Lily's first reef! - updated

i was looking at the zoas and i could swear there is more of them so i took a pic to compare from three weeks ago. After looking closer it looks like its grown about 12 more zoanthids. *squee*
zoablock7311B.jpg


zoablock7811.jpg
 
Here is one of my palythoa colonies after four weeks.
I got them with 9 polyps, now there are 16. I love staring at them at night under the moonlights.

I found a spider on my colony of green ad yellow zoas the other night. I've neer seen it, it was clear. :hmm6:
And i found a nudibranch on my green zoa colony too. Doug got him out with small tweezers. Now those green and yellow zoas are returning back to their former color.
But the zoa eating spider had already killed two of my 9 big red palys. I got him out with tweezers though.

But these palys below in the pic have had no pests, they're the hungriest things i've ever seen in my life lol.
rosenebulapalys2.jpg
 
i've bumped up the feeding. im spot feeding now. the acans will eat stuff bigger than themselves apparently :-0
I took a pic of one of them eating, the piece was bigger even but in the pic hes already digested 2/3 of that big piece of clam and reef roids. i had six acans now two more are growing on it.
Next time i feed them ill take a better photo of them :)
acans7811eating.jpg
 
your tank is really coming along! I hope the meat coral recovers! Those palys are really nice and I usually don't like palys!

What did you use for the "cone of feeding"? it's a very good idea!
 
your tank is really coming along! I hope the meat coral recovers! Those palys are really nice and I usually don't like palys!

What did you use for the "cone of feeding"? it's a very good idea!
We used a cover of an Icee cup like they have at the Walgreens counter. It has a hole on the top where we can give her feedings and it keeps the flow from blowing the food around. Also, Doug got a frag plug and puts it on top of the hole because if not the blenny will go after the food lol. We just tuck it into the sand a bit so it stays on the coral and doesn't float away. :)
As soon as i learn how to, i'll take clearer pics of the various kinds of palys in the tank and see if we cant change your mind about palys. If you want when they grow a few more babies, i can send you a couple from the different kinds. :)
 
I hope that coral pulls through for you! Everything else looks fantastic!!

Thanks Sugar, i feel like an *** because i didnt recognize that the deshayesiana "meat coral" needed to be spot fed. After she began expelling her zooanthelae, because of bleaching from too high of light, i put her in a more shaded area.
What i did'nt think of though is that since she was no longer getting her energy from light, it needed to be supplemented with Spot feeding. Whereas before we didn't feed the corals because we had such an explosion of pods that we assumed ALL the corals were eating pods. They were all eating pods, except for her. :(
But now we feed her everyday, regardless of how she looks, hoping she'll revive/survive. And a lesson well learned for me.
And the other corals thankfully are now thriving because now i feed them.
Thanks for the encouragement about the other corals. I just love corals, i swear i could stare at them all day and night lol. :)
 
Last edited:
Found another zoa eating spider on the gold zoas last night.
He had already eaten one!
Thats a grand total thusfar of one zoa eating nudibranch and two zoa eating spiders.
The Little suckers are on the down low and only come out at night after everyone's gone to sleep. I got him out with tweezers. Heh heh.
Good thing i'm obsessive or i never would've seen it. Lol
the polyps look immediately better.
 
Looking good!! My husband would love that trachy brain coral! they are his favorite! They are always so pricey though!! We've been trying to keep to cheaper corals in the under $40 range lol. Those palys are awesome too! I love the ones that look they they were sprinkled with glitter :inlove:
 
hey, that's damn good! great job!
Wow, thanks Ralph! :) Thanks for the encouragement all this time!

Looking good!! My husband would love that trachy brain coral! they are his favorite! They are always so pricey though!! We've been trying to keep to cheaper corals in the under $40 range lol. Those palys are awesome too! I love the ones that look they they were sprinkled with glitter :inlove:
Thanks Lynn! Are they your husband's favorite? You know, i do believe the trachy is the easiest coral in my entire tank, other than the acans. I've never had to touch it, it's never gotten sick, it's been through an occurence of over heating, it's seen a couple of it's fellow tank mates die. It just keeps happily thriving and growing and growing with just high-medium light, high-medium flow, and occasional feedings. I've even moved him once and he didn't even deflate.
It's funny but that's the only coral i didn't plan to have in my tank. I thought it may have been too
advanced for my level of experience at the time (and expensive) But it was so purrrrdy that it sucked me into getting it. lol. It's like the guardian of the tank since he was one of the first corals to go in, and one of the largest. I think the trachy planned it all along. :)
 
Last edited:
In the last 72 hours, I have killed a grand total of 8 zoa eating spiders...AND FINALLY have just now discovered their "home". I didnt even know they had a breeding "home".
It was like somebody's nightmare.
I'm exhausted and have been crying out of frustration.
For the last couple days...I see a spider sucking on a zoa, i wash my hands, i rinse my hands well, i get the tweezers, i pull the spider out, i wash my hands and wash the tweezers, then watch the skimmer stop foaming because i put my hand in the tank.
And then 20 minutes later i see another spider sucking on a zoa and have to do it all-over-again.
And again.
.
.
.
And again.
Now my hands are raw.
But i found their breeding ground, and destroyed the s*** out of it. :blown:
All my zoa colonies look better already!
 
yeah those brains are my husbands favorite. I would love to get one but I can never find one for a decent price (under $75). I am living cheaply right now as I am returning to school. I can buy cheaper corals though!

About those spiders!! that sounds absolutely disgusting!!! Did you dip the zoanthids in coral Rx before adding them to the tank? I had something bothering my zoanthids the other day and it turned out to be some sort of red bristle worm thing. It was small but man did it do some damage!! Something is still bugging them but I think it might be a harmless peanut worm that I have seen nearby. He's actually doing some good cleaning under the zoanthids, but they don't know that :o
 
yeah those brains are my husbands favorite. I would love to get one but I can never find one for a decent price (under $75). I am living cheaply right now as I am returning to school. I can buy cheaper corals though!

About those spiders!! that sounds absolutely disgusting!!! Did you dip the zoanthids in coral Rx before adding them to the tank? I had something bothering my zoanthids the other day and it turned out to be some sort of red bristle worm thing. It was small but man did it do some damage!! Something is still bugging them but I think it might be a harmless peanut worm that I have seen nearby. He's actually doing some good cleaning under the zoanthids, but they don't know that :o
Oh i hear you, there are plenty of fine corals for under 75 that's for sure :)
No, i didn't dip them. I have a bottle of coral revive now, so i can dip them.
The zoa spiders are hard to see because they're kind of transparent. Here's a link with pictures of those. All zoaspiders on earth must be destroyed, lol. http://www.coralpedia.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=396
 
Since my zoa colonies have been preyed upon during the past couple weeks by zoa spiders and zoa nudibranchs, this explains why some zoas on some colonies are starving.

I'm now wondering if i should feed them everyday until they recover fully, then return to my regular feeding 3x per week?

So my question to you all is; Will feeding everyday do any harm to them? I've got the nutrient export covered for daily reef roids/coral frenzy feedings, but i'm not sure if they maybe need a day or two between feedings to metabolize the food?

Thanks in advance for any input or advice.
 
i took two short videos of a zoa eating spider that i found in the tank this morning, and what it looks like before i killed it, because reef peeps need to know what these (bastards) look like. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ0Ws0OoABo&feature=youtube_gdata_player
And
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMjIl048BhM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

...And I took three more short videos of what ELSE i found (krikey), and what i did to (hopefully) rectify the situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vfhj-TljZs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBtLFix75WE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98sPaWpGP5s&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
Remember my urchin, which likes to wear corals on his head, and how cute it was?
We believe he tried this with our trachy radiata, and now our healthy 7" radiata has a one inch tear in his flesh.
I just wanna cry.
 
Back
Top