The Magical Mangrove Pico! :D

[Jacob042426]

Hi, im jacob and this is my first reef tank.

(pic was taken in the morning, so everything was closed up!)
It has been running for 3 months and is doing quite well!
hardware list:
jbj 3g picotope
stock light (for now)
ac70 fuge mod
theo 25 w heater
coralife digital thermometer probe
3 lbs of fancy Fiji live rock
some dry coral rock and skeleton from grandma's
5 lbs "super naturals" black sand

stock list:
2 sexy shrimp
1 green ricordia
little piece of gsp
a mini colony of green/brown palys
red mushroom
emerald crab
8 mangroves
chaeto
hh brittle stars
bristle worms
lots of pods
A sand sifting star (bongo food)
and a bongo shrimp!

to do:
order ledtric trupop
Get an rkl
Make a lid
Make a pvc mame overflow
Get more chaeto
Get more corals!
Prepare for a clam
get a new stand!
Order brs rock.

 

[Jacob042426]

Fed heavily yesterday of my food that I invented, and I did an 80% water change today.

 

[brandon429]

Jacob I think you might be my buddy from nano reef.com!

That tank you have built looks nice. The starfish is a particular challenge...they burrow through sandbeds eating the microfauna that live in the bed

Your feeding approach however has some contribution...if you will take time to spot feed up under him where the tube feet have direct access to protein bits, then its possible. The water change you mentioned, a huge amount matching specific gravity and temp, following a blast feeding, is a proven method that's much easier for a pico tank to run vs a large tank

Once a week, or two 50% changes a week with a mini blast feed right before might work for that star

The tricky part is they can be eating what seems like enough and still be starving, for a lifespan of a few months if underfed

Nice pics!

 

[Jacob042426]

Brandon!
Yes this is jacob from NR! My friend convinced me to make an account here so I figured why not make a thread too!
I only have the star as food for my bongo shrimp, but I do plan on keeping good care of it and gut loading it well. Every time I feel the bongo shrimp is hungry, I will rip off part of the star's legs and put it in front of the bongo's lair.
Here is my planned maintainence schedule:
Tues.-feed the 2 sexy shrimp a "shrimp pellet" each
Wed.- 10% water change
Fri.-feed tank heavily with my special "shrimp mixture" food
Sat.- 70-80% water change.
How does that sound?

 

[brandon429]

Sounds awesome I thought it was just a shrimp missing a leg, didn't know he was dinner lol!
Sounds pretty advanced, i've never seen a bongo shrimp please post a pic

 

[Jacob042426]

Here is an old video I made on my phone.

 

[StephLionfish]

Cool vid. I love Bongo Shrimp
Tank looks nice. Since you already have mangroves, have you considered making this tank a macro reef? I keep soft corals in with my macroalgae in my 20g. Just a thought.
Water changes sound a little extreme. I'd either cut back on feeding, or do smaller, more frequent water changes.

 

[Jacob042426]

Thank you stephlionfish!
No macros in this tank in this tank, this is my coral tank.
I am planning an angler and macro tank, so this will be my reef.
I also have another pico that I might make a thread for soon.

 

[TundraGuy]

Hey man I need a FTS i like the idea of a Magical Mangrove Pico. that sounds cool.

 

[Jacob042426]

Thank you tundraguy! Ill get more pictures up soon!

 

[monkeydad]

I went looking for more bongo shrimp on you tube and ended up in the weird section watching a botfly larvae extraction.... Man I hate it when that happens.

 

[Jacob042426]

The tank is now bare bottom.

 

[StephLionfish]

I went looking for more bongo shrimp on you tube and ended up in the weird section watching a botfly larvae extraction.... Man I hate it when that happens.

I veered into the My Strange Addiction Clips part of YouTube last night... Watched a woman with the addiction to drink her own pee, and another woman who ate couches....


Anyways, Do we get an update picture of the tank? :rollface:

 

[bwidner]

I would remove the starfish, while it takes forever for them to starve but they will, even in my 28g I need to spot feed mine to keep it from starting to shrink and show signs of lack of food

 

[Jacob042426]

ugly pic from the morning:

 

[Jacob042426]

i was banned from nano-reef until june 19 for some reason that i dont know....

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I know why.

PS Bongo Shrimp will not eat sand sifting stars or any other large bat stars for that matter. Only micro brittle stars and small astern stars. (I mean maybe if you rip the star up)

I kept my many Bongo Shrimp with a sand sifting star for 3 years and they never even looked at it. I still have the star today.