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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 10, 2013 11:29:26 GMT
Today I performed an experiment to see if my mushroom corals would accept live food. Since I'm down to four of the original ten, I'm looking into ways of encouraging their growth and reproduction. As you can see in the last photo, I moved the mushrooms closer to the top, where they seem to be much happier. Mushroom corals, like the others I keep, mainly rely on symbiotic algae living in their tissues which gives them their energy. But they have a mouth in the middle which opens and closes every so often, so I finally tried to give them a different kind of food. I have a tub of coral food (One half of a tiny scoop a day) which triggers a kind of response in the mushrooms- they close up so that they resemble a ball. Once the corals closed, I inserted the tip of a syringe into the narrow hole (Through which could be seen an open mouth) and gave them a few live brine shrimp each. You might have seen brine shrimp sold as "sea monkeys". At this point I had to fend off the male clownfish for five minutes (Who was determined to steal the coral's treat) and finally they opened. Their mouths were bulging somewhat, and there was no trace of the brine shrimp. I think I'll try this twice a week, and maybe they'll eventually spread to cover the rock once more. It's great how they sort of resemble plants, and are anything but! I'm also considering getting another soft coral species, preferably one that isn't green. My current candidates are open brain corals and finger leathers, but I need a species that doesn't need intense lighting and isn't aggressive.
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Post by TenebrousNova on May 5, 2013 17:59:13 GMT
My cleaner shrimp seems to become gravid every so often, usually right after molting (Which it did yesterday, and does so surprisingly frequently). They are hermaphrodites, so they can fertilize another cleaner shrimp and leave with their own fertilized eggs. Because I no longer have two cleaner shrimps, I don't think that the eggs are viable. You can see that there is a greenish patch under its tail, which consists of hundreds of tiny round green eggs. It's hard to see, but there's several pairs of small, feathery little legs under the tail which are used to propel the shrimp through the water. It's from around these legs that the eggs seem to be dispersed from. I endeavored to take a better photo by feeding it, but in the entailing confusion where the shrimp bounced around frenziedly to grab everything it could, the best I could get was this one. You can sort of see the eggs. Still, the shrimp was happy to get an extra meal. I'm still not sure if the eggs hatch within the shrimp or they are simply released into the water. Either way, they will likely get eaten by the fish and coral. Rearing cleaner shrimp larvae is supposed to be really tough, even if you can isolate them into a tank where they won't get harmed. Still, it must mean that my shrimp is happy enough. They seem to have excellent eyesight; this shrimp can spot people coming through the door and excitedly greets them.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 11, 2013 14:22:05 GMT
I have three new additions to the aquarium now! First off is a blue-legged hermit crab (Clibanarius tricolor). It was pinching my fingers as I lowered it in. Secondly is a new turbo snail, to help keep algae under control. Saving the best until last- a sea anemone. The anemone was only £15 and seemed healthy, so I decided to give it a go. The tentacles are lined with nematocysts (Stinging cells) that immobilize prey so that it can be pushed into the large mouth at the centre. The nematocysts aren't powerful enough to penetrate Human skin, but instead feels like the tentacles are trying to stick to you. Indeed, it took me about three minutes to extricate myself from it. The cleaner shrimp investigated the anemone, but leaped back when the ends of its antennae were stuck to the tentacles. I think it's learned its lesson now. Since this anemone is from the Atlantic, the clownfish are unlikely to host in it. It's already on the move, slowly inching forward to find a perfect spot. I've bought some whole frozen fish for it to eat, half a fish each week.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 14, 2013 21:21:09 GMT
I am still attempting to identify what species my anemone is. It looks similar to a Haitian reef anemone, but I can't be sure. It seems to have done well so far, and none of the other animals have bothered it. It doesn't seem to close at night (Or at least, not whilst I'm awake) but it has closed a few times to rid itself of waste products- an anemone is pretty much a pedal disk, mouth and tentacles, containing a sac for both digestion and reproduction. What goes in will later be ejected through the mouth once it's been digested. When it closes, it deflates almost like a balloon by expelling water from its tissues, and by drawing in water can emerge again. They tend to close in the shallower regions to avoid being dried out at low tide. It has eaten two types of food so far- half a thawed lance fish, and half a cube of frozen squid. On both occasions the tentacles grasped the food and pushed it into the mouth, which opened wide. I am going to shortly upgrade the aquarium lighting to metal halide to give the anemone some suitably intense light levels. The lights seem cheap enough on Ebay, so I can order them tomorrow. It's a very fascinating creature, and I'm learning more about it every day.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 21, 2013 11:30:43 GMT
The anemone wasn't in the best of moods in that first picture, having been placed in a new aquarium only minutes before. Here it is now: When I first placed it on that rock, it inched its way down and planted its pedal disk (Foot) firmly between the substrate and rock, and has stayed there ever since. This is an excellent sign, since anemones can be fussy about where they stay. Until they find somewhere that has good enough light and flow, they tend to let themselves drift around until they find their "perfect" spot. I'm glad that it has settled down quickly, since anemones can pose a threat to corals when they move around too much. If it is indeed a Condylactis anemone or a similar species though, I am concerned for its colouration, since Condys have a reddish body under the "head". All of the anemones in the pet shop were like this. Either this is the natural colour and I haven't identified it properly, or it is bleached, and lacks the algae in its tissues. The algae has been found to spread rapidly in a petri dish, but for some reason they grow much slower in a host anemone. As long as I feed it enough, it should be fine. Bleached anemones are alarmingly common in pet shops as it turns out, because they tend to get stressed when collected from the sea and shipped. Still, it has been doing well for a fortnight now, and accepted food readily. Most anemones tend to rapidly decline within the first week when the conditions in an aquarium are unsuitable.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 27, 2013 7:56:47 GMT
I think I know what has been killing my hermit crabs- the starfish. It's getting harder to feed since it rarely ventures out from under its favourite rock, so it must've been sneaking up on the crabs at night. Until I can find a way to ensure the starfish gets all the food it needs, I'll refrain from getting another hermit crab. The anemone's tentacles seem to be slowly going from whitish to a dirtier colour. This is good, a sign that it is regaining the zooxanthellae that it needs. In other good news, I may not need a metal halide light- the pet shop I got the aquarium from has finally got a superior light designed for this particular aquarium. The bad news is that they are closing in a few weeks. Their prices should hopefully be low enough by the weekend for me to buy it. If/when I get that light, I'd eventually like to try keeping a bubble tip anemone. Bubble tips are named from the way they inflate their tentacles, giving them a bulbous appearance (Although more often than not, the tentacles take on a long, thin appearance). They are from the Pacific, so they are more likely to host clownfish than the Condylactis (Which would probably try to eat them). They're supposed to be easy enough (For an anemone) but I'd still have to do a lot of research into it.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 10, 2013 12:16:48 GMT
Just noticed a few of these, which I guess are a species of feather duster worm. When they sense something wrong, they quickly withdraw their feathered crowns into the tube. Ever since I had the new light installed, I've noticed that the purple coralline algae on a few of the rocks is starting to spread. A good sign. Zoanthids and shrimp: Nassarius snail: This is the starfish in its favourite hiding spot, a sort of cave formed between two rocks. Much of the space in there was dug out by the starfish itself, and it comes out at night. Fiji blue-devil damselfish, with pink star polyps in the background. I have two of these fish, the one shown is dominant and I have to make sure that the smaller one gets his share of the food. Both ocellaris clownfish. The left one is the male, the right one is the female. She used to bully him relentlessly during the early months, but now they're inseparable. It's going well, all things considered! Later this week, I'm going to scout pet shops for a bubble tip anemone, which upon further research I think I could keep successfully.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 20, 2013 14:08:16 GMT
I decided against getting a bubble tip anemone (For now) and instead bought a dirty great rock with at least thirty hairy mushroom polyps. £30 well spent I think, considering my smaller corals on smaller rocks have cost more. They are very much like the other mushrooms I keep, but these ones have a more fluorescent colouration and many fleshy projections across their surfaces. It's quite nice to watch them lazily rippling in the current. Yesterday I got to observe one of the polyps in the final stages of binary fission, where it split itself into two. The rock is also home to a large number of amphipods, spionid worms, a spaghetti worm, two stomatella snails and a few little shrimp. Even more interesting is the pair of live bivalves attached to the bottom of the rock, which occasionally move slightly (And when they sense bright light). I guess they filter feed on whatever happens to float past them. Saving the bad news for last, my cleaner shrimp has died. From what I can make out, he was in the process of molting and something disturbed him whilst he was vulnerable. A shame, he was a real character. I'll probably get another one at some point as the tank doesn't seem the same without him.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 23, 2013 10:14:06 GMT
Over Gumtree we found a man who lives nearby who was selling a small colony of xenia coral very cheaply, so we picked it up yesterday. Xenia is a unique coral because of the constant pulsing motion that its polyps make as they open and close their tentacles. It's rather enthralling to watch. Here's a nice video of what it looks like:
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 26, 2013 13:37:06 GMT
The xenia coral has extended to full size and pulses continuously, which looks great. They are fickle corals and whilst they may prove impossible to keep in some aquariums, they spread like weeds in others. I hope they continue to do well. It is that time of the year it seems for several of the critters in the tank. Yesterday I noticed small puffs of whitish-pink smoke emanating from the rocks, which on closer inspection was the bristle worm population simultaneously releasing their gametes into the water. Most marine polychaetes reproduce this way, and although they can steal food they are great to have around. Apparently bristleworms breed depending on the lunar cycle. Just now I observed small clouds of tiny white round particles floating up from behind my zoanthid colony. Closer inspection revealed that both of my stomatella snails (Who hitchhiked with the hairy mushroom corals and have proven to be voraciously efficient algae eaters) were poised on top of the rock, releasing their eggs and sperm into the water. Stomatellas are very good to have too, so I hope that their eggs will survive. It looked like this:
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 3, 2013 9:42:46 GMT
Things seem to be doing alright so far. I'm considering giving away the damselfish though, as the larger one thinks he owns the tank and bullies everyone else. The other damselfish is still very small and hides in a corner, but he would undoubtedly take over as the bully if I removed the dominant one. I have seen a third stomatella snail, and usually see at least two of them each day. Unlike the larger trochus snails, these ones are very good at controlling algae and can squeeze themselves into small crevices. I haven't seen any babies as a result of their spawning last week but I live in hope. New hitchhiker life is cropping up all over the rocks now- there's plenty of tiny feather dusters, and yesterday I found a pair of vermetid snails. These snails are completely stationary and live in a tube with just their feelers poking out. I only noticed them because of the mucus "net" that they send out to catch food particles. I've also spotted a few more small bivalves on one of the rocks- one of them was undetected because a mushroom polyp concealed it when it was expanded. The bivalves have a spray of "hairs" emerging from the shell, which slowly opens and shuts every so often. A few more hairy mushroom corals have been splitting over the week, and the new pulsing xenia is beginning to grow at an enthusiastic and noticeable rate. I deliberately surrounded it with other corals and nearby the anemone to keep it under control should it start to spread too much.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 7, 2013 19:30:30 GMT
This morning I was delighted to see a tiny young stomatella snail zooming across a rock, so it looks like not all of the fertilized eggs were devoured by the fish and coral. I've only spotted one of them so far, but I hope to see more. I must say that these snails have really grown on me ever since I first saw them. They can come in all sorts of colours but the flesh of my snails are greenish brown, with a pattern that looks remarkably like sand grains. Even though I use crushed coral as a substrate rather than sand, they still blend in very well with the rocks. Adding to their camouflage, their shells have a loose resemblance to half of a mussel shell. Yesterday I witnessed another of the adults spawning, so hopefully there might be more young stomatellas on the way.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 30, 2013 17:37:28 GMT
That damselfish went to the pet shop a few days ago, where I am informed he is settled in well. Catching him was a nightmare, I had to remove a lot of rock and caught him bare handed. The remaining damsel and the clowns are much happier now, as they don't have to fear getting chased if they go anywhere. Fed the Condylactis just now. Here's the video if anyone is interested. I think in retrospect the piece of fish I gave it was too large, but it didn't seem to mind.
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Hibernating
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2013 20:58:10 GMT
I can see the other Damsel and Clown clashing, I would suggest getting rid on the other Damsel as well.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Oct 10, 2013 11:52:13 GMT
Things have been fine for the last month or so. The damselfish has been alright so far Jon, he usually stays away from the clownfish. The female might chase him away if he gets too close to their favourite spot but otherwise there is no conflict. The xenia coral has continued to grow at a remarkable pace. There are actually three colonies now, I have moved the largest one to the bottom so that it doesn't get in the way of the other corals. I have noticed two baby hairy rhodactis mushroom polyps growing on the anemone's rock under the main colony, which is great to see. I have got in touch with the man who sold me the xenia in the first place, and was pleasantly surprised to hear that he will be selling bubble tip anemones by next month- he has agreed to reserve one for me. Since my Condylactis is still doing well after so long, I don't think the bubble tip will be too difficult. I don't really expect the clownfish pair to take up residence in it, but at least bubble tips are compatible with them. I think that the chances of symbiosis taking place will be better if I place the anemone in their favourite place. Some people claim that you can encourage clownfish to use an anemone by sticking pictures of clownfish in anemones on the sides of the tank. Saving the best news for last, we are very likely to be getting a larger marine tank by next year. I should be able to avoid the mistakes I made with this one. Once it has cycled, I'll be able to transfer the nano tank residents to a bigger home.
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