Mixed Reef Jar—big changes

[Tired]

Don't put open cuts into reef tanks. You can get nasty infections from that. Go put Neosporin or whatever equivalent you have on that cut. But, yeah, you're probably just anxious- infection doesn't kick in instantly. 

 

You also don't need to agitate the corals first. Just drain the water out and refill it; they'll be fine out of water for a bit. They handle the retraction on their own, same as when you take a frag out of the water for whatever reason.

[Tamberav]

I can't tell what algae that is, looks like more then one. My fav snail is trochus tho. 

 

 

[NatureGuy]

I moved the frags during the water change, not really not purpose lol. their new position shows the other colors on the frag. The bright greens have yet to open all the way unfortunately 

[NatureGuy]

My waterproof camera would barely fit in the pico lol

[vision]

On 1/22/2023 at 3:36 PM, Tired said:

Just drain the water out and refill it; they'll be fine out of water for a bit.

good advice here. don't over complicate things, just do the water change. 

[NatureGuy]

Damn 

[Tamberav]

I hate when that happens 

[debbeach13]

[NatureGuy]

I agitated my lights against this morning. These are the settings now channel one (blues) 90%, channel two (whites) 80%, channel three (dark blue) 90%, channel four (green/red) 40-50% which seems really high since the tanks so small. I also found this lil starfish for the first time since I added coral 

Edit: the light is surprisingly white like this

edit edit: I must be losing a ton of light to the thick lid 

[growsomething]

That's the way things look when snorkling, and the only right light setting 😁

Kind of teasing the windex ppl. 

[NatureGuy]

Does it mean anything when they stick out their lil beaks 

[NatureGuy]

Better picture of the starfish 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

not to burst your bubble but that looks like an asterina sp. - two species of that genus in particular, A. gibbosa and A. Stellifera, are known for being soft coral eaters (particularly zoas).

 

It's pretty hard to ID them down to species level in live specimens/without a microscope though. They're really cool organisms though, if I wasn't worried about them eating the frags I've paid good money for I'd have some cos they fascinate me, and my tank isn't big enough for any other common reef starfish species.

[schgr.cube]

Just now, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

not to burst your bubble but that looks like an asterina sp. - two species of that genus in particular, A. gibbosa and A. Stellifera, are known for being soft coral eaters (particularly zoas).

 

It's pretty hard to ID them down to species level in live specimens/without a microscope though

This, and they also replicate pretty handily in our aquariums. You may find yourself overrun with them in this small of a setup if you don't pick them out regularly. This was one removal of an unchecked period in my old 10 gallon:

 

[NatureGuy]

Imma go murder it in that case. It came in on the frags (I saw it in the bag) so it would make sense that it eats coral 

 

edit: do they pose any benefits? Assuming it’s not an evil species 

edit edit: he’s kinda cute 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

yeah, good luck 'murdering' it lol....they can reproduce asexually by fragmentation so just carefully remove/try and find a local reefer with a harlequin shrimp that needs feeding. Better than senseless (attempted) killing that'll make yours/your coral's situation worse. 

[NatureGuy]

Damn, reminds me of hydra. What is it with aquarium pests and being almost immortal lol

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Yeah, some of these inverts are pretty incredible with how resilient they are. But then vagile marine organisms were some of the FIRST multi cellular organisms ever so it shouldn't be a surprise that if they can last for millennia on earth, of course they're gonna be hard to eradicate in our tanks, no matter how much we try and micromanage the environment

[NatureGuy]

Since I first added powder food the clove polyps have started coming out at night, presumably eating, which is cool to see 

[Tamberav]

I disagree with killing it. I wound wait and see what it does. I have 100s of them and they eat algae and cyano. Not all are bad. 

Here they are not eating my zoas. They are going for algae on my glass. 
 

 

Here they are eating my cyano… 

 

 

The only time I have seen mine eat a coral was a coral that was already stressed and dying. They will certainly clean up decaying flesh which is true of many things in our tanks. 
 

I recently accidentally killed a Xenia and yes they crawled all over it and ate it but they never touched it when it was healthy. I had to dose too close to the Xenia causing it to shrivel and melt and they took the opportunity to eat the dying coral. 
 

Now I am not saying some don’t eat healthy coral. Their ocean is a huge place. I am just saying you don’t know that yours does and it could be a valuable CUC. 
 

They do reproduce quickly. To prune numbers, I suck some out with each water change. 
 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

@Tamberav is right tbh. You can't ID to species level and NOT all members of this genus are coral eaters. 

 

 

[NatureGuy]

In that case, I’ll leave him in. He’s growing on me extremely quickly lol 

13 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I disagree with killing it. I wound wait and see what it does. I have 100s of them and they eat algae and cyano. Not all are bad. 

Here they are not eating my zoas. They are going for algae on my glass. 
 

 

Here they are eating my cyano… 

 

 

The only time I have seen mine eat a coral was a coral that was already stressed and dying. They will certainly clean up decaying flesh which is true of many things in our tanks. 
 

I recently accidentally killed a Xenia and yes they crawled all over it and ate it but they never touched it when it was healthy. I had to dose too close to the Xenia causing it to shrivel and melt and they took the opportunity to eat the dying coral. 
 

Now I am not saying some don’t eat healthy coral. Their ocean is a huge place. I am just saying you don’t know that yours does and it could be a valuable CUC. 
 

They do reproduce quickly. To prune numbers, I suck some out with each water change. 
 

 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

they are super cute tbf.....my old colleagues thought i was nuts for liking them so much haha. I really do like them though, won't have them because I also love my zoas 🙂

[NatureGuy]

The corals responded to the lighting! First pic is just now and the second one is yesterday. Clove polyps have been a little gloomy since the wc, idk if it’s related

[NatureGuy]

This one polyp in particular likes to stay up late late