[STOCK] ZooGirl

[ecotoxlady]

Looking good Zoogirl! Sounds like you're making your tank inhabitants very happy. I've found with some zoos that no matter what you do they just aren't happy so don't feel that you're doing anything wrong with those red zoos. It's just those zoos being picky. Even though zoanthids all require the same care some types are much more sensitive than others. Scientifically I'd love to know why. For me, the smaller zoo types like the ones from Fiji tend to be the most sensitive (translation; most likely to die in my tank ) but they also seem to thrive in some of my friends tanks (particularly people with SPS tanks) so perhaps those zoos thrive in a cleaner environment Anyway, keep up the great work!

[Ann]

I haven't seen a lot of action from some of my zoanthids either but perhaps it's still early days eh! LPS corals do seem easier to care for, give them light and a chunk of food every now and again. It's hard to know what to feed zoas to make them grow faster.

 

Those pink ones certainly have produced some new polyps, great stuff!!

 

Keep the updates coming.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[Gilman]

OFFICIAL PICO CONTEST NEWS

 

New Task... Read about it here...

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75620

 

YOU MUST COMPLETE THE TASK!

[ZooGirl]

OK...I'm totally disgusted right now. I've had this aiptasia growing off to the side towards the back in the pico. It didn't bother me too much at first but it's gotten so big that I was afraid it would hurt some of the corals. Typically I've always injected them with a needle and shot some kalk into the buggers and they just melt away. Because of it's location I couldn't really reach it without removing things so yesterday I thought I'd try Joe's Juice. Big mistake! I followed directions and put a couple drops in front of the aiptasia and as soon as it hit the water it spread and fell onto my blasto! Arrrrgh. I immediately tried removing it with a baster and it just went everywhere. As soon as it hit my blasto where it was once a beautiful neon green turned brown! What is in this stuff anyway??? I thought it was reef safe. Anyway I turned on the pump in hopes of it filtering out. It finally did, but this morning the poor blasto is completely eaten away where it was hit. The mouth is still there and I'm sure it will heal but it was healthy and it shouldn't have happened. I am so mad! Ya know, I always hate putting stuff in the tank and this is why. Oh and it must have gotten on the blue xenia as well because part of it looks shriveled. I hope my dendro is OK it's closed up pretty tight. In general all of the corals seem thoroughly PO'd right now so needless to say I'm going to wait a couple days to take my toothbrush pic. Blah.

[melbourne]

OK...I'm totally disgusted right now. I've had this aiptasia growing off to the side towards the back in the pico. It didn't bother me too much at first but it's gotten so big that I was afraid it would hurt some of the corals. Typically I've always injected them with a needle and shot some kalk into the buggers and they just melt away. Because of it's location I couldn't really reach it without removing things so yesterday I thought I'd try Joe's Juice. Big mistake! I followed directions and put a couple drops in front of the aiptasia and as soon as it hit the water it spread and fell onto my blasto! Arrrrgh. I immediately tried removing it with a baster and it just went everywhere. As soon as it hit my blasto where it was once a beautiful neon green turned brown! What is in this stuff anyway??? I thought it was reef safe. Anyway I turned on the pump in hopes of it filtering out. It finally did, but this morning the poor blasto is completely eaten away where it was hit. The mouth is still there and I'm sure it will heal but it was healthy and it shouldn't have happened. I am so mad! Ya know, I always hate putting stuff in the tank and this is why. Oh and it must have gotten on the blue xenia as well because part of it looks shriveled. I hope my dendro is OK it's closed up pretty tight. In general all of the corals seem thoroughly PO'd right now so needless to say I'm going to wait a couple days to take my toothbrush pic. Blah.

Sorry to hear about the Joe's Juice issue, in my experience that stuff is pretty lethal to lots of corals. For the aiptasia, a few things to try since we are dealing with a small tank. You can (1) reef epoxy over the bugger (2) get a pair of snips and cut off the offending piece of live rock. I've had good luck with both methods, just make sure to run carbon if you use the epoxy method.

 

And on the juice, it really only kills/hurts corals if they get alot of it. Sounds like most of your stuff just got hit lightly so give it a few days they should be back to normal. Doing a waterchange also and/or running a micron pad should help speed up the recovery as well.

[ZooGirl]

Thanks for the info melbourne. The spot that got hit now has the skeleton exposed. I know it will heal, it will just take a while.

[Ann]

Oh, that's a real bummer, I hope your corals recover quickly.

 

Funnily enough I have some Joe's Juice on order at the moment to zap the Aiptasia that I found in my tank, however I'm thinking twice about using it now. Still, I don't have that many other options left open to me, I've already tried to frag off the bit of rock that the anemone's on and I obviously cocked that one up, I could perhaps try to cover it over with epoxy but it's situated so close to some zoas that I'd probably take them out at the same time. Grrr, what a pain!

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ZooGirl]

Ann what I've always done in the past is use a hypodermic needle filled with Kalkwasser and shot it directly into the stem. This has always worked great for me but this was the first time I couldn't reach the Aiptasia. I thought I'd try the Juice because I'd never heard anything negative about it. If you can get to it I'd try the needle first. I've heard of people using lemon juice or even hot water instead of the Kalk. You have to be quick because it will receed into the rock fairly quickly. When I've done it before it never hurt any corals near it because it's basically a calcium addition.

[ZooGirl]

I'M TOO SEXY FOR MY TANK!

 

New sexy additions:

 

 

As you can see my dendro has opened nicely. Yay! I was worried but he's been fed and is happy!

 

Also I wanted to share a pic of my Acan echinata. I noticed today it's getting a bit of orange on the right. Cool.

 

Everything seems to have settled down so I'll take the update pics today or tomorrow.

[Theturtleclub]

come on give us a full tank shot it's looking awesome

[Ann]

I have to say that the Sexies/Dendro shot is amazing!

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ZooGirl]

Thanks! Oh I'm working on the FTS. I woke up this morning and the Sexies were perched on top of the Dendro so it was closed up tight. Lil buggers! Anyway, as soon as they leave it alone I'll try to get a shot. Also I need to compile my list...blah.

[Ann]

Btw something that I just remembered (don't know how I could have forgotten really), the Sexy shrimp in my nano ate the Blastomussa frag that I had in there. I hope that yours don't develop the same tastes.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[Fishfreak218]

I have heard of them eating/tasting Zoas too.. keep them WELL FED!!

[ZooGirl]

These shrimp came out of my other tank and I never had a problem with them. The only thing I noticed them doing is picking algae off of and around the corals and cleaning where something had damage. As far as I know they've never eaten a healthy coral. My tanks are pretty well fed. I will watch them though.

[minimalist]

Godly.

[ZooGirl]

Here's my completed task! I tried to not be lazy and put the correct names. I hope I did it right!

 

FTS:

 

Toothbrush shot:

 

 

Livestock

 

Corals

Acanthastrea echinata: hi-liter green

 

Acanthastrea lordhowensis: gray

Acanthastrea lordhowensis: neon green

Acanthastrea lordhowensis: purple and green

Acanthastrea lordhowensis: red, purple and green

Acanthastrea lordhowensis: true red, aqua, pink, and green

 

Blastomussa merletti: pink and blue

 

Blastomussa wellsi: green and lavender

Blastomussa wellsi: lavender and neon green

Blastomussa wellsi: peach

Blastomussa wellsi: red and teal green

 

Caulastrea furcata/Candy Cane: neon green

 

Dendrophyllia fistula (possibly coccinea?)/Sun Polyps

 

Favites sp.: metallic green and tan

 

Pachyclavularia violacea/Green Star Polyps

 

Palythoa sp.: brown and green

Palythoa sp.: lavender, tan and green

 

Xenia sp.: blue

 

Zoanthus sp.: blueberry

Zoanthus sp.: chocolate mint

Zoanthus sp.: denim blue, green and orange

Zoanthus sp.: electric green

Zoanthus sp.: fire and ice

Zoanthus sp.: green and purple

Zoanthus sp.: green galaxy

Zoanthus sp.: lime green and pink

Zoanthus sp.: pink

Zoanthus sp.: steel blue and green

Zoanthus sp.: toxic green

Zoanthus sp.: ultra pink

 

 

Inverts

Stomatella varia Snail

Thor amboinensis/Sexy Anemone Shrimp (4)

Tunicate/Sea Squirt

[ZooGirl]

Sooo...now that my task is over I thought I'd share some Dendro shots. I hope everyone isn't getting tired of seeing him. He's fast becoming one of my favorite corals. Here's a few pics of him in different states. Please excuse the larger images, I couldn't resist!

 

When I took this one it was pretty cool because he was leaning towards the front of the tank towards me. I think he's smiling!

 

This was right after he took in some food and puffed up.

 

This was taken after eating. You can still see some of the food in his belly. Oh and now you can really see how the babies have grown!

[foxfish]

What are your tank's specifics?...size--lighting, etc. (Looks great...by the way.)

[melbourne]

Beautiful tank, LPS heaven Does the current from the HOB go over the top and spill against the front glass?

[Ann]

 

Stop teasing me with all those lovely Dendrophyllia shots, you know how desperately I want one too.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ZooGirl]

Thanks everyone!

 

foxfish- The tank is a standard 2.5 gallon 12"L x 6"W x 8"H. I'm using an Aqua Clear 30 filter with some Purigen and filter floss. The lighting is the 12" 18w Current USA Satellite light. If I keep this tank after the contest I most likely will upgrade to 36w, I think the corals would prefer it. Oh and I do have a heater but it's a little one that sits in the filter.

 

Melbourne- Yeah, the water kinda spills down across the Zoanthids on the top and then makes a current moving down the front and splits to each side. I purposely made the little cave behind where the Acans are so there would be another place for the filter to pull water besides the side of the tank so there is a current moving across the top of them. It's kinda cool to watch something float through the tank and where it goes. There is also a current that swirls around the Dendro but it's not that strong.

 

Ann- I know, I'm sorry! If you find one definately get it! I'm so in love with mine right now I'd like to try to find more. I've seen them in slightly different colors too. It's weird because when I bought mine it wasn't really expensive (no more than an Acan) and I didn't think it was a big deal. Now I hardly see them and I hear how people want them. Wish I bought more now. There are so many different species that we don't even see here in the US. I've seen some pics from Japan and they are just all so cool looking. I'd love to find a Rhizotrochus typus. Those are bigger and eat fish...YIKES! Very cool and right now hard to find and extremely expensive.

[tinyreef]

amazing pics, as usual.

 

how often do you feed the dendrophyl? what are you feeding too?

[Nednai]

I don’t know what the judging rules are but your tank looks fantastic! Good luck in the contest.

[ZooGirl]

Thank you Nednai!

 

Tiny, I spot feed the Dendro, along with the Acans and Blastos, twice a week. I don't just dump the food on them, I use big tweezers and feed them directly just what they can handle. Usually it's frozen mysis, frozen Prime Reef or enriched brine. I like to mix it up. I also add to the tank a teeny bit of freeze-dried Cyclopeeze not quite every day to keep everyone happy between feedings.