430gal., L-shaped display

["Umm fish?"]

But, this _is_ a really good excuse to not clean the glass for a couple of days.

 

[JCR's Reef]

Awsome! Great catch and some quick pics. I would have missed the whole show. LOL Thanks for sharing

 

[Chihuahua6]

Love the Starry Blennies and missing mine. After over three years he died after ick was introduced into tank. I was devastated : (

I would like to try a pair in my 350 gal. Can you give me some pointers on pairing them? Should I get two small ones and add them at the same time? (after quarantining of course.)

 

[jnarowe]

Great shots Andy!

 

["Umm fish?"]

Thanks, y'all. Amanda, sorry to hear about your fish. From what I've heard, blennies are stuck in their sex at birth (gonochoristic) and the algae blennies certainly don't look terribly different from one another, so they're just trial-and-error. Sorry to have to tell you that. It's worth the work, though, as they do some amazing things together. The courtship color changes are amazing.

 

[Chihuahua6]

Thanks for the info Andy. Maybe I can add three and hope to get two sexes and hope eventually they take a liking to each other. With an 8 foot tank do you think they would be able to coexist?

 

["Umm fish?"]

I just don't know. Algae blennies can be pretty antagonistic. You can always try it and keep an eye out. Sounds like it would be hard to remove a fish if it doesn't get along, though. In QT, you could put them behind mesh so they couldn't hurt each other but could still interact. If two hang out close to each other without much posturing, you either have a pair or two females.

 

[ReefPug]

Great shots! It is wonderful to see the activity.

 

[melev]

I really like this picture:

 

["Umm fish?"]

Thanks, Marcy and Marc! Yeah, I like the wrasse picture but I'm not too happy with the wrasse. That one bullied one of its conspecifics to death a couple of weeks ago.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Umm, I don't even know what to say about this photo:

The tree-looking thing, maybe some sort of colonial worm?

But there's also this crustacean(?), it looks like it's filter feeding off the pinnate antennae. (What a pose.) And there's an amphipod above it.

Sorry. I've never seen anything like this before.

These all have grown out of the rock at the base of coral.

 

["Umm fish?"]

And we have an answer:

The tall structure is a foraminiferan. They are acellular organisms that build a skeletal structure out of sand grains. In some tropical areas these are often found near sponges and build their structures out of sponge spicules. They have the name of "spicule trees."

The crustacean in the adjacent tube is indeed a filter feeder. It is also an amphipod.

These sorts of critters are common in the real world, pretty uncommon in tanks.

From Ron Shimek: http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic104709-11-1.aspx?Update=1

 

[klondike4001]

I learn a lot from this thread, I appreciate that you take the time too look all these things up for us that don't have the time.

Thanks!

 

["Umm fish?"]

Well, thanks, but I didn't really do any work there. I do get kind of crazy on the research while I'm waiting around on editors to get things back to me, though. I did track down this possibility now that Ron's given me a place to start: Psammatodendron arborescens

http://www.foraminifera.eu/psammatodendron-arborescens1-lectotype.html

There are some really cool foraminifera sites out there. I guess their fossilized skeletal remains are incredibly important as a predictor for finding oil deposits, so they've been well studied.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Got a different ID on the funky sand-skeleton thing I took a picture of a while back. Leslie (the worm wrangler) thinks its from a genus (Lanice) of sand-skeleton building worms.

Some information on those:

Here's a scientist's experimental tank with them:

http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=image&pic=12186

and a picture of the worm, removed from the tube:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Lanice_conchilega.jpg

And Leslie's comments are here: http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic104709-11-2.aspx#bm105094

 

[jnarowe]

interesting spikes down the body...probably a method of retension. Looks like it would be hard to remove it from its tube.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Are the spikes going the right way for that? Shouldn't they be pointed up if they are to keep it in the tube? A crazy looking animal, though, at any rate.

 

[michika]

Hey Andy!

Just dropping by to catch up. Your AA article was fantastic, and the photos were amazing. Glad to see everything is still chugging along!

 

[jnarowe]

Are the spikes going the right way for that? Shouldn't they be pointed up if they are to keep it in the tube? A crazy looking animal, though, at any rate.

duh...ok then, what are they for, mating? :bigeyes:

 

["Umm fish?"]

Hey, thanks Catherine! Nice to see you again.

Jonathan--I would think they could help movement, digging into the sand in one direction and sliding out easily when pushing forward. But I'm just making stuff up.