Here Goes Nothing, Wish Me Luck :)

[littleme1969]

Hi What else are they known as? I got mine HERE But he was the last one Ive not seen them for sale anywhere else .
Hes quite the little charachter, He tried to throw out a snail from his burrow the other day, it was way bigger than his head, he kinda dislicated his jaw and clamped on, then spat it out..lol Hes one tough little cookie this guy. I did try to get a pistol shrimp to go with him but they where out of stock

I've been doing a bit of reading on the fish and most places have it named as Blackray Shrimp Goby or the scientific name Stonogobiops Nematodes. Doesn't seem like its a fish that can be confused with others though. Are you still planning to get the shrimp in the future? Dont know if you can find one locally but cheapfish.co.uk claims to have them in stock. Also, what are your plans for the sump? Is it going to be Hang-on?


Mark

Hi Mark sorry for the delay in getting back to this post
Blackray Shrimp Goby.. yes thats the little guy, god knows why They have it down as yellow nosed as no one else seems to call it that. Ive tried on a few ocassion over the past few weeks to get him a pistol shrimp with no sucess. He does tend to move around a lot, mainly I think due to the fact my yellow tail keeps cleaning sand from under the rubble..lol hes quite the little caver this guy
As for the Sump idea, on further reading up on an overflow box they tend to not be as reliable as I thought, and if you lose syphon as they seem to do from time to time you could potentialy have a flood on your hands. And at £50 they are not cheap either for what they are. So with that in mind Ive decided to scrap the idea for now. I had to get rid of the Royal dotty back due to agression issues so the tank is no longer overstocked.

I had to strip the tank down to catch the dotty back so Had to do a new scape, it kinda looks the same , but its now in a curve and the rockwork is also more stable. Ive got a few more corals since my last update and have just ordered a bit more CUC as the hermits and snails seems to be working overtime with the huge jump in amount of rock. Also have some sexy shrimp comming and a red and emerald crab too
Pics to follow..

 

[1entra]

Its looking good Littleme, I luv the pics so keep em coming!!!

I'm in the process of setting up my own reef tank, approx the same size as yours! If your not too keen on the idea os getting a sump, then how about getting a HOB acrylic Refugium like I have done, not only does is help aid water purification but it also adds a little big extra capacity to the tank!! So you could potentially keep your mantis shrimp in there out of the way of the tank!

By the way in your coral pics, what is the feathery looking sort in the second pic? and how hard is it to look after?

 

[littleme1969]

Its looking good Littleme, I luv the pics so keep em coming!!!

I'm in the process of setting up my own reef tank, approx the same size as yours! If your not too keen on the idea os getting a sump, then how about getting a HOB acrylic Refugium like I have done, not only does is help aid water purification but it also adds a little big extra capacity to the tank!! So you could potentially keep your mantis shrimp in there out of the way of the tank!

By the way in your coral pics, what is the feathery looking sort in the second pic? and how hard is it to look after?

Hi Thanks for the comments..lots of pics later today
The second pic is a rather fab pulsing xenia i think its called POM POM..lol It grown in tight nit clums rather than grwoing in height light the other brown xenia.. Supper easy to look after and fast growing too I'm just about to frag the main colony as Its now about 6" across and has divded into many plants on the rock.

I dont have space at the back of my tank for the set up you mentioned. i have given it some thought after i saw your pics

 

[1entra]

Thanks Littleme, I had a feeling it was some sort of pulsing xenia but had to double check. Might be getting some myself when my tank is set-up and ready as it looks quite attractive!

Shame you aint got the space for a HOB refugium as i would defo recommend getting one! I'll have a look later on to see the new pics!

 

[SkiFletch]

*waits patiently for more pics*

 

[littleme1969]

*waits patiently for more pics*

Bless you Ski I thought no body cared
Off to do the washing up then I'll be putting them up. They are already uploaded into photobucket ready to go I think there's about 30 this time..lol

 

[littleme1969]

The story so far
Well ive pretty much stocked my tank to death got the last of my clean up crew coming tomorrow. I waited so long as I wanted to see how the resident stock would keep on top of algae with all the extra rockwork and general tank surface areas. After about 6 weeks and a few tweaks with adding stuff to the filter media all alge isues are under control for the meab time anyhow But the fact that I rarely see the hermits says they are working overtime rock cleaning as they always came down onto the sand at feeding time. So I'm getting a few more hermits and snails, a red and green crab to take care of my fishermans eyeballs that seem to be popping up all over. Sexy shrimp as my cleaner shrimp is the only one I have and a sand sifting starfish to help with the sand clean up. And thats it!! NO MORE!!!lol
I have plenty of corals growing nicely which i will leave to fill out. I shal start fragging a few and selling them off through ebay so they dont get too out of control.
Current stock is as follows..
Fish
Red Tomato Clown
Yellow Tail Damsel
Scooter Blenny
Blackbar Goby
Yellow clown goby
Red Clown goby
The tomato clown and damsel are best of palls, they even share the same cave to sleep in and the clown follows the damsel around like a love sick puppy which is kinda funny to watch. The tank is very calm with no aggression or fighting which is good news as the tomato did give me a headache as how to stock this new tank.
Tank stats remain stable which is good news and Ive just added some glass sliders to the top to help with evaporation now the heating in the house is on.
Ive had no fish losses with the exception of my original clowns and also only lots a few small coral frags, mostly due to shipping stress.
So alls good so far fingers crossed it stays that way

Pics...

 

[littleme1969]

Fish..

My largest hermit sporting yet another shell upgrade

Little yellow clown having his lunch

Chilling in his fav spot after lunch

Comparing sizes

Red Clown Goby

Scooter Nice fin shot again.

Trio..

Blackbar Goby

 

[littleme1969]

Corals.

Snake Polyps.. These where a freebie not something I would have bought myself.

Candy cane Coral

At feeding time

Brain

At feeding time
http/img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/lit...20pics/0035.jpg

Pink Birdsnest

Sage coloured Stag

Shrooms

Zoos

And finally... DRUM ROLL PLEASE ...LOL

 

[1entra]

Looking good little me, the tank looks fab.

Keep up the good work!

Cheerz

PS. If you dont mind any chance of listing your full clean up crew to date please so we know exactly what you've got in the tank!

 

[littleme1969]

Thanks
CUC..
About a dozen mixed hermits all dwarf variety. Blue legs 2 scarlet and one unknown black leg (the largest)
2 Spiny Astralium
2 common Astrea
approx 12 Vibex Nass
I skunk cleaner
2 bumble snails

Plus the resident stuff that came with the rock inc bristle worms, mini starfish, 3 small clawed reef safe crabs, 2 mantis shrimp. (small variety so no danger to fish or inverts)

 

[littleme1969]

Bad news I just found my Blackbar goby on the carpet He must have jumped out in the early hours as his was bone dry I wouldnt mind but Ive only just added the glass to the top of the tank, the only place he could get out was a small gap of about 2.5"... GGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR that will teach me to boast about no fish deaths.. Carpet surfing

But my CUC arrived OK just finished adding them to the tank.. more pics shen they all have settled in

 

[1entra]

Aww shame about your balckbar goby hun! All that time without a glass cover and then when you finally get 1 it must have tempted fate!

On a brighter note post some pics of your new CUC additions

 

[n3ont3tra]

Aww, sad to hear it. Your tank looks awesome though, keep up the good work.

 

[SkiFletch]

Sorry bout the blackbar but WOW, that tank looks great littleme