Snow's 2.6G Little Monsters Picoreef - Retired!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, I didn't end up doing a WC yesterday, but I'll do one after breakfast today. 

 

Tank overall looks okay. Mystery monti is bouncing back already:

 

 

The sunflowers have popped out more new tiny heads. Their growth is a bit restricted by the surrounding leptastrea though: 🤔

 

 

The frag plugs for the blue hornet & LA Lakers zoas were quite crudely cut. So I'll try to trim them a bit more, although I'm not sure how I'm supposed to round out the edges with only a frag cutter - which makes sharp & precise cuts. 🤔 :

 

 

The Utter Chaos is doing a bit better now that I've moved it away from the rasta polyp:

 

 

 

I've had terrible luck with UCs in the past - usually they just shrivel up and die on me for no reason. 😓

 

Hoping this time will be different and the UCs will actually multiple into a mini colony for a change. 

 

The Sunny Ds already have some new tiny heads growing around the base of the main polyp:

 

 

 

Wish I could pick up some new Rainbow Implosions to accompany them, but those weren't fragged yet by the store. 

 

Speaking of the store, I acquired some new food samples to feed my reef: 🤗

 

 

 

I've used the first-gen of their pods and artemia to feed my dragonets in my other tank, and the fish love them. My pipefish pair in the fuge also used to eat the pods. This is a second-gen sample with new packaging, so I'm eager to try it out on the pico. 😄

 

I think my goby, Prowler, and the rest of the corals will love it. The particle size does seem small enough to be accepted by fish with small mouths, and corals with small polyps. 😊

 

I'll report back on my findings once I test it out on the reef. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

I WCed the tank earlier. Not sure how this happened because I only noticed it hours later:

 

 

But it was about to fall off, so heck, might as well remove tge dangly bit:

 

 

And make a fraglet outta it:

 

 

Besides UCs, radioactive birdsnest coral is another piece that never did well for me. Was hoping this pico would be ideal for it, but I won't be surprised if I'm left with a white stick tomorrow. 😕

 

Stick aside, I found my tricolor blasto upside down on my green discosoma and it looked very shriveled. 😕

 

I re-attached it to the LR next to the rest of the blastos: 

 

 

I also trimmed off the crudely cut frag plugs and gently re-glued my LA Lakers & blue hornet zoas to the Zoa Tower:

 

 

Hoping the hornet & rasta will open up fully soon. 👍

 

This is the red finger leather I bought - it's still very small:

 

 

I also swapped the pink AOGs to the back of the tank, where the flow is much better. I brought the nuclear death palys forward though:

 

 

Also rearranged the Tubbs blue and placed it next to the palys to give it more room to grow:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I fed the tank some pods today, but I think I need to shake the bottle harder - the pods dissolved quite quickly in the water anyway:

 

The response from the LPS was pretty good so far:

 

I'll be trying their mysis on my fish in the 60G tomorrow. 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

I think I've finally figured out why/how the tip of my birdnest broke: 😑

 

 

Can a thin stick support the full weight of a chunky shrimp? Apparently not. 🤔

[Ratvan]

Just now, Snow_Phoenix said:

I think I've finally figured out why/how the tip of my birdnest broke: 😑

 

 

Can a thin stick support the full weight of a chunky shrimp? Apparently not. 🤔

Is that fatty breaking your corals? 😂

[Snow_Phoenix]

13 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Is that fatty breaking your corals? 😂

Yep.

 

He tried it with the tenuis when I first brought that piece home, but didn't succeed because that stick is thicker. But now he found one which he could dangle his fat butt from, and has no regrets in breaking the edges off. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Multiple updates coming up - pic heavy! 😊

 

The Little Reef is slowly waking up - some corals are still a bit sleepy: 

 

LA Lakers:

 

 

Blue hornet:

 

 

Utter Chaos:

 

 

Sunny Ds:

 

 

Random blasto on the Zoa Tower:

 

 

Setosa:

 

 

Birdnest: 

 

 

The fraglet of the birdnest went missing overnight. I found it again, in a perfectly upright position, on the opposite side of the tank, between the base of my gorg. & red finger leather. I have no clue how it got there, but *someone's been clearly rescaping my tank for me. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Acans: 

 

 

Sideview of the weeping willow - it has grown quite a fair bit:

 

 

Lepto & pavona team:

 

 

The green leptastrea is recovering - polyps are super-stubby, but existing: 

 

 

The cyphastrea is recovering too. It has already begun to regrow around the edges and regain its original colors around those spots:

 

 

Random patch of coralline on Coralline Ledge:

 

 

I think using mature, cured LR was probably the best thing I've done for this tank. 😊👍

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The tank is finally awake! 🤗

 

 

 

Got some new LA Laker polyps coming in:

 

 

More sunflower polyps too! 🤗 :

 

 

The monti frags are recovering:

 

 

This was the displaced fraglet I posted about earlier: 🤷‍♀️

 

 

Orange leptastrea:

 

 

Stubby polyps on the green leptastrea:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

This just arrived via courier: 🤗

 

 

Hoping it'll help both my reefs in the long run. 

 

Rainbow brain looking puffy:

 

 

Sparkling red zoas have bopped out many new heads: 😊

 

 

Still growing: 

 

 

Struggling pieces: 

 

Pink AOG zoas

Green leptastrea

 

Minimal PE pieces:

 

Rasta Zoa

Purple gorgonian

 

Injured (but recovering) pieces:

 

Mystery monti

Meteor shower cyphastrea

Radioactive birdnest

Tricolor blasto

Green trumpet

 

Everything else: 

 

Either growing or doing alright. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey out to grab some pellets:

 

 

🤗

[Snow_Phoenix]

Stomatella snail is out:

 

 

I didn't realize it had a white stripe on its shell until today. Pretty cool. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

Full coral list updated & re-organized in the first post on the first page of this thread. 

 

My apologies for updating frequently - but I'm using this journal thread to track the progress (or decline) of all my livestock in this tank. I find it easier to look through this site, rather than journaling about it on paper or other SM outlets, because I can stick up pics in here in a more organized fashion and compare the growth (or lack of thereof) of all my corals and even have a written documentation about them attached with the pics. Instagram & FB are *okay platforms to use, but not exactly journal-savvy when you're trying to both write and post pics at the same time. Plus, I have way too many pics on my Insta profile to sort through, and it's a mix of all sorts of different things, including nature, art, other tanks, other pets etc. ---> it's pure chaos, actually. 😕

 

So NR is a better way for me to record things and keep up to date. Plus, if there is something wrong with a specific coral today - I can always skip back a few posts to find out if there was anything I did to cause the decline of the coral, or if I've written up ways to battle a disease afflicting the coral & if I was successful/not successful in doing so (eg. Zoa Pox etc.). 

 

In the meantime, since my 60G is not doing too well atm, I won't be removing any frags from this tank and transferring it to that tank. But eventually I'll have to frag some pieces as they grow (like the Purple Death Palys), and I'm trading them in at my LFSes for the time being. Once the 60G is ready to accept new corals, I'll slowly transfer some fraglets (main frags will remain in the Pico) and see if they can thrive in that system, and most importantly, grow out & remain healthy. 

 

As for now, I think I have >60 pieces of corals in this reef, and I'm actually leaning towards hoarding more varieties of Zoas & Palys if I can, to cover the almost-bare-left-side of the Zoa Tower. I *might pick up another stick - but quite frankly, I'm running out of space in the back wall, and my current sticks will eventually *run into each other as they encrust. No plans to add any LPS, unless it's a rescue case from the 60G (I have a sad trio of previously-rainbow-but-now-shrunken-and-orange rainbow acans in there, so I might move that bit over to the pico to let it heal).

 

I'm a little bit undecided on the purple gorg. Moving it to the 60G would be ideal because it'll have plenty of room to grow, but the parameters of that tank is completely different than the parameters of the pico, so I'm not sure if a direct-transfer will kill the coral. (which I don't want!) So the gorg. stays in the pico (for now). 

 

I do have plans on adding another small turban snail for algae control though. And I'm still leaning heavily towards the idea of picking up a second super-small pico-friendly fish, but I'm quite undecided on what type. Ideally, I'd love to have a neon goby in this tank. But I haven't had any luck ordering one in through my LFS - they always bring in the wrong sort of 'neon goby', which is actually this guy:

 

 

^Pic from Google

 

He's super cute, but that's actually a blue line sabre tooth fang blenny. In other words, he has terrifying fangs at the bottom of his jaws and *feeds on the flesh & scales of other fish. 

 

If I bring home the fake neon goby, it'll be R.I.P. Prowler, my circus barred goby, really quick. So nope, not chancing that. 

 

I'll definitely keep browsing online for ideas on small fish with nil bioload that'll be okay in this system. I would definitely love to have a fish that I can see too. As much as I love Prowler, I hardly see him because he hides most of the time and sticks to the shadows - which is typical of his species. 

 

Would be nice to see something move around in that tank, besides just the shrimp. 

[Ratvan]

I mean the perfect fish for the tank title, understand your concern for adding it though

[debbeach13]

Every thing looks happy today. I am so jealous of your zoa growth. I am excited when mine open! Good luck on the hunt for a fish. Pico's appropriate fish are not easy to find.

[Snow_Phoenix]

20 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I mean the perfect fish for the tank title, understand your concern for adding it though

Oh, it definitely fits the 'monster' category alright. I remember I accidently bought it once, thinking it was a neon goby and showed it to this very forum. Someone else quickly responded within a day and pointed out the differences between a neon goby and my new 'vampire' fish. 😛

 

I returned the fish the very same day although it didn't bother any of my other fish in the same tank at that time. Too worried after seeing a pic of its chompers. This was a very long time ago - my LFS keeps ordering more 'neon gobies' in, but it's always this same sabretooth fang blenny. 🤷‍♀️

10 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Every thing looks happy today. I am so jealous of your zoa growth. I am excited when mine open! Good luck on the hunt for a fish. Pico's appropriate fish are not easy to find.

Thanks. It's far from perfect though - I'm still struggling with certain key pieces, like my AOG zoas. Until today, I'm not entirely sure why they declined all of a sudden while everything else seemed steady and growing. 😞

 

Yeah, pico-sized fish for a picoreef aren't easy to find. The only options that keep running through my head are flaming prawn gobies & whitecap gobies, both of which are elusive, too tiny & super-expensive. Even if my LFS could magically acquire them, I don't think I can afford them. 😕

 

I do like the look of a Panda Goby though. I think my store did acquire it once, but it was expensive too. I'm not willing to pay more than RM 100 for a tiny ~1" fish though. Actually, even RM 100 is generous. I'm trying my best to get something within the RM 20 to RM 35 range, if possible. 

 

I could try another clown goby, but they might nip the polyps of my SPS. And YCGs usually arrive very emaciated here, while the GCGs rarely come in, and if they do, they're super tiny at 3/4". I'll keep looking. Sometimes my primary LFS does pull in oddballs in their shipment - fish that are either mislabeled or wrongly ordered. I wish we could get GBGs here though. I remember seeing them in teenyreef's thread a long time ago, and they're very cute! Stay super-small too. 🙂 

[Ratvan]

3 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Oh, it definitely fits the 'monster' category alright. I remember I accidently bought it once, thinking it was a neon goby and showed it to this very forum. Someone else quickly responded within a day and pointed out the differences between a neon goby and my new 'vampire' fish. 😛

 

I returned the fish the very same day although it didn't bother any of my other fish in the same tank at that time. Too worried after seeing a pic of its chompers. This was a very long time ago - my LFS keeps ordering more 'neon gobies' in, but it's always this same sabretooth fang blenny. 🤷‍♀️

Thanks. It's far from perfect though - I'm still struggling with certain key pieces, like my AOG zoas. Until today, I'm not entirely sure why they declined all of a sudden while everything else seemed steady and growing. 😞

 

Yeah, pico-sized fish for a picoreef aren't easy to find. The only options that keep running through my head are flaming prawn gobies & whitecap gobies, both of which are elusive, too tiny & super-expensive. Even if my LFS could magically acquire them, I don't think I can afford them. 😕

 

I do like the look of a Panda Goby though. I think my store did acquire it once, but it was expensive too. I'm not willing to pay more than RM 100 for a tiny ~1" fish though. Actually, even RM 100 is generous. I'm trying my best to get something within the RM 20 to RM 35 range, if possible. 

 

I could try another clown goby, but they might nip the polyps of my SPS. And YCGs usually arrive very emaciated here, while the GCGs rarely come in, and if they do, they're super tiny at 3/4". I'll keep looking. Sometimes my primary LFS does pull in oddballs in their shipment - fish that are either mislabeled or wrongly ordered. I wish we could get GBGs here though. I remember seeing them in teenyreef's thread a long time ago, and they're very cute! Stay super-small too. 🙂 

So just been googling that vampire fish and wow, impressive teeth and an Opiod based venom too?

[Snow_Phoenix]

8 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

So just been googling that vampire fish and wow, impressive teeth and an Opiod based venom too?

Yep, that be my critter. 

[debbeach13]

Years ago a member here had 3 green striped gobies in her 5.5 tank and they breed a lot. If any stores around here had them I would move Young William to my 20 and try some.

[Ratvan]

4 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Yep, that be my critter. 

I want 😍

[debbeach13]

1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

I want 😍

Geez not in the tank with those cutie clowns. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

11 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Years ago a member here had 3 green striped gobies in her 5.5 tank and they breed a lot. If any stores around here had them I would move Young William to my 20 and try some.

Wow! I really like it when fish actively breed/spawn in a tank. 🙂 

 

And if I'm not mistaken, bonded neon goby pairs breed rather easily too. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

8 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Geez not in the tank with those cutie clowns. 

I think he wishes to use the fish's -ahem- fangs for unspeakably devious purposes. 🤫

 

Although I have to say, I haven't seen anyone get high *yet from being bitten by any of their pet fang blennies. 😉

[debbeach13]

4 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Wow! I really like it when fish actively breed/spawn in a tank. 🙂 

 

And if I'm not mistaken, bonded neon goby pairs breed rather easily too. 

Yes Banasophia had a pair spawning in her tank. 

[Ratvan]

5 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I think he wishes to use the fish's -ahem- fangs for unspeakably devious purposes. 🤫

 

Although I have to say, I haven't seen anyone get high *yet from being bitten by any of their pet fang blennies. 😉

you know me too well