Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tiki the RCG says hello! 😊

 

 

Some shrooms this morning:

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Hi Tiki. Looking good in there.

Is the green mushroom eating a spaghetti worm? How are you feeling?

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Hi Tiki. Looking good in there.

Is the green mushroom eating a spaghetti worm? How are you feeling?

I believe it is pooping, although I'm not entirely sure.

 

I'm doing alright. Been keeping myself extra busy doing various pet-related work. Sometimes, it's easy to lose yourself in an activity than lose yourself in your mind, I guess. 

 

How have you been, Deb? 🌺

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hi, guys. I took some pics today and I'd love to share them with you. 😊

 

Tiki:

 

 

 

 

Bullet:

 

 

 

 

Bullet & Tiki:

 

 

And I have no idea how Geralt made it up onto my wavemaker, but here's the look of instant regret on a hermit for you. 😅🦀

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Random coral shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topview pics:

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Zoas & Palys 1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Zoas & Palys 2:

 

 

 

 

 

 

FTS today on 8/1/23:

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Everything looks super in there. 

10 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Been keeping myself extra busy doing various pet-related work.

I can believe this. You do have a lot of animals in your care. 

I am doing well. I think the saying that fits is, "I am doing the best I can with what I have to work with"

That's for asking.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Taken today. 😊

 

Tiki:

 

 

Pickle:

 

 

 

Ironman discosoma:

 

 

Merlettis:

 

 

Colorful zoas:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Did a partial clean up of the tank today. I noticed I have lost both the blue and red hornet morphs though. 😕

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Remaining zoas and palys up close:

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Other corals:

 

 

 

Accidently broke off a chunk of my pavona. Had to re-glue that new frag to the rocks:

 

 

The tiny remains of my once-vibrant garf bonsai. Doubt I'll ever get it to color back up to its former glory, but I'll try:

 

 

Another bit of sad news - I found Tiki's remains on my leptastrea this morning. He had been thinning out rapidly over the last few days, and didn't eat. I just wish it was easier to wean clown gobies onto prepared food. He was truly a unique and beautiful lil' fish that left my SPS polyps alone. I miss him terribly already. 😭

 

 

Luckily Bullet the purple firefish and Pickle the clownfish are both doing fine and are stable on prepared food. 

 

Right now, I'm down to 2 fish, 1 crab and 1 shrimp in this tank. My LFS will be closed for a week (or more) for CNY, but once it re-opens and takes in new shipments, I'll see if I can acquire a healthy saron shrimp for this reef. 👍

[debbeach13]

Oh no. I love zoanthids but hate that sometimes they seem to just melt. So sorry about Tiki. I know you did more than most trying to fatten him up. This hobby is wonderful and frustrating all at the same time.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Green leopard discosoma mushroom coral after the WC today. 💦

 

 

Also spotted this pineapple sponge on Mushroom Mountain:

 

 

A small bit of good news - I discovered a few remnant polyps of red hornet zoas on Zoa Ledge #1 today! I thought they were all gone, but I think they *might stand a chance to make a comeback. 😊👍

 

Also, Happy CNY, everyone! 🐰🐇

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

A mixture of pics l took today and yesterday. 👍

 

Bullet:

 

 

Pickle:

 

 

Geralt mooching on a yuma. 🦀

 

 

My duncan coral:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

One of the hairy shrooms anchored to the glass:

 

 

 

Pavona ripples:

 

 

Digi and spongodes fusing together:

 

 

Overlap of shrooms:

 

 

Zoa Garden in desperate need of new morphs (so many bare patches! 😕) :

 

 

Sunny Ds fusing with trumpet coral:

 

FTS today on 23/1/22:

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sad to say, this tank felt into a total state of neglect and I only managed to clean it up partially today after 2+ weeks. Many coral polyps have melted away, but I'm determined to nurse everything back to full health/color, and have tentatively set out to do an 8G WC tomorrow:

 

 

 

 

 

I *might be fragging some of the Vampire-In-Drags as well and trade them in at my LFS in the upcoming week:

 

 

My shrooms are mostly discolored and a bit dull. 

 

 

 

The original colors are much more potent and vivid. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

My SPS has STNed in some areas, bit for the most part, is okay:

 

 

 

 

The tiny lime green monticap has finally fused to the LR though, and looks quite nice. 🥰

 

 

FTS taken today on 10/2/23:

 

 

[debbeach13]

Even in its state of neglect, your words not mine. It still looks better than any of my tanks.

[Snow_Phoenix]

17 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Even in its state of neglect, your words not mine. It still looks better than any of my tanks.

Deb, your tank looks wonderful too. Wish I had taken a before-and-after pic yesterday so that the difference could be seen. The glass walls were covered in brown and green slime, and there was a thick oily film at the surface of the water. All of my tanks fell into a state of neglect ever since I started studying, but that should no longer be an issue since I pulled out. 

Was way too stressed trying to balance everything, and the leap into a different field, at doctrate level, really destroyed my self-esteem and unbalanced me emotionally. My health took a severe hit too. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I've managed to perform an 80% WC this afternoon. Tank is now full of angry corals (which I'm hoping would be happy corals tomorrow). 

 

The fish, shrimp and hermit are fine. 

 

I really wanted to drop by my LFS today itself. They had a beautiful pair of GCGs in stock, and that reminded me so much of my previous GCG, Goblin, in my large reeftank. As it is, I've tentatively reserved them, but since I didn't put a deposit down, the store can technically sell them to another customer first. I'm hoping at least 1 fish would be still in stock on Monday. 

 

They also had a pair of dwarf zebra lions as well - might pick 1 (or both) up for my 60G.

 

As for this nano, I'll be fragging off a few of my zoas, a small chunk of pavona and a cluster of GSP to be traded in at the LFS. The GSP won't really have much value because it is too common, but I think the Firestorm and VID zoas, as well as pavona should make up for it. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Forgot to add-on earlier: I took several pica prior to the WC, early in the morning. Woke up to my lobo attempting to swallow one of my rhodactis mushroom corals. 

 

 

Successfully separated the two using a wooden chopstick, but neither animal was happy for a while. 

 

Also, one of my yumas has bounce-like qualities (?) 🤷‍♀️

 

 

Other shrooms looked okay though, albeit the colors being slightly off:

 

 

 

My favorite rainbow brain remains shrunken though:

 

 

It still can't heal fully because Pickle the clownfish pummels it to sleep. 😕

[banasophia]

Your collection of mushrooms is amazing! I especially love the green leopard discosoma and that photo of the overlapping mushrooms of different varieties.

 

So sorry to hear about Tiki… he was such a beautiful fish… and the only one of those I’ve ever seen. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

Your collection of mushrooms is amazing! I especially love the green leopard discosoma and that photo of the overlapping mushrooms of different varieties.

 

So sorry to hear about Tiki… he was such a beautiful fish… and the only one of those I’ve ever seen. 

 

I do miss Tiki from time to time. I agree that he was indeed a gorgeous and exotic little fish. Red clown gobies are quite rare at my LFS - I think this was the second (or maybe third?) time I've ever seen the store pull them in. They're extremely fragile, though. And there's hardly any info about them surviving in captivity online. 

 

I've personally had better luck at keeping GCGs and YCGs in the past, but even then, the fish will waste away unless they slowly accept prepared food. I'm hoping my new GCGs (*if I can still get them) will learn to accept prepared in time. I'm already prepping up live and frozen options for them - pods, rotifers, BBS etc. - to try out. 

 

GCGs don't usually bother SPS too. YCGs, unfortunately, as adorable as they are, have a habit of nipping SPS polyps every now and then. 

[sam_the_reefer]

On 2/10/2023 at 8:16 PM, Snow_Phoenix said:

My SPS has STNed in some areas, bit for the most part, is okay:
 

 

Surprised the Leptastrea and other SPS have managed to grow that close to the Pavona. Mine used put out some nasty stingers. It died when I upgraded my lights. 😞 

Nice mix of LS and colors!