Donya's 55-Gallon

[Donya]

There are some gorgeous blue-tinted Nereids that sometimes show up on the coasts locally. I'm not new to the group broadly, but would not be able to do species or epitoke IDs. This one had a fair bit more of a mouth on it when extended than the ones I've poked at in the past. It is done now though, as it was definitely was an epitoke. It did its reproductive thing in the container I had it in all of a sudden and then died and mostly disintegrated immediately. Now I have a nasty mess to deal with when I get home...I forgot to throw it out, so it sat overnight.

 

[Box]

Just read this back to front great stuff
Thanks donya this will help me loads

 

[Donya]

Well...apparently the only thing keeping the Caulerpa going was the residual phosphate and nutrients from my old refugium bomb that the GHA was also sucking up. Once sucked up, growth stagnated really fast in both algaes and they are all but completely obliterated by grazers (which are now getting supplemental foods). There is very little algae in this tank now aside from coralline and a patch of Bryposis (I think) that my tuxedo urchin farms by carrying it around on its back 24/7 and periodically pulling it around for a munch. It would seem that despite me throwing filter feeder foods at this thing like a crazy person, the tank is still managing to be too low-nutrient to support anything outside of those two algaes and the chaeto in the refugium.

Left to right...

<-- there's the tuxedo with his algae farm.

 

[Donya]

Pics taken with flash after lights out showing the hitchhiker NPS polyps I've been trying to grow and the recovering sun:

 

[Donya]

PISTOL SHRIMP

Look just under the anemone in the middle.

Also, I couldn't find my green feather dust-oh wait there it is.

Had to happen eventually I guess.

 

[lljdma06]

The anemone has recovered very nicely from it's evil clown experience. Yes, it looks like Bryopsis to me as well. That urchin is too funny, both of them. He's wearing a feather duster?!

The hitchhiker nps looks like a balanophylia species to me. Have you worked on an id yet?

Sun coral is looking better than before. I'm struggling with mine a bit. They are doing ok, but not great. Too hard to target feed when I'm not home all the time anymore. Balanos and Dendros are much, much easier to care for.

Man, having a boyfriend and being an opera singer really eats up your time! Not that these are bad things, but I can barely keep up with my reefs. I need to seriously consider simplifying things a bit.

L

 

[Donya]

Yep, that was a featherduster hat. Urchin plucked it right out of the rocks where I thought it was pretty well wedged! I've placed it on one of the platforms now where it will be harder for curious little feet to grab.

The suns I actually haven't had to target feed much, which is good because I have to stand on something to reach them easily. They get most of their munchies from the after-lights-out dose of filter foods, which includes a lot of coarser particles in addition to phyto-level stuff. The coarse stuff feeds them and my Cardinals lol.

The best candidate ID I had so far for the hitchhiker given the region (FL/gulf), was Phyllangia americana.

Man, having a boyfriend and being an opera singer really eats up your time! Not that these are bad things, but I can barely keep up with my reefs. I need to seriously consider simplifying things a bit.

Nah, you just need to make better use of the extra pair of hands I mean boyfriend.

 

[lljdma06]

Wow I want me some. That's an awesome nps coral. Similar to a balano and dendro in construct and habits though.

Bet you can't get it legally either. Poopy!! Can't harvest many Floridian lps and sps.

Neat find though.

Yeah, there will come a time where he must pitch in with the tanks.

Thank goodness he likes it. He kept freshweter when he was younger, monsterfish. Talk about opposites! LOL

L

 

[Donya]

Yeah I read that there are some funky laws down there that affect P. americana when I was looking for an ID on it. I was reading something to the effect that if you have a frag of it and don't have a paper trail tracing it back to an aquaculture facility, they assume you chipped it off a wild colony. They are supposedly legal as hitchhikers on aquacultured rock (how I got mine), so you could always keep your eye out for a nice bit of rock as they are quite common on the gulf-cultured rock that makes its way up here (along with mantis shrimp and infinitely many Pilumnus crabs...). I guess you just can't trade/sell frags of it thereafter without some special paperwork.

 

[lljdma06]

Yeah I read that there are some funky laws down there that affect P. americana when I was looking for an ID on it. I was reading something to the effect that if you have a frag of it and don't have a paper trail tracing it back to an aquaculture facility, they assume you chipped it off a wild colony. They are supposedly legal as hitchhikers on aquacultured rock (how I got mine), so you could always keep your eye out for a nice bit of rock as they are quite common on the gulf-cultured rock that makes its way up here (along with mantis shrimp and infinitely many Pilumnus crabs...). I guess you just can't trade/sell frags of it thereafter without some special paperwork.

Yep, that's what a friend of mine who's an aquaculturalist had mentioned to me. It's why he sulks when his diver can't get those corals for him.

Poopy pants. I like it. If it ever does really well for you... Frag it.

 

[Donya]

Did my first bit of actual deliberate coral fragging this week! ...Actually it was pretty lame and unadventurous. There was a zoa polyp that had pulled away from the colony, so I just slid a piece of plastic under its mat and yanked it off. I still need to get some dental pics to grab larger chunks of the mat and do this seriously; I've got 3 different types I could grab a bits from right now. Of course, sorting out what to do with them once I get them on a frag plate is another matter. I've got the one zoa plate and two daisy polyp plates (urchin-fragged) sitting in my fuge while I figure out where to put them. Then I've got 3 tree coral frags sitting in another tank (naturally dropped). I need to get a frag rack or something.

Now I have to figure out which fish store to head to tomorrow, as two are having sales...decisions!

 

[lljdma06]

Did my first bit of actual deliberate coral fragging this week! ...Actually it was pretty lame and unadventurous. There was a zoa polyp that had pulled away from the colony, so I just slid a piece of plastic under its mat and yanked it off. I still need to get some dental pics to grab larger chunks of the mat and do this seriously; I've got 3 different types I could grab a bits from right now. Of course, sorting out what to do with them once I get them on a frag plate is another matter. I've got the one zoa plate and two daisy polyp plates (urchin-fragged) sitting in my fuge while I figure out where to put them. Then I've got 3 tree coral frags sitting in another tank (naturally dropped). I need to get a frag rack or something.

Now I have to figure out which fish store to head to tomorrow, as two are having sales...decisions!

I've done some deliberate fragging. Mostly zoas, birdsnest, gsp, and mushrooms. I really must do a giant green infusion paly colony in my old 8g, but that coral makes me scared. Palys are scary corals. I need protection. At least goggles and gloves.

Whatcha gonna buy at the sale? Ooooooo, wish I had monies. No monies...

Summer stinks when you're a teacher.

L

 

[Donya]

Not really sure what to go after tomorrow...the stock at both places is a total unknown to me at the moment since it's been ages since I've been able to get down to either one (bit of a drive to both). One is mostly fish and corals, the other does a lot of oddball inverts but is also a longer drive.

Don't tell me how much summer stinks as a teacher; that's where I'm headed in 2 years if all goes well. Until then I get to do the grunt work portion of it without the perk of having a parking space that isn't 50 billion miles away LOL.

 

[Donya]

Bah...so much for that plan. Slow leak on tire + ridiculously small spare + places closed today = no fishy fun for me.

 

[Xraymark]

I hate it when life gets in the way of fun.