Henry Colf
New member
Tank looks sweet Aaron... looking forward to future updates!!!!!
Pisces' addiction
- Thread starter pisces4u
- Start date
pisces4u
New member
Ok storytime. Didn't get pictures either so I apologize lol.
A few months ago, we picked up 2 emerald crabs. I much prefer watching inverts than fish any day and we weren't having any luck keeping crabs and shrimp alive. I think my nassarius snails were assassinating them in the night but that's another story.
So one of the emerald crabs stayed small, about the size of a nickel over the past two months. The other one has molted 3-4 times and become the size of a silver dollar. We named him Godzilla because he's friggin huge and green. Godzilla likes to sleep in my tallest acro at night which is also the highest formation in the tank, right under the water's surface. He climbs up and crosses his claws and sits there until morning.
This same acro that he sleeps in (also my favorite, a green and purple with yellow polyp tri-color I got for $20 at Petw@&{> *weird*) has not shown any growth in 3 months. I attributed it to the coral being in bad shape at the shop, maybe it was the crab after all.
Anyways, last night during a commercial break, I wandered over to the tank like I do every 10 minutes and saw him in the acro garden. He was actually breaking the very tips off of my new Red Planet colony ($$$ it's 4" across)! I didn't believe my eyes! I've seen the emeralds cleaning around corals, and I've read stories about them going postal on corals but oh no, not my crabs! I could actually see the branches getting shorter as they were whittled away right in front of me.
I grabbed my tongs and had a go at him. I actually grabbed him, but he is so big and strong, he reached over and pried the tongs open and skittered away. I grabbed him 3 more times and each time, his legs and claws proved stronger than my tongs and he escaped. By this point, I was having a really hard time because I value all life and I didn't want to harm him even though he cost me a couple weeks growth on that Red Planet. It was way past my bedtime and he had buried himself in the rock stack so I decided to try again in the morning.
I turned off the LED's and watched TV for another half hour trying to get sleepy. Finally I was ready to go to bed and wallked by for one last peek and I can see his massive body sleeping in my tri-color acro! I grabbed him again with the tongs and this time the slippery acro didn't give him enough to hold on to.
I put him in "time out" in the LR chamber of my frag tank sump. Now, I just need a new home for him. My frag tank is pristine so there won't be anything for him to eat. I can drop in a silverside once in a while but that's no life for a glorious crab.
If anyone wants a large emerald crab that WILL eat coral and probably murder anything else it can catch, let me know!
A few months ago, we picked up 2 emerald crabs. I much prefer watching inverts than fish any day and we weren't having any luck keeping crabs and shrimp alive. I think my nassarius snails were assassinating them in the night but that's another story.
So one of the emerald crabs stayed small, about the size of a nickel over the past two months. The other one has molted 3-4 times and become the size of a silver dollar. We named him Godzilla because he's friggin huge and green. Godzilla likes to sleep in my tallest acro at night which is also the highest formation in the tank, right under the water's surface. He climbs up and crosses his claws and sits there until morning.
This same acro that he sleeps in (also my favorite, a green and purple with yellow polyp tri-color I got for $20 at Petw@&{> *weird*) has not shown any growth in 3 months. I attributed it to the coral being in bad shape at the shop, maybe it was the crab after all.
Anyways, last night during a commercial break, I wandered over to the tank like I do every 10 minutes and saw him in the acro garden. He was actually breaking the very tips off of my new Red Planet colony ($$$ it's 4" across)! I didn't believe my eyes! I've seen the emeralds cleaning around corals, and I've read stories about them going postal on corals but oh no, not my crabs! I could actually see the branches getting shorter as they were whittled away right in front of me.
I grabbed my tongs and had a go at him. I actually grabbed him, but he is so big and strong, he reached over and pried the tongs open and skittered away. I grabbed him 3 more times and each time, his legs and claws proved stronger than my tongs and he escaped. By this point, I was having a really hard time because I value all life and I didn't want to harm him even though he cost me a couple weeks growth on that Red Planet. It was way past my bedtime and he had buried himself in the rock stack so I decided to try again in the morning.
I turned off the LED's and watched TV for another half hour trying to get sleepy. Finally I was ready to go to bed and wallked by for one last peek and I can see his massive body sleeping in my tri-color acro! I grabbed him again with the tongs and this time the slippery acro didn't give him enough to hold on to.
I put him in "time out" in the LR chamber of my frag tank sump. Now, I just need a new home for him. My frag tank is pristine so there won't be anything for him to eat. I can drop in a silverside once in a while but that's no life for a glorious crab.
If anyone wants a large emerald crab that WILL eat coral and probably murder anything else it can catch, let me know!
pisces4u
New member
Well, after dealing with nitrates about 20ppm for months, I have made some modifications to the sump and seem to be making progress. Nitrates are down to 10ppm, calcium and alk are remaining stable with 2 part and aragomite top off water. I just hooked up a phosphate reactor, threw in a new batch of carbon, and 20 mangroves arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping to see even quicker growth from the acros!
Everything seems to be appreciating the improving quality so I grabbed some shots of my acros and some growth shots. Check out the polyp extension on my happy acros.
My pink milli has developed a green growth edge and a couple green tips. Maybe it's morphing into a watermelon milli. I think I saw something like that somewhere. Check out the bottom encrusting edge.
Blue tort from Henry C. One of my favorites.
Another beaut from Henry. Rich purple with green polyps, I think he said it was nana or valida.
Red Planet
ORA Bellina
My 3 greens. First one is an insanely hairy green. The skeleton doesn't resemble a milli, maybe a prostrata? The second one has very small polyps with no tentacles, even when happy. It was broken from a local show tank and the mother looks the same. The corallites face down the branches towards the tips and the polyps are on the facing edge, not on the tips of the corallites. The third is beyond me, again broken from a large mother colony locally. Branches are lime green with blue tips.
Sunset monti with stunning color. One of my favorites and can't wait to see it grow in.
I'm starting to take weekly pics of the SPS to compare for growth. Here's 3 weeks growth on a small birdsnest frag.
7/27/07
8/18/09
Thanks for reading!
Everything seems to be appreciating the improving quality so I grabbed some shots of my acros and some growth shots. Check out the polyp extension on my happy acros.
My pink milli has developed a green growth edge and a couple green tips. Maybe it's morphing into a watermelon milli. I think I saw something like that somewhere. Check out the bottom encrusting edge.
Blue tort from Henry C. One of my favorites.
Another beaut from Henry. Rich purple with green polyps, I think he said it was nana or valida.
Red Planet
ORA Bellina
My 3 greens. First one is an insanely hairy green. The skeleton doesn't resemble a milli, maybe a prostrata? The second one has very small polyps with no tentacles, even when happy. It was broken from a local show tank and the mother looks the same. The corallites face down the branches towards the tips and the polyps are on the facing edge, not on the tips of the corallites. The third is beyond me, again broken from a large mother colony locally. Branches are lime green with blue tips.
Sunset monti with stunning color. One of my favorites and can't wait to see it grow in.
I'm starting to take weekly pics of the SPS to compare for growth. Here's 3 weeks growth on a small birdsnest frag.
7/27/07
8/18/09
Thanks for reading!
Henry Colf
New member
lookin good Aaron, definetly looking forward to more pics as your tank fills in.
pisces4u
New member
Small update... 20 mangroves came in last week. I made an eggcrate rack for them and mounted 18 in the main sump and 2 in the frag sump.
I also upgraded the BakPak skimmer to a Reef Octopus which I'm pretty excited about. The difference in skimmate is shocking.
I've also been dosing Microbacter7 in preparation for possibly vodka dosing. Between that, the mangroves, and new skimmer, my nitrates have gone from 20 to 5 over the past month. I'll have to take some water in to get tested for phosphates, but I may avoid vodka dosing all together.
No pics atm but some nice ones soon. I noticed some nice growth this week and added a ORA Bellina.
I also upgraded the BakPak skimmer to a Reef Octopus which I'm pretty excited about. The difference in skimmate is shocking.
I've also been dosing Microbacter7 in preparation for possibly vodka dosing. Between that, the mangroves, and new skimmer, my nitrates have gone from 20 to 5 over the past month. I'll have to take some water in to get tested for phosphates, but I may avoid vodka dosing all together.
No pics atm but some nice ones soon. I noticed some nice growth this week and added a ORA Bellina.
shawna1972
New member
Beautiful!
Henry Colf
New member
Tanks lookin sweet Aaron, keep up the good work and definetly keep the pics comin......
pisces4u
New member
Finally had some time to snap some pics tonight. Nothing spectacular, just some growth comparisons.
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea 8/01 (actinic)
8/27 ~ 4 weeks later
"Radioactive Randy" red and green chalice 8/01
8/27 ~ 4 weeks later (sorry for bad focus, his new home is hard to snap)
Sunset Monti 7/27
8/27 ~ 1 month
"Champeezy" our new Yellow Watchman
New sump design with my mangrove frags and Reef Octopus 110 skimmer (took the top off so you can see the awesome foam).
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea 8/01 (actinic)
8/27 ~ 4 weeks later
"Radioactive Randy" red and green chalice 8/01
8/27 ~ 4 weeks later (sorry for bad focus, his new home is hard to snap)
Sunset Monti 7/27
8/27 ~ 1 month
"Champeezy" our new Yellow Watchman
New sump design with my mangrove frags and Reef Octopus 110 skimmer (took the top off so you can see the awesome foam).
pisces4u
New member
I'm finding myself with more free time as cleaning and chemistry based tasks are lessening. I took the time to take some really nice pics (I think). One of the things I really love about reefing is how so many things are happening in your tank at so many different levels. The overall squascape changing as corals grow, all sorts of critters scurring and grazing, things changing on a microscopic level and at a snail's pace. I enjoy trying to capture a fraction of the wonder we experience while gazing into our glass boxes. I hope you enjoy and I'm not boring you to pieces with my photos.
Sorry for the blues! By the time I finished cleaning and the water cleared, the daylights were long gone.
Frogspawn with striped mouth.
Green Star Polyps. So many people give them a bad rap but they are truly beautiful.
Green striped mushroom.
White sponge that's been growing over some of my daisies. Not yet decided if I will let it be or pluck it off.
Birdnest close up.
My favorite Zoanthid grouping.
Another Zoa mix.
My accidental Acan. This poor fella started out as a bare skeleton with some Zoanthids. The skeleton has since come back to life miraculously.
Acropora polyps and turbo snail.
Montipora spongodes.
Sorry for the blues! By the time I finished cleaning and the water cleared, the daylights were long gone.
Frogspawn with striped mouth.
Green Star Polyps. So many people give them a bad rap but they are truly beautiful.
Green striped mushroom.
White sponge that's been growing over some of my daisies. Not yet decided if I will let it be or pluck it off.
Birdnest close up.
My favorite Zoanthid grouping.
Another Zoa mix.
My accidental Acan. This poor fella started out as a bare skeleton with some Zoanthids. The skeleton has since come back to life miraculously.
Acropora polyps and turbo snail.
Montipora spongodes.
pisces4u
New member
Well, I tried the top-down shots but I wasn't happy with them. It's hard to get an angle without reflections of the lights. Also, the top shelf of rock is where I mounted my acro colonies with epoxy putty. From the front and back, you don't see the white blobs so much but they definately detract from the top-down look for now.
Some of my critters were feeling photogenic though so here are a couple of my fav's.
Stopping to smell the roses...
Scarlet
"Tiny Tim" our smallest blue hermit
Skunk cleaner "Jesus" (he walks on water)
"Cloverfield"
"Champeezy"
FTS trio coming soon. Next week will be the 5 month anniversary for this tank! Thanks for looking.
Some of my critters were feeling photogenic though so here are a couple of my fav's.
Stopping to smell the roses...
Scarlet
"Tiny Tim" our smallest blue hermit
Skunk cleaner "Jesus" (he walks on water)
"Cloverfield"
"Champeezy"
FTS trio coming soon. Next week will be the 5 month anniversary for this tank! Thanks for looking.
Capt_Cully
Active member
Whoa Mamma! Great pics of an impressive collection!!!
filly469075
New member
keep up the good work, everything looks nice
shawna1972
New member
These pics are amazing 
What kind of camera do you have?
What kind of camera do you have?Similar threads
