Well the mantis shrimp kind of negates the wonderful life LOL, though if only I could catch the stupid thing, or just get a glimpse of it LOL.
For anyone wondering, the current list of hitch hikers stands at- stomatellas, some random unidentified snails, at least three species of brittle star, one is quite large, two separate species of crab which are being eaten by the mantis so far I know of only one of each species that still survives, two species of chiton one of which was eaten by mantis, many various bivalves ranging n size from 3" to barely 1/5", some eaten by unseen mantis, three species of bristleworm one which grows to 12", the large one was removed but his little brothers still remain, one eunice worm that was beheaded by the mantis but lives to tell the tale, unsure of length however it is a species which can reach 1m (40") in length, doesn't appear to be a coral eater though, 5 species of featherduster one which is 4" in diameter, colonial tube worms, majano anemones which have sinve been removed when they started splitting, aiptasia (of course) a very shy flatworm who seems to eat copepods, non pulsing xenia which is growing incredibly fats under the Halide, a colt coral which has doubled in size, 4 species of zoanthids including some cool ones with aquagreen centres, various types of macro algae none that are growing rampant. Also peanut worms, hundreds of types of sponges and tunicates and a large variety of barnacles with interesting tentacles, also a vermicelli worm. One small urchin, one inch long cowrie.
The corals currently in the tank- 1 red discosoma, 1 tiny purple discosoma, one forest green rhodactis, 2 turqouise and brown rhodactis, 2 brown discosomas with green highlights coming up, three brown discosomas with blue highlights coming up, three blue and red discosomas, one fast growing colt coral, one small patch of xenia growing fast and a favia/favite coral that is also already growing. 1 frag with 6 lilac zoanthids
Livestock that has been added consists of a single hermit crab.
A few days ago disaster struck as well. The fuse on our electricity pole thingmajig degraded and we had just a trickle of power coming through it totally destroyed my water mixing pump and the 600l/ph pump and 950l/ph pump is about 10 times louder and driving me insane. Mum's oscar tank got hit much worse though. I managed to pull the plug about 40 seconds after the power cut, it was a few minutes later when I got to the other tanks. Even so my Marine tank heater isn't running correctly even set at 28 it's only heating the tank to about 22 degrees. The corals are fine and extending and the tanks limping along but I do need to replace equipment. So I've ordered a 1000l/ph canister filter which will replace all pumps currently in the tank. I won't run media in the filter except for carbon and GFO and will just clean, empty and refill it as my water change.
So the plan at the moment is to pretty much leave the tank as is after the new equipments in apart from the addition of a few more zoanthids and let everything settle and hopefully get the mushrooms reproducing. Then let everything mature and when university comes around I'll have to downgrade to the 12" cube which shall be... interesting LOL.
Here's some pics from before the power failure, the aquascapes changed slightly since then and looks heaps better, no current pics though
