Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[Tamberav]

Love the new goby fish! I saw a LFS here has two of them. So tempted but no small tank to put it in. 

 

Your mushroom garden is so beautiful, it makes me want one. I can't find such a large variety locally like you have though. 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

28 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Love the new goby fish! I saw a LFS here has two of them. So tempted but no small tank to put it in. 

 

Your mushroom garden is so beautiful, it makes me want one. I can't find such a large variety locally like you have though. 

 

 

Thanks, Tam! Goby is MIA though. Still can't find him, and it's been over a day. 😞

 

Our shroom collection at the store is pretty random. I just happen to pick out whatever colors/varieties that I don't have yet. I saw several beautiful rhodactises on sale, but refrained from picking up any for the moment. Figured if I wanted anything new, I'll acquire it after my short holiday. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Guess who finally showed up? 😊

 

 

(And has ich to boot. 🤦‍♀️)

 

At least Galaxea appears okay. Then again, those tribal markings make it hard to tell. 🤷‍♀️

 

 

Geralt. 🦀

 

 

Harvey. 🦐

 

 

I'll settle any issues when I return. Corals still closed up because I turned on the lights. Will switch it off just before I leave. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some local fruits at a rest stop area yesterday. 🥰

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hmm...I've been thinking of renaming both of the new guys. Galaxea seems a bit off (?) now that I think about it. And well, Astro is the name of our main TV service provider here. Go figure. 🤦‍♀️

 

Tribal blenny = Scorpious, or Scorp. for short. 

 

Goby = Tweaking the name to Astrid instead. 

 

Hope they're doing okay at home. Was actually very ill yesterday (both during the journey and afterwards), and am 50/50 today, but I am a bit worried for all of my animals. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

Came back to a very upset tank with very, very upset corals - especially the SPS. 😕

 

On the flipside, the fish are fine. Spotted Astrid the goby peeking out from under my malayan rainbow acans, behind my yuma pile, for a bit. He retreated very quickly when he saw me approaching. 

 

Scorp the blenny has thinned out a bit, but otherwise appears to be okay. 

 

 

 

 

Geralt and the other inverts were fine:

 

 

Pickle the clownfish was happy to greet me though. 

 

Right now, I'm trying to come up with a plan to treat all 3 fish in QT. My greatest challenge would be to catch them. I'll try over the next 2 weeks during the WCs, when the water level is low, but if I can't catch them, then I'll try to trap them somehow. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

'Nite. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hmm...Most of my SPS is bleached. Corals are still very unhappy. I can't touch the tank just yet - currently battling a really bad flu virus. Will try to see what I can salvage after I get better. Otherwise, I'll be stripping off whatever that's dead/dying, pick up the pieces and try to start over bit by bit. 

[A.m.P]

Hope you and the tank both feel well soon!

[Snow_Phoenix]

A lot of repressed polyps and STN patches on various SPS throughout the tank. Even the cynarina I was nursing back to health is almost completely gone. 😔

 

 

 

 

 

I'll have to start chipping away all the dead bits soon and see if I can salvage any leftovers. Otherwise, it looks like I'll be rebooting the SPS-garden. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

Astrid has grown thinner too. 😔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I think I need to remove and rehome my blenny. 😞

 

He's been nipping at my forest fire digi polyps persistently, and preventing them from growing back fully. 

 

Also, I did more digging and there's a high chance that this blenny might not be a juvi tribal blenny, but simple a dark/black variant of the bicolor blenny with unique markings. If it is indeed a bicolor, then it definitely will keep going after my SPS.

 

Main issue would be netting it out of this tank. I'm still quite weak, but when I'm strong again, I can lift out some of the main rocks and quickly net him out somehow. Unfortunately, I can't transfer him to the 60G (even after I hybrid-TTM him) because he's too small and *might end up as food for my lionfish. 

 

Wish I had been more vigilant when picking out new fish at the store. 😕

 

At least he's eating well and has a full belly.

 

The new goby is fine, but thinning out. It's very hard to target-feed him, because I only spot him up and about at night, and when I lift the lids to try and squirt some food in there, he retreats in a flash. 😕

 

He likes perching on my hairy shrooms for some reason though. I suspect the reason I don't see him out in the open during mornings is because my blenny chases him off. I haven't really observed the two interact, but I have seen my blenny dive-bomb at something behind the rocks (near the yumas) every once in a while. Since the yumas are where the tiny goby hangs out at, I can only assume that the blenny has been bullying him. 

 

Definitely not an ideal situation, but looks like one fish must go. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Managed to trap the blenny this morning. He's currently in a holding box inside the tank.

 

It was quite a stroke of luck, actually. I woke up and noticed the blenny was peeking out of a crevice on the rock ledge that supports the entire forest fire digi garden. That rock was quite heavy, but I managed to lift it out and tilt it over a plastic mug. The blenny eventually slid out and went into the mug, then I repositioned the rock back into the water.

 

I can now see mild PE all over the monti - which is good. With the nipper gone, the garden should eventually come back with a few WCs and some old-fashioned TLC.

 

The trumpet coral-SunnyD paly cluster combo was dislodged during all of this. Had to re-glue it back on Coralline Ledge. Only after I secured it, I realized I had positioned it the wrong way! 🤦‍♀️

Too tired to tinker with the tank, so I left everything as it is.

 

I'll try to clean the filter tomorrow and replace the media, then scrape the glass. Tentatively will WC the tank day after tomorrow. 👍

I'm not sure when I'll be returning to the LFS, but when I do, I'll bring the blenny along to trade him back in. I'll be keeping the goby though. No luck feeding him yet, although I did spot him perching on my hairy shrooms again last night.

[Snow_Phoenix]

The polyps are coming back, although the beautiful green base color is still absent: 😕

 

 

 

Setosa is still quite pale but has very mild PE:

 

 

Shrooms still look bleh and brownish. 😕

 

 

I stuck the purple rhodactis to the shroom rock (next to the green discosoma) because Pickle kept tossing it all over the place:

 

 

Also glued the fascination favia frag to a larger LR:

 

 

The firestorms seem to be very happy though. Taking over other morphs:

 

 

I cleaned the glass and replaced the media. Clipped off 3 vermetids and just shuffled a few frags around. That was all I could manage today before the aches set it and I was left breathless. 

 

I'll attempt to WC the tank tomorrow. If I can't manage 8G, then I'll reduce the WC to 4G only. 

 

Blenny is still secure in the box. He's grumpy in time-out, but my SPS are finally showing signs of recovery without him. Tiny goby is absent, but should pop up later. Pickle the clownfish and the other inverts are fine. 👍

 

Corals overall are still 50/50 with colors all-off and looking lackluster. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

I managed to push myself to get an 8G WC done today. Many pieces are still very cranky. But I was quite happy to see splotches of green coming in one my previously bleached forest fire digi garden:

 

 

I was also quite surprised to see bits of my chili pepper monti come to life again. The PE is still nil, but I had originally presumed I had lost this piece since it was almost bone-white at one stage:

 

 

Some of my shrooms still have a brownish hue, unfortunately. 😕

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The Zoa Garden took quite a beating though. I'll have to restock the missing morphs and let everything grow out again:

 

 

 

Pickle got into a territorial spat with Shrimpy the yellow CBS. No surprise to who swam away as the winner of this round's reef pow-wow:

 

 

(Shrimpy is fine; he's just missing an antennae.)

 

Overall FTS is sad-looking. 😔

 

 

A lot of shrunken and discolored pieces in there. Need to re-nurse all these back to health. It'll definitely take some time and few more WCs before any *true positive turn-around is seen. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I took these yesterday. Tank is now officially on the road to recovery. Some regrowth (albeit mild) has been spotted in certain areas. Color seems to be returning in random patches throughout the system as well. 👍

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

More pics. 👍

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The duncan is now fully open. 😊

 

 

Some shrooms are still off-color though. 😕

 

 

More orange and green coming back:

 

 

I haven't seen my goby for ~3.5 days. There is a very high chance he has perished, although I'm unsure. I'll have to wait and see. 😕

 

I think I'll start hybrid-TTMing the blenny - since I'm down to only 1 lionfish in the 60G, and Lady is quite mellow, I *might risk introducing the blenny into that tank after the QT process is complete. I still haven't decided if I should go through with it, or trade him in at the LFS for a lawnmower blenny (which are usually unhealthy). 😕

 

I've become hopelessly attached to my blenny, and he's eating/behaving well, although he is moody because he can't nip on anymore SPS. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Found my goby! 🥰

 

 

Pickle. 🥰

 

 

Still healing. 👍

 

 

 

 

Overview:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The goby was out in the open this morning, which was incredibly unusual for him. He's extremely emaciated and breathing a tad heavily. I tried feeding him, but he wouldn't go for it. I don't think he'll make it in his current state. 😔

 

 

Also discovered my rainbow brain coral has receded very badly at the base. 😕

 

 

I hope the flesh re-grows - I really don't want to lose this one. 😕

[fenderchamp]

This is such a great journal! I love how disclose all the little problems and are always pushing the envelope on your tank, and your reef keeping.   You are very brave and very bold!    

[Snow_Phoenix]

My mini cooling fan has finally arrived.

 

 

Tested both modes. The highest setting is quite fast. It's surprisingly powerful for its size. Should be useful in keeping the water cool on extremely hot days, and when I'm away for Christmas next month. 👍

 

Will now hunt around for a basic ATO. Once I collect enough money, I'll try to get a simple auto-doser as well. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

A spaghetti worm was crawling on the glass last night. 🪱

 

 

 

Looks like one of the worms I manually seeded the sandbed with a very long time ago. They're quite active at night somehow. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pickle in a sideview shot today. 

 

 

Time to WC the tank again. Will do it either tomorrow or the day after.