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[CUSTOM] Ann

Ann

By Ann,
in Pico Reef Contest

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Ann

Ann

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I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds these creatures extraordinary. :happy:

 

Most Sea Spiders are parasitic, feeding on the tissue of their host using a proboscis (to literally suck up the tissue. Yum!). :eek: The hosts are most commonly corals and hydroids but they can also be sponges and a very small number are herbivores. I've not seen any mention of worms or microcrustaceans being used hosts but that doesn't mean that they don't exist.

 

This chap was not a happy healthy spider or I may have been tempted to keep him (I really hate to kill anything). I hadn't really noticed any obvious zoanthid loss so whatever it was doing was minimal. It was on it's last legs (in more ways than one) however and would not have lasted even if I had put him back in again.

 

Incidentally this is the second pynogonid that's turned up in my tanks, a few years ago I found one in my big tank. You'll be glad to hear that I did keep that one as it was sooo small and the tank was sooo big, I felt confident that it couldn't do that much harm. I only saw it the once though.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Ann

Ann

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Thanks! I am having fun with this tank, I hope I can still say the same when the weather starts to heat up.

 

So far I'm pretty happy with how things are progressing, the only real blip is the continual rearrangement of some of the frags (by claws unknown). Since the last update 3 more frags have been knocked off. One I was just able to reattach, another resulted in the splitting of the blue(ish) Ricordea florida which I guess is not that bad a thing really as I now have two mushroom instead of one, but a third frag has vanished entirely and I'm majorly cheesed off about that!

 

On a brighter note, I picked up some fantastic new frags at the weekend. :D I visited a reefing buddy who gave me some zoanthids and a mushroom polyp and I also acquired a couple of freebie polyps from a shop that we visited too so all in all it was a great day for me and the Pico! The frags still have some settling in but here are a few quick shots to show them off.

 

Firstly the shop freebies:

 

dgz2230106.jpg

 

obz220106.jpg

 

And here are the very nice frags from my friend's tank:

 

ppz230106.jpg

 

bz220106.jpg

 

The colours are wonderful I sure hope that they don't change too much. No shot of the mushroom as of yet.

 

I'll post a new FTS and some updated coral shots tomorrow.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Ann

Ann

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Thanks! Yeah the last zoanthids are really cool, they are really very blue. I just hope that the colour doesn't fade too much, they were under 400W MHs and now they're errr, not! :lol: So anyway we shall see.

 

Here are some more pics as promised:

 

I have finally been able to remove the tie from around these zoas, yay! They seem to be growing really well now but the colour has shifted a bit since introduction, they don't seem to be as dark as they were before. Is that down to too much light or too little light?

 

rz200106.jpg

 

These are growing well and have kept their vibrant green colours.

 

gz2200106.jpg

 

No new polyps for these zoas yet but there is some mat growth so hopefully it won't be long.

 

lgoz1200106.jpg

 

No signs of growth all from these. :(

 

pz200106.jpg

 

No growth here either, in fact I there seems to be some shrinking of the mat connecting the polyps to each other and that can't be good. These polyps are smaller than all the others, is that significant I wonder? Are the small species harder to keep than the larger ones??

 

oz200106.jpg

 

Here's what they look like from the side, pretty little things. I sure hope I don't lose them.

 

ozside200106.jpg

 

These green ones are doing great except.... see the group of polyps on the right? Well those are MIA. Eaten or dislodged, who knows. Note that the Aiptasia has gone now too, I nuked it with some Joe's Juice. :naughtydance:

 

lgz200106.jpg

 

These are the polyps that were knocked off a while ago, I placed them into the refugium for safe keeping. They are back now. :)

 

goz200106.jpg

 

More pics to follow in a mo.....

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Ann

Ann

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The Fungia is still in the land of the living. It does seem a bit bigger but I don't know that for sure really.

 

fungiatop200106.jpg

 

The B. wellsi has developed a teeny tiny new polyp at the back which is great news.

 

bwellsi240106.jpg

 

However, not much is happening with the B. merleti. It doesn't expand very much at all and I'm wondering if it's getting too much light. I'd like to move it again but don't really have anywhere better for it to go, so I guess it'll have to tough it out where it is.

 

The tunicates are still the same. I have been dosing the tank with DTs phyto and oyster eggs but I don't know if they are helping at all. One things for sure there's no stopping that tube worm, it keeps on extending its tube and has grown up and past the squirts now. The spirorbid worm population has also exploded, they have settled almost everywhere, it's quite cool really! I think that they must be responsible for lowering the alkalinity and calcium levels, I had to start dosing for those this week.

 

squirtsnworm260106.jpg

 

The Sargassum algae keeps on growing, it's developed gas bladders now. Neato! B) I have been trimming it a bit to keep it away from the corals but should probably be more vicious with it as it's perhaps getting a bit too bushy.

 

sargassum260106.jpg

 

The mushrooms have been relocated to the rear of the tank where there is less flow. Will have to get shots of them later.

 

That's enough pics for now, I hope that I haven't posted too many. :unsure: I'll finish off with the latest FTS.

 

fts240106.jpg

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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tinyreef

tinyreef

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cool! gas bladders on the sargum! i forgot whether that was sexual or just a floatation aid(?). very interesting, nevertheless.

 

carrying on from my thread:

i'm shocked you're getting coralline without heavily supplementing the ca/alk when your blasto's budding and you've got that fungia.

 

i agree, that the worm growth you noted is definitely another factor. in my tank too but i think the coralline in there is grabbing the ca/alk first still.

 

but do you think you're getting some bio-ca/alk from what you're feeding? i've not tried the oyster eggs but i've heard they're as perfect as we can currently get (food-wise).

 

so the joe's juice wasn't so bad? did that polyp pull thru?

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invert

invert

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:D ann it looks great. rem me? uk reefer helped you with lighting :) best uk pico ive ever seen :D

 

ive got some frags with your name on them :)

 

BRIGHT red mushrooms

BRIGHT green mushrooms

BRIGHT green zoos

BRIGHT green star polups

 

if you want them :) altho i dont know how to ship not asking for anything ££ wise if youre intrested pm me :)

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Ann

Ann

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Thanks again for all the lovely comments. :flower:

 

Tiny, you are right of course, the Blastomussa and Fungia must be soaking up the alk/Ca even if it's not that apparent to me. They are slow growers but their skeletons are quite dense so it must take quite a bit of calcium to extend them. It's the spirorbid population though that shows the most obvious Ca usage. They have settled everywhere in this tank, on the glass, plastic pipes and even on some blades of algae, flaunting their curly little white casings at me. I've never seen so many appear so quickly, a benefit of going skimmerless perhaps?

 

spirobids270106.jpg

 

The jury is still out on the dosage of phyto and the oyster eggs. The filter feeding worms must be loving it but I'm not sure about anything else. When I add it most of the zoanthids shut down immediately, the squirts close their siphons, even the large worm retracts it's crown for a while, it's not exactly what I'd call an enthusiastic response.

 

The gas bladders on the Sargassum are formed purely to keep the algae upright btw, floatation devices really.

 

Raven, I never used to be that taken by zoanthids either but now I think I'm addicted. I wouldn't keep them with my SPS corals but I can quite see myself setting up a bigger tank to keep them and them alone. Not that that's going to happen anytime soon. ;)

 

Invert, that really is very kind of you. If you'd have offered a few weeks ago I would have jumped at the chance for sure, but now I feel that the Pico is as stocked up as I want it to be. I don't intend on adding any more corals, I just want what's there already to fill in now. Thanks a million for the offer though. :D

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Ann

Ann

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Travis, OMG! omgomgomg I'm not sure mine's in the same category as some of those tanks, they are really incredible. Fingers crossed that my lil tank continues to grow and improve. Thanks very much for the link. :D

 

 

Tiny, sorry I forgot to respond to this question:

 

did that polyp pull thru?

 

Which polyp are you referring to?

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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tinyreef

tinyreef

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Tiny, sorry I forgot to respond to this question:

Which polyp are you referring to?

hmm, i thought you had dripped so joe's juice onto a zoo polyp by accident ( and it was mightily po'd) when you were killing off aipts. maybe i got it mixed up with another thread?

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Ann

Ann

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Ahh, I think that was Zoogirl. One of her Blastos got a squirt of the stuff IIRC but they all looked great in her last FTS so I assume that they made it through the ordeal OK. :)

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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