seffieuk
I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure!
Thats really great news 
Seffie x
Seffie x
Donya's Pico Experiment
- Thread starter Donya
- Start date
OP
OP
Pics as of today...lots more leafy macro and even some grape Caulerpa (although it's gotten a bit tangled and messy off on the left there):
Hermits are currently hanging out on the crazy big airstone tucked behind the rock in the back; they do that a lot now. The downside is that I see them less, but they keep that thing completely clean so I never have to worry about it clogging. The macro has been growing so fast in the last couple weeks that I'm going to start trimming bits to replenish another tank (the tiger cowrie in my 20g got into a suspended, algae-scrubber-like basket I have in there and ate every last scrap of anything green colored
).
Mushy closeup:
Hermits are currently hanging out on the crazy big airstone tucked behind the rock in the back; they do that a lot now. The downside is that I see them less, but they keep that thing completely clean so I never have to worry about it clogging. The macro has been growing so fast in the last couple weeks that I'm going to start trimming bits to replenish another tank (the tiger cowrie in my 20g got into a suspended, algae-scrubber-like basket I have in there and ate every last scrap of anything green colored
).Mushy closeup:
OP
OP
Dangit, I make a good post, then I have to follow it up with a bad one. Poor little mushy isn't quite that happy looking now. It's all shriveled up into a lump after being harassed quite a lot over the last two days. Darned female hermit kept stuffing it under a rock every few hours. Not really accidental stuffing under a rock while moving past either...more like a "how 'bout I pick up this rock and put it on you repeatedly" type of thing. Move the rock, move the hermit...find rock on shroom again and repeat. AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH! 
Fortunately the shroom isn't damaged, just upset (like how it was out of the bag after coming home). I may move it given that my cowrie cleared out the algae scrubber. When life gives you lemons, you make lem--I mean a mushroom basket!
That's where the pico shroom might go to get settled if I don't see it rebound quickly from the recent abuse. I think in general mushies will be safe with Ciliopagurus strigatus, especially in a larger tank. This particular female has just been a menace compared to the others. As with all species, individual variation...I always end up with the strange ones.
Fortunately the shroom isn't damaged, just upset (like how it was out of the bag after coming home). I may move it given that my cowrie cleared out the algae scrubber. When life gives you lemons, you make lem--I mean a mushroom basket!
That's where the pico shroom might go to get settled if I don't see it rebound quickly from the recent abuse. I think in general mushies will be safe with Ciliopagurus strigatus, especially in a larger tank. This particular female has just been a menace compared to the others. As with all species, individual variation...I always end up with the strange ones.
seffieuk
I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure!
funny, interesting and photos, you give us everything the biffster
Moved On
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Dangit, I make a good post, then I have to follow it up with a bad one. Poor little mushy isn't quite that happy looking now. It's all shriveled up into a lump after being harassed quite a lot over the last two days. Darned female hermit kept stuffing it under a rock every few hours. Not really accidental stuffing under a rock while moving past either...more like a "how 'bout I pick up this rock and put it on you repeatedly" type of thing. Move the rock, move the hermit...find rock on shroom again and repeat. AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!
Fortunately the shroom isn't damaged, just upset (like how it was out of the bag after coming home). I may move it given that my cowrie cleared out the algae scrubber. When life gives you lemons, you make lem--I mean a mushroom basket!
That's where the pico shroom might go to get settled if I don't see it rebound quickly from the recent abuse. I think in general mushies will be safe with Ciliopagurus strigatus, especially in a larger tank. This particular female has just been a menace compared to the others. As with all species, individual variation...I always end up with the strange ones.
sorry to hear that
OP
OP
Mr. pico shroom is now in the basket in my 20gal. I realized part of the problem might have been that it was attached to an intact snail shell (I thought it was half a snail shell previously). That would certainly be a cue for unnecessary attention in any of my tanks with other small hermits, so I gently peeled it free of the shell before adding to the basket. I'm trying the nylon tulle approach to get the shroom onto a piece of rubble. In the past I just used to just wedge or pin corallimorphs, but this approach seems like it should be less stressful.
Something else interesting: Despite my complaint about the hermits hanging out in the back on the bubbler, about five minutes after the shroom came out they started hanging out in front again and have continued to utilize the tank more-or-less evenly. About 3 years back I had a 1gal bowl set up with shrooms and some small Clibanarius hermits that never showed aversion to shrooms. I mainly had hairy shroom species in the older pico, so perhaps I simply chose poorly on shroom varieties this time.
---
Edit: don't be a noob like me and go relocating shrooms barehanded. After moving the one above with no issues, I just got popped a good one all over my knuckles while trying to do the same thing with a different type of shroom (the one just peeking into the picture on the lower left).
Didn't get a good look at what it got me with, but my hands sure could have done without it.
Something else interesting: Despite my complaint about the hermits hanging out in the back on the bubbler, about five minutes after the shroom came out they started hanging out in front again and have continued to utilize the tank more-or-less evenly. About 3 years back I had a 1gal bowl set up with shrooms and some small Clibanarius hermits that never showed aversion to shrooms. I mainly had hairy shroom species in the older pico, so perhaps I simply chose poorly on shroom varieties this time.
---
Edit: don't be a noob like me and go relocating shrooms barehanded. After moving the one above with no issues, I just got popped a good one all over my knuckles while trying to do the same thing with a different type of shroom (the one just peeking into the picture on the lower left).
Didn't get a good look at what it got me with, but my hands sure could have done without it.
seffieuk
I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure!
Ouch, sounds painful
Seffie x
Seffie x
OP
OP
Definitely wasn't too fun. Not as bad as the first time I got a big bristleworm stuck all over my hand, but maybe halfway there. I had red marks for about 48h afterwards. I've noticed that a similar-looking shroom in the basket will sometimes release coiled white strands from various places on the disk (particularly near the edge) when amphipods walk on it, so I'm guessing it was something similar. I'm a bit puzzled as to why I never saw anything like that when I kept shrooms in the past.
The nylon tulle approach has been successful on mr. pico shroom, who is now happily attached in his new home. However, the netting method failed on the one that popped me. The offending shroom appeared to be on the rock pretty firmly, but then slithered away to go hang out with the other similar one about an hour after the netting was removed. I am at a loss for what that one wants - it's hanging onto something not much bigger than a sand grain right now but looks happy as a clam.
More tank updates...one week of going light on maintenance and the tank turned into a macro ball:
Got my first harvest of macro from the tank today as a result:
More harvests to come I'm sure. It's a bit funny that my main macro-producing tanks now are all picos.
Also realized I had never shown this stuff:
It's a crunchy goop made of mostly ostracod shells. There is a big ostracod population in the tank that has been going for some time now. The amount of ostracod goop in that picture gets cleaned off and re-accumulates weekly. I think it's probably a native species, since I had zero ostracods in my tanks until I collected some on a local beach and put them in both my phyto tub and my native hermit bowl. I saw no sign of ostracods for a while after that and then bam - ostracods all over most of my tanks (probably due to sharing equipment during the larval stages).
OP
OP
Remember this little fellow from back in August?
It only started growing significantly once I removed the shroom (it was about 1/2 the size it is now in the photo farther up this page). I'm guessing there was some chemical warfare going on that kept it somewhat dwarfed during that time. The same not-so-little fellow now, looking quite flashy for being just a glass anemone:
Aiptasids may be considered pests in some tanks, but think of the positives!
- Easily captive-bred.
- So hardy that they work in a pico.
- When there are too many, you can make a nem-scrubber to compliment your algae-scrubber.
- Non-salty friends and family are easily impressed.
It only started growing significantly once I removed the shroom (it was about 1/2 the size it is now in the photo farther up this page). I'm guessing there was some chemical warfare going on that kept it somewhat dwarfed during that time. The same not-so-little fellow now, looking quite flashy for being just a glass anemone:
Aiptasids may be considered pests in some tanks, but think of the positives!
- Easily captive-bred.
- So hardy that they work in a pico.
- When there are too many, you can make a nem-scrubber to compliment your algae-scrubber.
- Non-salty friends and family are easily impressed.
Yuma
Fish Fanatic
Can't help but chuckle at your "positives" on the Aiptasia.
It truly is a remarkable specimen, I'll give you that, and to be honest is rather pretty, in a "glad it's in someone else's tank" kinda way.
I'm enjoying following this. Keep it up.
Yuma
It truly is a remarkable specimen, I'll give you that, and to be honest is rather pretty, in a "glad it's in someone else's tank" kinda way.
I'm enjoying following this. Keep it up.
Yuma
OP
OP
Been ages since I updated this thread, although there hasn't been much news on this tank until today.
Can't remember if I said that I reintroduced the 3rd hermit, but I did some time ago and with the mushroom gone it all went smoothly...go figure. I was always a bit iffy on the 3rd hermit's gender, but its functional role at least is clear now even though it may actually be intersex.
Warning: somewhat X-rated hermit behavior going on below!
The big female molted yesterday and there was immediately a hermit pile that reformed even after I broke it up once thinking it was aggression over food. Nope, it was actually a fight over who gets the girl. Little guy on the left lost the battle earlier this morning and the remaining pair has been going at it throughout the day.
And yes, that's a Trochus in the background - that's the only other major change. Trochus snails are apparently totally ignored by the hermits, unlike other grazers I tried in the past.
And the pair:
Video to come soon...uploading has stalled for some reason.
--
EDIT: video upload finally worked. Clickable video below...
Can't remember if I said that I reintroduced the 3rd hermit, but I did some time ago and with the mushroom gone it all went smoothly...go figure. I was always a bit iffy on the 3rd hermit's gender, but its functional role at least is clear now even though it may actually be intersex.
Warning: somewhat X-rated hermit behavior going on below!
The big female molted yesterday and there was immediately a hermit pile that reformed even after I broke it up once thinking it was aggression over food. Nope, it was actually a fight over who gets the girl. Little guy on the left lost the battle earlier this morning and the remaining pair has been going at it throughout the day.
And yes, that's a Trochus in the background - that's the only other major change. Trochus snails are apparently totally ignored by the hermits, unlike other grazers I tried in the past.
And the pair:
Video to come soon...uploading has stalled for some reason.
--
EDIT: video upload finally worked. Clickable video below...
OP
OP
Good and bad news for this tank. Pics tomorrow I hope - nothing to show right now as the tank is a cloudy mess and everybody is in a bucket. Just a textwall for tonight until the water clears.
Bad news 1: lost the big female to a truly horrific molt. As if that wasn't a hard enough kick in the gut for me, it was the very first egg-laying molt as well.
I can't think that there was anything environmental up with the tank, as there have been many good molts from all hermits and I had even put two peppermints in for nem control, and they had many good molts too. Poor girl just got her uropods (the gripping parts at the end of the tail) stuck in the old skin and must have just yanked out in a panic. Massive soft body injuries as a result...no real way to recover from that. These things happen with crustaceans...doesn't make it any easier to watch while in progress though.
Bad news 2: I paid the price for not controling the nems sooner. One of the hermits actually shredded the big nem by accident falling off the rock while I was trying to move it, and all of a sudden the little ones were getting a lot more food and getting out of hand (I didn't realize they were actually being kept in check by godzilla daddy nem), hence the addition of two peppermints. The shrimp did a really impressive job on the nems - had it been any other rock I think they would've knocked 'em back and been the end of it. However, that particular rock was absolutely full of holes just big enough for a pretty big nem to squish down and still too small for a shrimp to reach into. The result is that the rock is basically a lost cause. No way to get a soldering iron or applicator tip for any sort of paste/injection in there either. I'm just going to have to let it get dry as a bone and then re-cure.
Good news 1: those two peppermints are actually my reason for finally getting ever last nem gone - since I get to experiment with shrimp larvae now. Lost my first batch because I was totally unprepared. There was just an explosion of larvae as soon as I turned the lights out. They did last ~2.5 days though even with nems eating a bunch of them, which isn't bad for a first round. Next batch will be scooped up and going into a breeder in my 55gal so that I can be more liberal about throwing food at the larave without worrying about water quality. 1.5gal is a bit small to be throwing food in every few hours.
Good news 2: a remodel is in progress. The best part though? NO MORE ANNOYING CIRCLE MARK FROM THAT SUCTION CUP!!! Yes, I got rid of it when I cleaned it out. Totally gone. How? Toothpaste! I've read that the abrasive agents in it are perfect for this kind of application. One little dab on a soft paper towl (the thick, soft type that feels like cloth), a bit of pressure, and lots of little loop-de-loop motions, and ta-da! All gone. The important thing is that the area for several inches in any one direction must be dry. When too damp, the cloth seems to just slide and not do any polishing. The toothpaste has enough moisture in it already to keep everything moving smoothly. Then, once polished out, just wipe off a few times alternating damp and dry cloths. Since I can pick up the tank and carry it to the sink, I also gave it a good sloshing out with tap water.
After that, I scrubbed out the filter, got a new airstone (old one had become a mass of mini-nems...didn't even realize it), and went with a deeper, sugar-sized sand bed. It's about 1" now. I'm using a less-holey rock I cured a while back. It's possible one nem or two might somehow survive the scrub down and pop back up in the filter or something, but they will have to deal with the shrimp, so I'm not to worried. Everybody is in a bucket right now with the old rock and a bubbler for filtration. That's the great thing about little tanks I guess, is that when you really need to redo them, it's pretty easy to just put it all in a bucket for a day and get things done. Should be restocked in the morning:
- 2 peppermint shrimp that are making eggs.
- 1 Trochoid snail, Mr. meanie snail, and 1 Nassarius.
- Anthelia! Going to move some of that over that I have harvested from the crop in my 55gal and see how the hermits respond. There's a chance they may hate it and it'll have to go just as the mushroom did, but fingers are crossed that they don't hate it.
- 4 Ciliopagurus strigatus hermits...yep, way more than I would ever recommend to anyone for CUC purposes, but I'm now desperately hoping to get another female. I got two new tiny ones straight after the female died, since the remaining males had gone to war when I took the female out. One of them is still intersex as far as I can tell, but it seems to have decided it's a boy for the moment. Having newcomers has broken that up and reset the relations to a peaceful state. In the event I see a male/female pair show up (fingers crossed) I've got plenty of space to put extras. Still, strangely it's not as cramped as it seems like it should be. Before I put everybody in a bucket, all four hermits had taken to sitting in a loosely-packed group where I couldn't see any of them, which is impressive given the limited floorspace.
Bad news 1: lost the big female to a truly horrific molt. As if that wasn't a hard enough kick in the gut for me, it was the very first egg-laying molt as well.
I can't think that there was anything environmental up with the tank, as there have been many good molts from all hermits and I had even put two peppermints in for nem control, and they had many good molts too. Poor girl just got her uropods (the gripping parts at the end of the tail) stuck in the old skin and must have just yanked out in a panic. Massive soft body injuries as a result...no real way to recover from that. These things happen with crustaceans...doesn't make it any easier to watch while in progress though.Bad news 2: I paid the price for not controling the nems sooner. One of the hermits actually shredded the big nem by accident falling off the rock while I was trying to move it, and all of a sudden the little ones were getting a lot more food and getting out of hand (I didn't realize they were actually being kept in check by godzilla daddy nem), hence the addition of two peppermints. The shrimp did a really impressive job on the nems - had it been any other rock I think they would've knocked 'em back and been the end of it. However, that particular rock was absolutely full of holes just big enough for a pretty big nem to squish down and still too small for a shrimp to reach into. The result is that the rock is basically a lost cause. No way to get a soldering iron or applicator tip for any sort of paste/injection in there either. I'm just going to have to let it get dry as a bone and then re-cure.
Good news 1: those two peppermints are actually my reason for finally getting ever last nem gone - since I get to experiment with shrimp larvae now. Lost my first batch because I was totally unprepared. There was just an explosion of larvae as soon as I turned the lights out. They did last ~2.5 days though even with nems eating a bunch of them, which isn't bad for a first round. Next batch will be scooped up and going into a breeder in my 55gal so that I can be more liberal about throwing food at the larave without worrying about water quality. 1.5gal is a bit small to be throwing food in every few hours.
Good news 2: a remodel is in progress. The best part though? NO MORE ANNOYING CIRCLE MARK FROM THAT SUCTION CUP!!! Yes, I got rid of it when I cleaned it out. Totally gone. How? Toothpaste! I've read that the abrasive agents in it are perfect for this kind of application. One little dab on a soft paper towl (the thick, soft type that feels like cloth), a bit of pressure, and lots of little loop-de-loop motions, and ta-da! All gone. The important thing is that the area for several inches in any one direction must be dry. When too damp, the cloth seems to just slide and not do any polishing. The toothpaste has enough moisture in it already to keep everything moving smoothly. Then, once polished out, just wipe off a few times alternating damp and dry cloths. Since I can pick up the tank and carry it to the sink, I also gave it a good sloshing out with tap water.
After that, I scrubbed out the filter, got a new airstone (old one had become a mass of mini-nems...didn't even realize it), and went with a deeper, sugar-sized sand bed. It's about 1" now. I'm using a less-holey rock I cured a while back. It's possible one nem or two might somehow survive the scrub down and pop back up in the filter or something, but they will have to deal with the shrimp, so I'm not to worried. Everybody is in a bucket right now with the old rock and a bubbler for filtration. That's the great thing about little tanks I guess, is that when you really need to redo them, it's pretty easy to just put it all in a bucket for a day and get things done. Should be restocked in the morning:
- 2 peppermint shrimp that are making eggs.
- 1 Trochoid snail, Mr. meanie snail, and 1 Nassarius.
- Anthelia! Going to move some of that over that I have harvested from the crop in my 55gal and see how the hermits respond. There's a chance they may hate it and it'll have to go just as the mushroom did, but fingers are crossed that they don't hate it.
- 4 Ciliopagurus strigatus hermits...yep, way more than I would ever recommend to anyone for CUC purposes, but I'm now desperately hoping to get another female. I got two new tiny ones straight after the female died, since the remaining males had gone to war when I took the female out. One of them is still intersex as far as I can tell, but it seems to have decided it's a boy for the moment. Having newcomers has broken that up and reset the relations to a peaceful state. In the event I see a male/female pair show up (fingers crossed) I've got plenty of space to put extras. Still, strangely it's not as cramped as it seems like it should be. Before I put everybody in a bucket, all four hermits had taken to sitting in a loosely-packed group where I couldn't see any of them, which is impressive given the limited floorspace.
OP
OP
Seems a bit unusually bland...maybe I'll think differently once the macro has spread a bit.
OP
OP
Wanted to toss a quick update on this thread as well since this tank is still going.
I have a male & female Ciliopagurus strigatus in the tank (only 2) and they spawned this week. I was totally unprepared for it too...going to have to really rethink how to raise hermit larvae if I am able to have a serious go at it. They are TINY from this species and agile little devils too. They would escape a breeder net immediately due to their size and powerful swimming, so I would either need finer mesh (bad idea I think - they would probably try to squeeze through anyway) or a dedicated tank. Anyway, I am very happy to have finally seen a spawn happen though in this species even if I couldn't do much about it; all things have to start somewhere.
Among other interesting observations, both hermits basically went into hiding the last month and I couldn't figure out why, but I guess that must have been part of the breeding behavior. Now they're out and about again like normal. Perhaps I can use this as an indicator next time for when I need to get a baby tank running.
I have a male & female Ciliopagurus strigatus in the tank (only 2) and they spawned this week. I was totally unprepared for it too...going to have to really rethink how to raise hermit larvae if I am able to have a serious go at it. They are TINY from this species and agile little devils too. They would escape a breeder net immediately due to their size and powerful swimming, so I would either need finer mesh (bad idea I think - they would probably try to squeeze through anyway) or a dedicated tank. Anyway, I am very happy to have finally seen a spawn happen though in this species even if I couldn't do much about it; all things have to start somewhere.
Among other interesting observations, both hermits basically went into hiding the last month and I couldn't figure out why, but I guess that must have been part of the breeding behavior. Now they're out and about again like normal. Perhaps I can use this as an indicator next time for when I need to get a baby tank running.
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