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

[ainsy]

How much to the uk?

 

[lljdma06]

I bet you can get pretty much anything out there lol. You live in the mecca of ocean life! Name something you might be interested, and we will see what we can find. Otherwise ill just buy em off ya.


-Tyler

Actually, we can't. We can get arrested for looking at a Caribbean sps funny and they are not allowed to be harvested.

How much to the uk?

Hehe, I doubt they'd survive shipping to the UK. If they did, I'd send them to you.

Ohhh, looky what I have. This is the holding tank that I did. It's soooooo ghetto, but it'll house the new ricordeas until I feel like attaching them. I have a migraine right now and the medication has made me sleepy so no complicated tank stuff today.

Yes, if the tank looks familiar it's my old 4g. Turns out it wasn't leaking. Oh well, I like my 5.5g now anyway, more space for corals. This 4g just has the cheapo LED lights and a Koralia 240 powerhead, plenty for mushrooms. I like that it makes a nice holding tank and I can attach and heal mushroom frags. I may upgrade this to a spare 8g, but I'd have to get another glass lid. Not expensive or hard to find.

OK, I couldn't manage to id this either. It was sold to me as a calgranian mushroom. Genus Actinodiscus, I think, but I'm not sure on the species name. This is the rare orange morph that was given to me, by a lfs owner who wanted it in my biotope.

Here's mine, it's really small.

This is the lfs owners, bigger. Hopefully mind will grow.

 

[ainsy]

Wow that is really unusual - haven't seen one of those before!

 

[lljdma06]

Wow that is really unusual - haven't seen one of those before!

Yeah, I can't wait to attach mine to a rock and watch it grow.

L

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

officially subscribed to all of your journals now

 

[lljdma06]

officially subscribed to all of your journals now

Did a water change today. The new lfs is getting a bunch of Caribbean fish in so I'll see what they have. I've really got to think out that macro algae. Haha, should get a blenny. LOLOLOL He'll do my work for me.

L

 

[lljdma06]

Heard from new lfs. They have a mated pair of neon gobies. Breeding stock. Maybe be older fish, but may be bigger fish and with an established relationship.

I've always been interested in the the dynamics of an ecosystem. Neon gobies serve a vital function in the reef. They clean fish of parasites. It is hoped that the pair will establish a station and invite the bass and jawfish for cleanings. Or... they will be a nice expensive snack for said fishes.

It's an experiment that I'm willing to try. So let's see.

L

 

[lljdma06]

State of the tank...

1. Uh, gobies may have to wait a bit unless the LFS agrees with my hypothesis. I discovered last night that one of the chalk bass has popeye. So I off and check my water. Everything's fine. So I off and look up popeye. Seems, they can get it when there's a trauma to the eye. Seeing as nobody else in that tank is sick, I'm guessing he got into an accident and hurt his eye. He's eating and otherwise fine. A bit more aggressive when fish approach from the left, which is the eye that's effected. Hopefully the eye will heal and at the worst, he'll be blind in one eye. I've got quarantine... but have you ever tried to net a chalk bass? Better to put the neons in quarantine and wait it out on the status of the chalk bass.

2. Grasses are growing! Woooo, I'm starting to get some fill in with the shoal grass and new shoots. Go Metal Halides and lots of feedings.

3. Pesties - Got me some aiptasia. I need to get rid of them. Fortunately most of them are on plants, so simply it's a matter of pruning that part of the plant. But I will purchase some aiptasia x as well.

4. Pesties (part II) - Some macro algae, dictoya specifically, is getting a bit out of hand. I may introduce an emerald crab to the group. I just don't want the algae smothering my rock. I may consider one for the biocube too. I like emeralds, they have appeal.

5. Corals - will be making ricordea florida rocks and splitting ricordeas today. Will post pictures of my handy work. Caribbean paly is growing new polyps and my Caribbean zoa is doing well too.

6. Will do scheduled water change.

Thanks for reading, time for me to get to work! After I update the rest of the journals.

L

 

[ainsy]

Wow that is a load of bad luck all at once!

#40## Aips - the bane of my life! NUKE 'EM

For catching the goby - you could try the 'cut the top of a coke bottle and invert it' trick/trap - but you need patience for it - I always caught every fish but the one I was trying to!!

If you are brave or desperate you could try tiny barbless hook and fish him out.

Hopefully it was just a bump on the eye and will clear up quickly - it would be a shame to miss out on a breeding pair of neons

 

[Donya]

Yes, if the tank looks familiar it's my old 4g. Turns out it wasn't leaking.

Wait...what? Are you sure? I have seen & heard of tanks being finicky leakers dependent on the degree to which they're filled and such. Going to go dig through other threads now and see if you wrote more on that and I missed it.

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

wow thats alot going on llj! wana lend some of my aiptasia x

 

[lljdma06]

Wow that is a load of bad luck all at once!

#40## Aips - the bane of my life! NUKE 'EM

For catching the goby - you could try the 'cut the top of a coke bottle and invert it' trick/trap - but you need patience for it - I always caught every fish but the one I was trying to!!

If you are brave or desperate you could try tiny barbless hook and fish him out.

Hopefully it was just a bump on the eye and will clear up quickly - it would be a shame to miss out on a breeding pair of neons

It's not a goby that has popeye, it's a chalk bass. So worse than a goby. These things don't ever lie still. Granted, I have 6 aiptasia. To me, this is a plage, to others, it may seem silly. Most of them can be removed by pruning the plants. These are stupid aiptasia. Not smart, "let's attach to rock" aiptasia, but stupid "let's attach to pruneable plants" aiptasia.

Yes, if the tank looks familiar it's my old 4g. Turns out it wasn't leaking.

Wait...what? Are you sure? I have seen & heard of tanks being finicky leakers dependent on the degree to which they're filled and such. Going to go dig through other threads now and see if you wrote more on that and I missed it.

You know what it ended up being? The water level was too high and it caused seepage from my HOB filter where the fuge light was attached to the filter. How do I know, because the 5.5g started seeping also, in the exact same way. Once I fixed the equipment issue by repositioning the fuge light, it stopped seeping. It kind of stinks now because I really do prefer that tank as it's seemless, but whatever, I'm satisfied with the 5.5g for the nps. I may upgrade the nps down the road to an 8g seamless, but I'm not sure. It's an upgrade for the Fall or its year anniversary and I'd have to get more LR. Depends, not sure what I'd do. In the meantime, I'm considering doing some online ordering, and I don't want to add this new stuff to my main tanks, so this tank was a good one to setup as a mini quarantine. Once the chalk bass is better, the neon goby pair will go in.

Yes, the pair are drip-acclimating now.

L

 

[lljdma06]

This is Mr. Popeye. He ate like a beast yesterday and was more active. Eye has not changed. I'm watching him closely.

I'll be doing a small water change today and removing some of the aiptasia that's attached to plants. I added an emerald crab to help me maintain some of the dictoya that's gotten out of hand. He'll do well. A small one, so he won't bother my porcelains which are much larger.

full tank shot. We're getting a bit overgrown here.

Rock anemones, because they're just awesome.

Ok, moment of truth...

I got my neon gobies. They are right now in quarantine. Yep, I setup quarantine. Granted as far as quarantine is concerned, this is like the Hilton. I don't believe fish adjust well when they are quarantined in a bare bones environment. If I must treat for disease, all the items are easily removable, but if I don't, they are so much more comfortable. Mushroom rocks to frolic in, stretches of caulerpa to hide in. I think a great place for a couple to settle down before they're moved to the main display tank.

Quarantine during the day...

Quarantine at night...

I also use this tank to hold mushrooms and ricordea that need attaching.

Male neon goby. He actually jumped off the display tank and we struggled to get him off the floor. He looks ok though. I'll get a store credit if he doesn't pull through.

Female neon goby. She's fat, holding eggs already.

It is my hope that they'll breed and setup a cleaning station in the display tank. That would be too cool.

Thanks for looking.

L

 

[bae1994]

Very nice gobies

Popeyes sucks I lost a sailfin tang to it when he darted through two rocks and ended up completely blind hopefully your bass will pull through as his hasn't popped as such

If they're like other fish the gobies will set up a cleaning station but just out of view so you can just see if you are looking at the exact angle in a reflection

 

[lljdma06]

Very nice gobies

Popeyes sucks I lost a sailfin tang to it when he darted through two rocks and ended up completely blind hopefully your bass will pull through as his hasn't popped as such

If they're like other fish the gobies will set up a cleaning station but just out of view so you can just see if you are looking at the exact angle in a reflection

As long as they are not eaten and my bass recovers, I'm happy.

L