dshnarw BIOTOPE

[dshnarw]

My mom's got one, too, and if I'm remembering correctly, it smells... bad...

 

you are, and it does.

 

I can remember waking up to the smell of it across the house at Amber's grandmother's...Luckily, the lack of care for mine has rendered it bloomless thus far.

[lancer99]

Daniel, are you sure that's an Actinia sp.? I thought they were all temperate.

 

Hey, be nice to your Epiphyllum oxypetalum. There's something cool about a family of plants that develops all kinds of mechanisms to deal with drought...then turns into an epiphyte and depends on lots of moisture.

 

BTW, I threw a few leftover pieces of the Halodule roots into my 40G tank, and now, three months later, I'm seeing sprouts! So be patient

 

-R

[dshnarw]

Daniel, are you sure that's an Actinia sp.? I thought they were all temperate.

 

Hey, be nice to your Epiphyllum oxypetalum. There's something cool about a family of plants that develops all kinds of mechanisms to deal with drought...then turns into an epiphyte and depends on lots of moisture.

 

BTW, I threw a few leftover pieces of the Halodule roots into my 40G tank, and now, three months later, I'm seeing sprouts! So be patient

 

-R

 

 

To be honest, I'm not sure its A. equina, as I'm not as familiar with non-clown-hosting genera, but I've put it up for ID on several sites, and thats the one that keeps coming back. As I understand it, I can only know for sure by counting the tentacles, which is essentially impossible (I KNOW of 140 tentacles, and I couldn't see a row). But, A. equina is both temperate and tropical (found from England all the way to South Africa), and a tide pool species, so it should be fairly tolerant of temperature changes. Even if it isn't A. equina, I'm fairly confident that it's a temperate species just by morphology. We'll see how well it adapts to colder temps when I get it in the tank with the chiller and start dropping the temp. If it doesn't do well, I'll stick it in some other tank.

 

I'll let you have the Epiphyllum. As much as I like plants, I just can't gain a fondness for this one... but it got a good watering today, so it'll be growing runners everywhere next week.

 

I might end up with seagrass EVERYWHERE! I missed some pieces in the sand which ended up in the 2.5 pico, so maybe I'll get some sprouts in that tank as well! Thanks again!!!

Edited February 1, 2008 by dshnarw

[dshnarw]

Posted it over in my coldwater thread earlier, but I should put it here for documentation:

 

I removed the temperate anemone species and put it into my new coldwater setup so I'm back to a true biotope:

 

[gastone]

Daniel, you've got to update your sig to include the new anemone. I've got a nice orangeish/reddish rock anemone (Epicystis crucifer) that I've had for a few years. If you ever want one, let me know. I've never split it (and never heard of it being done), but why not give it a shot. If you are ever down in the area, let me know and we can do it.

 

Garrett.

[gastone]

Here's an old pic from a few years ago. At the time the crucifer was hosting an Amphiprion ephippium. The crucifer was spawning at the time and she was feasting. Sorry bout the pic qualitiy.

 

 

The white balance wasn't set on the camera. The colors are quite nice on the anemone.

Edited February 3, 2008 by gastone

[dshnarw]

Daniel, you've got to update your sig to include the new anemone. I've got a nice orangeish/reddish rock anemone (Epicystis crucifer) that I've had for a few years. If you ever want one, let me know. I've never split it (and never heard of it being done), but why not give it a shot. If you are ever down in the area, let me know and we can do it.

 

Garrett.

 

I do need to update... Looks like I have something to do while watching the pregame stuff today.

 

 

There was a discussion a while back on nano-reef about E. crucifer propagation, and we eventually decided not to try it because most species that get cut are natural fission splitters, but E. crucifer isn't. Seems like someone had tried a few times and none of them healed up. I think it's a pedal laceration species, so you could possibly try nipping a piece of the foot off, but those types are much harder to grow out (takes a lot more effort). I wonder how hard they are to coordinate spawning and get a few babies to pop up - haven't read anything about anemone spawning in aquaria, but it seems like a large enough system with no predators and only natural filtration could do it.

 

It's a nice looking nem - if I had a place to put it, I would take you up on the effort, at least.

[gastone]

Gotcha. FWIW the "bornemans" split by pedal fissure as well. Was accidently aquascaping last night and ripped one in half (oops). We'll see what comes of it.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the crucifer. I'd be temped to pick up a cheap one (they can be had for a few dollars) and slice at it, but not this one.

 

G.

[dshnarw]

Gotcha. FWIW the "bornemans" split by pedal fissure as well. Was accidently aquascaping last night and ripped one in half (oops). We'll see what comes of it.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the crucifer. I'd be temped to pick up a cheap one (they can be had for a few dollars) and slice at it, but not this one.

 

G.

 

 

Ouch - hope that heals up okay. A guy in California has been splitting the borneman nems by dropping them in skimmate (he found it worked on accident). I wonder if it could also work on E. crucifer...

 

Are there any signs that the borneman nem is about to split?

[gastone]

Heck, I might split if dropped into skimmate.

 

When mine were about to split the foot would twist up, almost like a dish towel that's being wrung.

 

G.

[toastiireefs]

Posted it over in my coldwater thread earlier, but I should put it here for documentation:

 

I removed the temperate anemone species and put it into my new coldwater setup so I'm back to a true biotope:

 

 

those are some nice..... boulders..?

[dshnarw]

those are some nice..... boulders..?

 

Guess I should explain that...

 

I did some research on Vinalhaven Island, Maine as an undergrad, and these are some of the rocks I picked up from there in the tidal zone. Fairly typical for coldwater intertidal areas in the US. The Pacific Northwest looks pretty much the same, but the rocks are all black (basalt), whereas the rocks from Vinalhaven are mainly granites. "Live rock" as we know it in tropical systems, is pretty lousy for bacterial colonization, so I need to work out a HOB or canister filtration system before too much longer

 

A few of the areas I worked in (the darkest areas are underwater in high tide):

 

 

 

[dshnarw]

To update on the weirdo nem: It is A. equina. Roozen's called up their supplier in Ghana(??) and confirmed the species for me.

 

Waiting intently for baby pooping action now

[dshnarw]

ok, real update:

 

Since adding the two huge monti colonies, and another decent-sized chunk to keep the Heteractis away from the less hardy corals, along with the clam, my calcium and alkalinity is going down like crazy. I'm dosing about 10 mils each of Part A and B a day to keep up. But growth has exploded in the past week, from nearly everything in the tank - including the Neomeris, which has nearly doubled the number of stalks it has put out, and the Caulerpa, which has taken hold and putting runners out everywhere

 

First, the new FTS, including the lights:

 

I added the isolation unit to trap minis that I'd caught on the move for easier propagation. I think I have 6 trapped right now.

 

The clam has grown quite a bit. The second shot shows the new growth in the last week (it had no white growth areas when I first got it, and didn't show any signs of growing until last week):

 

Sargassum has been growing nicely...but has an aiptasia stuck in it <_<. Will have to kill soon. All sorts of coralline has started populating the leaves.

 

 

 

 

Monti wall:

 

Side shots from my chair:

[zotzer]

Looking awesome.....seems to be coming along quickly. Can't believe how that macro has taken off!

 

Tracy

[dshnarw]

Looking awesome.....seems to be coming along quickly. Can't believe how that macro has taken off!

 

Tracy

 

 

Thanks "Production" will slow considerably after a Valentines day frag swap I'm involved in - then it's down to watching and enjoying while I work on the coldwater setup

 

Just to emphasize the macros, I compiled a "time lapse" series of FTS from 1/15, 1/26, 2/06 (oddly...11 days apart). ALL of the macros have gone crazy - Sargassum, Neomeris, and both Caulerpa. The montis have grown really well since then as well.

 

[dshnarw]

Did another 20-ish person frag swap for Valentines day...here's what I ended up with:

 

#1

 

#2

 

#3

 

 

 

 

 

And some individual shots.

 

From #1:

green cap/green polyps:

 

kiwi confusa:

 

purple cap/purple polyps:

 

green cap/blue polyps:

 

 

From #2:

green digi 1:

 

green digi 2:

 

pink (green) mille:

 

teal staghorn:

 

 

From #3:

green pocci:

 

pokerstar:

 

forest fire digi:

[toastiireefs]

wow those are nice

!

i got some nice zoos/paly

and something unidentified thus far... hasnt really opened

[MOT]

beautiful tank! very natural looking and unique. please keep the pics coming as progress continues!

[dshnarw]

beautiful tank! very natural looking and unique. please keep the pics coming as progress continues!

 

Thanks

 

Not much progress as of late. I'm getting ready to sell/trade the Heteractis, and replace it with a small clown-hosting carpet. I should be able to keep a small one for 3-4 months before it outgrows the space I have for it, then sell it and buy another.

 

I found a "yellow coris wrasse" or yellow wrasse, or canary wrasse, whatever you want to call it this afternoon. They have been documented in Singapore according to fishbase, and I thought it'd be a good "utility" fish to protect the corals and clams, add some color to the tank, and give my female clarkii a run for her money. It's much too fast for pics so far :( but doing well in the tank, already picking at the rocks.

 

And lastly, I found a big monti "kiwi" confusa colony yesterday:

 

 

 

AND!!!! on top of everything else, I walked into the living room this morning to find my yellow clown goby sitting in the display again. I'm still not sure how it made it back out of the sump, where he's been for the last few weeks or so. But, it looked no worse for wear, so I can't imagine it went through the pump. So, much as I don't like to name my fish...Houdini he is.

Edited February 24, 2008 by dshnarw

[dshnarw]

Got the camera working again, so a few more pics...

 

Another shot of the new monti, somewhat better this time:

 

This brain is about to go up for sale, if I can figure out what to ask for it(?). It's about the size of my hand, maybe bigger when fully open, so I don't have enough room for it anymore.

 

My brown monti digi has gotten a nice purple base, and is growing incredibly fast:

 

Some of the zoanthids, can't convince them to spread though:

 

Pink plate has grown, which I can only tell because it's becoming more asymmetrical:

 

Hermit nem:

 

The other green brain:

 

A couple of cross-tank shots from the left side of the tank:

 

One shot that captured the wrasse:

 

And Little Houdini, on his favorite perch:

[dshnarw]

So I was trying to take pics, and the lights went out while the timer was set...and actually ended up with a couple of okay nighttime shots with the moonlights on. Apparently, you have to give it enough light to focus through the first shot on the timer, then move the light away for the second shot. Makes no sense, but it's much better than all my previous attempts combined, but I still gotta figure out the weird pixel noise (see the Adin red pic...) and the odd white spots.

 

Anyway - here's the first few I tried:

 

Halomitra

 

Hermit nem

 

Red/yellow maxi carpet

 

Adin red maxi carpet

 

Brain

[jason the filter freak]

the clam looks awesome, i'm glad you went with the black sand

[dshnarw]

Thanks Jason. Me too - it makes the livestock stand out nicely.

 

 

 

I HAS NEW CAMERA :D

 

I've only had it for a few hours now, so still at the bottom end of the learning curve, but this is what I have so far:

 

adin red maxi (x3):

 

nice macroalgae, aiptasia is (hopefully) dead after another kalk attack

 

Houdini's perch:

 

brain:

 

sargassum:

 

green digi:

 

clam:

 

baby torch frags:

 

purple-tip monti wall:

 

poor attempt at artsy:

[gmubeach]

Nice new camra shots:)