Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pickle has certainly developed quite the attitude. He chased my fingers around while I was scraping the glass today. 😅

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His lateral lines are also getting fainter, and his abdomen is rounding out. His appetite has also increased. 🥰

[Snow_Phoenix]

New zoas and palys have finally opened up fully, including the shrunken UCs:

 

 

Harvey among the zoas:

 

 

Zoa Ledge from above:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Time for the next WC. Already noticed some sulky polyps today. 😅

 

 

Montis:

 

 

^Thinking of trimming back the leptastrea because it's growing *over the chili pepper monti, but I'm not sure how. 😕

 

A close up of Harvey:

 

 

Yumas! 🥰 :

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Bubbly yumas this morning:

 

 

 

Blue discosoma just opening up:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Accidently cross-posted this in my other thread, but here was Shrimpy the YCBS a few days ago: 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just flicked the lights on so most of the corals are still retracted. But (!), guess who has gained weight and no longer has any visible lateral lines? 

 

 

So proud of him. 🥰

 

On a sidenote, he has a tendency to rescape my tank everyday - he absolutely hates my rusty red palys and dumps them next to my duncan every morning. 🤐

 

I saw him take a few tester bites of my favites, and I'm pretty sure he tries to flatten my duncan when the pumps are off. 

 

So feisty. 😅

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, someone has grown incredibly fond of my weeping willow all of a sudden: 😅

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shrimpy lurking in the shadows:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

More shots of Pickle - all pics today were taken under heavy whites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hungry for a single pellet:

 

 

 

Bubbly:

 

 

Leptastrea taking over:

 

 

Weeping willow from above:

 

 

Sunny Ds:

 

 

^Smaller pavona frag not successful, but larger frag appears okay for now. 

 

Puffy acans + pavona frags:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Duncan and GSP:

 

 

Paly corner:

 

 

Garf bonsai growing! 🥰 :

 

 

 

Zoa Ledge #2 :

 

 

Zoa Ledge #1 (under heavy whites, hence more bland, brownish hues) :

 

 

Incredible Hulks & Butt Munchers finally making a comeback! 🥰

 

[debbeach13]

Go Pickles!

[Snow_Phoenix]

The Zoa Garden from above:

 

 

 

Zoa Ledge #2 slowly filling out with more polyps:

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Merlettis:

 

 

I see empty spots on the sandbed! 👀

 

 

Chili pepper-leptastrea combo:

 

 

GSP along the back wall:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey perching on my pump. 😅

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took these pics in the morning. Getting some good growth with the shrooms. 😊👍

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

More shots taken this evening:- 

 

Sunny Ds cluster:

 

 

GSP wall growing out finally! 😊

 

 

Harvey perching on some zoas:

 

 

Ironman shroom:

 

 

Blue hairy shroom from above:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Zoa Ledge from above:

 

 

 

I love this particular part of the garden a lot:

 

 

FTS today on 19/02/22:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pickle was favoring the rainbow brain today. I think he's trying to host various pieces around the tank, but isn't quite satisfied yet with any specific coral, so he keeps moving around:

 

 

 

 

 

He's very dark now - only the underside of his lower jaw has a tinge of mocha to it. 🥰

 

Metallic GSP in the flow:

 

 

Yellow yuma looking bright:

 

 

I'll be fragging more pieces from this tank and slowly add them one by one to my 60G. Will mostly be moving some extra zoa/paly polyps over, some cloves etc. - nothing overly large, and most certainly none of my mini colonies or LPS. 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey is toadstool-surfing tonight! 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Replaced the media (floss & carbon), cleaned the HOB, mopped up the thin surface film layer, scraped the glass and stirred the sandbed this morning. Also decided to frag the rainbow yuma off the rocks and gently move it to the rest of the yuma pile since it kept being in contact with my rainbow brain and attempted to eat it. 

 

I found my long lost orange bam bam zoas upside down on the sandbed - had to move the Zoa Ledge to fish it out, then re-glued it to Ledge #2. 

 

I noticed my metallic GSP has been stinging (?!) my duncan a little, to I shifted both of them to the side to give them each more room to grow out. I might eventually have to trim a bit of the GSP, but any trimmings will go straight into the 60G.

 

I finally found out why my pavona has been declining terribly - there was a nasty collection of vermetids right under its folds. I had to trim off the skeletal/bleached out parts, then remove the vermetids one by one. By trimming the pavona itself, I noticed my red fungias are now more exposed - so I think those tiny fungias will eventually grow bigger (they currently have full PE and dark red each). 

 

I still have 3 other pavona frags throughout this tank though! So...backups. 

 

I've pretty much cleaned half the tank already - just need to change the water, and it'll be considered a full WC + routine weekly maintenance complete. I'm quite exhausted though. All the cleaning and trimming, then the clean up of equipment took me ~1.5 hours. If I'm up to it, I'll quickly do the WC today evening, if not, tomorrow. 

 

Tank's otherwise okay. Pickle is fine too. 

 

Thinking of picking up a TSB for the tank in the future, but I'm not up to QTing a new fish so soon (plus TSB prices are now crazy expensive), so I'm just waiting. I can't think of any other percher or nanofish that'll be suitable in a tank this size, with my current layout and stocking plan as it is. I love, love neon gobies, but they're no longer available here. GBGs have *never been available here either. 

Clown gobies are adorable, but they have a tendency to nip SPS polyps and often arrive very, very skinny. 

 

So TSB, it is. 

I'll keep the stocking to 2 fish to keep the bioload small (Pickle poops a lot anyway). I prefer focusing on inverts. Thinking of picking up a White Spotted Nem Shrimp and either a Pom pom or porcelain nem crab in the future.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Managed to complete the WC few hours ago. Spaced out the duncan and GSP even a *bit more - the duncan's polyps are quite badly retracted on one end due to prolonged contact with the GSP. 😕

 

Accidently broke off a very *tiny bit of the garf bonsai - but the coral overall appears fine.

 

Everything is a bit moody, but that's to be expected. 👍

[debbeach13]

Hello there. You need to sit down and rest that foot!

[Snow_Phoenix]

5 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Hello there. You need to sit down and rest that foot!

I agree. Foot is receiving some well-awaited rest right now. 

 

It's already 11.10pm here - thinking of reading a few chapters from a book I recently bought, before dropping off to bed. 👍

[A.m.P]

7 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I finally found out why my pavona has been declining terribly - there was a nasty collection of vermetids right under its folds. I had to trim off the skeletal/bleached out parts, then remove the vermetids one by one. 

I've had similar experiences with some sps, I think there are species of vermetid with much more irritating mucus than others, glad you were able to track down something which should help the animal out.

[Snow_Phoenix]

12 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

I've had similar experiences with some sps, I think there are species of vermetid with much more irritating mucus than others, glad you were able to track down something which should help the animal out.

Unfortunately it has ruined most of the original coral except for 1 piece. Wish I had discovered this vermetid issue sooner because I *might have been able to save the entire coral. Still glad I have a few pavona frags left throughout the tank though!