Banasophia’s Evo V 🌀

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, Amphrites said:

Supposed benefit to the citron is a longer lifespan, although it may be the yellows.  @Ratvan You asked me for this ages ago, like 8 months at least lol, google was kind this attempt and I found something parallel - but not the waikiki report on the 15 year old yellow coral goby itself.
https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium-fish-longevity/

Great article, thanks!! 
 

Especially interested to see this part About yellow clown gobies being simultaneous hermaphrodites:

 

”When the first author began his career at the Waikiki Aquarium in June 1995, he purchased two Gobiodon okinawae from a local tropical fish importer. They were placed in a 1300 L open system marine aquarium containing several species of live coral and other marine tropicals. This species is a simultaneous hermaphrodite and so they soon formed a breeding pair.”

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Here’s to hoping they also work hard. Well I am setting up my old JBJ pico for a qt tank. Going to just use the ac20 empty for flow, a heater, and LR for filter.   I finally broke down and ordered some zoa’s from Top Shelf. I will probably pick them up around Wednesday. Sorry I was thinking I was in reef, chat, life thread. Back to your regular scheduled programming.

Haha I do that too with all the different threads going on. Can’t wait to see your new corals!

[banasophia]

Guess I should post a June FTS.
 

I continue to miss my little female neon goby Rose, but I do really love this little tank. It’s a very low maintenance setup, I just do a weekly 2g water change and feed pellets once a day in the evening. The stock lights and the filtration with the intank media basket seem to be working just fine and it makes for a nice little home office tank. The temp ranges from 76-82, but the fluctuation doesn’t seem to be causing any issues. The downside is that the lights do need to be turned on and off manually.
 

It has become a bit of an aiptasia wonderland, but I added two berghia nudibranchs a few weeks ago so hopefully they will start doing their thing soon. I saw one a while back, but haven’t seen them since. But I know from having berghias in the past that it takes a while for them to start making a visible difference. 

 

 

 

[Tired]

Berghias are actually kinda fun. Check at night with a flashlight, you might see some. It'll seem like they aren't doing anything for awhile, then the aiptasia will slowly start to vanish. 

 

Tank looks beautiful! Doesn't look like the corals got the memo about their unwanted neighbors.

[banasophia]

1 minute ago, Tired said:

Berghias are actually kinda fun. Check at night with a flashlight, you might see some. It'll seem like they aren't doing anything for awhile, then the aiptasia will slowly start to vanish. 

 

Tank looks beautiful! Doesn't look like the corals got the memo about their unwanted neighbors.

Thank you. Yes, I agree about the berghias... it’s so funny how they seem to vanish for a few weeks when you first get them and then eventually emerge and scarf up the aiptasia. Now they have tons of aiptasia to feast on in both this tank and the Biocube 16. They came out last night in this tank... saw them as I came in to turn off the lights and there are maybe 3 less aiptasia today. 
 

Interestingly, though, it appeared a bristleworm was eating one of the berghia in the Biocube the other night. Maybe the berghia had died and was just being “cleaned up”... haven’t seen any sign of live ones feasting on the Biocube yet, but hopefully they’ll come out soon. 

[banasophia]

Someone’s out for a stroll... glad to see him crawling on the sandbed since I even have a couple aiptasia living in the sand at this point. Oh nice and I just spotted the second one as well! They've gotten really big!
 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Filter feeder on the torch 

 

 

[Tired]

Huh. Weird shape on your critter. Does it extend further than that? 

Always nice to have the weird little definitely-harmless critters. Doesn't get more harmless than a filter-feeder that can't even go anywhere.

[banasophia]

42 minutes ago, Tired said:

Huh. Weird shape on your critter. Does it extend further than that? 

Always nice to have the weird little definitely-harmless critters. Doesn't get more harmless than a filter-feeder that can't even go anywhere.

I haven’t seen it extend any further than that. Hopefully harmless and not something that will spread all over the place... my Nuvo 10 became overrun with spirorbid worms, so I know even harmless filter feeders can turn into a nuisance sometimes. 🤞

[Tired]

Ah, yes, the loophole in not going anywhere; gametes. 

 

I'd be interested to see if it fills out more. As of right now, it looks like a weird worm, but there doesn't seem to be much to its fan. Almost like a barnacle's filter-feeding apparatus. I wonder if it's been nibbled, or if it's just a minimalist worm.

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Ah, yes, the loophole in not going anywhere; gametes. 

 

I'd be interested to see if it fills out more. As of right now, it looks like a weird worm, but there doesn't seem to be much to its fan. Almost like a barnacle's filter-feeding apparatus. I wonder if it's been nibbled, or if it's just a minimalist worm.

Yeah the filter feeding apparatus does actually seem to be getting bigger, so it will be interesting to see what happens over time.

 

Meanwhile, check this out - I have baby berghias!!! I spotted a tiny baby trying to eat an aiptasia! Which was nice timing because the big mama was out, near the top of the tank, so I was able to catch her and I’ll move her to the Biocube 16 after I finish acclimating her since I still haven’t seen any berghias re-emerge in that tank, aside from one being eaten by a bristleworm.

 

 

Plenty of food for the berghias in this tank:

 

[banasophia]

Baby berghia do do, do do 🦈  
 

(It’s crawling on the glass, in the lower right corner of the pic.)

 

[banasophia]

These berghia are so interesting because they aren’t really as nocturnal as others I’ve had in the past... the babies and adults come out throughout the day. Lucky I don’t have any predators that will eat them.

[banasophia]

These berghia are so interesting because they aren’t really as nocturnal as others I’ve had in the past... the babies and adults come out throughout the day. Lucky I don’t have any predators that will eat them.

[banasophia]

So I keep catching baby berghias from this tank and moving them to the Biocube 16 but I’m still not seeing signs of them doing their thing in the Biocube... I really wonder if the bristleworms are eating them.

 

I decided to give away today’s catch of baby berghias to a local reefer... was able to catch 5 for her, though three were teeny tiny. I was hoping the big momma would come out of her little crevice so I could rehome her too, but guess what? She was busy laying a new spiral of eggs! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tired]

I think a berghia could probably outrun a bristleworm, if it came down to it. And bristleworms are generally not prone to pursuing things, anyway. 

 

Does the biocube have a lot of small aiptasia? Small berghia (especially when they can't find each other to group up) need small anemones to eat. It's possible they aren't getting enough to eat. Or they are, and are too small to do much damage. 

 

What coral is that, closest to the camera? The puffy two-polyped one. Big candycane? 

[banasophia]

15 minutes ago, Tired said:

I think a berghia could probably outrun a bristleworm, if it came down to it. And bristleworms are generally not prone to pursuing things, anyway. 

 

Does the biocube have a lot of small aiptasia? Small berghia (especially when they can't find each other to group up) need small anemones to eat. It's possible they aren't getting enough to eat. Or they are, and are too small to do much damage. 

 

What coral is that, closest to the camera? The puffy two-polyped one. Big candycane? 

 

Aiptasia of all sizes... may just need to be patient.

 

Yeah, that’s a candy cane... resulted from accidental fragging of Hank’s fortress in the Biocube:
 

[twofishys]

I have two of these little Asterina starfish. My daughter thinks they’re adorable and wants me to keep them. Is there a downside for my 16 gallon bio cube?Is there a downside for my 16 gallon bio cube?

[debbeach13]

I have some in both of my tanks. If I notice they are reproducing a lot I remove a few but it has been awhile since I have had to do that. I consider them adding to the boidiversity of the tank. Some people don't like them some people buy them. Some have said they eat coralline algae but I am not sure. 

[Tired]

Certain larger types of asterinas are known to prey on corals, but those are grey and rougher-textured. The asterinas pictured don't appear to be the harmful kind.

[banasophia]

5 hours ago, twofishys said:

I have two of these little Asterina starfish. My daughter thinks they’re adorable and wants me to keep them. Is there a downside for my 16 gallon bio cube?Is there a downside for my 16 gallon bio cube?

 

4 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I have some in both of my tanks. If I notice they are reproducing a lot I remove a few but it has been awhile since I have had to do that. I consider them adding to the boidiversity of the tank. Some people don't like them some people buy them. Some have said they eat coralline algae but I am not sure. 

 

4 hours ago, Tired said:

Certain larger types of asterinas are known to prey on corals, but those are grey and rougher-textured. The asterinas pictured don't appear to be the harmful kind.

 

Funny, my daughter was just asking about our little asterina yesterday... she also loves them... haven’t seen our little one for quite a while. They can reproduce rapidly in some tanks, and some are said to eat coralline or zoas. I have removed them when I’ve gotten them as hitchhikers in the past, but now I kinda want to keep some. I would be more worried if I was trying to keep a lot of nice zoas, but zoas aren’t a big priority for me.

[banasophia]

This little tank is plugging along. It’s so low maintenance, I love it. 💛

 

There’ve been a couple changes recently. I ended up transferring Hank (my yellow clown goby) and Finnick (my captive bred biota mandarin) to this tank because the Biocube has been pretty neglected lately and needs a little TLC, so I decided to move them temporarily so I can focus on trapping bristleworms and getting rid of aiptasia in the Biocube without accidentally harming my fishies. 
 

It took them a couple days to seem settled in, but now they seem happier than ever, and I love that I can watch them all day as I work. My cat Reo loves the change too, and is definitely more interested in the tank now. 
 

 

All three fish get along great, and Jack and Finnick seem to have especially hit it off, though I haven’t been able to catch a pic just yet. I think because he’s a cleaner fish, Jack (the neon goby) tries to hop on Finnick and ride him around sometimes... super cute, though usually brief!

 

 

Finnick was in mandarin heaven for the first week because the tank was packed with pods at first since Jack doesn’t eat them... of course the pods didn’t last long... there are still some but it’s not jam packed like it was. But Finnick chows down on the Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet pellets, so he’s doing well so far and I’ll restart my pod culture again this weekend.
 

**Of course I should note that I do not recommend getting a mandarin for such a small tank... in Finnick’s case, I have had him for over 2 years, I already know he is a hardy eater that eats pellets and frozen, and I have successfully cultured pods in the past so I can add pods weekly as needed. In addition, I always monitor his weight closely, and can move him back to my larger tank if he is not thriving. 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

I swapped out my jebao slw-10 powerhead for a hygger mini powerhead because I was worried about the jebao sucking Hank in. It arrived next-day via Amazon Prime. The hygger is awesome!! Tiny, powerful, and highly programmable with 5 time periods throughout the day that can be separately programmed... I have it on the lowest possible settings for this small tank. 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, as supermodels tend to do, Hank has made this little tank look extra good. #strikeaposehank 😁

 

 

Beer also makes things look good. 🍻😉😂

 

 

 

[banasophia]

[banasophia]