Howdy, and my tank

[iingham]

Hi all, just signed up here the other day. I got my first shipment on Saturday; luckily I'm local so I just met Richard at his old shop and an hour later the rock was in my tank.

I've got ~25 lbs of rock in the tank so far. Ammonia has kept level at .50. I hear clicking every once in a while, so I know something is in there. I just haven't see it yet. There's also some kind of crab hiding in one of the rocks, all I've been able to see are some furry legs but he hasn't made an appearance yet. I guess he's shy.

Other than a couple of whelks there don't appear to be that many hitchhikers with this part of the package. At least none that I can see, which doesn't mean there aren't any!

I've had a great experience with Richard, he's been super responsive via e-mail and the rocks are really nice. Nothing super-fancy, but I'm just starting out and taking it nice and slow.

 

[figuerres]

Cool, Yeah Rich is #1 - good guy.

I'm a local also, I just moved my old stuff from a 55 to a 90.


so far it's looking really sweet.

casue I had rock and sand from the 90 and added some new sand from tbs my "cycle" so far has been a non-event (fingers crossed that it stays that way )

friday was "New Tank" day and Saturday was "Water Like Milk"
Sunday was "Clear Water" sun, mon and tues tests for Amonia have been 0 or less than .025 so far...
N2 was just a trace sun, mon - last night it was 0 - no trace
N3 is at 5 and thats "Just at" 5 so really it's more like a 4.5
dHK is 9, PH 8
all from Salifert Test kits I just got for the new tank.

your tank & rock:

furry legs - Gorilla Crab, get a bucket with some change water and put the rock in there and find that guy....
when small they can seem "OK" but they eat and grow fast....
and they will eat all kinds of things, like:

your shrimps, starfish, cucumbers, corals, snails, hermit crabs, sponges, clams, and.... get the picture ?
also as they get biger they will move rocks to get what they want.
so I have had them knock a $50 coral off a rock into my sand late at night and the next day I find it half eaten on the sand bed.

POP / Snap sound: may be a mantis or a pistol shrimp
pistols can be tiny guys but loud as all heck... I've had one for a long time.... when I moved my rock and sand I never saw him, but monday I heard his POP sound again

if you need any stuff ID post a photo... I've run TBS rock for over 5 years and seen a ton of stuff from it...

 

[iingham]

Mr. Furry legs has vanished. I moved the rocks around last night to try to find him but no luck. I think I will take the rocks out and do a thorough examination in some water and track his furry butt down. And also see if I can find Mr. Clicker. Maybe toss them both in a small tank and see what happens.

 

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8794787#post8794787 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iingham
Mr. Furry legs has vanished. I moved the rocks around last night to try to find him but no luck. I think I will take the rocks out and do a thorough examination in some water and track his furry butt down. And also see if I can find Mr. Clicker. Maybe toss them both in a small tank and see what happens.

if "Mr. Clicker" is a pistol shimp then he is great for a reef tank, let him be.

if it's a mantis then you may seperate him or keep him depending on what you want in the tank.

if the mantis has good color or has interesting claws you may be able to sell him.

 

[iingham]

My plan, exactly!

 

[iingham]

Ha! Got one!

I looked around tonight and I spotted three furry crabs. I managed to extract one directly from the tank without much problem and he's now resting in a bowl. He's about the size of a quarter.

 

[figuerres]

Yeah they are crafty little devils....

sometimes I can put a rock in a bucket for a while and then pull the rock out and find them in the bucket.

or just watch and when one is in the open on the top of a rock lift the rock out slow and easy and hold it over a bucket and flick him into the bucket.


some times they will get angry with you... they will start claw waving like they are trying to scare you back... :rollface:

 

[iingham]

There are at least 3 more of those crabs in there. This weekend will be search and destroy. Well, search and remove. I'll put them in a small tank, the outcast tank.

I'm also thinking that I'm going to have to remove these guys:

 

[iingham]

Yesterday I picked up the 2nd part of the package from Tampa Bay Saltwater. I ran home and threw everything in the tank and... wow.

I'll let the pictures do the talking:

 

[liverock]

Nice Tank!

Nice Tank!

Looks like your condy is showing off!

The other anemones are not aptasia, and do not spread like aptasia...

Richard TBS:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

 

[Reefing102]

did you buy the nems? did Rich throw em in? or were they hitchhikers?

Either way - very cool

 

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8931320#post8931320 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefing102
did you buy the nems? did Rich throw em in? or were they hitchhikers?

Either way - very cool

Not sure about the last two but the first two are common hitchikers on TBS rock...

 

[iingham]

All the nems came with the rock. The brown ones were hitchhikers, the "nice" ones came with the 2nd part of the package.

I also found what appears to be a decorator crab and a porcelain crab!

And I managed to grab a gorilla and threw it into my 5 gallon "bad boy" hex tank. There are more in there, but I'll tank my time finding them and removing them.

 

[dwculp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8931990#post8931990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iingham
All the nems came with the rock. The brown ones were hitchhikers, the "nice" ones came with the 2nd part of the package.

I also found what appears to be a decorator crab and a porcelain crab!

And I managed to grab a gorilla and threw it into my 5 gallon "bad boy" hex tank. There are more in there, but I'll tank my time finding them and removing them.

Man, TBS rock is the most fun rock on the planet, hands down! I remember how excited I was.

I have students almost everyday come in and just sit in front of the tank with a flashlight (lights dont come on until 10:30am in the tank). They still find new things.

I have at LEAST a dozen porcelin crabs in the tank.

You will find gorilla crabs for a long time. The small ones really dont do a lot of damage though. I still have some and ignore them unless they get big or mean. My hermit crabs do more damage than the gorilla crabs!

 

[iingham]

I came home last night and the condy had crawled to the back of the tank and had shriveled up completely. I thought it was dead! He was all shrunken and looked like a stretched out, deflated white balloon. But I'd read about other nems that have done this, then got back to normal. So I took him out of the main tank and put him in the 5 gal tank and he puffed right back up in about an hour.

I wonder if maybe he managed to wedge himself too tightly or something. Really weird. After he puffed back up I gave him a piece of shrimp and he snapped that right up and seems to be happy, so I'll just keep an eye on him.

 

[dwculp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8953114#post8953114 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iingham
I came home last night and the condy had crawled to the back of the tank and had shriveled up completely. I thought it was dead! He was all shrunken and looked like a stretched out, deflated white balloon. But I'd read about other nems that have done this, then got back to normal. So I took him out of the main tank and put him in the 5 gal tank and he puffed right back up in about an hour.

I wonder if maybe he managed to wedge himself too tightly or something. Really weird. After he puffed back up I gave him a piece of shrimp and he snapped that right up and seems to be happy, so I'll just keep an eye on him.

This is just something they do from time to time. Nothing to worry about at all.

 

[iingham]

It's amazing how they can go from a pile of goo one minute to a normal looking anemone the next.

I also saw a bunch of tiny little things flicking about in the tank... they almost look like mosquito larva, maybe 2mm long, extremely thin and translucent.

I love watching the tank. There's something new each day!

 

[iingham]

Cucumbers: Mine are just clinging to the rock. They're not really moving. Should I put them on the sand bed?

 

[dwculp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8957559#post8957559 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iingham
Cucumbers: Mine are just clinging to the rock. They're not really moving. Should I put them on the sand bed?

Cukes remind me of a lazy co-worker I had once. They dont do anything quickly.

 

[jazz881]

A coworker of mine had a small aquarium and he bought a tiger tail to clean the sand. I think 3 or 4 weeks went by and the thing laid around like it was dead, then one morning we came in and it was cruising around the sand and must have been cleaning house all night because his sand looked brand new again. Be patient and they will get to work.