Pearls Of The Antilles... Llj's Planted Marine

[lljdma06]

Well, all hope is not lost. Seems a snail species of some type bred in the tank. The baby snails bear a strong resemblance to ceriths. Hopefully the Nassarius vibex snails didn't breed as a friend of mine and I believe they are now actually Babylon snails. Not the best snails to have in a tank. My jawfish seem to be handling them well, though. The female actually bit one the other day and shook it quite violently when it got to close to the couple's love nest.

I'll upload more video tonight. They've created two burrows now. His and hers. Have dubbed them Liz & Dick for their rather on again, off again relationship status. LOLOL They breed readily in the aquarium, the fry are just a pain to raise.

L

 

[lljdma06]

More videos...

His and her burrows. You can barely see them, but they are coming out a lot more now. Eating well too.



Her bachelorette pad...



I just want to point something out, though. These are not fish for every system. They require deep sand beds and a tank with a tight lid as they are great jumpers. They will make a mess of your sand and rock work, so if you want a tank where you are the only one who aquascapes, these aren't your fish, as beautiful as they are. I just happened to have the requirements that they need.

L

 

[ian]

great bit of scaping with the rock!

 

[lljdma06]

great bit of scaping with the rock!

Thanks Ian. You are obsessed with my rocks.

 

[ian]

i'm obsessed by my wood and rocks.

 

[lljdma06]

i'm obsessed by my wood and rocks.

LOLOL...

I have finally placed two important orders...

1. Reefcleaners - Ordered a CUC that is exclusively Caribbean

20 dwarf ceriths
7 Nassarius vibex
8 Florida ceriths
4 large nerites
5 medium nerites
2 Fuzzy chitons
6 virgin nerites
2 porcelain crabs

What will happen is that the snails from the CUC I currently have will be moved to other tanks, which could use more CUC anyways.

2. Gulf Coast Ecosystems - Ordered macro algae and shoal grass

2 orders of Halimeda opuntia
2 orders of Halodule wrightii (shoal grass)

The biotope is taking shape. I also have epoxy, so I'll begin attaching corals to the rock work. I have a lovely Ricordea Florida mini colony that needs to be mounted.

L

 

[GGtank]

How do they know they are VIRGIN nerites?!?

 

[lljdma06]

How do they know they are VIRGIN nerites?!?

No clue. I think it's just their name. I laughed too.

I'm excited. This tank took forever to take shape. Virgins and all.

 

[lljdma06]

The Moment of Truth... Plants arrived (11/16/2011)

My package from Gulf Coast Ecosystems arrive yesterday. I'll admit, I was pleased with the packaging. Very heavy package, but you can see why...

The plants were fully submerged and packed in water, then placed in a styrofoam box with insulation. Excellent packing.

I ordered...

2 orders of Halimeda opuntia
2 orders of Halodule wrightii (shoal grass)

But it seems I also got a Halimeda discoidea as well. No problem, still received plenty of H. opuntia. I've got spare plants too. Here are the plants out of the packaging...

Halimeda opuntia

Halodule wrightii

OMG! Water in the bags stunk like High Heaven! Thought I was gonna puke. But, it smelled just like the gulf coast, so it's great to have such local plants. The plants themselves did not smell, so I know it wasn't the plants, just that lovely Gulf Coast water with all that organic content. Yum!

So, I basically treated the H. opuntia like anubias and attached them to the rock work, which is consistent with how I see it growing in photographs. The Shoal grass was treated with a lot of care. I separated it into individual rhizomes and plants, ala Eleocharis or Lilaeopsis species and planted individually and spaced them for spread. Took forever and was very difficult as I had to keep an eye out for my Jawfish, which are accomplished jumpers. This is the initial planting. I may, again, tweak this a bit. Forgive my algae and cyano, I've got a larger Caribbean CUC coming today.

Under actinics...

I'm so excited, you have no idea. I think I managed to create a working biotope that caters to the needs of its inhabitants and yet still create an aesthetic aquascape. Again, I've got to tweak things, but I'm very proud right now. It looks like a planted tank, but it keeps with Marine principles. I'm very happy I resisted the urge to "collect" species. I only have three species. I'm also glad I resisted red macro algae. I think there is plenty of red and purples with the Haitian rock. Now I just need the chalk bass and a cleaner shrimp species.

Getting the grass to grow is going to be a challenge, I've got enough light, I just have to cater to its needs. I don't need break neck growth, just need to maintain it.

Sooooooooo excited. This took forever to realize. Thanks for looking.

L

 

[StandbySetting]

Great rock layout and plant placement, a nice selection of plants too, sourcing that kind of thing over here would be impossible!

 

[lljdma06]

Great rock layout and plant placement, a nice selection of plants too, sourcing that kind of thing over here would be impossible!

Thank you very much. Right now, I also have Mr. Spinypants in his critter keeper and extra plants also submerged, but I took those out for the photos above. I may offer these for swap at one of US reef sites. I stuck some random bits in my refugium.

 

[ian]

they looks great llj!

I will be watching this with ernest, ps what do they feed on?

 

[ALW]

Looking good Lj, will be interesting watching the algae’s and how they develop and grow. Has the CUC arrived? Will you need to dose the tank to for the algae’s or will the lighting and water changes be sufficient enough.

 

[lljdma06]

Looking good Lj, will be interesting watching the algae’s and how they develop and grow. Has the CUC arrived? Will you need to dose the tank to for the algae’s or will the lighting and water changes be sufficient enough.

I have to change the water more frequently and do larger changes. That should be sufficient for now.

L

 

[lljdma06]

Ok, I epoxied the macro to the rock and the Ricordea florida.

Now, this'll kill your neck to watch but here are the jawfish in action...



Now for some tank shots...

Under actinics

Another jawfish video because I think they are super awesome!



Seriously guys, the next step is to get chalk bass. I already see roots in the substrate.

Thanks for looking,

L