Snow's 2.6G Little Monsters Picoreef - Retired!

[Snow_Phoenix]

16 minutes ago, Tired said:

The tube is probably either a sponge, or a tube made by a worm. May be worth sneaking up at night to see if you can spot a worm. Probably nothing concerning. 

I figured as much. I'm leaving it be. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Piccolo still hasn't molted: 🤐

 

 

Green discosoma looking bright & cheerful this morning:

 

 

And this is how my brittlestar passes something along the length of his arm/leg:

 

Thought it was pretty cool, so I decided to share it with all of you. 😊👍

[Tired]

Oh, wow, it has little grabbers! I've never seen a brittle star with any sort of limb appendage, they're usually just smooth. Didn't know the spiny kind came with appendages. I guess this one took a different approach to being a brittle/serpent star. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

5 minutes ago, Tired said:

Oh, wow, it has little grabbers! I've never seen a brittle star with any sort of limb appendage, they're usually just smooth. Didn't know the spiny kind came with appendages. I guess this one took a different approach to being a brittle/serpent star. 

It's actually a bubbletip brittlestarfish (Ophiomastix annulosa). Their 'bristles' are quite pronounced. I have a banded serpent starfish in this same setup, and although I have watched it pass along a tiny chunk of shrimp from the tip of one arm to its central disk to be consumed, I couldn't really see the tube feet very much. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

The favites are looking much better:

 

 

But I'm worried about the mini acan - the one melted head is a brownish blob today. Really am hoping it's not the start of BJD, or worse: 😓

 

 

And these are my AOGs - they're neither fully open nor closed: 😕

 

 

I honestly don't know what else I can do to help it, so I'm leaving it be for now. The rest of the zoa garden seems unaffected so far (touch wood) : 

 

 

At least Piccolo is fine so far - caught her relaxing upside down my monti: 😊

 

 

I changed my HOB to a spare HOB which I keep for running extra temporary tanks. The flow in the tank has definitely improved - I changed out the filter floss and rinsed the carbon too. Will note down any differences in the reef in the upcoming days. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey is already in camomode for the night:

 

 

 

😊

[Tired]

Oh, that acan does look suspiciously like BJD. I'd take that out, put it in its own container. You really don't want that stuff in a tank this small. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some good news & bad news. I'll start off with the bad news - the mini acans developed BJD and more than half the frag was smothered in brown goop when I woke up: 😭

 

 

I noticed the small head at the bottom was not touched, so I quickly isolated the coral in a small cup filled with tank water + concentrated iodine + 2 drops of Vit. C. 

 

I used a baster to remove as much of the slime as possible, and deposited the slime in a second empty cup. Did this a few time until only the skeleton of the affected acan heads were visible. Then I swished the frag in the cup a few times and quickly fragged off the dead bits. 

 

Dipped it again for good measure, then I reglued it on one of the empty LR spaces in the pico:

 

 

There is only ~1.5 heads left, as opposed to the original 4, but I'm hoping it'll pull through (eventually). I still have a second frag of mini rainbow acans in my 60G which aren't doing too well (mostly because they keep getting knocked over into the sandbed by my urchins 🙄 ), and I *might shift them into this pico next week. 👍

 

Also, hungry brains! 😮 :

 

 

 

^You can see how pinched the bottom of the rainbow brain is, but I'm glad it's recovering & responsive. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

On to the good news - Piccolo finally molted last night! 😄

 

 

 

 

Her new legs are still small, but I think it will regrow to full size in a few more molts:

 

 

😊

[Tired]

I would get that rainbow acan back out. If any of the jelly regrows, it can get onto healthy corals and attack them as well. And it has a decent chance of regrowing, even with a thorough cleaning. 

 

Nice to see the crab looking nice and shiny! Mine's pretty firmly in the "did someone forget to clean this crab off after using it as a shovel" stage of algae growth.

[Snow_Phoenix]

31 minutes ago, Tired said:

I would get that rainbow acan back out. If any of the jelly regrows, it can get onto healthy corals and attack them as well. And it has a decent chance of regrowing, even with a thorough cleaning. 

 

Nice to see the crab looking nice and shiny! Mine's pretty firmly in the "did someone forget to clean this crab off after using it as a shovel" stage of algae growth.

I honestly have nowhere else to put it - my 60G is LPS-dominant as well. It's actually puffed back up to normal atm. No signs of new slime. 🤔

 

I think I'll give it another day and observe it. I don't have the heart to bin it, tbh. This piece (alongside the second rainbow frag in the 60G) was collected locally. I can't get it again. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

A closer look at Piccolo's exoskeleton:

 

 

She's hanging sideways now: 😅

 

 

Tiny watermelon zoa polyp wedged between two fully grown Green Bay Packers polyps: 😊

 

[Tired]

You could always put the acro in a bucket, with a powerhead for flow and a heater, and set that next to the tank so it gets a little cast-off light. A day or two of that won't hurt it. Though I suppose being in its normal place may help its immune system deal with things.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Mini-Update: Mini acans haven't produced more slime so far, and the remaining head(s) are wide open and attempting to digest a small piece of Piccolo's molt. 😬

 

Pink AOGs are still in a so-so state. Everything else looks fine so far. Will still keep a close eye on the tank as a whole. 

[A.m.P]

29 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Mini-Update: Mini acans haven't produced more slime so far, and the remaining head(s) are wide open and attempting to digest a small piece of Piccolo's molt. 😬

 

Pink AOGs are still in a so-so state. Everything else looks fine so far. Will still keep a close eye on the tank as a whole. 

In the future I don't think many have had luck with iodine-based treatments of BJD, I think antibacterials like dettol and/or peroxide have had a few success stories floating around them, certainly couldn't hurt to shotgun things.

[Snow_Phoenix]

59 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

In the future I don't think many have had luck with iodine-based treatments of BJD, I think antibacterials like dettol and/or peroxide have had a few success stories floating around them, certainly couldn't hurt to shotgun things.

I'll look into dettol as a form of treatment. Dettol liquid is actually quite caustic on open wounds (if used at full strength, without dilution), so I'm a bit nervous to use it on an already-injured coral. I'll definitely do more reading & researching first before attempting anything.

 

I do agree that iodine isn't an ideal method of treatment for BJD - usually, fragging off the infected area quickly is better and more efficient. 

[A.m.P]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I'll look into dettol as a form of treatment. Dettol liquid is actually quite caustic on open wounds (if used at full strength, without dilution), so I'm a bit nervous to use it on an already-injured coral. I'll definitely do more reading & researching first before attempting anything.

 

I do agree that iodine isn't an ideal method of treatment for BJD - usually, fragging off the infected area quickly is better and more efficient. 

Yeah, I think H202 w/ Iodine and fragging is probably best practice, but I've seen enough buzz around dilute Dettol-dips to at least throw the name out.

[Snow_Phoenix]

New baby discosoma shroom spotted! (It's on the far left, at the bottom corner, next to the brittlestar) 🥰 :

 

 

Mini rainbow acans pulled through the night without getting blobby - phew! 👍 :

 

 

Piccolo resting behind the montihat: 😊

 

 

Speaking of the montihat, it is still growing: 🤗

 

 

 

And this is how green the bullseye rhodactis is when it is all scrunched up: 😊

 

 

Mornin', everyone! 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

My red pavona is growing quickly all of a sudden - I'm very happy to see the amount of ripples and folds it has developed over the past few weeks: 🤗

 

 

 

My tenuis is now light bluish-green - still keeps changing colors on me:

 

 

It has actually grown a bit too - I can see it has spread out to encrust the frag plug by half an inch more. 👍

 

The John Deere leptastrea is still spreading out - slowly, but steadily:

 

 

The green favites look much better from above:

 

 

Zoa Tower could use more zoa varieties, I think: 🤔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Lots of updates over the past week - Piccolo vanished few days ago, and I never saw her again. 😕

 

What I did see was bits of crab exoskeleton scattered all over the sandbed - I'm not sure if those were pieces of the old molt, or pieces of the crab. She *might have moved towards the back, shadowy overhang under Coralline Ledge, but I'm tentatively assuming she's gone for good. 😓

 

Crab issue aside, I noticed my red pavona has been displaying some good growth recently - you can see the semi-transparent edges where the coral is growing:

 

 

 

Nearly 4 days ago, I managed to pick up a new, large chili pepper monti frag to replace the one I had lost. I broke the frag into two smaller frags, and glued it on different sides of Coralline Ledge:

 

 

 

^PE was quite poor during the first day in the pico, but on the second day, the frags looked much better:

 

 

 

I noticed my tenuis has grown a bit as well, and the color has changed to a sort of greenish-blue:

 

 

The polyps are no longer brown either. And it has encrusted a little wider on the frag plug. 😊

 

I also traded in 3 fish at the store today for a small purple gorg:

 

 

And I picked up an orange setosa as well, although I was cautioned that it might not 'grow' quickly in the pico - or rather, not grow at all:

 

 

Still, I was eager to try out something different, and I have been eyeing the setosa frags at the LFS for a few weeks now. 

 

Tank overall is doing okay, but the glass is filthy and I have strands of GHA popping up on it here and there. I slacked back a lot on maintenance, but I didn't forget to agitate the surface of the water every now and then to disperse the algae film:

 

I'm planning on WCing the pico tomorrow. 👍

 

[debbeach13]

Every thing looks good. I hope the crab surprises you! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

48 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Every thing looks good. I hope the crab surprises you! 

Thanks, Deb. It just needs a WC and some algae-scraping, that's all. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Going to perform a WC in a short while, but quickly snapped a few pics:

 

New sunflower polyp popping up in the middle:

 

 

Full PE today - has already began to encrust on the LR below:

 

 

Love the 'flowery' tips it has today: 😊

 

 

Time to scrape the glass! 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Corals perked up after the WC and some maintenance. I scraped the glass many, many times because the green film algae was being stubborn in some areas. 😕

 

Anyway, happy SPS pics ahead:

 

Tenuis & setosa: 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

The montihat: 😄

 

 

 

And a non-SPS: 😄

 

 

I think some parts of it might be shedding. Can't wait for it to have full PE - it looked gorgeous at the store. 🥰

[Snow_Phoenix]

Quick random topview shots of my older pieces in the pico. 🥰

 

Fuzzy red fungia: 

 

 

Re-grown/re-colored acans: 

 

 

Mystery coral:

 

 

Orange leptastrea:

 

 

With purple death palys: 🤗

 

 

Jack-O-Lantern leptoseris:

 

 

Meteor shower cyphastrea:

 

 

Zoa Tower:

 

 

I've increased the intensity of the chihiros light in hopes of getting my AOG zoas to open back up, but so far no luck. The coral is still alive - the polyps just simply refuse to open. It's weird, and I don't know why. 🤷‍♀️

 

Didn't spot Piccolo during the WC though - I think she's truly gone. 😕

 

But (!) I did spot my goby, Prowler, and he's alive & healthy. My other inverts - Benny, Kraken & Harvey are all okay too. 👍