40 Gallons with a few Soft Corals

[EricR]

Donated my chocolate chip sea star to LFS yesterday as he finally developed a "taste" for zoas.
*fed him a nice chunk of clam as his "last meal" with us the night before -- farewell,,, we're gonna miss you

Had CC star for 2 years (before corals) and no problems for about 6 months but, then, he devoured one whole zoa patch and started on a second, all in one night.

This one is pretty much gone:

Here's a thread I started on that incident:
Starfish got the Zoa Munchies

*did also pickup two Ricordea (Florida, I think) mushrooms -- pics coming soon

 

[EricR]

Just got back from vacation so figured I'd post some pictures from just now...


Two new ricordea from a couple of weeks ago still sitting on the rack as I haven't had time to figure out where to mount them yet:

Barnacle cluster I bought on a whim and stuffed in almost a month ago -- came home from vacation to find that my bicolor blenny finally likes it:

Random pics of a couple of zoas I've had for a bit -- seem to be doing fine:

 

[EricR]

Finally hastily glued the two new ricordea frags to a rock.

Not too pleased with the viewing angle on the top one so will probably pull the rock into a separate container and remount that one ricordea more carefully,,, we'll see:

 

[EricR]

Bought a red Fromia sea star since the chocolate chip star we had for 2 years went "coo coo for zoas" and I had to donate it.

I've read the consensus that they'll likely starve long-term but just had to try.

Guessing Fromia milleporella but who knows:

 

[EricR]

Bought 2 more nassarius snails and 5 astraea snails 4 days ago.

In 6 gallon (I think) QT right now:
-- one small rock and a couple of pieces of rubble from DT for (hopefully) bacteria and some algae for the astaea.
-- cut a strip of scrap acrylic to fence off a "sand playground" for the nassarius (on left of QT).
-- rinsed leftover "coarse" aragonite sand from old tank that's been sitting in covered flat container in the backyard for 11 months so we'll see how that goes.
-- 2 nassarius dig into the "coarse" sand fine and seem to be finding it every night after cruising around.

...planning on 45 day QT

 

[EricR]

Two ricordea florida seem to be doing well and growing a bit at about 1.5 months:

 

[AydenLincoln]

It’s a fromia indica and this is one of the harder species to keep in captivity due to sensitivity to water quality and diet requirements not being able to be replicated well in captivity. I’d try feeding him some raw fish or krill and soak it in phytoplankton because they seem to only eat microorganisms in the wild and but their diet is not understood 100%.

 

[EricR]

It’s a fromia indica and this is one of the harder species to keep in captivity due to sensitivity to water quality and diet requirements not being able to be replicated well in captivity. I’d try feeding him some raw fish or krill and soak it in phytoplankton because they seem to only eat microorganisms in the wild and but their diet is not understood 100%.

Yes, Fromia Indica -- others have messaged me the same and I agree.

Supplemental feeding has not been working at all for me so far -- clam, shrimp, even Masstick, it doesn't seem interested. (I have some dried krill I can try,,, probably will just soak in Selcon)

Star looks great so far but I guess we'll see how that plays out...

 

[EricR]

Saw this little guy out and about so scooped him up for a pic.

Backstory -- tore down one rock structure 3-4 months ago and broke up a couple of the big rocks on the garage floor.

In doing so, I thought I chopped a micro brittle star in half but he seemed to be moving so threw him back in the tank,,, and he hobbled off on his remaining couple of legs.

As of last week, looks like some legs are growing back pretty well,,, not in tip top shape but still kickin'
*I'm assuming this is likely the same star but who knows

 

[EricR]

First attempt at hybrid TTM,,, wish me luck.
2 Banggai cardinals at $19 each from local PetCo,,, lets see how this goes:

 

[EricR]

Micro brittle stars came out and started spawning after I pulled some rocks to scrub algae and paint some H2O2 on some dinoflagellates that were starting to smother some zoas.

Here's one for fun:




***not sure why it's all blurry at the beginning -- must be a YouTube thing

 

[EricR]

Bicolor blenny died unexpectedly this evening -- bummer.
He was fine and swimming around normally a couple/few hours earlier.

I'm hoping it was just old age.
I bought him fully grown and had him for about 2 years.
Nothing visibly wrong when examined -- just found him kind of laying at the base of a rock structure with some bristle worms and nassarius snails just starting to snack.

Clown looks fine but I'll keep an eye on her.
Last additions were a couple of nassarius snails about 1.5 months ago and they went through 45 day invert QT.
*ironically, I have a Bengaii cardinal in observation after Hybrid TTM waiting to go into the tank in the next couple of weeks that I would've blamed if I had added it already.

 

[EricR]

I’m calling my first try at Hybrid TTM a success (at least so far).
*Banggai showed no problems whatsoever during the two, 30 minute, 150ppm H2O2 baths

Banggai cardinal in DIY socialization/acclimation box — obviously went a bit overboard here.
Main concern is that my female (I assume) solo clownfish might just shred the Banggai but, so far, doesn’t even seem interested.

*did lose one of the two Banggai that I bought from PetCo but that had nothing to do with TTM.
Fish was pale and just looked bad in the bag on the drive home but seemed to perk up a couple of hours after adding to first tank so I was hopeful.
It died the next day (prior to any TTM or H2O2) without any visible signs of parasites so chalking it up to unhealthy fish just not handling the stress.

 

[EricR]

Clown showing no aggression towards new Banggai cardinal so that's good.
*New pajama cardinal and very small tailspot blenny going through hybrid TTM right now so hopefully everyone will get along when they go into the tank and then I'll be done adding fish for a while (famous last words).

 

[EricR]

Fromia Indica star still doing good at a little over 3 months so still hoping for the best.
*gave up on target/supplemental feeding after a week of trying with no success so hopefully getting enough biofilm or whatever from glass and rocks

 

[vlangel]

Nice job Eric. I also have a predominantly softie tank just a little bigger than your tank. I think the same footprint dimensions but a higher tank, 56 gallon column. I have a DSB so need the height for that and some tall rock structures.
I love blennies, gobies and cardinalfish for medium size tanks like ours. Blennies and gobies pack a lot of personality in pint size bodies and cardinalfish are generally very laid back. I also have a clownfish and I love nassarius snails for clean up.
Keep up the good work.

 

[dstockwell]

Lookin good

 

[EricR]

After two separate runs of Hybrid TTM (3 fish total) over the last month and a half, I'm considering them both a success.
3 fish (from both runs) all getting along and adjusting well to main tank -- pajama cardinal, small tailspot blenny, Banggai cardinal:

 

[EricR]

Replaced my 2 smaller HOB power filters with a single Seachem Tidal 110.
*old 2 were doing their job but I was sick of having to manually fill them after water changes -- Tidal HOB has self-priming pump so that's nice:

Old HOBs had a bunch of sponge growth as I haven't done a full clean out of the chambers in over a year:

 

[vlangel]

Replaced my 2 smaller HOB power filters with a single Seachem Tidal 110.
*old 2 were doing their job but I was sick of having to manually fill them after water changes -- Tidal HOB has self-priming pump so that's nice:

Old HOBs had a bunch of sponge growth as I haven't done a full clean out of the chambers in over a year:

That would seem to indicate a healthy tank environment. Everything looks real good!