Kat's Fabulous Red Sea Max

[tomtoothdoc]

In an unexpected yet welcome turn of events, it looks like Jerry the crab likes his women like his coffee: Strong. After Lola (my other porcelain crab (I have 3) )ousted him from the BTA, he inched closer to her by the hour. I got my phone ready for video this time but it looks like a love fest to me. THEY PAIRED UP!

Video!

the video link---expecting crab mma match...:fight2: turned out to be crab porn...:bunnies:...whaddup wid dat?...:Yikes:.....lol

 

[Metrokat]

Let's talk about the Yuma from Hell.

Exhibit A: Pretty green Yuma

My friend Zeph who has tanks that make me speechless has some corals I've been coveting. Just incase you were wondering what his tanks look like, here's the 210:

Uh huh. Yeah. Anyway Zeph is more generous than is good for him and he doesn;t notice my beady greedy little eyes looking at everything and saying "my precious" under my breath all the time. I've been the recipient of some lovely baubles. Very shiny too. Like a nasuto, this yuma, red planet, superman monti. The Yuma was a maybe. Mushrooms don't like me very much so I was hesitant on taking one. I finally convinced him to give me like a baby Yuma to see how it would do in my tank.

Sunday after brunch it was frag take home time and I was excited at taking home my order from salt critters, live aquaria, drs foster and smith and the frags Zeph had prepared for me. He tells me casually over eggs and sausage that the easiest yuma to frag from his cascading mountain was this nice green small one that was attached to a bubble algae. I didn't think anything of it, I can snip that off easily enough.

Nah uh. THIS bubble algae was the size of an effin silver dollar. wide and tall. I'm talking a mofo sized piece with this cute yuma sitting all fluffy on top of it. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! That cruel man! I gave him the evil eye as best as I could while he's convincing me it's harmless. All I wanted was a little yuma, not a high maintenance effin time bomb yuma! JEEZE LOUISE!

So I took the thing home and looked at it from every angle. I said I'm going to throw it away and tell him it died. His brilliant idea was to pop it before putting it in the tank. :blink: I ended up using a new blade to carefully fillet the yuma off the bubble algae 'plug'. Put the poor yuma in a little bit of tank water with lugols for a bit then i glued it to a piece of rubble laying around and carefully laid it in my pico which has very gentle flow.

And that is how the yuma from hell ended up in my tank. Thanks Zeph.

 

[Metrokat]

the video link---expecting crab mma match...:fight2: turned out to be crab porn...:bunnies:...whaddup wid dat?...:Yikes:.....lol

Better than snail porn IMO, that stinks.

 

[Metrokat]

The Story of Au

My love of yellow corals and fish also lends itself to clams. Meeting Zeph, who I refer to as the clam man and more recently the clamnapper, I got sucked into the world of clams with his giant 20 and 30 incher T.Gigas and other miscellaneous clams. He's got an addiction and it's infectious. At first I resisted getting a clam at this stage because the tank was young, but I just realized that the tank is 4 1/4 months old already! So lately I found myself looking daily on divers den. I fell in love with a super gold squamosa which was always out of stock. Now those are mostly beige and tan IRL, the lighting makes it orangy or yellowish. I would never have known that had I not met Zeph. A gold Maxima however, is a true yellow, and also almost never seen: another thing I would not have known if I had not met Zeph.

So I was at my fav LFS yesterday and I saw a darling little yellow clam along with the usual blue ones, all croceas. One XL "gold" squamosa. I took a picture of the little yellow guy and sent it off to Zeph. We were on the phone 30 seconds later. "That's a maxima!" he says. (you have to understand how excited this man gets at the thought of maximas!). I think in that case it is $270 according to one of the 1000 sticky notes on the board above this tank, which I'm not going to pay. But anyway, I call Pat over who I usually work with at the store. And he says "That's a Maxima".

I hold my breath, say a little prayer and ask the price. He reads the same sign I had and says hmm that's $70 but for you Kat, dyu want it? I'll do $55. As Zeph would say. The clam was calling out my name. And so without further jabber. Here's Au, a Gold Maxima!

At the store (the bitty one in the back)

Snuck up on the tank late night to take this crappy phone pic with a flash

And today with lights on and after Au has attached

I'm worried about starving him so I asked Zeph if he would mind being a foster clam parent. He said I wouldn;t get that gold Maxima back. CLAMNAPPER!

 

[Metrokat]

What is a Rabbit doing in a Fish Tank??!

SMS
Me: 6:52 AM
Zeph: What's wrong!!?? 7:56 AM
Zeph: Don't tell me the clam croaked 7:57 AM
Me: He moved to the substrate and attached himself there. This place has low light. 8:01 AM
Zeph: Leave her alone she is fine trust me 8:23 AM
Zeph: Don't you dare try to move her light is fine they don't need as much as everyone thinks. Tan/gold need the least amount of light. It wants to be there that's why it moved 8:41 AM
Me: okay. My buddy vinnys crocea did the same thing and then died a few days later. 8:42 AM
Zeph: Croce as are more difficult than maximas. If your worried just give it to me 8:45 AM
Me: CLAMNAPPER 8:48 AM
Zeph: Mua ha ha ha haaaaaa! 8:49 AM

Emails
Kat: see pic of where he went
Zeph: wasnt she high up on the rockwork? She couldnt have "walked" down there. Did she fall of the clif and just straighten up?
KAt: she was a good foot to 14 inches higher up that this new location. she had attached on the high ledge too. where she is now she could not have fallen there, it is under the ledge so she'd have to fly there or do like a u-turn under the ledge.
Zeph: There is no way in a million years it walked down that cliff...no friggin way i dont believe it. Never saw anything like that in all my clam years. Especially after it attached it wont detach. I think something messed with it last night, and knocked it around, but i doubt you have anything big enough in there to do that so i am perplexed. i would guess snails bull dozed her off the cliff...has to be.... If you are SURE it walked down there on its own, and i dont believe it, then leave it there. If you think it fell put her back up on the rock work. Your call reef gurl
Zeph: I confess. I snuck in last night to steal it, but something scared me and I dropped it.
-Clamnapper
Kat: HA HA! must be my guard cat.

Phone Calls
Tring Tring
Zeph: What dyu want!
Kat: Is this the clamnapper?
Zeph: Yeah you caught me, what's up?
Kat: I don;t know what to do, the clam is attached to the rock in the substrate
Zeph: They're little threads, wiggle it and gently remove it, should be fine
Kat: okay
Zeph: You have epoxy putty?
Kat: YA
Zeph: make a cradle for it
Kat: okay

SMS
Me: Scared to cut off its foot. 6:51 PM
Zeph: Wiggle it and pull gently it will come off 7:23 PM
Me: I did, I also used a very sharp blade. Its done but I feel terrible. I'm going to cry if it dies. You have tissues? 7:28 PM
Zeph: Lol...it will be fine I am proud of you 7:32 PM
Me: I need a scotch 7:43 PM

Me: OMG! I'm watching this clam hop out of the cradle again! This is unbelievable, its a bunny rabbit! Ima have to rename it bunny. 9:48 PM
Zeph: Lol...super healthy that's funny . 9:49 PM


Me: Mornin'. I was up all night checking on bugs the bunny clam. She started hopping around, got some pictures. Likes the sand the best, u sure she's not an imposter maxima? 7:07 AM
Zeph: Morning...It must be a HipHopus in disguise 9:08 AM
Me: just sent you pictures

Emails
Zeph: I figured out what your clam is doing?
Kat: Oh?
Zeph: Its trying to make its way over to my house

 

[Metrokat]

Oh, here's GEOWGE (no, not George, GEOWGE, like you're from Mississippi). He's very little and his skin is very thin so you see his tummy a lot. Not sure how to fix that, he is happy though as witnessed by his color. He still hides more than he is out and about. The clownfish are also on that side of the tank and sometimes chase him. Not sure how to get him to find another spot to live in on the other side of the tank or this rock that he likes.

Since I've been stalking the tank for my wayward clam at night, I have caught sight of those evil aliens. Amphipods. They have been congregating in a group on the head of my feather duster and I'm pissed off. The duster is alive but clearly stressed, I've been feeding live phyto daily to keep it alive. Not sure why the amphipods are eating at the duster.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

I've been feeding live phyto daily to keep it alive. Not sure why the amphipods are eating at the duster.

ummm....they're probably having a phyto buffet at the duster?:eat:

 

[Metrokat]

ummm....they're probably having a phyto buffet at the duster?:eat:

Nawwwww, lol. The phyto is poured into the tank for everybody during the day.

 

[Metrokat]

I went late to the swap, I stayed barely a couple of hours. I successfully resisted Jason Fox. He was calling out my wallets name (PRADA PRADA PRADA ) and his baby girl gave me the cutest smile as I chit chatted with Mr. Fox, he's very sweet. YESSS! I am woman! I am strong. muhahahahah.
As for my purchases, 90% of which were pre-swap buys....
omgomgomg omgomgomg

Is it wrong to tear up when you see polyp extension? :huh:

Zeph was like a zombie, Dr Mac was getting coffee when Zeph walked in and we said hello to Dr MAc who immediately mentioned his clam tank. Zeph was like a zombie after that. He came home with like 5 clams??

Here's Ms. Jelly and Me:

 

[Metrokat]

What did I get?! okay!

1. Pink Birdsnest mini colony
2. Green Pocillopora mini colony
3. Tubbs Yellow flesh purple polyp bird
4. Pink pocillopora mini colony
5. Bird Of Paradise
6. Ponape
7. Kings Ransom Zoanthids
8. Orange Papaya Cloves
9. Green Jeans Acan Echinata
10. Gold Coin Leptastrea
11. Sympodium
12. Minty Pipe Organ
13. Yuma
14. Yellow Fiji leather

I think that covers it.

 

[Metrokat]

Fluffy like a pillow! This is my brand new pink bird colony

Pipe Organ coral

Bird of Paradise (fell off the plug)

Pocilliopora colony, gift from Zeph!

Yuma (was supposed to be ruby red but I'm not complaining)

Yellow Fiji leather (have been wanting one of these for about a year, needs to shed its skin tho)

Ze frag rack. Angled-Top down shot of Kings Ransom Zoanthids

Green Jeans Acan Echinata on the end there, you can see the orange papaya cloves too

Angled-Top down of the Tubbs yellow flesh purple polyp bird (so far it's in disguise) and the pipe organ coral (the rest of the frags are old and yes I have like 5 poker star frags on there, I fragged my colony)

Other pics:
Blasto Wellsi went from a fluffy mound to this after adding a phos reactor. How cute is Geowge.

Happy ORA Bird

I think I can un-hide Bunny the clam since the clam napper has two gold maximas of his own now

 

[Metrokat]

History!

For those that have read Mr. Albert J Thiels books and attended conferences where he was a speaker, you know that he retired from the hobby more than a decade ago after health issues forced an early retirement on him.

I am deeply honored and privileged to announce that he has been graciously engaging in conversation with me on facebook and today has been posting on my build thread on another community forum.

If you are a fan and wish to interact with this legend, you can find him on facebook or PM me for a link.

Kat

 

[REEF MANIA]

Amazing looking tanks and great photography work. You must have a real good camera or your a professional photographer. Simply beautiful!!!

 

[Metrokat]

Amazing looking tanks and great photography work. You must have a real good camera or your a professional photographer. Simply beautiful!!!

Thank you so much!

 

[Metrokat]

New FTS

 

[tomtoothdoc]

simply gorgeous. one of the nicest cube(ish) around.

what is that red algae in the left corner of the pic?

 

[stooops718]

New FTS

Whats that box on the left side front?

 

[Metrokat]

simply gorgeous. one of the nicest cube(ish) around.

what is that red algae in the left corner of the pic?

Thank you!
That is red grape. Slow growing but beautiful

 

[Metrokat]

Whats that box on the left side front?

You know I'm not sure what that is, it seems to be a reflection because there is nothing physically in that side except for my powerhead which is round.

Or you could be seeing the edge of my magnet cleaner.

 

[stooops718]

you know i'm not sure what that is, it seems to be a reflection because there is nothing physically in that side except for my powerhead which is round.

Or you could be seeing the edge of my magnet cleaner.

This thing