of rampant excavation like that. Can tiny hairy crabs be this industrious? The cave is dark now. and super clean, even when I poke a light into it...and I held some shrimp outside the entrance for a minute earlier but no cigar. Peculiar.

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Something actually smashing the rock to burrow sounds like a mantis to me. I know I've had rock-burrowing clams in the past, but I think their progress is much slower. I'd start trying to trap it out- you may be able to ID it, and smasher mantises will eat all your crabs, snails, and snail-type creatures, so you'd probably want it out. 

 

If it wasn't smashing the rock, and the rock was already broken inside, that could be several things. My thought would be rock-dwelling pistol shrimp. 

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12 hours ago, cosmicbread said:

EDIT @billygoat  what are the other gnarly things???

Could be a pistol shrimp, as @Tired mentioned, or some other kind of small crustacean. That wouldn't be so bad. I was thinking that if it is some kind of large polychaete worm, like a Eunicid or a big bristle worm, that could be difficult. Eunice worms are almost impossible to remove, and a specimen large enough to inhabit that hole would probably eat all of your macros. That seems less likely though because most rock-dwelling Eunicids like to build a sort of "tube" for themselves out of pieces of debris, shell fragments, etc. So my money is still on mantis.

 

Now I'm super curious to see what it is! 

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I don't think Eunicids actually burrow into the rock. Can't think of how they would. And, yeah, I think they mostly combine hiding in pre-made holes and building tubes of mucus and rock bits. 

 

Good ol' bottle trap is probably your best bet for most things. Poke some small holes for ventilation, bait it up with something stinky, leave it in there for a few hours after lights out. Take the trap out rather than leaving it overnight so as not to leave things in there with decaying shrimp. You will catch many things, and hopefully the clicker will be among them. 

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33 minutes ago, Tired said:

I don't think Eunicids actually burrow into the rock. Can't think of how they would. And, yeah, I think they mostly combine hiding in pre-made holes and building tubes of mucus and rock bits. 

 

Good ol' bottle trap is probably your best bet for most things. Poke some small holes for ventilation, bait it up with something stinky, leave it in there for a few hours after lights out. Take the trap out rather than leaving it overnight so as not to leave things in there with decaying shrimp. You will catch many things, and hopefully the clicker will be among them. 

Gonna do it tonight! Prob will just catch all of the hermit crabs lol

I thought I saw *something* with legs moving in a hole near the “big hole” this morning, and I held shrimp near it with tweezers, but it didn’t take the bait and disappeared deeper into the rock. Normally, if a crab, they go for it instantly. 
Also, nothing has created a door for any hole entrance that I’ve found yet, which seems to be a mantis behavior.

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Keep us posted! I wanna see what just caved through your rock like that haha It's pretty freaky 😮

 

The aquarium keeps looking better and better, it's amazing

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19 minutes ago, cosmicbread said:

My bottle trap caught absolutely nothing last night. 😅

 

 

Doesn't matter, we want MORE pictures of that awesome live rock! 😄

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4 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

What did you bait it with? The only thing I ever catch in a bottle trap is my idiot wrasse

An entire thawed salad shrimp. I was flabbergasted since the crabs at least go nuts for this stuff. But not even one brittle star 😂 Maybe it was placement of the trap...I've noticed now that everyone kind of stays on their chosen rock or splits time between two rocks. The hermits, other crabs are never on the substrate. The creepy hole-dweller is likely similar. I placed the trap *near* a rock but due to space constraints I couldn't jam it in the middle of the popular rocks.

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Potentially changing things up soon. My neighbor is offering me his Red Sea Reefer 170 with stand, sump, all other equipment and Hydra 26 light for under $200. Just need a new return pump. The tank was only used for two months as a holding tank for his fish when he was moving.

 

I think I will probably say yes, but this will mean tearing down the 12g and transferring stuff over, then probably selling the 12g. I will also re-do the 3.5 gallon "pest" tank to accommodate the mangroves.

 

Things are going well enough in the Mud Pit. Haven't caught the Mysterious Hole Lurker but I've also been gone all weekend. New shaving brush macro shoots (and maybe fans as well) are shooting up EVERYWHERE. I likely won't do mud in the new tank, or will do a submerged media basket of mud in a corner. idk, the Reefer would be in a living room that sees a lot of traffic so I'd probably aim for a "cleaner" sand look. I'm hoping the rooted macros will tolerate the move. I'm not quite sure the exact plans but have a lot of time to figure it out. Would also be getting more live rock and sand.

 

 

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1 hour ago, cosmicbread said:

Potentially changing things up soon. My neighbor is offering me his Red Sea Reefer 170 with stand, sump, all other equipment and Hydra 26 light for under $200. Just need a new return pump. The tank was only used for two months as a holding tank for his fish when he was moving.

 

I think I will probably say yes, but this will mean tearing down the 12g and transferring stuff over, then probably selling the 12g. I will also re-do the 3.5 gallon "pest" tank to accommodate the mangroves.

That's amazing! What a deal. I'd take that in an instant, even if I had no plans for the system whatsoever. It seems like an amazing opportunity! I can't wait to see where you take it. 😁

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Thanks! I’m gonna look at it tonight and make a decision. Still gonna be macroalgae dominated with softies and gorgs in every likelihood 😁 And LPS here and there.

 

From tonight, my Ricordea wearing mithrax and some algae.

 

 

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So, the RS 170 isn’t happening. A few reasons, but mainly decided that I didn’t really care for the dimensions, so even though it was a steal I can only devote myself to one “big” marine tank at a time right now and want to be sure I’m thoroughly cool with whatever I get.
 

However, an upgrade is still on the way...so I’ll be posting a new journal for that Eventually 😉

 

Last night I caught one of the Legion of gorilla crabs with a shot glass trap and threw him into the pest tank. Gonna work on rehoming as many of them as possible before the upgrade (along with the additional rock for the upgrade, which will also means additional crabs hehe)

 


 

 

 

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On 2/7/2020 at 6:58 AM, cosmicbread said:

So, the RS 170 isn’t happening. A few reasons, but mainly decided that I didn’t really care for the dimensions, so even though it was a steal I can only devote myself to one “big” marine tank at a time right now and want to be sure I’m thoroughly cool with whatever I get.

Makes good sense to me. I wouldn't want to go through with any upgrade unless I am absolutely sure that the new tank is exactly what I want. It's not worth breaking down a beautiful aquarium like the one you've got here unless you're sure that you're taking it someplace better. 👍

 

Keep us posted on your plans! I'm curious to see what size/style of tank you choose to go with.

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1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Makes good sense to me. I wouldn't want to go through with any upgrade unless I am absolutely sure that the new tank is exactly what I want. It's not worth breaking down a beautiful aquarium like the one you've got here unless you're sure that you're taking it someplace better. 👍

 

Keep us posted on your plans! I'm curious to see what size/style of tank you choose to go with.

It’s going to be an IM Lagoon 25 🙂 but won’t be set up for a few more weeks yet. I’m excited for room for more macroalgae.
 

This 12g is getting some microalgae on the back glass. I may need another trochus to help the current crew. The one I have also seems accident prone...a few days ago, I rescued him from the power head and then three hours later found him a foot away from the tank on the floor, pretty dried up (but, made a full recovery). Then this morning, he was stuck on his back? I thought these guys could flip over! 😅

 

Here are two new mermaids fans that appeared from the substrate, and the weirdly mobile bivalve(?) that is growing bigger and spinier.

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Huh, it's almost starting to look like a thorny oyster. It'll be interesting to see if that's a species that's mobile as a baby and then settles, or if it's going to keep wandering, or even if it is a baby at all. 

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4 minutes ago, Tired said:

Huh, it's almost starting to look like a thorny oyster. It'll be interesting to see if that's a species that's mobile as a baby and then settles, or if it's going to keep wandering, or even if it is a baby at all. 

Yeah, my friend and I were wondering if it’s a juvie of some sort. But google has remained unhelpful. I’m just happy that it seems to like my tank enough to grow :))

 

It also doesn’t move from this spot, a bit off center at the front. Once it was inching to the left but then it quickly returned to the usual location. Maybe something to do with the current. Or the light intensity.

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Google's been getting less and less helpful lately, for everything. Plus, for there to be a Google result, someone would have had to put something relevant online. It may be a known species that just hasn't been described online in terms that you've looked up. 

 

If I were you, I might be inclined to look up some marine research institutes. Maybe you can find someone who's an expert on bivalves and might know what it is.

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1 hour ago, Tired said:

Google's been getting less and less helpful lately, for everything. Plus, for there to be a Google result, someone would have had to put something relevant online. It may be a known species that just hasn't been described online in terms that you've looked up. 

 

If I were you, I might be inclined to look up some marine research institutes. Maybe you can find someone who's an expert on bivalves and might know what it is.

Just posted it up on the largest marine biology group on FB, for starters 🤞

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Fairly certain I found a porcelain crab tonight. 🤙


 

People on the FB group are still clueless about the spiny green hitchhiker dude, but I’ve had a few shares.

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12 hours ago, cosmicbread said:

Fairly certain I found a porcelain crab tonight. 🤙


 

People on the FB group are still clueless about the spiny green hitchhiker dude, but I’ve had a few shares.

Porcelain crab! That's a good find. I've had one of those guys for many months. Not a hundred percent sure what it eats in my system, just left-over reef roids and whatever I blow off the rocks I guess, but it seems to do very well. I find them really interesting to watch.

 

Hope you find some insight into that weird bivalve! I reckon it'll probably get easier to identify once it gets a bit larger.

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