some photos

[fullmonti]

I finally remembered to bring a a strobe home, to take some photos some what better than my normal snap shots.

Latest addition

He has been sleeping against this gorgonian, the current holds him in place. I put a peace of blue digi sps in for him to nibble at, but so far all he cares about is pods!

sea squirt crawling with pods.

My scleronephthya that was closed for along time. doing much better, has noticeably grown.

Tube Worm

Polyps on yellow finger goni

A little Paraminabae slapshot turned me onto

 

[fullmonti]

more

more

I got a small colony of dendro & balano but not sure which is which.

think this is the dendro, it is open almost all the time.

think this is balano, only open at night. He is not in a good spot for photos, going to put him on a vertical wall later.

What do you think?


I'll take some tomorrow when lights are on. All these were after lights out.

Almost forgot this little guy

He is actually growing from the under side of his rock. You can't really see it, but there is the beginnings of a pink/red gorgonian on the under side too.

 

[slapshot]

Nice! Go through your feeding regimate with us? Thanks. Love the Paraminabae, great picture. Glad Brian was able to help you out!

 

[glparr]

Thanks for sharing the photos. Some terrific specimens. Paraminabae is going on my list.
Gary

 

[WSI2406]

thanks for sharing. great photos. And yes you are correct with the ID for the Dendro and Balano. Any FTS??

 

[Fretfreak13]

Fts! =o

 

[uhuru]

great photos! Did you get the osff from dd? You should post the pics in the OSFF thread in the fish forum. You will have the first one in a non-photo tank.

 

[fullmonti]

OK FTS this weekend. The tank is still not very full & beautiful like many are, but I'll take one any way.

 

[fullmonti]

great photos! Did you get the osff from dd? You should post the pics in the OSFF thread in the fish forum. You will have the first one in a non-photo tank.

I have to drive to Atlanta to a LFS there to get much of my coral food, because my LFS will not stock Reef Nutrition or Rods food. They had one there. He is a little thin but not awful so I thought I'd take a chance & try to fatten him up (hopefully not on NPS).

 

[uhuru]

Well the good thing is you have a large SPS tank so there is plenty of food if need be. They do like to eat pods. Once he settles in a bit I'm sure he will devour the SPS. If not, he's probably too starved to recover and will die soon. Some people say they don't do much damage in large SPS tanks, but I've seen mine destroy a large frag within 2 days. They have the largest appetite I've ever seen for their size.

My advice FWIW: Train him to eat the foods that you feed the corals. They really like nutramar ova, and its a great food to use to wean them onto a commercial diet. This way when you feed the corals you feed him too. Mine eats everything that comes out of the auto feeder, so he is literally fed every hour. On top of this, I feed him finely chopped Rods food which he goes nuts for, and soaked NLS small fish pellets to make sure he gets complete nutrition. If you need any tips on training him to eat certain foods let me know, or post it in the OSFF thread.

The other benefit of keeping him full all the time is he will be less likely to destroy those gorgonians.

 

[uhuru]

BTW I strongly suggest increasing your phytoplankton dosing big time if you want to keep the sea squirt alive. I noticed a huge decline in my tunicates once I stopped dosing shellfish diet and phyto feast. When I was dosing phyto to the point where the tank was cloudy all the time, they literally doubled in size. Unfortunately it ****ed off everything else and caused a major cyano problem in my planted tank.

I've been saving up to place an order for some nanno9 live phyto from DFS as I really need to start phyto dosing again, just want to try using live phyto so there is less water fouling.

 

[fullmonti]

Nice! Go through your feeding regimate with us? Thanks. Love the Paraminabae, great picture. Glad Brian was able to help you out!

I'm still trying to get a handle on how much & which foods are best combo. The purple gorgonian the filefish sleeps in didn't open at all for a month, thought he was dead. Then one day last week he just opened up just like nothing had be going on at all. I have a red chili that hasn't opened is 3-4 weeks as well, hoping he will some day do the same. Some times if most of them are closed up & I give them the RN foods they open right up, some times nothing! NPS are very strange critters in deed!

Any way I feed 30ml of FM mix (much like Danny D mix) via LiterMeter pump, then manually 3-4 times a day 10 drops each oyster feast, arcti pods, & DT phyto, also 3-4 times daily some Brightwell zooplanktos-small & med. & reef snow. Then just before bed a cube of H2O life coral food or rotifers. All the manual stuff is a pain, one day when business is better & or my wife gets a new job I plan a mini frig. For now this will have to do.

Almost forgot I feed a chunk of frozen cyclopeeze daily too.

 

[fullmonti]

Well the good thing is you have a large SPS tank so there is plenty of food if need be. They do like to eat pods. Once he settles in a bit I'm sure he will devour the SPS. If not, he's probably too starved to recover and will die soon. Some people say they don't do much damage in large SPS tanks, but I've seen mine destroy a large frag within 2 days. They have the largest appetite I've ever seen for their size.

My advice FWIW: Train him to eat the foods that you feed the corals. They really like nutramar ova, and its a great food to use to wean them onto a commercial diet. This way when you feed the corals you feed him too. Mine eats everything that comes out of the auto feeder, so he is literally fed every hour. On top of this, I feed him finely chopped Rods food which he goes nuts for, and soaked NLS small fish pellets to make sure he gets complete nutrition. If you need any tips on training him to eat certain foods let me know, or post it in the OSFF thread.

The other benefit of keeping him full all the time is he will be less likely to destroy those gorgonians.

FWIW & NLS ?

My OSFF doesn't even look at cyclopeeze or coral food right now. Tips welcome (or would this be better on fish forum?) I do fear for my corals a bit.

Where do you guys get your nutramar ova, store even in Atlanta never heard of it.

 

[uhuru]

FWIW - for what its worth
NLS - New Life Spectrum

1st I would just get the OSFF fattened up on SPS corals, but save the dead skeletons. Then make a paste with other foods and smear it onto the SPS skeleton. Eventually work towards feeding the foods without the skeleton. Its a lot of work. I never had to go through this and don't think I have the patience for it. Another option is, move the OSFF into a bare bottom QT tank. Continue to fatten him up with SPS corals, and then just start feeding him different foods to see what he likes. You have to give multiple attempts with the food, just let it float in the tank, sink to the bottom, and eventually he will get curious and try some of it. It may take weeks before he tries something, and in the meantime you have to continue feeding SPS or SPS skeletons smeared with food on it. When you find what he likes keep feeding it to him. Then, add another item to the menu by soaking it in the juice with the food that he likes. Repeat process over and over again until he is eating the same foods you feed the corals. The water quality must be very high for him to try other foods as well.

I get my ova from salty critter since its 1 day ground shipping. You might have to call around and see if an LFS will order it in for you. Cyclopeeze takes a while for them to take. Mine took pellets before it took cyclopeeze.

 

[slapshot]

If you want to open up your chili increase the flow to it. You can also try taking a turkey baster and blast cyclops at him. wait about 4 hours and he should open. Never failed with my tough ones.

 

[fullmonti]

I started the chili in a cave, then moved him out in the open, then moved him to the strongest flow in the tank (flow is pretty good every where though), no change. Haven't tried him in tupperware with allot of food. Do you think that might work?

 

[fullmonti]

I posted the pix of osff on fish forum. They are very pessimistic.

 

[uhuru]

I think they have a good reason to be. The survival rate of these guys is just as bad as Dendronephthya, and they probably suffer from the same problems with shipping and holding times without getting the food they need. Then we put them in our tanks and expect them to adapt to a new environment and diet - some of them just don't have the energy left to do it (both OSFF and dendronephthya). This is why its so great to be able to buy them from DD, already eating prepared foods. Your chance of success is increased exponentially.

Here is a link you should check out:
http://www.ummfish.com/harlequin_files_12-31-09.php

Out of respect for others, I think I'll stop talking about OSFF in this thread and save it for the fish forum from here on

 

[fullmonti]

What a good link, thanks. I'll order some nutramar mon.

I trade frags to LFS for salt & foods. I got some different kinds of frozen foods today. Already tried chopped krill, but no good. He really did have a bit of a bulged belly tonight. I think he has gained ground since I have had him.

Also I would have tried one of these guys even if I didn't know some one (you) who had them. Your input has done nothing but increase his chances.

 

[slapshot]

I started the chili in a cave, then moved him out in the open, then moved him to the strongest flow in the tank (flow is pretty good every where though), no change. Haven't tried him in tupperware with allot of food. Do you think that might work?

I would not do the tupperware route. The stress of moving him will cause him to clamp down for a few days. Is he upside down, or at least sideways? I know some people have luck with them standing up but mine only open when they are upside down or sideways in a shaded area.