Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[gena]

This is stunning 💗.  Awesome reef-keeping skills right here.

[Snow_Phoenix]

35 minutes ago, gena said:

This is stunning 💗.  Awesome reef-keeping skills right here.

Thank you, Gena. It takes a lot of time, effort, and patience though. But I still love it. ❤️ 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sideview of Ironman discosomas under early morning heavy blues. 🥰

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Geralt of Nanoreefia sends his greetings. 🦀

 

 

 

Duncan coral, front-view:

 

 

The new yumas I acquired recently are doing well:

 

 

 

I WCed the tank yesterday. A few of my frags are still a bit sulky, but most of the tank's inhabitants have perked up. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Discosomas on Mushroom Mountain. 🌺

 

 

 

 

 

One of the GCGs has thinned out and has a very pinched belly. I believe it's Houdini. Refuses to eat, and I'm trying everything. 😔

 

Luckily the second GCG is now eating formula one pellets very well and has not only thickened, but grown as well! 🥰

 

I hope Houdini starts eating soon because I'm fond of *both of my GCGs, not just either one of them. 

[debbeach13]

I hope he eats soon. It is so frustrating and sad when a fish just doesn't eat. I know you feed a wide variety of food. I wish I had something to suggest but you already tried everything I can think of. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

I hope he eats soon. It is so frustrating and sad when a fish just doesn't eat. I know you feed a wide variety of food. I wish I had something to suggest but you already tried everything I can think of. 

That's the main issue with wild-caught fish - it can be a pain to get them onto prepared, and for some species, they simply won't adapt to prepared so you'll have to go live all the way. I'm trying live too, but he still won't eat. Beyond this, I can't do anything else except keep trying and praying for the best. 😞

 

Clown gobies are so beautiful, but the first few weeks of the weaning process are definitely challenging. Once they actively accept prepared though, they are usually quite stable, and barring any accidents/injury, can live for several years in a nano. I'm glad Dahlia has adapted. Will keep working on Houdini. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Bullet at different angles:

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Interstellar shroom at the bottom of Mushroom Mountain:

 

 

Yuma pile:

 

 

Metallic nuclear death palys - highly toxic:

 

 

My Zoa Garden. 🥰

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

FTS taken today on 27/2/23:

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to gathering more tiny frags in the future. 🥰👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Houdini didn't make it. 😔

 

 

He was already faring incredibly poorly because he refused to eat - you can see how terribly shrunken his belly was. 😔

 

My hopes is that Dahlia will defy the odds and keep eating. My tank is currently being deluged by brown algae on the rocks/sandbed and a disgusting greenish-brownish oily film on the surface of the water. All due to the excessive amounts of food I've being thrown in in an attempt to fatten up both gobies. This includes large portions of liquid food helpings. 😕

 

Now that Houdini has unfortunately died, I'll work on cutting back feedings and cleaning up the tank when I'm able. 

 

I wasn't feeling too well last night and that carried on to today. I'm also juggling with issues in my FW discus tank (I believe I have mentioned this in my 60G's thread), so my attention is split. 

 

I think I'll replace the media and clean up the glass/oil film (as much as I can) tomorrow, then work on WCing the tank the day after. 

 

My country is currently hit by heavy rains/floods and the weather has been quite cold. All of my animals have been affected. I have several fish breaking out in Ich in all 3 of my tanks. And I'm still losing more and more dither fish in my FW tank day-by-day. It has been a rather stressful few days, overall. 😕

 

Right now, I'm focusing on helping the animals that need the most care. Luckily my GPs, bird and dog are okay - but I did throw extra fleece blankets in/over cages, and all over the sofas where my terrier sleeps (she's never caged - she moves about our home freely and is welcomed everywhere except on the beds - mum's rule, not mine). She's a senior dog, so I don't want her to incur any joint aches and be in discomfort. 

[debbeach13]

RIP Houdini

[Snow_Phoenix]

I found Dahlia. 😭

 

 

Was looking for her using a flashlight since I didn't see her since morning. After Houdini's death, I figured she must be simply hiding, until I noticed my red lobo was puffed up weirdly. 

 

Flicked the lights on for few secs and I saw her in the lobo's mouth. There's also bits of fish flesh on my orange leptastrea. 😭

 

I can't believe I lost both of them on the same day. Definitely doing a WC + clean up in the upcoming days - just in case there's some external contaminant that slipped in while I removed the lids to feed & dose the tank yesterday. 

 

Houdini was emaciated, but Dahlia was relatively healthy, active and eating. Her sudden death worries me a lot. 😔

 

I wish they had both survived. The only types of clown gobies that were reefsafe in this tank were the green and red ones. Black and yellow ones are polyp-nippers. 

 

I'm devastated. This hobby is very trying at times. And the purchase of any wild-caught fish is a gamble. 😔

[debbeach13]

Oh no! I am so sorry. 

[ml86743]

Dang I'm sorry about GCG's...

[Snow_Phoenix]

15 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Oh no! I am so sorry. 

I'm quite crushed, Deb. With everything else that has been going on - fish-wise - this was definitely quite a double-blow. 😞 

 

14 minutes ago, ml86743 said:

Dang I'm sorry about GCG's...

 I just wish I had more time with them. 😢

 

 

[geekreef_05]

Ouch, im sorry for the recent losses.

 

[Sharbuckle]

So sorry you lost your fish… worst part of the hobby. Hope the weather improves and your ich situation settles down. 

[banasophia]

Oh no, I’m so sorry Snow. 😢 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I replaced the media and cleaned the glass today. Also fished out Dahlia's remains after my lobo threw her up and disposed it. 😔

 

But I did give both the filter and wavemaker a thorough clean out. And mopped up the oily film layer on the water surface using several layers of paper towels. Tank looks cleaner, and I've tentatively set the date for a WC tomorrow or the day after. 

 

A burst of color:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geekreef_05]

Corals are looking good!

All the zoo's of the rainbow in there. 

 

Give us a full tank shot! 

 

Planning on any replacement fish? 

[Snow_Phoenix]

5 hours ago, geekreef_05 said:

Corals are looking good!

All the zoo's of the rainbow in there. 

 

Give us a full tank shot! 

 

Planning on any replacement fish? 

I will take a FTS a day after the WC. 😊

 

In the future, I *might try again. I did ask my LFS to notify me if they have any new nano-gobies/blennies coming in. So we'll see.👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

I didn't get a chance to WC the tank, so I had to clean the glass and replace the media all over again. Now I'll try my best to WC the nano either this evening (if I'm not too tired - my back is strained), or tomorrow afternoon. 

 

A few corals are moody and I do have patches of hair algae popping up - mostly due to lack of proper CUC in this reef. I'm currently debating pulling out a turban snail from the DT of my 60G reeftank, and maybe pull out a few limpets from the fuge of that tank and transfer the lot over to this one - a temporary measure until I'm strong enough to drive to the LFS again and pick up more snails. 🤔

 

Anyhow, here are a few interesting pics I wanted to share with all of you. After a few months of meticulous pruning and tweaking (and natural coral growth, of course!), I finally achieved a nice overlapping effect in my Superman discosomas on Mushroom Mountain: 

 

 

 

I really love how the overlap turned out, but I'm unsure if I can achieve that same effect with other morphs. I'll give it a try, though! 👍

 

Also, my garf bonsai acro is finally encrusting and growing out again, but both the colors and growth rate are abysmal. It's nowhere near the original frag in terms of color, and I think my nano is ill-suited to acros in general: 😔

 

 

At least I have a few mini colonies going around, so that makes me happy. 😊👍

 

 

 

I'll try to take a proper FTS a day after I complete the WC, once everything is settled down. Also happy to report my rastas have finally opened up, although the polyps are extremely small. Same goes for the Fruit loops, but it's a bit discolored. Only time will tell if these 2 zoa morphs will finally grow out or fade away in this tank. 🤔

[Nano sapiens]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Also, my garf bonsai acro is finally encrusting and growing out again, but both the colors and growth rate are abysmal. It's nowhere near the original frag in terms of color, and I think my nano is ill-suited to acros in general: 😔

 

 

At least I have a few mini colonies going around, so that makes me happy. 😊👍

 

Acros in smaller reef aquaria are certainly challenging.  In my 12g over the years and I found that either the introduced frags didn't do well, or when they did they quickly overgrew/outcompeted the surrounding corals.

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Nano sapiens said:

 

Acros in smaller reef aquaria are certainly challenging.  In my 12g over the years and I found that either the introduced frags didn't do well, or when they did they quickly overgrew/outcompeted the surrounding corals.

Yeah - in my case, they never did too well. Sometimes they'll hit a growth spurt, then suddenly stop and mysteriously RTN or STN. I'll always try my best to salvage the tips and stick them somewhere else in the tank, but *if ever the fraglets survive, it's never back to the original, vivid colors the original frag came with. 😕

 

I've tried garf bonsai, orange passion tenuis, regular green (wild) and neon green (wild) acros in the tank. None of the frags lasted long - 6 to 8 months tops, before showing rapid signs of decline. 😞

 

I've also tried pink millis (wild) in this tank with the same result. 

 

I think I'll just stick to montis, leptos and pavonas. Those two types seem to do reasonably well in my nano and grow quickly.