Happy Pics

[ufcd98]

Three comparison pics will follow, each showing a picture from Sept 2003 on top and a picture from Nov 2003 on the bottom, to demonstrate some changes with my 10gal eclipse twinlamp topped tank. I'm a complete novice, but the advice and discussions on this board, esp. from matt and brandon, have really given me a lot of joy with it.
steve

 

[ufcd98]

The brain had damage to it, where the arrow points it was bare spine. It's filled over, and gotten bigger.

 

[ufcd98]

The yellow polyps have thinned out a bit, and turned more of a brownish color. Note the three polyps that have grown in the last two months.

 

[ufcd98]

And in the whole tank view, you can see the flame angel in the more recent view; it's the reason i'm moving to a 40g long tank soon.

 

[brandon4291]

Yes, that appears to be nice coral tissue regeneration. Have you posted a recent update pic of this tank?

Those pictures are striking by the way, if you have not entered them in a species photo contest in Sharkky and NKT's Photography forum you should! If I had a camera with that resolution, I would never leave the house and would compile gigs of pics.

 

[ufcd98]

it's just a canon powershot 70. about 250. nothing fancy.
thanks for the response.
steve

 

[reefann]

Do you think that the flame angel may be part of the polyps thinning out.
Just wondering
Nice shots and tank
I like the look of that bright red flame angel in that tank!
JJ
BTW Do you feel the angel is hard to keep in the ten gallon? Is he constantly pacing or just wandering around, if that makes sense.
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[brandon4291]

Steve, this tank is bright and nice. I see purples, reds, yellows and blues everywhere, not a spot of bad algae (you may have some but we can't see it!) and incredibly healthy corals. This is more than enough to get in our focus thread, and now is a great time to uplink this paricular tank. How'd you like to hang out on top for a while? Besides, I think everyone will agree we'd like to discuss some of your husbandry approaches, they obviously work.

 

[ufcd98]

I am totally blown away that you'd sticky me for a bit. My sum total maintenance/husbandry is:
1. Change 2 gallons of saltwater every other week
2. change the carbon/floss cartridge when changing the water.
3. put a frozen cube of Hikari bloodworms in every other day.

I purchase premade saltwater fom my LFS, which i'm guessing he doses with some calcium.

I'm totally lucky with a psycho mandarin that eats food. The flame doesn't eat anything in the tank near as i can tell, only the food. I'm convinced that as my tiny flame grows, he'll need a bigger tank (the 40long is already in the garage, and the stand is being made) my lights are a twin-lamp eclipse, 1 actinic and 1 10k. a powerhead in back creates a circular swirl. i'll take some pics today of the ricordia, the hairy mushroom, and maybe catch the mandarin.

this forum is the absolute best, and i'm the last tank which should be featured as i do absolutely nothing. The eclipse system is tight enough i don't even top off or anything. This tank has finally proven to me that leaving your tank alone and keeping things simple is the best way. Nature has things figured out, and doesn't need us to keep screwing things up.

steve

 

[reefann]

HMM
The Mandarin eats the food?
I doubt your saltwater has calcium dosed in it. Premade saltwater is at about 450 ppm without dosing.
How long has your mandarin and angel been in the tank?
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[ufcd98]

the mandarin has been in since mid sept, so about 3 months. the flame angel only for one month.

 

[ufcd98]

oh - and i've only actually seen the mandarin eat the blood worms. the occasional formula one or angel formula the i've not actually witnessed being eaten by the mandarin.

 

[brandon4291]

It will be nice to see how the mandarin fares after a year or so, I'm willing to bet it can live solely on bloodworms as long as it will continue to eat them! You have good luck as far as fish behavior goes

B

 

[ufcd98]

two pics of the mandarin

 

[ufcd98]

i know people say urchins tear up your rock, but mine doesn't and he totally eats up algae and crap.

 

[ufcd98]

incidentally, the big lump of rock above the brain coral (in whole tank pic above) is some type of clam/mollusk/bivalve thing that's still alive. I cycled the tank with that rock, and it still slams closed when i disturb it. i love nanos that you can cycle rock and do enough water changes to not have any die-off.
steve

 

[brandon4291]

Sounds like Perna Viridis, Matt is having success with them I think. Neat creatures and free hitchhikers!

Also we should get some more opinons about using bloodworms as a sole food source, I'd be interested in seeing how they maintain Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and the OM3 fatty-acids that are specifically required in marine fish diets. Obviously yours is working well and I myself have raised scores of freshwater fish on the worms, but last nite I was wanting John Brandt's opinion on the long-term affects of the diet. I suppose there would be none if he also willingly ate some marine preparations every once in a while. IMO, bloodworms are a great staple diet for fish.

B

 

[ufcd98]

certo.
also, the hikari version of blood worms is super clean, and claims to be "vitamin soaked"
i assume (as i'm a casual guy) your fancy scientific name refers to what i'm calling an urchin?

steve

 

[brandon4291]

I was meaning the clam/bi-valve thing on the LR. There have been some recent articles about their success and many currently have them such as Matt. Nice greenish/bluish shells or mantle I thought...

 

[warloc4326]

nice picture of that green mandarin.

thom