What Lurks In The Dark Places.

[sorgan]

today i added
4 nassarius snails
4 blue legged hermits
2 white shrimp (feeders)
1 peppermint shrimp.

under the red light they look very strange but dont seem to mind it so much.
the chilli has expanded nicely but fell of its rock for some reason so its not out ATM.

 

[sorgan]

so today i added 2 baby pajama cardinals, my blue gorgonian (Diodogorgia nodulifera i think) and my Dendronephthya.

sadly its very hard to take photos as the tank lighting is so dim, i may try with a flash at some point.

 

[sorgan]

righty so everything is going swimmingly. both te chilli and dendronephthya are hyper extended most of the time and the dendron is changing shape to suit a lightless world. Its interesting to watch as ive only ever seen them branch up and out towards light sources (even though they are non-photosynthetic) but mine seems to have taken to spreading out flat (much like my chilli has) in an area of pretty high flow. now this doesnt look at all like starvation flop at all as the polyps are well extended and the coral flesh isnt shriveled so maybe this is what they do in when they hae no light to navigate by as chilli corals seem to do the same when they are in the dark.
still not skimming ATM as my durso didnt work as planned but i am not seeing any negative effects yet (it still very eary days) but the gorgonian seems to be enjoying the nuetrient excess as it looks fab my experience with them is that they close up for a few days in a lit tank before they start to feed, not my boy, out and feeding in 5 mins

the 2 pajama cardinals also are doing well, they seem not to have the typical cardinal behaviour (or lack of it) and are very active, curious little things, they look strangy alien in a lightless (almost) world, as they are nocturnal fish i guess they are more relaxed in a dimly lit tank.

so piccy time, please excuse the pictures but its hard to photograph this tank.

 

[seffieuk]

Just had a lovely time reading and catching up - looking good my friend

Seffie x

ps and I even have to admit the cardinals look good

 

[sorgan]

Cheers seffie, I've recently picked up a purple gorgonian that's currently in my display tank as I am not sure on it's I.D yet but if it looks to be a filter feeder I may whip a few frags up and see if it will be happy in a dark place.

 

[sorgan]

righty so the purple gorg has been fragged so now i have 2 small pieces in this tank and 1 big one in my display (as above i am not 100% on its ID so i am not sure if its totally NPS but we dont know if it will be OK unless we try )
dendron has righted itself again and is almost blocking the powerheads flow out, luckily its a rotating head so the tank is still getting strong flow.

the yellow gorgonian has coloured up to an amazing level in a few days, where the flesh was turning blue at the tips its all back to a lemon yellow colour now. why this is i am not sure but maybe its to do with the feeding.

cardinals seem happy although there is a little bit of chasing, this was expected in such a small tank.

 

[wildechild_01]

This tank is looking pretty cool... definitely something to maybe consider doing down the road.. keep up the awesome

 

[sorgan]

so later on today i will be picking up a pom pom crab he has both of his poms and is actually quite a big chap.

 

[sorgan]

so after adding Mr(s) pompom it promptly did a vanishing act, i now it is in there somewhere but where!
also my dendon is sagging over to one side again but this time it looks like the base is swelling and turning white, why this is i am not sure but it doesnt look good but that said we know so little about these corals it might just be splitting or something. only time will tell.

 

[GGtank]

How are the gorgonians going? I find them quite tough to keep!

 

[sorgan]

the purple frags will be moved into my display soon i think as i now belive they are photosynthetic (facepalm) the yellow/blue is doing brilliantly but the NPS ones need almost constant feeding.

 

[GGtank]

Lol yeah I have a photosynthetic one myself, hasnt done too great though (#40## algae is disastrous to them). Have you checked out this site yet: www.azoox.org full of azooxanthellae info!!! the REAL dark side of fish keeping

Also I have an amazing pic of a azooxanthellae tank, let me know if you wanna see it (won't post it here as i think it qualifies as hijacking your journal???)

 

[sorgan]

Get it posted I've seen that forum just after it started but will check it out again.
For your gorg get some RO that's the same water temp as your tank and soak the coral for a minute, this will pull the algae of and make your gorg much happier.
Ps of your not sure on it's ID then pop a pick up and I will see if I can help.
Wouldn't worry about hijacking lol I don't bite.

 

[GGtank]

The site still seems pretty 'young' but it's got info on some of the azoo species (dendroneph, scleroneph, dendrophyl, rhizotrochus, sea pens, sea fans etc!) Your tank is making me itch to do a dark tank!!! I tried the RO dip with the gorg, but it's still only just coming back (I was a bit late with the dip). Any piccies of the pompom? Can't wait to see how your tank comes along!

Here's the pic of the tank I mentioned!

 

[sorgan]

tis a bueaty, bit bigger than mine though lol.
the pom pom is in there and i have seen it but piccies are a little to much to ask atm.
got in to find my dendron looking somewhat pants laying on the sand so i have now glued it into a piece of piping to see if it will grow happier from a good base.

i would love to do a big NPS tank one day and have some tube nems and big gorgonians but my idea atm is if i can get it right smalll then big will be a breeze lol.