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Tsb are my favorite nanofish as well!  They cock their heads like a lab puppy trying to figure you out.

If your pink skunk tank already has ich and you are pulling him for qt, does that mean you'll be going fallow for months?

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9 hours ago, growsomething said:

Tsb are my favorite nanofish as well!  They cock their heads like a lab puppy trying to figure you out.

If your pink skunk tank already has ich and you are pulling him for qt, does that mean you'll be going fallow for months?

If I can get the QT set up, and all the fish out, then I will try to go fallow for 8 weeks. However, I did promise my parents that there'll be no more extra tanks (or pets, in general - fish, plants & corals are an exception though because they can be added to pre-existing tanks) after this, so I'm not sure if I can get their permission to set up an additional tank, even if it's a tiny QT. 😕

 

I'll try my best though. Also, need to find some space to set up the QT as well. 🤔

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Pico the TSB:

 

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Sasha the skunk clown:

 

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I'll be isolating Sapphire the damsel in a small breeder box for 2 weeks because she's currently too established & too territorial. Once the grace period is over, I'll shift her back into the main DT. 

 

If I proceed with QT, all 3 fish will be QTed in the same tank but Sapphire will be isolated in a breeder box within the QT. I have a sense she's been stressing out both the blenny & clown - she harasses the clown from time to time, but ignores the blenny for now. 🤔

 

Damsels are beautiful, but my gosh, they can be jerks. And mine is a blue devil - they most certainly earned that name. 

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The shaded areas of my forest fire has lost flesh over the months. The other areas are healthy with polyps, but I'm not sure how to go about trimming the dead bits - especially on the main frag, which has already encrusted itself on my LR. 🤔

 

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The digi is actually quite fragile & breaks very easily. This is my only qualm with SPS; they look strong & sturdy, but one accidental touch and they snap. 😕

 

The only benefit from the snapping is that multiple other smaller frags are created in the process. Hmph. 

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I pushed myself to WC the tank this morning, and now every bone is my body aches. 😕

 

Took these pics of Pico right before the WC:

 

IMG_20210921_143128_700.thumb.jpg.6564bbb961a2926caddbadf2ed4d9ebd.jpg

 

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Also, can you spot all 3 fish? 🤐

 

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I managed to catch Sapphire the damsel when I drained the tank down to almost 1" of water during the WC. I actually just scooped her up with my hand. When I tried using a net, I ended up hitting my main forest fire digi frag, and now it has broken into 4 pieces. 😭

 

I tried stuffing the smaller chunks into as many rock crevices as I could, but the leftover large piece which is anchored to the frag plug is just sitting in the middle of my LR, and bobbing unsteadily in the flow. 😔

 

The only good outcome is that Sapphire is now in a breeder box and I've temporarily put the box in the 60G (tried putting it in the 10G, but the rubber suckers kept detaching from the glass & I was worried the box would be shoved into my corals due to the flow from my Jebao). 

 

I'll re-add Sapphire to the 10G in 2 to 3 weeks - which hopefully, will give my other 2 fish a chance to be established. 

 

Upon removing my damsel, I immediately saw a shift of personality in both my blenny & clown. The clown now happily swims in the upper to mid-column of the tank, and explores all areas of the nano. 

 

As for the blenny, Pico is no longer in camomode, and is actively perching in different areas of the rocks. He's also scoping out new burrows & tunnels, and I caught him grazing the rocks too! 😊

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Hmm. I just realized while cleaning the lids today that there's a small gap between the mesh & the HOB filter intake pipe, near the HOB's cover. My lids were originally cut out to cover the previous HOB filter unit, which is slightly smaller than my current, newer one. I'll be plugging the gaps tonight with tissue - but tomorrow I'll work on re-cutting new mesh pieces to be glued on the plastic parts of the lid. 

 

I'm mostly afraid that Pico the blenny will get spooked overnight and jump out - the gap is quite small, but the blenny is slender enough to make it through. On hindsight, I think Sasha the clown can also squeeze through since he's not very big either. 🤔

I'll be dropping by my primary LFS in October. Will most likely pick up a few not-too-fancy/normal shrooms & zoas. I think my forest fire digis have pretty much taken up almost all the available room on my LR ledge, so I don't think I can get a stick. 😞

 

I really, really wanted to try keeping a birdnest again, but I'm not sure where I can shove it in the tank. 

 

My parents seem to really like the nano - especially my mum. She likes seeing all the mix of corals in there, but also cautioned me against overstocking it with more frags - to which I agreed to. I think shrooms should be okay though because there's still space on the sandbed near the present shrooms - I just want 2 or 3 non-green ones to add a bit more variety/color to the present pile. (Discosomas & rhodactises only).

 

As for zoas, the Zoa Ledge has a bit more room - I'm trying to rebuild the Zoa Garden after all the losses, but I won't make it as extensive as before. My Purple Monsters seem to be taking over though. That, and the cloves, which are springing up all over my rocks. The cloves are very beautiful, but it can be a bit invasive. For now, I'm just observing them, but if they overwhelm certain LR pieces, then I'll be scraping them off those pieces here and there. 

 

The Pavona & Lepto are doing very well though! Quite happy that they've grown so much, and actually encrusted to the back wall of the tank. :happy:

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Gaps plugged for now! 

 

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Also, my clove polyps on the far right of the tank:

 

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I have more on the far left. Those spaces on the sandbed - the ones between my discosoma & rhodactis ---> those are the spaces that I intend to fill up with more rhodactis & discosoma shrooms of different colors like orange, red, purple & blue. 😊

 

(The purple & blue ones might be harder to come by though!)

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Sapphire the damsel is still bobbing around the 60G - the breeder box's rubber suckers can no longer stick to the glass properly, so the box sometimes floats listlessly in the tank:

 

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My mum was wondering why I put the 'blue' fish/Sapphire in 'fish jail'. My dad thought Sapphire was a new fish and surprisingly recognized her as a damsel, and asked why did I get a damsel (?!) because 'it is very aggressive and will kill everything'. 🤐

 

Had to explain to them that Sapphire is an older fish from the nano, the breeder box is a temporary measure, and she'll be safely returned to the nano in 2 to 3 weeks. 🤐

 

Dad's not convinced. He still insists Sapphire is 'new'. Mum still remains sympathetic towards Sapphire's plight. 😅

 

I didn't even realize my family had been paying this much attention to my tanks. Heh. 

 

Pico is safe in the nano. He found a small hole in the LR that he really liked:

 

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That stick on the far right of the pic is supposed to be a purple digi. It has remained brown from the store and the following months in my tank. No color change, very minimal growth & still unhealthy. I'm still keeping it because parts of it still has polyps, but I wager it'll decline eventually - one part already appears to be STNing. 🤔

 

Rainbow brain is very puffy:

 

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Chili pepper monticap is a super slow grower - I think the growth is inhibited a bit by the leptastrea polyps next to it, but I'm not sure. 🤷‍♀️

 

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Will focus on the recovery of the forest fire digi frags - currently having trouble trimming off the white bits, because I'm worried I'll accidently break the frags further into even smaller pieces:

 

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The greeness of the base really shows when the orange polyps are retracted in the mornings. 🥰

 

Yuma still waking up after the lights have been just turned on:

 

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Took some quick pics of some of the other shrooms too. Colors are brighter when the shrooms are more *condensed & less *spread out:

 

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Love the Ironmans! 🥰 :

 

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You can see how the cloves are trying to take over the shroom rock. Might have to scrape some of them off eventually. Hmm. 🤔

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30 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Good to see that Pico is settling in and exploring by the looks of things, little cutie 😍

Quick question - are you able to get a TSB in the UK presently? Down here, we seem to be seeing less & less import of nanofish. Whatever that comes through is extremely expensive. 😞

 

Only once in a while we can get a small goby or two for a decent price. But otherwise, the hobby has become quite discouraging for budget nanoreefers.

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1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Quick question - are you able to get a TSB in the UK presently? Down here, we seem to be seeing less & less import of nanofish. Whatever that comes through is extremely expensive. 😞

 

Only once in a while we can get a small goby or two for a decent price. But otherwise, the hobby has become quite discouraging for budget nanoreefers.

I've seen one in my LFS he's been there quiet a wile, mainly because of the price hike that we seem to be experiencing. When I added one to the RSM i think i spent about £20, in the LFS currently its £44 and fricking tiny. Seems to be the same for most if not all the livestock, Clowns again £9.99 or two for £15 when i added in 2019/2020 now looking at £19.99 for a single tank bred clown.

 

Other stuff has come down in price, Zoas, Leathers, Cabbages even a BTA in my LFS was roughly £20. Saw a Green Banded and Redheaded goby going for a lot cheaper than i remember seeing

I've stopped trying to understand whats going on and trying to buy within my budget. Like that Hawkfish, would have loved to have that fish but it was £150 (new 13.5G Evo price is £170)

🤷‍♂️

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2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I've seen one in my LFS he's been there quiet a wile, mainly because of the price hike that we seem to be experiencing. When I added one to the RSM i think i spent about £20, in the LFS currently its £44 and fricking tiny. Seems to be the same for most if not all the livestock, Clowns again £9.99 or two for £15 when i added in 2019/2020 now looking at £19.99 for a single tank bred clown.

 

Other stuff has come down in price, Zoas, Leathers, Cabbages even a BTA in my LFS was roughly £20. Saw a Green Banded and Redheaded goby going for a lot cheaper than i remember seeing

I've stopped trying to understand whats going on and trying to buy within my budget. Like that Hawkfish, would have loved to have that fish but it was £150 (new 13.5G Evo price is £170)

🤷‍♂️

Yeah, everything has hiked up on this end too. Although this latest fish shipment was cheap for some reason, which is why I managed to grab a skunk clown & angelfish for exactly RM 50. 🤔

 

The TSB was from an earlier shipment, so its price was significantly higher. I forgot to ask my store how much the current price of a normal Occy clown is. 

 

Back when I started this hobby, they used to cost RM 8 each. The price eventually increased to RM 15 each - but that was last year. I wouldn't be surprised if it's now RM 25+ per fish. 

 

Considering that this fish is native to our waters, and is literally caught in the Indo-Pac region, I consider it pricey. And these are just regular wild-caught clowns with standard orange & white patterns/markings. 🤔

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  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

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