Project 58!! (Image intense)

[maxxII]

02-11-05

Well the new Tomini arrived this morning at 9 am. I have it acclimating right now in my sump. Its at least 3 times bigger than the last one. This fish is easily 3 inches in length excluding the tail fin. It looks healthy and fat...so we will see how it does. There was some confusion at Live Aquaria regarding when I would get the fish etc.....I was told two conflicting stories about whether they had it or not, and then I got the email confirming shipment of the tang. They also called me on my home phone this morning and my cell phone in order to let me know the tang was in St Louis. I have to give Live Aquaria a big thumbs up on their customer service. Everyone I have spoken to has been very helpful and eager to ensure my satisfaction with my purchase. They even allowed me to pick dates that I wanted the fish to ship over a two week period. I know this sounds like a no brainer...but my schedule changes on a weekly basis. So The days I have off this week will not be the days I have off next week. And they were willing to let me to say I want the fish shipped on Thurs Feb 10, Fri Feb 11, Tues Feb 15, Weds Feb 16, or Sat Feb 19. That I'm very impressed with.
I'm sure the tang is somewhat stressed from its ordeal, but it really doesnt look all that fazed by its journey. I have high hopes for this one.

On an annoying note, the damn LawnMower blenny has begun nipping at my clams. I watched it do a little last night, and several times this morning.....guess who's getting a return trip to the LFS?????
I now have to remove one side of the tanks rock work in order to get this little pest. But I'd rather do this while the tang is acclimating, than when I have it the tank, causing it to stroke out.
Sigh.....I knew that fish was gonna be trouble.
Nick

 

[maxxII]

The tang is in the tank, and the blenny is out...sitting in the sump currently. Naturally my Fiance is trying to find a way where we can kepe the little monster. I aint going for it. I've told her we could get a new tank and put it in there...she wasnt going for that. So the blenny is getting a return trip to the LFS.

The tang is good sized and is already picking from the rocks. I have a Nori clip in the tank, inorder to get the Tang used to it...hopefully soon it will be picking at that..

This tang is larger than my Bellus angel, which is a good thing...she bosses the Chalk Bass around when they get in her way.

I will take pics when I can.

Nick

 

[Lunchbucket]

maxx - glad the clams and new tang are doing good...sorry about the blenny but i have heard that before and that is why i decided NOT to put one in my tank.

get a pic of the tang buddy! hope mine learns to eat from the clip so i can fatten him up

Luchbucket

 

[maxxII]

Eric,
I'm trying but he's not cooperating very well. Every time I get near the tank he bolts behind the rockwork and wont come out. I'm going to see if I can borrow my buddy's digital rebel...that will let me take much better pics from a further distance from the tank.

The weather is 53 degree's outside.....I'm riding motorcycle for a bit. I have to work tomorrow and its sposed to get up to 65 degrees...
Every single nice day we have had this winter, (there have been ALOT of 60 degree days this january and february...no idea why, but not complaining...), I've had to work. I'm playing today.

At least for a couple of hours anyway.

Nick

 

[maxxII]

I did manage to take some pics of the Tomini...

1st one is of theTomini itself.

Ther second one is a pic of the Bellus Angel and the Tomini together, for size comparison.

No aggression is being shown by anybody....things are looking good so far. The trick now is to get the Tomini eating prepared food.

Nick

 

[maxxII]

I took some more pics.....the tang was still not cooperating so I took something else. One of my Chalk Bass has set up a little home in the rock. This is on the big tower looking rock formation on the right side of my tank. There is an arm that juts forward towards the front of the tank on the on the far right, slightly above and to the right of my Teardrop Crocea. I thought it looked neat so I took a pic.

he just hangs out there until I shut off the closed loop, then its feedin' time!

Does anyone know what type of algae this is growing on my rocks??
Nick

 

[DrBDC]

I was looking at that and wondering, then I read the last sentence you wrote. It almost appears to be hair algae but seems too light. Maybe it's bleached hair algae????? Is it decreasing or increasing?

 

[Lunchbucket]

hey those are pretty freaking cool looking. very unique.

tominis have a rep for not eating prepared foods? i'm glad my yellow eye took to eating easily...not the clip yet

Lunchbucket

 

[maxxII]

DrBDC,

Its actually increasing...the snails still eat it, my lawn mower still ate it....and my clams...
A friend of mine thinks it's just unhealthy hair algae because of my Phosban reactor. I'm inclined to agree, cause I have no other explanation. I know that parts of the Chaeto keep turning rusty brown....I wind up pulling these off and dumping them in the trash can. I'm hoping the clams will help reduce the nitrate (showing less than 10 ppm as per Sea-Test...could be 9 could 2...I dunno..need Salifert Nitrate kit to be sure) which should further reduce the nutrients available to the algae....

Eric,
I thought it looked pretty cool too..and then I saw him turn around and face the other way too...Now I really think its cool!
I dont know if Tomini's have trouble accepting prepped foods or not....I only speak with one guy who has one, and he lives in the UK and has a 1 year old son...so his time is very limited....He hasnt gotten back to me about his yet....hopefully sometime early in the morning, (I think he's 8 hours ahead or so...) I'm glad you're Kole took to the food so easy. Have you tried any of the the Ocean Nutrition Formula two pellets? I'd be interested in knowing if your tang went after them.

My tomini is out more and more. He now swims across the top fo the tank and in front of the glass when he thinks no one is looking.

Hopefully I can borrow this Digital rebel her soon and take some devent pics....

Nick

 

[Lunchbucket]

i bought some formula two frozen...that stuff SUCKS. it just stays in a plug form and doesn't break apart. i just fed the fish for the 2nd time today (trying to get him some nutrition and tomorrow i am cutting back to once per day). i fed about 1/4 cube (big ones) of emerald entree and 1/2cube (new small cubes) of mysis shrimp...oh and i cut up some nori into smal bite sized pieces to see if he ate one by accident and then found a liking to it! didn't work. don't think he ate any of it i could see. he actually came out and went pretty wild on the food so i am assuming he knows what is up!

i'll get some fomula 2 pellets to see what happens. any suggestions to get him to eat nori? i leave a piece rubberbanded on a rock for him all day and i am gonna chop up pieces in the food for the day...hope he figures it out


glad the tomini is to you liking...i think they are pretty sweet. i'm pretty wild about my yellow eye kole tang now too...so is the wife.

hope the algae calms down too

hows the skimmer working?

Lunchbucket

 

[maxxII]

03-02-05

Its been awhile since I posted up anything so I guess its time for some updates...
Nikki (Nah20) had an issue with her clams that I found interesting. She was dealing with what Barry from ClamsDirect calls "Pinched Mantle". Basically the clams mantle begins to curl up and over, and pinch up on itself. Barry has absolutely no idea what causes it, or what it really is, although he has noticed a few things.
It is fatal to the clam if untreated.
It is not something that is communicable to other clams (Other clams cant "catch it" from an affected clam. He has placed affected clams in tanks with healthy clams, and hasnt seen any mantle pinching appear in the healthy clams)
It appears to be most common in Crocea's, although he has seen it in Maxima's as well. He says he has not seen it in Derasa's or Squamosa's at all.
Its relatively easy to treat.
He suspects its a parasite of some sort, but he doesnt know what type. Personally, I disagree with this part. If its not able to be passed to healthy clams, I dont feel its a parasite. But thats just me.

The treatment for this is relatively simple. Remove the clam from the tank, and place it in freshwater for 25 minutes. Return it to the tank.

Nikki went ahead and got a container of new RO/DI water, floated it in her sump to ensure the temp was the same, adjusted the PH to be as close to her tank as possible, and got the clams in there. She had to cut the byssal threads on the clams though and that was a little nerve wracking. But her clams pulled through just fine.

Edit, here are pics of Nikki's clams.
Before:




Pics of Nikki's clams after 25 minute RO Freshwater water dip.




These are the same clams, as before, in the same order as before.

Well, yesterday I noticed both of my clams showing signs of Mantle Pinching. I didnt take any pics, I was too concerned and went into overdrive problem solving mode. (Fortunately, she did. When she gives me permission, I'll post up a pic of it).Edit, Nikki has graciously allowed me to post up her pics.
I went ahead and got the RO/DI water in a container and in my sump to regulate the temp. St Louis water is pretty hard...7.9 Ph right out of the tap (Glad I dont keep Discus), so I didnt worry about adjusting the PH of the water. I got a razor blade, (actually, I got an X-acto knife), and gently started cutting under the clam.
Heres the tricky part. When you're trying to remove the clam and its attached, you NEED to CUT the byssal threads as opposed to pulling them apart. By pulling, you'll tear and damage the Byssus gland and wind up killing the clam. If you cut the threads as far away from the clam, you do no damage. The Teardrop was no real problem. The Blue Crocea...was a nightmare. I had placed it in a depression in the rock, so I had no real easy access to it. Every time I touched a byssal thread with the knife, the clam freaked and pulled down on the thread...so I thought I was cutting the Byssus. After 30 minutes, I figured out that the byssal threads were still connected to the clam (DUH!) and thats why it was moving like it was. So I finished cutting the threads, and placed both clams in the RO water for 25 minutes. I was really worried about the blue Crocea since I could see little bits of what I thought were flesh attached to the rock. But it wound up being the severed byssal threads and their anchors to the rock. Looking closely, I could see the same thing on the cutting board where the Teardrop was.
While the clams were in the RO water, I went downstairs and found two pieces of rock to put the clams on so I wouldnt have to cut them off anything again. One piece wasnt quite right, it wouldnt sit flat in the angle I wanted. So I cut a nice smooh flat base with my Power Compund Mitre Saw. 2 seconds and a nice flat base later, I had a great clam platform.

Here is how the clams were placed before:

Teardrop



Blue Crocea



Now they are placed like this:

Teardrop



Blue Crocea



Nick

 

[maxxII]

Barry said Crocea clams will attach to rockwork pretty quickly. I didnt think they would attach within 12 hours. I did get some pics of them attaching.

Here is a pic of the Blue Crocea with its Byssal gland out and secreting the byssal thread. I used Microsoft Paint to kinda highlight the areas so its easier to see. (This camera doesnt exactly take sharp pictures...I'm in the process of shopping around for a better camera.)




It basically looks like a dab of wet silicone between the rock and the clam.

And here are pics of the byssal threads from the Teardrop.




They look like white thick strings. My Teardrop has three threads in place.

Hopefully, I can post up some better pics of the byssal threads later, when I get a hold of a better camera.

Nick

 

[maxxII]

I also added a bunch of snails from Keys Critters.
I ordered 30 Astrea snails, 90 cerith snails, 3 small emerald crabs, and 8 scarlett hermits. I really only wanted the snails, but Keys has a 100.00 minimum order...so I needed to fill with other critters. I was concerned about having too many snails for my tank. I am very ahppy with how they shipped and what I got. They did ship the snails w/o water, which is the best way to ship them. Overall two thumbs up for Keys critters. I will definately be ordering from them again when I upgrade tanks.

Nick

 

[maxxII]

Finally, I took some pics of the new frags I have.

Three of these frags i got from a fellow reefer. I'm really hoping they color up in the future.

Rocio says this one looks like a chicken leg



This one has some awesome neon green polyps.



Here is a purpleish stylophora.


And here is my favorite, a gorgeous blue polyped acro. The parent colony of this one is beautiful!



Nick

 

[maxxII]

Ummm.....well, I had some errands to run, which just happened to be in the vicinity of the LFS...........
and........
ummmm.......

I bought 7 small acro colonies. They are acclimating right now, pics will be posted later tonight or tomorrow.
The largest is maybe 1.5 inches in diameter. these are some smokin cool corals....

Nick

 

[maxxII]

The algae is getting under control slowly. The snails have helped out in just the short time I've had them. Please disregard the hideous algae visible in these images...I'm embaressed by it, but working on it.

Anyway as promised, here are some new coral pics.

Purple tipped acro





Nick

 

[maxxII]

Purple acro...currently encrusting....



Peach colored table




blue tipped table




Light green with pink polyps



Finally, a light green table, ( I'm thinking this one might be a millepora)




Nick

 

[melev]

Nick, that was very interesting about the clam.

What kind of blade did you use on the compound miter saw to cut the stone?

What was your total shipping charge with Keys Kritters? I was just looking at their page a week ago. $100 minimum order, $15 box charge and what was shipping? Overnight?

That encrusting purple acro reminds me of a pocillopora, but it is hard to tell from that angle.

I saw a maze coral in the background. Any special care or feeding techniques?

 

[maxxII]

Marc,
Thanks for stopping by!
I just used typical wood blades on the rock. The first time I did it, I used the 45 tooth blade that came with the saw. This last time I was kinda in a hurry, so I didnt change out my 80 tooth finishing blade. Not something I plan to make habit out of, but the saw showed no difference. It actually seemed to cut through the rock easier than hardwood (pukani rock...basically old coral heads. Very porous and light. I woiuldnt reccomend doing this on Lava rock w/o a masonry blade or a tile blade).

Total cost on the order from Keys was $164 and change
(30 cents maybe?) Freight to st louis was about $60.00.

No special feeding for the brain. It was in the LFS for several months, and the one I had previously in my 20 had been bleached, but got better w/o any feeding from me.

Nick

 

[maxxII]

03-05-05

I notice the tissue of two of my new corals actually sloughing off in pieces from the skeletons. I'e never experianced this before, but from reading,this was Rapid Tissue Necrosis (RTN). After calling some friends (Thanks Mojo!), I was convinced it was RTN and I needed to do something fast, as it spreads quickly and will wipe out the entire coral if left untreated.

So I fragged the bejeezus out of the two of them.



The two corals that were RTN-ing were two of my favorite new ones, the green table and the peach colored table.

Here is what the green table looked like when I bought it.



I initially had about 7-8 frags of it total, but after looking at them this morning, I saw 4 of them showing RTN as well, so I pulled those out of the tank also. Heres what I'm left with so far today. Hopefully at least one of these pulls through.





I wont be surprised if the little one doesnt make it.

And here is what the peach colored table looked like when I first bought it.



And here is how it looks now....I had more of this one also, but saw RTN on some of these frags also....this is what I'm left with here.




I think the large one in the middle of the first pic has the best chance of making it. We'll see.......




Nick