Shallow Caribbean Reef

[michael_cb_125]

Here is a photo of my basslet from this evening. He has continued to be a vigorous and charming little specimen. He constantly changes colors (almost like he is flashing) and flares his gills at me when I approach. He will eat right from my fingers and even puffs up at my Yorkie (Armando).

 

 

[melson]

It's always nice when fish have personality!

 

Tank looks good. Hopefully you recover from covid asap!

[michael_cb_125]

Thanks melson. We are starting to feel a little better, so hopefully next week we will be back to normal.

 

Bad thing is, with so much time to do nothing, I have been all over on what I truly would like to accomplish with this tank....

 

~Michael 

 

[michael_cb_125]

I have been contemplating possibly adding another fish to the display. With the sponges, gorgs and macros I feel like a smaller predatory species would fit perfectly. I lost the pygmy angelfish a while back unexpectedly (no signs of disease or parasites) just dead one morning.

So that leads me to wanting something else.

I have kept many types of scorpions and anglers in the past. My Frondosas and eschmeier were amongst my faves, but cockatoo roosters and red pygmy wasps were just so personable. Obviously I am restricted to dwarf or pygmy species. 

I am not stuck on caribbean species necessarily.

 

I have not really seen many cryptic predator fish for sale lately, so I may wait and collect something myself this summer. We always find sargassum fish while offshore, and three or four species of scorps, one of which maxes at 3" and the other two are much to large.

 

Any ideas on good sources for obscure and hard to find fish like this. These fish are not rare perse, just a niche groups of species...

 

~Michael

[michael_cb_125]

Hello everyone!

     Today was my first day back at work since contracting covid. While droving around between appointments I stopped by a fish shop that I rarely frequent. I needed something to make me feel better.

Long story short, the Caribbean Lagoon is no longer.....

 

They happened to have a very healthy looking Elegance Coral on display. This particular specimen is not a cone bottom variety, rather it was cut from a portion of reef.  I have read that these types of specimens tend to do better than their cone bottomed kin. I have not kept elegance corals in over 10 years and I look forward to seeing how this baby does in the tank. 

 

In the past, I have always had to sell my elegance corals as they always grew too large for my systems, hopefully this specimen performs similarly!

 

Photos to come soon!

~Michael

[michael_cb_125]

I have been feeling better each day over the week. 

I cleaned the glass for the first time in two weeks. It was surprisingly devoid of much algae. There was a thin film of light green algae, but mostly tube worms... boy they can be a pain, but I love having them..

 

This evening I did a water change....just because I was bored. I changed right at 5 gallons. Rubbed and touched all my corals, made em good and mad. Stirred the sand to mix the layers, got the water good and cloudy. Rubbed pineapple sponge off of my macro algae, and siphoned out. My bass is an asshole and turned white and went nuts on my hand.

 

And now I am chillin, looking at a nice fresh tank. Corals are all open now and water is clearing.

Now I am done with maintenance for quite some time...

 

I will try to get some photos afterwhile, but I still have to tend to the farm side of life, so it may be tomorrow...

 

~Michael

[michael_cb_125]

Just to clarify (for those wondering) the rubbing coral statement..

 

This mainly applies to my gorgs. As many of you know, these guys will shed their "skin" occasionally. When I see them starting to keep Polyps retracted, I rub them between my fingers to enhance the sloughing of the tissue. This has always seemed to really speed up growth for these corals up for me. This does not apply to algal growth, as you have to scrape it off which damages the tissue. 

 

I piss off other corals so i can examine for growth, pests, microfauna, etc. 

 

~Michael

[mitten_reef]

1 minute ago, michael_cb_125 said:

Just to clarify (for those wondering) the rubbing coral statement..

 

This mainly applies to my gorgs. As many of you know, these guys will shed their "skin" occasionally. When I see them starting to keep Polyps retracted, I rub them between my fingers to enhance the sloughing of the tissue. This has always seemed to really speed up growth for these corals up for me. This does not apply to algal growth, as you have to scrape it off which damages the tissue. 

 

I piss off other corals so i can examine for growth, pests, microfauna, etc. 

 

~Michael

glad you brought up the rubbing the gorgs to help them shed....have you figured out any natural way for this to happen? increased flow?  specific CUC?  I always let mine go for too long, then the shed skin become substrate for algae to cling on to...which then cause more deterioration to the gorg flesh.  when I clean, in addition to just rub around with my fingers, I also used a baby toothbrush, not sure if that's too abrasive or not...

[michael_cb_125]

On a side note..

 

Keeping the gorgs in a shallow tank is requiring me to trim often.

I have two purple gorgs and a golden that hit the surface and the turn downward. I have been cutting and discarding the trimmings. I think that I may let them grow out longer and make some nice frags for folks around me instead of throwing them out.

I rarely see gorgs at the lfs and I am not sure why?

 

~Michael

 

[michael_cb_125]

I have yet to figure out a "natural" way to expedite the shedding process. 

 

Over the years I have observed the following with photosynthetic gorgs:

 

Increasing the flow during the shedding process rarely removes the dying or dead tissue. Sure if you totally blast them it may work over time, but this will damage the living tissue and Polyps as well.

 

Since we are not talking algal build up, many herbivores will not feed on this. Animals that will actively feed on the dying tissue may also consume the healthy coral.

 

Lighting plays no part in the shedding process.

 

A very soft toothbrush like you mentioned works great. 

 

When I perform the manual task there is not a huge amount of tissue that falls off. I don't let it get that far, I always hit them right at the beginning of the process. I really just want to help with this, not complete it.

 

~Michael

[michael_cb_125]

Good morning everyone!!

 

     Sorry for the lack of updates. We have been incredibly busy at work, plus my brother and I are renovating a home in Kure Beach for my Father. The little tank is chugging along nicely. The most recent additions have settled in well, and are already starting to show signs of growth (the zoas, chalice and acan). 

I have been adding small amounts of silica to the tank over the last two months, to help with sponge growth. I have decided to drastically cut back on my dosage. I have not noticed any change in my photosynthetic sponges (still growing at the same speed), but my cryptic species are going nuts. I dont mind the creeping and encrusting species, but the pineapple sponges are becoming a pain in the ass. They are starting to cover my macro algae, and are even taking hold on some of the gorgonians..

 

I am also starting to slowly remove the caulerpa. It is easy to manage in a small tank with little rockwork, but I am wanting to make space for additional macros and coral. The brown scrolling algae is getting very large and at this point is about 4.5" in diameter, I really love this ugly brown algae!!

 

I am trying to come up with some good species for the back wall of the tank. Currently there is only the blue photo sponge. I am leaning towards encrusting lps, but I could use some guidance on which species will tolerate heavy flow. I have my nero5 positioned on the left side of the tank, pushed all the way to the back wall. I run it on pulse 2 seconds 75%, 10 seconds off). 

 

Any ideas on what way work in this scenario, Leptos, Stylos, etc?

~Michael

 

 

[michael_cb_125]

Here are a few rushed shots from today.

Quite a few changes.

 

[michael_cb_125]

Good Morning Everyone!

Once again, sorry for the lack up updates. The little tank is basically on auto pilot at the moment. I am getting great growth from everything, with one exception. 

A while back I noticed that my elegance was not inflating completely like it has been previously. Water parameters are great and all other corals look amazing. Well, I finally figured out that my basslet has literally been tearing the elegance to pieces. When ever I get neat the tank to look at the elegance the damn fish gets "jealous" and attacks the coral. I moved a maze brain up front, and the basshole did the same thing to that coral. So from now on, nothing gets put within 3 inches of the glass, as that is the basslets domain....

 

I am starting to get some very good macro growth. Most of which came in as hitch hikers on corals. I will get some decent photos this evening. 

 

Also, for me collection season is around the corner. We went out last week about 40 miles. I found some very nice Codium Macro, as well as some very neat non photo gorgs. All stayed at sea, as water temps are still around 65, and I am keeping the tank at 75, so I will wait for warmer water before bringing anything home. 

 

~Michael

[A.m.P]

Basslets have personalities miles bigger than their size.

[michael_cb_125]

2 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Basslets have personalities miles bigger than their size.

You are 100% correct in that statement. This little guy will let you know when he needs something or is just genuinely pissed off, LOL

~Michael