5g N. wennerae pico

SaltyCabbage · Oct 29, 2023

The blushing star seems to be doing well, the mat has gotten very pink/orange and all the polyps have nice fluorescence. They also get super fat when you feed coral food lol.

Mantis has been making more appearance’s lately!

SaltyCabbage · Nov 7, 2023

Welp the tank is a bit of a mess lol.

I’ve been moving all last week and just got the mantis over to my new place.

So far no losses or issues moving everything. I’ll hopefully get the tank moved into its final spot today after work and get on filling it back up.

SaltyCabbage · Nov 14, 2023

Been super busy and haven’t had time to get the tank set back up, still sitting half full begging for attention lol. Corals have nice polyp extension so I’m happy there doing alright.

Just thought I’d post some photos of the mantis in the meantime.

Ex_Ex_Parrot · Nov 16, 2023

Man, I don't care how messy this may look to some.

It looks so natural, it's great

SaltyCabbage · Nov 21, 2023

Ex_Ex_Parrot said:
Man, I don't care how messy this may look to some.

It looks so natural, it's great

Thank you!!

SaltyCabbage · Nov 21, 2023

The tank is still setting half full, just been way to busy and haven’t gotten time to make water. Hopefully this weekend I’ll knock everything out!

Gumbies R Us · Nov 21, 2023

SaltyCabbage said:
The tank is still setting half full, just been way to busy and haven’t gotten time to make water. Hopefully this weekend I’ll knock everything out!

Best of luck to getting the rest of the water made!

SaltyCabbage · Nov 21, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Best of luck to getting the rest of the water made!

Thanks! Just ordered an rodi unit for my new place so hopefully this will be the last time I have to buy water from the store!

SaltyCabbage · Nov 24, 2023

And we’re back!!

Finally had some extra time yesterday morning and I got 15g of salt made for my tanks. I changed about 1g and filled this one back up. Params seem stable and salinity barely climbed because of the lid. So far everything is looking really good!!

Also got to see the cute goby pop out lol.

SaltyCabbage · Dec 5, 2023

A bit has changed since the last update.

The mantis molted sometime this week and is a much darker green now. Probably because the dark algae growing on everything.

The Gramma and mantis never really liked each other but things have gotten out of hand recently. The Gramma constantly taunts the mantis and is getting hit at least once a day.

Either the mantis will kill the gramma or the mantis dies of stress. I’ll be removing the Gramma this week.

At 3:42 and 12:35 you can see the gramma swim over, “taunt” the mantis, and get hit.

I have also found two very small anemones, I’m not sure if it’s aptasia but one of them is definitely irritating my orange zoas.

On the brighter side the tank is looking fantastic! Water is crystal clear and the coral is doing very well. The mantis is back out digging up sand and whacking everything all the time. My dogs aren’t a fan of the constant clicking lol.

I also moved some rocks so I can see this zoa now. I dont know the names so if you can ID I would love one!

The blushing star coral is doing amazing. Polyps are nice and thick and they have a beautiful fluorescence. The feeding response is crazy lol, they eat entire mysis shrimp!

I’ve noticed what I believe is bryopsis growing next to the blushing coral. I like the look but will be removing it soon.

Lots of hitchhikers have stayed. Here some pics of them.

Seems like the orange sponge is doing alright, I love the little pop of color lol.

Macro algae is growing and dying. Seems like the move really upset all of macro. I’ve noticed some new species pop up, one looks like a red bubble algae and the other looks like red sea lettuce.
Everything else seems happy though!

SaltyCabbage · Jan 18, 2024

A very sad update…

The tank crashed and it looks like I lost everything. The pair of tiger gobies have died and the Gramma was breathing heavy on the rocks when I checked on the tank last Friday morning. It passed in a qt tank the next morning.

I haven’t seen or heard the mantis in a while either, I could be molting but I’m not holding my breath honestly.

I know I should have quarantined the gobies but I assumed since they came from the wild they should be healthy, idk what I was thinking as wild animals are always full of parasites and diseases.

I’ve let the tank go and it’s looking pretty bad. Algae is growing faster than I can remove it.

I Lost two of my zoa colonies and it looks like the third is about to go. Lost the gorgonian at some point as well. And some type of anemone has started to spread, looks like it took out one of the zoas.

I’m going to give the tank some time to sit before I add anything. The tank is full of pods and other tiny life so it’s not totally dead, and a huge brittle star seems to have made it just fine so not all hope is lost.

This definitely sucks and I hate killing animals but everything is a learning experience and I’m glad it happened now and not later with more money and animals on the line.