Abby's 260 Mixed Reef
- Thread starter Timfish
- Start date
Well, this is a first. Had a problem with the green polyp toadstool. It stopped opening up and something was clearly irritating along one side. At first I thought it was the BTA that had moved to a spot behind it. Turned out a mithrax crab that came in on the live rock was pinching or scrapping off tissue. It's been a month now since I removed the green polyp toadstool and the mithrax still has yet bothered the lime green toadstool. Kinda suggests to me the possubility the green polyp toadstool might have had a problem. 
Week 11 Red cyano has pretty much disappeared and system is shifting to more true alga. There are now 4 urchins, I think. A small long spine hasn't been seen since it was added but it's spines haven't been seen either so I'm assuming it's still munching away somewhere.
Looking great!
Week 12
End of the third month and lots of true algae now with notes of other nuisance "alga". Red cyano from a few weeks ago is almost completely gone. Still thinking there's 4 urchins, or at least haven't seen signs of a dead one like a pile of spines somewhere. Using steel straws to help remove algae with weekly water changes (See more about this here: https://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/46724-260-w-bta-island/#findComment-358423 ). Some of the anemones have gone for a walkabout, so annoying and so typical (what's that adage about expecting different results?
)
End of the third month and lots of true algae now with notes of other nuisance "alga". Red cyano from a few weeks ago is almost completely gone. Still thinking there's 4 urchins, or at least haven't seen signs of a dead one like a pile of spines somewhere. Using steel straws to help remove algae with weekly water changes (See more about this here: https://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/46724-260-w-bta-island/#findComment-358423 ). Some of the anemones have gone for a walkabout, so annoying and so typical (what's that adage about expecting different results?
)
Sorry! Got busy and fell behind with weekly updates. Here's week 14
Week 14
Just a bunch of individual pics of some of the animals.
Thin Strip Hermit, love these critters. They're great herbivores and quite comical. Their claws have flat edges for scraping algae off rocks.
"Did you authorize him to take pictures of us?!"
Rock boring urchin, Echinometra sp. These are better than the short spine urchins for scouring algae off rocks and easier to handle than the long spined Diadema sp.
Captive raised Tiger Tail Cucumber.
Week 14
Just a bunch of individual pics of some of the animals.
Thin Strip Hermit, love these critters. They're great herbivores and quite comical. Their claws have flat edges for scraping algae off rocks.
"Did you authorize him to take pictures of us?!"
Rock boring urchin, Echinometra sp. These are better than the short spine urchins for scouring algae off rocks and easier to handle than the long spined Diadema sp.
Captive raised Tiger Tail Cucumber.
Thank you! Cucumbers will split when they get to a certain size but they're about as predictable as BTAs. There's only a few species I'd keep and I stopped getting any of the filter feeding types years ago as they always die. The Tiger Tail is the hardiest IMO and the one that splits the most often. Some of the hermits are pretty destructive and of the larger species I only get the thin strip, Clibabarius vittatus and the electric blue Calcinus elegans. I'd avoid any from the Dardanus and Paguristes genus in my reef systems but may be good choices in non reef systems as they are great scavengers.
I guess a question I'd pose for you @Dustin07 is: "What's more important, a healthy ecosystem or a frag?" Big hermits and urchins certainly be a threat to frags. Uncontrolled nuisance algae is bigger threat though. And this brings up another pet peeve of mine. The frags being sold to aquarists are often are the size least likely to survive (1) (2). Knowing what my urchins and hermits do for my tanks (and make my maintrnance easier) I'll go with bigger frags and use extra superglue.
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