I made the jump into the hobby with Tampa Bay Saltwater and I'm unbelievably happy with what Richard (the owner, chief executive officer, comptroller, dock worker, diver, and shipping clerk of the company! It's a one-man show) did for me. Truly amazing stuff!
What's amazing to me were the extras that he threw in. A decorator crab, several gorgonian and other sea whip corals, about a half a dozen sponges of different sorts, three condy anemones, two coral encrusted rocks, and I'm sure that there's more rock than I ordered! I was worried for a while if I could fit all of the rock in the tank and still fit fish into it too, but I put some into my sump tank and I rearranged and rearranged and it worked out pretty well. Here are some pictures:
A tiny feather duster worm:
A nice yellow ball sponge:
A bunch of hermit crabs, there must be some food they're attending to on that rock:
The decorator crab:
One of the numerous sea cucumbers:
I didn't look this sponge up, so I just call it an orange branching tree sponge. What's REALLY interesting is the red sponge next to it--that red sponge has grown on top of a bivalve of some sort! I didn't realize this until I saw the sponge flex one day. My girlfriend was over, and I said to her--"Hey! sponges don't have muscles! It shouldn't be able to move!" but this one does have some sort of mussel, so I was wrong. Anyway, here's the picture of the "orange branching tree sponge":
One of the amazing things that I had read about, but didn't think that applied to me, was the extras that Richard threw in. Like I said up top, there were a bunch of extras. Here's one of them, a condylactis anemone:
Here's a wider shot of the whole tank:
My tank looks amazingly good, considering it's only had critters in it for a couple of weeks. Richard sent me some fantastic stuff, it was a real bargain. My LFS charges $3 per small turbo snail and small hermit crab, just the 160++ hermits (I think he sent 185, actually) and the 80 snails would have cost $750 at the LFS--with Tampa Bay, they came with the rock purchase! I think that I got a great deal and my tank is absolutely fascinating, I can't walk by it without peering into the depths and finding something new.
Cheers, everybody!
What's amazing to me were the extras that he threw in. A decorator crab, several gorgonian and other sea whip corals, about a half a dozen sponges of different sorts, three condy anemones, two coral encrusted rocks, and I'm sure that there's more rock than I ordered! I was worried for a while if I could fit all of the rock in the tank and still fit fish into it too, but I put some into my sump tank and I rearranged and rearranged and it worked out pretty well. Here are some pictures:
A tiny feather duster worm:
A nice yellow ball sponge:
A bunch of hermit crabs, there must be some food they're attending to on that rock:
The decorator crab:
One of the numerous sea cucumbers:
I didn't look this sponge up, so I just call it an orange branching tree sponge. What's REALLY interesting is the red sponge next to it--that red sponge has grown on top of a bivalve of some sort! I didn't realize this until I saw the sponge flex one day. My girlfriend was over, and I said to her--"Hey! sponges don't have muscles! It shouldn't be able to move!" but this one does have some sort of mussel, so I was wrong. Anyway, here's the picture of the "orange branching tree sponge":
One of the amazing things that I had read about, but didn't think that applied to me, was the extras that Richard threw in. Like I said up top, there were a bunch of extras. Here's one of them, a condylactis anemone:
Here's a wider shot of the whole tank:
My tank looks amazingly good, considering it's only had critters in it for a couple of weeks. Richard sent me some fantastic stuff, it was a real bargain. My LFS charges $3 per small turbo snail and small hermit crab, just the 160++ hermits (I think he sent 185, actually) and the 80 snails would have cost $750 at the LFS--with Tampa Bay, they came with the rock purchase! I think that I got a great deal and my tank is absolutely fascinating, I can't walk by it without peering into the depths and finding something new.
Cheers, everybody!
