Donya's 55-Gallon

[Donya]

Thanks guys. I think what I've come away with from this is that the aggressive clown species should be shown great caution with inverts, not just other fish.

In 55gal and 20gal land, I have also decided to move one of the damsels back to the 20gal and keep one in the 55gal. The reasons are not what you'd think though. The slightly larger damsel adjusted to the new tank immediately and loves it, so that's the one that's staying. Perhaps I just didn't wait long enough for the smaller one to get his confidence back after being in a new tank, but he's had a few spectacular, water-splashing freak-outs when I've walked into the room too fast or picked up a shiny object too quickly, and he was never that much of a live wire in the 20gal. Since these two damsels never showed the same degree of pairing behavior as with a previous combination I had (one of the original pair died in the great sea hare nuking, so the nervous little dude was a buddy replacement), I decided to move the nervy damsel back to his old home since it was vacant again. I'm not dead set on maintaining another aggressive fish pair and would rather see both thrive equally. It's amazing how different the personalities are sometimes within a species. The nervy one is also very friendly to the point of being poke-able at times while the other one is pretty indifferent to me.

 

[lljdma06]

It's funny how the longer we keep these species you really start to see the individual behaviors a lot more. My chalk bass have individual characteristics. One is more shy, another likes to suck the food from the pipette, two others sleep near the jawfish lair. The jawfish, the pearly one, not mantequilla, loves tossing hermit crabs around.

At least the anemone is ok again. What fish do you have in each tank now? I know you've got cardinals, damsels...

L

 

[Donya]

OMG one of my brittles showed its face! Of course it did decided to crawl out as I was thinking "man I should really clean the glass" and it was gone before I had any chance at actually doing so, so this is the best you get lol. At least proves they exist.

At least the anemone is ok again. What fish do you have in each tank now? I know you've got cardinals, damsels...

That's most of them! I have never really been big on fish and on top of it had rotten fishy luck this year between the sea hare nuke, clown mayhem, and random Bangai seisure death. All I've got at the moment are...
55gal: yellow damsel and 2 PJ cardinals
20gal: yellow damsel and juvi engineer goby
Pico on my desk: neon goby

Non-Coelenterate invert stock in the 55gal is a lot more diverse at this point and where I've been focusing since moving the rock-breaker hermits out:
- 1 Strombus/Conomurex luhuanus conch
- 1 Strombus alatus (I think) conch
- 1 Mespilia globulus blue tux urchin
- 1 Lytechinus variegatus urchin
- 3 of the epic black spikey brittles whose IDs escape me right now.
- 1 Ophioderma brittle whose species escapes me.
- 2x feather dusters whose names escape me.
- 22 Clibanarius virescens hermits.
- 1 Clibanarius antilensis (I think) hermits that snuck in but is playing nice.
- 1 Godknowswhatus ihavenoidea hermit that snuck in, ran off, and I seriously hope is not a baby Dardanus.
- 1 Mithraculus crab
- 1 Pilumnus crab
- 6 peppermint shrimp that might be Lysmata wurdemanni, but I'm not sure.
- 1 Stenopus hispidus coral banded shrimp
- 1 Spondylus thorny oyster
And a buncha snails that I'm too tired to count.

 

[Donya]

New zoa frag and coco worm. Zoas have been in a small QT for a few days just to be sure all is well and the coco worm is acclimating while I type. Also put an acan in about a week back that I need to photograph once I clean the tank again.

The candycane polyps have all developed multiple mouths. Two polyps with two mouths, one with three. The mouths on one are fighting over pellets at each feed; the other two polyps have a dominant mouth still that does all the eating. Perhaps I can expect some division soon? On the other hand, one of my duncan polyps has had two mouths for some time now with no signs of splitting into two polyps.

I also realize that if/when the GHA dies out completely in this tank, my trio of Echinometra lu#37###er urchins in yet another tank will be sad. I've been harvesting GHA globs to give them as snacks this whole time alongside their usual dried seaweed snacks. I bet my GHA in the 55gal would be gone in a couple weeks max if I moved those urchins over, but it's worth the risk with the corals. So, if anyone reading this has an urchin-safe FOWLR with GHA problems...there's an idea for you that is not a sea hare!

 

[Donya]

Had to separate the cardinals. I've either got two boys or a boy and a really abusive girl that just wants to smack the poor fellow around all day. They were doing fine until today, but I've read really mixed things about social behavior in PJs so I'm guessing it's down to individual differences again. So now I have more fish in my 20gal than in my 55gal lol. PJs don't care about other species of cardinals so I could always try another Bangai or some other type if I decide to go for more fish at some point.

 

[lljdma06]

Do all your fish have issues?

Donya! What do you put on your water?!

At least you have the spare systems.

L

 

[Donya]

Nah PJs have a reputation for this. Mine are being perfectly normal in that regard. I knew it was a risk when I went the rout, but had just talked to a person who'd had a lot of success keeping pairs/groups and decided to give it a try with the tank size I had. I would never have tried it in a smaller tank, since PJs and Bangais both have this potential complication within their own species (but 1PJ + 1Bangai is totally fine). Some propose putting a big bunch in to avoid it (like chromis) but I don't think that's worth trying in a 55gal (maybe more like a 90gal or something).

 

[simonas]

how do your brittle stars get on in the tank Donya, Im tempted by one but have read conflicting info about feeding them and their suitablity for home aqquaria? do you feed yours directly?

 

[Donya]

They are excellent animals. The ones I have in this tank are being superb CUC additions. The main thing to be careful of is that there are basically two categories of brittles and serpents (and not just the brittle/serpent division, which is kind of arbitrary): scarey big ones and ok-sized ones. This tank has ok-sized ones. I have scarey big ones too in another tank and would never let them near my 55gal.

The main one to watch out for that is common in the trade is Ophiarachna incrassata. I have four of them in an invert-only tub so I have gotten quite familiar with their behaviors and a lot of the warnings are legit. O. incrassata is responsible for the majority of oogidy-boogidy stories about brittle stars being terrors. They are remarkably sturdy/strong and they reach sizes of 10-12"/25-30cm per arm. Although they grow slowly, a fully grown animal can be 24"/60cm across with arms that are pink-finger-width at the disk. In some ways they are excellent because of those traits since they are as bomb-proof as is possible for an Echinoderm and have even been documented to reproduce in captivity. They can also be quite interactive, which is why I have them. The downside is that they will bully stuff and predate on fish. A bit of silverside juice dropping into the water makes them go crazy even compared to other invert meats, so fish is obviously something they're quite fond of for a nibble.

O. incrassata is not alone as the only one to avoid in a reef system; there is at least one other common species that gets equally huge and has been accused of similar predatory behaviors: Ophioderma squamosissimus. Sometimes they work out safely, sometimes they don't. It is pretty easy to spot as it is bright red and smooth and is usually collected when quite large already. I had one of these too and it was actually more aggressive than my Ophiarachnas. It kept trying to nick food off of the other stars and sea urchins. It was eventually done in when it tried to nick food off of a particularly large sea urchin that got a hold of it and mauled it quite badly.

But don't let that scare you off; those are just two of many. There are plenty of other Ophioderma and Ophiocoma species that stay much smaller and are much shyer animals. Unfortunately they are hard to ID to a species sometimes, but if they are dull colored you are probably safe based on what seems to be common in the trade (for now at least). These are GREAT for reef tanks as they are ninjas at getting uneaten meaty food out of strange places. If not densely stocked, they don't necessarily need target feeding. You can tell how badly they need food by how willing they are to show themselves during a tank feeding. They respond quickly so it's really easy to see. Unlike the two species described above, most smaller brittles and serpents you have to really coax out slowly with food on a stick to even see them fully. Pretty much if you find a variety that stays within 8-12" tip-to-tip total size (which is most in the trade aside from the two discussed above) they will be great community tank animals. It's probably not a good idea to put one in with something totally tiny like a Catalina goby or something, but the vast majority of fish will be totally safe unless badly injured/sick/etc. (in other words, generally at risk from any scavenger).

Obviously you also want to avoid nasty fish/inverts that will nip at the stars if you put them in, not just because of my recent horror story caused by my clowns eating a brittle. The smaller species are just far more at risk of receiving physical damage from tankmates (fish and large Crustaceans namely) than inflicting any. Also it's a good idea to keep any powerheads a reasonable distance away from the rockwork to minimize the chance that a star decides to have a poke at it and lose a tippy toe as a result.

As far as I'm aware there are no tropical vs. coldwater issues to watch out for with the species of brittles & serpents in the trade currently, so it's really just the size aspect that is the important thing to consider when picking them out at a shop.

 

[Donya]

Put a Tripneustes gratilla urchin in yesterday. Of course, I can't find it now, despite it being both brightly-colored and fist-sized. I need to learn to take pics first and not wait a day to think about it.

Also, a hitchhiker limpet that I saved from my mantis tank ages ago has thanked me now about year later by deciding to snack on one of the naturally-dropped frags my tree coral made. It is being banished to another tank.

 

[SaltNoob]

LOL. I always lose the new guy to the tank. Weird huh?

Would love to see some pictures again!? its been a minute or two lol.

 

[Donya]

One picture!

Feeling just a tad waffley on the Tripneustes gratilla ID now but there it is. I need to clean the front pane again before I can get more pics. It just has a little clean circle on it right now that I made to snap that one LOL.

 

[lljdma06]

Cool urchin.

L

 

[SaltNoob]

LOL. I love that you cleaned one spot for us all to see =). That is a sweet looking urchin. I've never really liked urchins much, but they look cool! It's Saturday, better clean up that glass so we can see an FTS =) lol. Thnx for the pic!

-Tyler

 

[Donya]

Well this is excellent...I've ended up with a helluva case of tendonitis all over one shoulder and right up the side of my neck (end of term fallout; it's my punishment these days for not sleeping enough). There is still just the one clean circle that is starting to get less clean. I've already done a good job of dragging it out absolutely as long as possible so far by trying to do other stuff I shouldn't be doing, so interesting updates here will be on hold for a bit longer.

One small text update though: of the bunch of small hermits I got (24 in total), 21 were Clicbanarius verescens, 1 is C. longitarsus, 1 is still unidentified, and the last one seems to be C. signatus - NOT C. antillensis as I'd thought before. I'm still not 100% on the C. signatus ID (mainly because I've never seen one before and it's a poorly documented species), but I realized something was off with my original ID when it had a frightening growth spurt and moved into one of my Dardanus hermit's old shells. So much for not having any big hermits! This one should be a goody though; big Clibanarius species are a lot calmer and easier to manage than Dardanus species.