Andy's 2nd Shipment

[kaiyokanman28]

I received my 2nd half of my 50g 'The Package' on Friday 9/12/03, and I couldn't be happier with what I got. I will admit, though, it was a definite challenge to figure out how to put all that rock in there and still maintain a somewhat open appearance. I did it, though, and now I have LOTS of caves and overhangs that will provide plenty of hiding places and swimming room.

After the 1st half, I couldn't wait to see what the second half would be like if the 1st half was supposed to be the 'base rock' and how chock full it was of life. I really must've hit TBS on a good part of the year as the life that came on my 2nd half was outstanding, including:

6 open-brain corals
10+ large mollusks/clams
Sponges of every color and type, my favorite were the violet ones and the orange encrusting sponges that looked like lava flowing down the rock.
4 brain/boulder corals
Large patches of live barnacles
Large patches of cup coral (Haven't identified yet, but definitely a stony coral)

Also had some neat hitch-hikers, including:

1 brittle star
1 tiger-stripe star (Not certain on the ID since tiger-stripe star is a pacific species, but looks amazingly like it)
1 short-spined sea urchin
At least 1 decorator crab (Found him by chance and have named him Ghille, since he reminds me of a sniper wearing a camoflauge ghille suit)

The rock is amazing, and I'm finding new and interesting things every day. A condylactus anemone came as a bonus, that was a bit of a surprise. Unfortunately, at the moment, it doesn't appear that the condy's going to make it. It looked like it was doing fine yesterday and then I woke up this morning to find it all shrunken up. Hopefully he'll pull through, but I'm a little nervous about it. Instead of the pistol shrimp, I got 4 other shrimp. I don't think they were peppermints as they didn't have the red stripe coloration I'm used to seeing in peppermints. These were a transparent shrimp with no obvious colorings. They were pretty, but I haven't seen them since I let them loose in the tank. I assume they're wandering around in the caves and rockwork, HOPEFULLY making short work of the few aiptasia that have reared their ugly heads.

Thank you all at TBS for the great stuff you sent me. I greatly appreciate everything you did for me, and I'll surely do business with you again and recommend you to anyone.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[liverock]

Andy
Thanks for the feedback, we really appreciate it.
Not to worry about the condy, they shrink and puff up all the time.....they are real tough critters. Yes those were peppermints, good guys for you tank! And it is a tiger tail cuke, we collect them from the Gulf.
Thanks
Richard TBS:rollface:

 

[kaiyokanman28]

No, the cukes I knew...No, I really meant something that looked like a tiger-striped star. I found it under neith a detached piece of sponge or coral (it was lilac purple and had a spiky texture) that I was about to throw away when I turned it over and found the star, so I tossed it into the tank.

SPEAKING of the cukes, one of mine is hanging around at the top back corner of my tank, not rooting around in the sandbed. Is that natural?

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[liverock]

It is a sepant star.....

Cukes take a few days to acclimate to new tanks, they will hang at the waters surface, and eventually go down in the sand when they get hungry.

And, clarification, we supply only deco and coral rock with our Packages.......no base rock, thus all the killer rock you got!
Thanks
Richard TBS:rollface:

 

[kaiyokanman28]

Thanks for the clarification about the rock, Richard, and quite HAPPY that you work your packages like that. Thanks also for the assurance that my condy's not on death's door... He's awfully purty, and would love to keep him.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[Bruddah Chrispy]

Aloha e Andy,

Thanks for the updates. I'm going to be ordering my 2nd half this week for a Friday arrival. I've been so thrilled with the first half that I can't wait to see what shows up in the second! When I first set up the tank, the kids kept asking "When are we getting fish?". Now everyone wants to know when we're getting more rocks, nobody's even thinking about fish these days!

 

[kaiyokanman28]

I know what you mean, Bruddah! Though my son, who's 2.5, still wants a Nemo in there...which works out just fine since I've always wanted a pair of clownfish myself...

But not so much about fish, but more in the area of coral. After seeing what came on the coral rock, and not finding many places except further down towards the sandbed on the deco rock, I'm not so sure I really NEED to add too many more corals...though one of the open brains came as a frag and that might not make a bad bit for trading...

I'm VERY happy with how everything fluoresces under the 50/50s and the variety of colors is incredible. I'll post a few pictures in my gallery as soon as I shrink them down to a manageable size.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[kaiyokanman28]

Here's another testimonial...and a picture's worth a thousand words.

Here's what 100 lbs of TBS rock, 50 lbs of TBS live sand, 10 lbs of Fiji rock (Can't be seen, ended up using it as supports and columns for the prettier TBS rock ), and 50 lbs of Southdown looks like in a 46 gallon.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone: