Elos Mini build thread (new photos page 14)

[Anonymous]

Got him last night. Came home from work, checked the xenia frag he's been consuming and there he was, wrapped tight around it. Removed the frag to a small container filled with tank water and plucked the worm from it with a pair of tweezers.

Wish I'd had the presence of mind to snap some pictures, but I'm afraid I didn't. The worm was around 3" long, pure white and covered in incredibly fine long bristles that were colorless with a bit of a metallic sheen to them. I could actually see xenia polyps in his gut, they were darker than it's skin and showed through. Between coloration and diet I think this guy must have been specialized as a xenia predator and I'm very relived to have gotten him out this quickly, considering my stocking plans for this tank

Go figure, though. This is the first time I've had to deal with a predatory worm since about 1986... back then it was a 30" long fireworm from some caribbean live rock in a fish only tank. And Fluffy, as he was known, at least kept the crushed coral substrate in that tank absolutely spotless.

My wife has friday off from work this week so I've taken advantage of that to place some orders for delivery then. I've got some ricordea coming from coralmorphologic, as well as an order from liveaquaria for a second frag of the octopus ink xenia (the original looks really bad; I'm doubtful it will recover from the worm's predations), an unidentified xenia (possibly umbellata), another xenia they call "thick stem", a rusty gorgonian and some red mushrooms. Meredith's decided she really likes the way they look, so I figured I'd include them for her.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I hope that's the last nasty in the tank! I don't blame you for not taking photos either. I'd be too preoccupied with disposing of said nasty. :x

 

[Anonymous]

Got both the liveaquaria and coralmorphologic orders today with no problems. CM was kind enough to throw in an extra ricordea, so I ended up with five, for just $35 +$30 overnight shipping. All of which are gorgeous. I honestly don't know why anyone in north america who's after ricordea would use a different vendor than CM, they really do have stunners and for much less than anyone else does.

The liveaquaria stuff looks good, too. The thick-stem xenia seems to be the type sold elsewhere as giant xenia... the central stalk is about 4" tall with side branches at least 1.5" in diameter. And that's with it still half closed from shipping stress. We'll see just how large it expands when it's settled in. The replacement octopus ink coral looks good, if a little skimpy. Likewise the red mushrooms, and the gorgonian looks pretty decent. Two small broken branches, but I'll try growing them as frags and see how they do. The other xenia, the unidentified one, is still too pissed off to say much about yet.

In other news, my attempts to get a hold of some purple efflatounaria seem to have hit a brick wall. I might just say the hell with it and settle for some of the blue cespitularia that's reasonably easy to get these days.

I'll try to get some photos up over the weekend. Full tank shot won't look so hot at the moment, there's too many large frag plugs cluttering things up. Been encouraging the xenia to migrate off of them, but it's slow.

 

[Anonymous]

To my considerable surprise it appears the corals I got from liveaquaria on friday came with a pair of hitchhikers... a small brittlestar and a pistol shrimp. Least I think it's a pistol shrimp, I haven't really caught more than glimpses of it inside the burrow it's made. Could be a tiny mantis too, but the quick looks I've gotten of it seem to suggest otherwise.

Assuming it is a pistol shrimp, I'm going to have to do some research. I've never kept one. WIll have to see what gobies they associate with, maybe I'll look into picking one up so they can pair.

[Edit to add: Just noticed that one of the lose ricordea I had in the tank (all are near the burrow entrance) had ended up an inch inside the burrow. Dug out a pair of steel forceps I had from the freshwater planted tanks and went into the burrow after it. Took a minute or two to get hold of it and during that time heard several loud snap/cracks. I didn't register any physical strikes on the forceps, just the noise - which adds more weight to pistol shrimp over mantis shrimp. With a mantis, I would have expected the forceps to get attacked]

 

[Anonymous]

Photo update time. Everything but the sympodium, which is being moody today and hasn't really opened First the obligatory full tank shots...

 

[Anonymous]

On to inhabitants...

 

[Anonymous]

More...

 

[Anonymous]

More...

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent! Yours seems depressingly further advanced than mine already.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Tom. It goes quickly when you're stocking with soft corals who not only don't mind a new tank, but act as biological filters themselves

In other news I was able to confirm that my newest hitchhiker is in fact a pistol shrimp, got a good look at it last night.

 

[Anonymous]

Finally got a halfway decent pic of the sympodium frag. Not great, but it's proving to be rather difficult to get a good photo of it.

 

[Anonymous]

Well Tom, looks like you're not the only one with nudibranch hitchhikers. Unfortunately the one I've found isn't as benign as yours.



Observing the tank after lights out tonight I saw this little guy on the stem of the giant xenia. Removed him with a pair of tweezers and so far I can't find any more in the tank. Probably a Tritoniidae, though I wouldn't care to guess just which species. Most are soft coral predators though, and based on where I found this guy and his camouflage it's a safe bet as to what his diet of choice is.

I'm going to have to swear off liveaquaria for xenia in the future. That's twice they've sent me a xenia with a hitchhiking obligate predator attached, and a different one each time to boot.

 

[Anonymous]

It's a good job that you're both observant and it's not a large tank, otherwise that sort of thing would be easily missed. I hope it's the only one!

I've had a similar experience, in the sense that the snails sold as good scavengers and sand bed janitors here (which translated as Nassarius through a non-scientific use of Google), which I bought two of for my tank, I'm now convinced are either not the Nassarius sold in the US or a type of whelk. They're larger and more aggressive as far as I can see (including pushing open a closed ric to force it to give up the mysis I'd just fed it). They've now been consigned to the fuge in the sump, but I think may have to be got rid of, as the whole point of the fuge for me was to produce microfauna for the main tank and I think they'll eat it dry...

 

[Anonymous]

It's a good job that you're both observant and it's not a large tank, otherwise that sort of thing would be easily missed. I hope it's the only one!

You and me both. It's not like I haven't had unpleasant hitchhikers before, but when you're setting up a tank specifically with xenia in mind it's kind of distressing to run into multiple xenia predators.

I've had a similar experience, in the sense that the snails sold as good scavengers and sand bed janitors here (which translated as Nassarius through a non-scientific use of Google), which I bought two of for my tank, I'm now convinced are either not the Nassarius sold in the US or a type of whelk. They're larger and more aggressive as far as I can see..

Take a look at http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... catid=1763 those are the jumbo nassarius making the rounds these days. The photo above of my sympodium shows one of these, off to the side, if you want to look for comparison. Hopefully your extra large nassarius are just these guys.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link. The guys I have have dark shells and darker proboscises. Plus they have a shell cap/residual shell on their body behind the shell. I'm reasonably convinced that I don't want them in the tank, or in the fuge.

Do you know of a humane way to euthanize (I can't in all good conscience try to pass them on to someone else)?

 

[Anonymous]

Do you know of a humane way to euthanize (I can't in all good conscience try to pass them on to someone else)?

Freezer method is the only thing I can suggest. Put them in a bowl of tank water and put that in the freezer. Other methods involve chemicals that I'm not sure how easy to acquire they'd be in japan.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks CJ. I will have to decide what to do. I don't like killing things without a need, but maybe I need to this time.

 

[Anonymous]

Shoot first.



Ask questions later.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link. The guys I have have dark shells and darker proboscises. Plus they have a shell cap/residual shell on their body behind the shell. I'm reasonably convinced that I don't want them in the tank, or in the fuge.

Do you know of a humane way to euthanize (I can't in all good conscience try to pass them on to someone else)?

Traditional Method : After the escargot have passed a fasting period for 5 or 6 days in wooden boxes (never in plastic unless they have a bottom well ventilated, the objectives of which is to make them dry) they should be washed in running water or with a garden spout. Next they are put in a big container a layer of escargot with a hand full of rock salt. Follow this with another layer of escargot and another hand full of rock salt, etc. The escargot will issue a lot of foam in what is called disgorging themselves. We braise them for a while and then wash them again very carefully before scalding them.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm dealing with some cyanobacteria at the moment, strictly on the sandbed in low flow areas. Fairly normal for a new tank, but I've added some chemi pure and some purigen this past weekend and will gear up to do a 50% water change this weekend.

Good news is I've found a new vendor who deals in cespitularia, efflatounaria, "yellow encrusting xenia" (really it's an anthelia) and an unidentified xeniid thats really a bit of a taxonomic mystery. I plan to put in an order for the weekend after next.