Our Tbs

[jezzeaepi]

I found a strange new creature the other night a few hours after the lights went out. I decided to take out the flash slight and see if I could find anything new. I saw this strange thing on one of my rocks by a coral and a small anemone. It was about the size of a quarter. Reminded me almost of a gigantic flat worm.

I took the photos in the dark, so I appologize for the quality.

Anyone ever seen one of those before? Any idea what it is?

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7830512#post7830512 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jezzeaepi

I took the photos in the dark, so I appologize for the quality.

Anyone ever seen one of those before? Any idea what it is? [/B]

Jessie,

I normally don't like to recommend removal of a hitchhiker, but I have removed several of these from my tank, placed them in water and then froze them in the freezer. According to Dr Shimek they are polyclad flatworms. A large percentage of them are predatory on snails or clams. I never confirmed that with mine, but suspected them in my early round of clam deaths.

Here is the thread with Dr Shimek:

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic24987-11-1.aspx?Highlight=polyclad

Brian

 

[jmait769]

Brian - I've seen one of those in my tank also. :eek2: How did you catch it?

jezzeaepi - I have not seen any thing hurting my TBS coral except the lights! They bleach easy under T5HO. I've actually lost a couple and I'm trying to move them down lower in the tank but not sure if this will help. Anyone else having this problem? I have zoo's, frogspawn and some green polyp toadstools close to the TBS coral and so far no stinging problems that I can see.

Jay

 

[BrianPlankis]

Jay,

When I found them they were on the sandbed. I simply used a small cup to scoop them out of the sand.

I've also had a lot of my TBS cup corals bleach. I have moved them to the corners of my tank where my light levels are very low and they seem to have recovered with feeding.

Brian

 

[jezzeaepi]

Ive had some bleaching too but I dont think it has to do with my PC's(192W on a 40gal). They seem to be sensitive to higher temps. Normally I keep the tank at 77. This summer we had a heat wave here in seattle. The tank hit 81.3 one day while I was gone at work. A small bleaching episode followed in about 5-10% of the tbs coorals. When I altered the flow in my tank the other day by changing my PH angle slightly and adding another pump, another one of my tbs corals started to bleach. They seem to recover with time and good feeding. One of mine in particular has bleached twice now, but keeps coming back. This TBS coral is on a rock that is dense like a brick, so I imagine that the rock held in the heat for longer then the water did, thus exacerbating that corals bleaching problems during high temp episodes.



Looks like ill be hunting polyclad tonight!...

 

[jmait769]

Brian & Jesse â€"œ Looks like I will be doing a little hunting tonight too!

Jesse â€"œ I forgot to say that I thought the pic’s you took of the flat worm were excellent! I have barely gotten a glimpse of mine!! I was hoping this thing was a good one because they are neat to watch.

I have kept my temperatures in the tank between 79 and 80 so that is probably not helping the TBS coral either!

Jay

 

[jezzeaepi]

What kind of fish do you guys have in your tanks? Ive had the tank set up for almost 4 months now with no fish and Im ready to add a fish or two. I really want a mandarin. I have always viewed them as one of the most beautifull marine fish, but there needs for pods presents a challenge. I do not run a sump/refugium. My goal was to let the pods reach a level to where they could reproduce faster then the mandarin can eat them all. Have any of you had luck with this?
After 4 months my pod population is pretty huge(1000's). Id say its closing in on infestation lol. I cant look anywhere without seeing them. Can I add the mandarin?

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7835575#post7835575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jezzeaepi
What kind of fish do you guys have in your tanks? Ive had the tank set up for almost 4 months now with no fish and Im ready to add a fish or two. I really want a mandarin. I have always viewed them as one of the most beautifull marine fish, but there needs for pods presents a challenge. I do not run a sump/refugium. My goal was to let the pods reach a level to where they could reproduce faster then the mandarin can eat them all. Have any of you had luck with this?
After 4 months my pod population is pretty huge(1000's). Id say its closing in on infestation lol. I cant look anywhere without seeing them. Can I add the mandarin?

You will get all kinds of opinions on this issue, but in my opinion a 40 gallon is too small for a mandarin. I've read the minimum recommened size is 75 gallons and most people say 100+ gallons to have any long term success.

They also typically recommend an older tank, at least 1 year. I think a healthy mandarin could eat a pod population in a 40 faster than they could reproduce. I agree with you a mandarin is a gorgeous fish, but not the best choice for your tank.

Brian

 

[jezzeaepi]

Dont a lot of fish eat pods though? a 75 with several fish that eat pods vs a 40 with one pod eater seems like the same to me /shrug.

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7835795#post7835795 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jezzeaepi
Dont a lot of fish eat pods though? a 75 with several fish that eat pods vs a 40 with one pod eater seems like the same to me /shrug.

Several fish that eat pods wouldn't have a very good chance of surviving in a 75 if that is all they could eat. Most people that have success with mandarins seem to have either very large tanks or are able to train their mandarins to eat prepared foods while still in a QT or have a large refugium to constantly supply pods to the main tank. Outside of those conditions the survival rate is pretty low. Gorgeous fish, but it has some special requirements for survival unfortunately

I've watched several threads where people with small tanks get a healthy pod population, plop a mandarin in, and 6 months later it has starved.

Not trying to be negative, just reporting what I've seen the last couple of years. I no longer have those threads bookmarked otherwise I would list them here.

Brian

 

[jmait769]

I have the following:

1 Sailfin Bleeny
1 Ocellaris Clownfish
1 Longnose Hawkfish
1 Pygmy (Cherub) Angelfish
1 Scooter Bleeny
1 Purple Dartfish

All bought in that order and I tried to get the smallest one they had. I was tempted also with the Mandarin but decided it looked like a lot of work to maintain IMO. The Hawkfish has eaten most of the visible pods!! I'm thinking I can only add one more fish to this tank. What do you think?

Jay

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7836729#post7836729 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmait769
I have the following:

1 Sailfin Bleeny
1 Ocellaris Clownfish
1 Longnose Hawkfish
1 Pygmy (Cherub) Angelfish
1 Scooter Bleeny
1 Purple Dartfish

All bought in that order and I tried to get the smallest one they had. I was tempted also with the Mandarin but decided it looked like a lot of work to maintain IMO. The Hawkfish has eaten most of the visible pods!! I'm thinking I can only add one more fish to this tank. What do you think?

Jay

I don't see one more small fish being much of a problem in a 80 gallon, but that would probably be about it for that tank. What are the dimensions of that tank? I rarely hear of an 80 gallon.

I would vote for a partner for your clownfish, but that is just me

Brian

 

[jezzeaepi]

What smaller colorful fish would you recommend Brian? I only have 40g so not a ton of room.

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7837561#post7837561 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jezzeaepi
What smaller colorful fish would you recommend Brian? I only have 40g so not a ton of room.

My favorite fish (the next one I'm going to add) is the yellow assessor (Assessor flavissiums). Stay small, are as colorful as yellow tangs, don't poop as much and even have a little blue and orange on their face and fins.

If you like blue, the blue assessor (Assesssor macneilli) is a good choice.

Both of those are available captive bred through ORA.

Another pretty fish is the sunrise dottyback (Pseudochromis flavivertex), but they can be aggressive and should be the last fish added.

You could look at Chalk Bass (Serranus tortugarum), although they might attack small shrimp (like sexy shrimp or a very small cleaner shrimp).

Also the Swissguard Basslet (Liopropoma rubre)

Of course there are the smaller species of clownfish and banggai cardinalfish that would do well.

Maybe a pygmy angel or potter's angel, but both can pick at corals.

You could try a longfin fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus rubriventralis), but you'll need to get it eating prepared foods in a QT tank first and it should be the last fish added. Should be fed 2-3 times a day as well.

There is the Midas Blenny (Ecsenius midas)
Neon Goby ( Gibiosoma oceanops)
Blackray Shrimp Goby (Stonogobiops nematodes)
Firefish (purple and fire)

There are some others, but I think that is a good start.

With a 40 gallon you are probably looking at 3-5 fish comfortably if you have a short power loss.

Brian

 

[skippy2]

I would also recommend a yellow clown goby. They do perch on corals but are so small they do no damage. They have a great personality also. Mine is my avatar.

 

[jezzeaepi]

I went down to the LFS today to check out their fish and they said theyve had trouble getting them in the last few weeks with the heat because they arent shipping well. Not to mention I dont think they were prepared for last weeks heat wave and probably lost some stuff then. Their chiller wasnt big enough for their system I dont think. Guess Ill be waiting 2 or 3 weeks longer.

I went about moving some rocks today and I found that giant flat worm. Two of them in fact! They gave me the creeps.

 

[techreef]

Got Part I of my TBS live rock package last night. Picked it up at 10:30PM at Newark Airport. Only managed to snap one pic at the very beginning of the process of putting everything into the tank, because i was starting to worry that the rock had been boxed up for 12 hours+. Will post pics soon of the progress so far. I'm still trying to dial in my skimmer, as I just can't seem to keep the water level or bubble amount consistent yet. I'm hoping that it's due to it being a new skimmer.

As far as identified hitchhikers so far, I found a bunch of tiny brittle stars, a stone crab (gone), a tiny mantis shrimp (gone), a 2cm-long pistol shrimp sans pistols (i think, anyway) a couple lancelets, and a tiger goby! I thought the goby was a pale shrimp at first, but it was indeed a fish. Crazy. And everything is so TINY. Kind of a surprise after looking at so many great photos from other reefers' critters. And I gotta say, at 1:45AM, my patience for carefully plucking out shrimps/crabs that look cool but I know will be problems once they grow up was gone.

So I guess now I've got to go get a turkey baster and "dust off" my rocks. There's a fine sediment film on everything. Of the Part I rocks, I received three rocks that were about 17" wide and weighed about 35-40lbs. each, so there wasn't a whole lot of swishing that I could manage in the shipping water that came w/ the rock before I put the rocks in my tank.

 

[jezzeaepi]

Wow a fish hitchhiker? nice! Post picks if you need help with an id.

 

[techreef]

whelk hitchhikers?

whelk hitchhikers?

Hi everybody.

Has anyone else received their TBS rock w/ a bunch of whelk snails? Sorry, but I don't have pics, and I know ID'ing snails is nearly impossible, even w/ pics, a lot of the time. I've literally looked at hundreds of pics of whelks over on Dr. Shimek's website. The variety of phenotypes in the same snail's shell coloration and appearance is staggering. I know to look for the proboscus sticking out front, and a little dot for their eye on a separate "stalk," but I don't want to be picking out Nassarius snails from my display tank, only predatory snails.

The ones I have in my tank are all dark brown, with a shell that is pointy on both ends, shaped like a football. The proboscus elongates out of one of the two end points of the shell. They're crawling primarily over the rocks, on which I have a ton of live barnacles. I've read that nassarius snails stay on the sand bed, but the predatory whelks climb rockwork, so I'm thinking these are not nass snails. They range in size from 2mm to 1 inch. The proboscus has that black speckling "tatoo" appearance too. Should I be pulling these guys from my tank before they eat other animals?

Oh, and I found a 5" long cuke as another hitchhiker! He's just brown in color, but he's the king of the tank so far due to his size! I really hope this heat wave doesn't cook him, as our apartment's AC is struggling right now, and I'm not even running lights until tomorrow at the earliest, to try and keep the water temp down. I'm floating ice in the water each day. To say this heat wave is freaking me out re: my new tank is the understatement of the month...

 

[JohnL]

This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=898477