Donya's 55-Gallon

[gregswimm]

I like your urchin variety

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I like your touch tank, although if I had one I would stock it with Millepora, Distichopora, Stylaster, Actinodendron plumosa, Lebrunea neglecta, and Toxopneustes pileolus to top it off .

I have seen the long spine urchins here in the gulf, but I have only seen them on sandbars and very open areas with shallow water(under 8').

As for the ID, I don't think there is anyone at my campus who would has the depth of knowledge to ID your specimen. Eckerd College has a fantastic marine bio department, they might have a good DB (ill check later).

Iding a captives specimen is a real pain (more so than others), growth forms, color, etc. vary in captivity. Close examination of a coralite is a more accurate method (short of a genome sequence >_>)

Can u link pg 141?

 

[Donya]

Diadema setosum (Indo-Pacific species) drip-acclimating. Can't wait to see it under the proper tank lights; there are some gorgeous blues going on all over the body that show under the right light.

Mithraculus

The old Mithraculus I had (probably M. forceps, which is my assumption for this one too) died of what seemed to be old age this past week. It hadn't molted in almost a year and then slowed down quite a lot in the last couple months. The newcomer has seen better days but will hopefully get that mangled claw and missing legs back soon.

I like your touch tank, although if I had one I would stock it with Millepora, Distichopora, Stylaster, Actinodendron plumosa, Lebrunea neglecta, and Toxopneustes pileolus to top it off

.

But that would make a "don't touch" tank LOL. Seriously everything in that tub of mine is poke-able and/or grab-able even if foul-tempered. The black urchins are angry little devils when bothered, but they're non-venomous and the spines really aren't that sharp compared to something like the Diadema (although it's spines seem to have had a lot of the tips knocked off so it doesn't look that nasty right now either).

Can u link pg 141?

I've looked to see if there is a digital version of Borneman's book or if the photo used is floating elsewhere on the web but haven't had any luck so far.

 

[gregswimm]

Diadema setosum, nice choice. I expected you to go with D. ascensionis, mexicanum or savignyi.
What do you mean by, "black urchins are angry little devils when bothered"?

 

[Donya]

The species selection is pretty limited up here. Diadema setosum seems to be the main one, with occasional Echinothrix and Astropyga species being the other things that sometimes fall under the "long spine" name. I have seen a few other Diademas pass through various stores over the years, but I never got a good enough look at them to know the IDs with any certainty.

What do you mean by, "black urchins are angry little devils when bothered"?

When I have to convince them to move (usually to get them away from the powerhead so I can clean the prefilter), they frequently decide to just turn into annoying shapes and try to jab the source of the irritation rather than move sideways a few inches to get out of the way. Most of my other urchins will move the opposite direction if you poke at them or blow some water on them (the Diadema seems very easy to move this way). One of those not-concretely-IDed black urchins also fairly ripped up a rather large red serpent star tried to steal some food pellets out from under it. They don't bother things if left in peace, but they are oddly aggressive sometimes when provoked.

 

[Donya]

I think I forgot to update when this one was added...

She (pretty sure it's a she) used to live on some mushrooms in another tank. But, I had to move the mushrooms into a breeder box in this tank. I thought it would be mean to not move the crab too since she loved her mushrooms so much - but apparently she is a fickle little thing. She spent a few days in the box looking out the side and then escaped. The anemone actually didn't like her at first and kept trying to push her off, but I guess being stubborn pays in the end. She's been in there for probably a month or so now. BTW I have no idea why there are so many warty tentacles. It has nothing to do with the crab; since recovering from having them all ripped off long ago it periodically grows lumpy forked ones instead of normal ones.

And the new urchin:

Ma fish buddies...and LOOK AT THAT SILLY FIN. My other PJ doesn't have a tassel that long lol.

 

[gregswimm]

I like that porcelain crab!

For your nem, my best guess would be maybe not enough switching current to encourage it to open fully. It could be placed too close to that unknown cnidarian or cnidarian too close to the nem. The side close to the cnidarian appears to look the worst and cnidarian (softies in general) have been known to employ all sorts of wonderful defense mechanisms. And like many other organisms that regenerate limbs, the regenerated limbs never look as nice as the original, dunno if this holds true for nems.

Also, what is the fish in the last pic? I like it

 

[Donya]

You don't place nems, they place themselves - which is part of why they can be such a pain in densely-stocked tanks. This one has never gone wandering since picking its spot and has only moved very tiny amounts (forced to by outgrowing crevices it had occupied), which means it's pretty happy with its environment and wants to stay in essentially the same place. I have seen it lean over and paste stuff, but the tentacles involved in those incidents were dropped completely (or eaten) and regrew normally; the warty thing is something different, I just don't know what. The corals are also all essentially the same as was the case before the anemone was ripped apart. It was a very normal-looking individual before being attacked and then started growing strangely as soon as it started getting tentacles back. You can see it in some pretty early recovery pics. I would say it's a response to some other type of injury, except that some tentacles are fully formed and normal and then all of a sudden just grow a fork or two with no apparent damage.

Right after it started getting some tentacle stubs back:

And not long after you can already see it was growing in funky ways:

Also, what is the fish in the last pic?

Pretty sure they are Apogon margaritophorus.

 

[gregswimm]

I don't think it looks too bad. Could be a flow issue. My only experience with nems is killing them lol. But be careful with that porcelain crab, I have seen mine feed with their main claws.

 

[Donya]

Mushroom rock YEAAAAAAAH!

I had a dream recently where I a lot of the bare space in this tank had been covered in mushrooms instead. Of course, I walked into the tank room the next morning and couldn't help feeling disappointed. Clearly it was fate when one of my favorite stores happened to have this perfectly-sized shroom rock later that day.

Also, blue highlights on the Diadema:

I don't think it looks too bad. Could be a flow issue. My only experience with nems is killing them lol. But be careful with that porcelain crab, I have seen mine feed with their main claws.

Nems really do place themselves for flow, so it would be self-induced if that is the root of it. I actually don't want to change the flow greatly because of that, since if you guess wrong about what they want they are willing to tolerate, they will go stomping around the tank toasting stuff. My other long-time anemone (a Heteractis aurora that I don't think I've ever posted pics of here) taught me well with that since it responded to every powerhead tweak I made in its tank by uprooting and going stomping around the entire tank for a few days in a row. When they stay put like my BTA has, to maintain the staying-putness it warrants great superstition and doing interpretive dances in front of the tank at midnight lol.

The crab will be fine. I've had this one for a while now, just not in this tank. She's gentile and really quite fragile as crabs go.

 

[Donya]

And...anemone going where it wants, in a...noodle shape?

I can't tell if it's just feeling out a new place to grip onto (it was getting a bit big for its previous place) or if it's splitting, since I can't easily see the "business end" where the mouth is. The mouth is on the other side of the rock despite the disc edges being visible on either side of the rocky column.

 

[Donya]

Definitely splitting around the rock column. I couldn't get it in the pic, but there is mouth on both sides which would not happen otherwise.

 

[Donya]

Looks like it's mostly done if not all done (still can't see around the back of the rock). You can see where the split area is closing on the left side.

 

[Donya]

Well, the porcelain crab did in fact end up in a penalty box, but not for any reason I would have guessed in advance. It always has to be something bizarre in this tank...gets tiring sometimes. Anyway...in the crab's diligent efforts to keep its anemone (or anemones now) clean shortly after the split completed, it got totally tangled in entrails from trying to clean away some stray digestive filaments that were blowing in the current. That was a couple days ago and the nems are both fine and looking great so far, but I removed the crab since the last thing I want is for it to panic and accidentally injure an anemone or even be eaten if it gets snarled up like that again. I have never read of BTAs (Entamacea quadricolor) and this species of porcelain crab (Neopetrolisthes maculatus) occurring in a hosting relationship in the wild, despite the fact that many hobbyists keep them with BTAs - but I haven't read of hobbyists having those BTAs split. The crabs seem to mainly occur in carpet anemones and certain corals. Maybe other things can create a bad combo for reasons like this? Or perhaps I'm reacting to nothing and there's nothing wrong/risky involved with what I saw happening...

So, I can either put it back after the nems are back to normal (AND well fed for a bit; they are already trying to eat stuff) or move the crab to another tank and find something else for it to host. Currently favoring moving it, but don't have anything immediately on hand for it to host safely and they do get upset without such a thing...although I was sort of liking having the possible other tank in question be Coelenterate-free. Time to spend a few couple days staring at the crab muttering "why couldn't you just stay out of the guts?" while trying to make up my mind.

 

[Donya]

Couple days back, still open a bit:

Tonight...all closed up! *happy dance*

 

[Donya]

Pleased to say that both anemones were enthusiastic eaters yesterday when offered some small pellets. So, that makes for a mere 9 days between being one anemone to two healed and feeding anemones. I'm guessing it will now take a few weeks for the discs to grow out so that the mouths are in the middle instead of near the side. The original anemone was asymmetrical like this when purchased (back in February - probably not far off a split when I got it) and it filled out pretty quickly.