Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

Every fish has a different personality. I was lucky with my Naso. We was another keeper's fish for years before he got too big for his tank. His demeanor and temperament were exceptionally well understood. I wouldn't trust a wild fish or a recent arrival to a LFS.
 
Thalassia (turtle grass) showing good growth!

Thalassia (turtle grass) showing good growth!

I've got some new pics of the turtle grass, but first, can you spot the two barnacle blennies in this pic?
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The smaller ones like to sit out on the substrate, while the biggest one likes the barnacles.

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Four out of six turtle grasses are showing very good growth.

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I'm seeing blades in the 6 - 7 inch range now.

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I can definitely say I've seen an uptick in growth rates in the last couple days. Woohoo!

I'm really psyched with my seagrasses! Only two of the thalassia are struggling, and they still might make it. And the shoal and manatee grasses are doing even better. I think my methodology is working. It will be interesting to see if their progression in my tank mimics their progression in nature. Shoal and manatee grass are pioneering species, getting established earlier. Turtle grass moves in later, after the pioneers provide the conditions that better suit them.

Bottom line is, I'm just glad I didn't kill them!
 
Sprucing Up For Company

Sprucing Up For Company

We have a guest coming, so I did a quick (ha!) tank spruce-up. I needed to re-glue some of the red macros to rocks. If I can get these plants to lock into the rocks, it will really help. It makes it so easy to move them around and adjust them. Perfect for the obsessive compulsive aquarist!

The barnacle blennies are eating well. Today, two of them started exploring the fake wall. They were hunting down some benthic plankton! Very cool to watch them maneuver on the vertical surface, in the current. They plugged themselves into some tiny holes too!

I'm getting some height on more of the manatee grass. I think this is my favorite. We'll see how the turtle grass grows. They're all beautiful.
 
I'm seeing an uptick in algae/cyanobacteria, since I got the blennies. I may be feeding too heavily. I will have to adjust the meal sizes.

I swung by the LFS to see if they had any nassarius snails. It appeared they did not, but one of the sales guys found four tiny ones for me. Nassarius snails are great for cleaning up uneaten food. They are not algae eaters, but their scavenging helps to prevent algae, by consuming food before it can 'feed' the algae.

I also bought a gorgonian frag. This one is tan/orange, and around eight inches tall. It's photosynthetic, so I won't have to feed it much. After trying different placements, I settled on putting it on the DSB, in the grass bed. It gets a good flow of current and plenty of light, so I hope it will be happy there. So far, it's not fully extending its polyps, so I'll give it a few days to see if adapts.
 
The fake wall is doing very well! By which I mean it hasn't moved. It's getting a nice variety of algae and other unidentifiable stuff. I've gotten a little bit of a preview of the holes and caves being used, by the blennies.

Royal grammas are likely the next guests. Not sure when though.
 
"Royal grammas are likely the next guests. Not sure when though" - How about tomorrow???

It must be tantalizing having to look at the tank without the 'vision for the tank' (grammas) actually living in it. I'm sure the sea grasses definitely help keep you from rushing the process though. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to see those royal grammas utilizing them caves!

How do you feed the tiny blennies? Seems like a difficult concept with the drastic size comparison.

And post a pic of the gorgonian for us to see.
 
Tomorrow sounds great! It is tantalizing, for sure! Imagining a 'wack-a-mole' wall of grammas in my tank is exciting. True also that my first priority is to get the seagrasses going well. With cyanobacteria growing, I need to get nutrients under control again. It's an adjustment, changing from not feeding at all to 3 feedings a day!

I just put the blennies' food in the current, and it circulates through the tank. So they get more than one shot at it as it circles around. They've gotten pretty bold too, being the only fish besides the molly.

I'll try and get a pic of the new 'sea whip' tomorrow. I'm hoping for the polyps to extend, as they haven't yet. If they don't within another day or so, I may move it to a different location.
 
Still no polyp extension on the new gorgonian. I think it might be in too strong a current. I'm going to move it. Luckily, it's mounted on a plug, so it's easy to move. It maybe time for a water change. I'm cutting back on fish food amounts at feeding, but I'm not liking the cyanobacteria. Time for some export…
 
I had two sea whips in the past. They are very strange, but pretty.

I found a yellow one and a red/pink one washed up in the surf in SC. To my surprise, they were still alive when I looked in my bucket of ocean water. Full of white polyps on each.

Sometimes they would both have all polyps extended and other times only half would be out or the yellow one had all polyps out and the red had none.

I had it under light to light/moderate flow and probably not the best water parameters.
They lasted about 6 months until I had to make room for more corals.

Hers a pic of the red one.


Good luck with yours!
 
No water change yet, but I did export some cyanobacteria. I also moved the gorgonian, reglued macros to rocks, and modified the flow deflector on my turbelle classic. I filed it out, so it doesn't deflect as much. I really like the flow much better. We'll see how the gorgonian likes it…
 
I thought you might like this pic, it's Thallasia hemprichii "sickle seagrass" in Singapore. Check out that huge flower!


Photo credit: Ria Tan
 
Awesome! Underwater flowering is wild. Most freshwater plants put their flowers above water. Seagrasses are weird!
 
It sure is! Impressive, no? I'd love to see someone reproduce this in their tank and induce flowering. I know people have in the past, haven't seen any recently.
 
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