First Marine Tank :)

[indir-emir]

Fed them frozen mysis for two nights, and they barely touched it. And after a few pieces actualy eaten they just spit it out after touching it for a second or two. Or they 'smell' it then swim away from it uninterested... Going to try brine shrimp tonight, and blood worms in the morning if they dont eat brine. I need ot know they are eating something so they dont die.. Missus bought aqua one pellets and flakes i think, seems to be good enough just the clowns dislike all food right now

It could be possible seffie, but they are bigger now then they were at the LFS. The LFS had this coral for over a fortnight in her tank. So im guessing it would have bene full size at that time?

Glad to hear about the zooxanthellae. Kinda freaked out lol.

 

[seffieuk]

I wouldnt worry too much, when they are hungry they will eat

It could be possible seffie, but they are bigger now then they were at the LFS. The LFS had this coral for over a fortnight in her tank. So im guessing it would have bene full size at that time?

And i'm guessing they were not being kept in the best conditions so not reaching their full potential - they could have grown, but not that much

Glad to hear about the zooxanthellae. Kinda freaked out lol.

Yeah, its worrying the first time you see it - if you take a look at the Euphyllia 'coral of the week' thread there are some photos in there

 

[indir-emir]

Ok cool. Any tips on coaxing my clowns into eating?

Have just realised I have not seen my peppermint shimp since putting the sand in :\ I think i saw a few antenas last night but didnt see the actual body.. Hoping i see it tonight by coaxing it out with some food I think they are ok though.

 

[indir-emir]

Ok good news and some updates. My shrimps are still alive! Saw them last night with my flash light (keep forgeting to buy red celephane lol).

Managed to get my clowns to eat a little bit, looks like they like bloodworms. They chew uped the first batch i squirted into the tank for them. Then they backed off a little ad only ate a few bits and pieces afterwoods.

The green sinularia is definetly either grown or has extended properly which im VERY glad to see. It looked like it was going to die. It now retracts perfectly at night, no drooping what so ever. Thank god for that!

Is it normal for clowns not to swim around the entire tank and reject most foods? I know their recently introduced , but from what i hear they are quick at settling in and quite verosios (spelling?) eaters. Mine stay to the right hand side of the tank, barely ever traveling the other 3 foot area of my 4 foot tank... Even at night.. They havnt got an anemone, i know that usualy makes them stay near by it once hosted.

 

[GAB99]

clowns in the wild barely stray far from their territory/host usually around 2-3 feet, however if the tank is smalle enough they use the whole area

ask the lfswhat they were eating, they arelike other animals that usually stick to one food, mine go for pellets and brine shrimp


btw --- voracious

 

[indir-emir]

Ok. Will have to ring the LFS as soon as i get a chance and try to work out what they eat. Gettnig a little annoyed at the fact they wont eat bas.tar.ds hehe.

 

[indir-emir]

Anyone heard of micro hermits? Im thinking about buying 10 of them for part of my Clean up crew. Going to be googling them now, little har dto find much info about crabs lol.

 

[drsquirrel]

You probably mean "dwarf hermits" of some kind.

Dwarf Blue Legged and Dwarf Red Legged are common ones around.

Just ordered myself some (and others) from fishmanfrags.

Clowns can host anything, even powerheads.

 

[indir-emir]

Still a little worried about my clowns not eating much at all.

Not sure which one it is, but he said they are micro hermits. Which a few people in austraila seem to have more often then others lol.

The guy im buying from said he bought htem as micro hermits and has had them from 8 months. The biggest being approximately 1.5cm. So either they grow slow, or are actualy micro hermits

Im going to buy 10 and see how they go. Going to have to find some shells though

 

[drsquirrel]

If you're not sure, ask for the scientific/latin name.

 

[seffieuk]

Take a look at Donya's thread on hermits - also, as DrS said, get the correct name and then pm her, Donya that is - she is the expert

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

I will try and figure out which hermits the are, but they are pretty smll. Ill figure it out once i get some pics or ID lol. So PM will go donya once ive got a nice macro shot or two They should arrive tomorrow or the day after.

Good update today My clowns ate about half a cube worth of mysis shrimp today Squirted about 10-20 little shrimp in it a time and watched them get cleaned up almost completely within a few seconds then i let them eat the remaining few and did this process about 4 or 5 times. And all was cleaned up! Good night tonight Strange this is, i think they may be hosting one of hte rocks... Or are using it as shelter lol. They seem to pull food down towards that one rock which has a cave part to it lol. They dont swim very far from it, and hide there if they get scared. Hope not lol.

Tomorrow is my birthday (well its 12.15am here so today ) and therefore a new fish and/or coral will be going in the tank as presents from girlfriend, little brother, mum/dad. I will make sure to pick them all however Hehe. So stay tuned for more pics!

Have also completely stopped the bubble issue in the tank, was really giving me the #105###s. Made the decision to put some filter wool around my return pump which will be cleaned every couple of days to prevent nitrate build up (just incase things get stuck to it), along with the filter wool eliminating bubbles from my overflow pipe. Extra maintanance but i dont mind, i like to be working in and around my tank

 

[seffieuk]

What a nice present, the clowns started to eat

Seffie x

 

[drsquirrel]

One thing I found with "filter wool" (to me, filter floss) is bits can come off it if you force the water through it sideways, this sounds strange but it's not something you'd want in the tank.

I wouldn't put it around the pump itself, heat issues (hot enough as it is).


Was I right about the water falling over that edge into the return pump section? Probably better off raising the water level in that section.

 

[indir-emir]

Well the tank sits at 24-25 overnight + during the day. And hits 26 towards the end of the night when lights have been on for 9 hours. So heat isnt a large issue, considering its pretty hot up here were the tank is. Its doing good.

Anyway, yes you were correct about the bubbles, they were very find and couldnt really tell. I cannot raise the water level because if i do, should the power cut out the sump will over flow, downside of a 2 foot sump :\ Will need to upgrade to a 3 foot eventually.

Well today I received a fish and 3 corals for my birthday Plus a bit of money to put into other corals or fish

I received a Coral Beauty which is still in hiding in my live rock, has found a passage from one end to the other purely through live rock Has eaten some mysis shrimp though, so good start with him.

Also received a hammer coral, anchor coral (yes one of each, did my reserach on them ), and also a goniporas. My father also bought some Tropic Marin phyto, reef snow, and zootn powders which are mixed together in a bottle to feed the coral twice a day. Still need to work out how this works as he confuses the hell out of me when he explains it any have experience with these products? My google searches come up with good signs of them being a good product. Each one is 100ml and should last a few months atleast. So if it works i will buy more.

My clowns have begun eating and tear apart mysis shrimp again today Which is great to see!

My micro hermits arrived today! 10 in the tank walking around, cleaning some algae of rocks, chewing left over food (or something of hte floor lol). They are infact micro The largest one is in a shell which is about 1cm in length. Smallest is a few mm in length.

Anyway what better way to say things then with a picture So here they are:

Hammer Coral Shot:

Hammer Coral Close Up Shot:

Anchor Coral Shot (Dad says its quite a bit bigger then this and covered the rock enough to not show the curves, so im guessing its just settling into the tank):

Close Up Shot of Anchor Coral:

Goniporas Shot:

Goni Close Up:

Shot of one of the micro hermits:

Another shot of the micro hermits:

Only have decent shot of the Coral Beauty, Smiling in fact!:

Shot of how the tank looks when you walk upstairs and turn towards the sitting room i spend my time in

Latest Full Tank Shot - 28-7-2010:

Anyone know what this brown string stuff is that is around my sinularia at times.. I think it may be that stuff the whiskers expel but want to make sure it isnt a disease:

Comments on the new corals, fish, positioning etc etc Will be shooting donya a pm with the pictures to see if she can help me ID them. But i dont really mind, untill they nip at anything or grow to big they can stay in the tank. Tank is no where near completed yet My end goal is to have a mandarin fish, saw quite a few today that looked quite healthy at the store and plump, but i chose not to buy them Tough to resist the beautiful fish!

Also got a fish book! Its called "Aquarium Fish: A defintive guide to identifying and keeping freshwater and marine fishes" and is written by Mary Bailey and Gina Sandford. Going to be reading that after my post!