The Clownfish Clutch Blooms

I did, indeed, check in with the Clowns tonight, about an hour and a half after "lights out".  I could tell just by their behavior it was not a typical night.

A typical night in the life of a Clownfish (at least in Jax's Reef) mostly entails sleeping within the anemone's tentacles.

Tonight, the Clowns were busy tending to their eggs.

I grabbed a video.  Very cool.  As the Clowns tend to their clutch (left), larvae can be seen swimming in the foreground (right).

I can't wait to get set up for the rearing of Clownfish larvae so that these precious lives do not go to waste.  Already, due to the running filtration and power heads, some dead larvae were witnessed even this early.

I'll see if I can get any videos in the morning.  The larvae are supposed to have a yolk sac that contains about 12 hours of energy reserves.  As long as some can avoid the filtration and power heads, I may be able to get some daylight shots before they become food.

Further Thoughts on Breeding

I was doing a little reading tonight on Clownfish - more specifically the various stages of their egg patch, or clutch.

Prior to tonight, I thought that when the clutch turned black that the clutch was no longer viable.  Generally in life, even in saltwater life, black is bad.  However with clutches that is not the case.

I noticed today that the clutch had started to gain a silvery appearance.  That, too, is a good sign.  It's also a sign that hatching is near.  Here's a snapshot I took tonight of the clutch:

It got me thinking again about breeding - nothing as grandiose as my prior plans have been.  Just a tank or two, some simple flow and/or filtration.

Off to do more research.  I think the bulk of my learning will be on what is required (monetarily and physically) to raise the food required to fuel the raising of the fish.

The eggs are supposed to hatch within a few hours of "lights out", which was about an hour ago.  I didn't bother turning off filtration or power heads since I'm in no way prepared to take care of the larvae.  But I think I'll go check on them periodically tonight to see if any larvae will greet my flashlight.

Picture Update

It's been two or three weeks since the last pictures.  Here's how things are going...

Mushroom Update

Mushrooms Before	Mushrooms Current
Here is a comparison of the mushrooms.  If you look closely, you can see how they've increased in density.  Within the past few weeks, heads have begun to "pop off" or remove themselves from the colony.  About four so far have done this.  I've assisted each of the four heads in relocating in the hopes they will re-attach.

This is the rock immediately below the mushrooms.  The first two head that removed themselves were put here, but they ended up falling inside a hole in the rock when they closed up.  I'm not sure if they are both OK, but one pops out mid morning through this hole.

This is the fourth head that removed itself from the colony.  There was a little too much flow around the third head for it to attach in the same place, so I moved it up and to the right of the current colony.

This was the third head to remove itself.  This had no hands-on intervention by me.  It found a slow-flow area and was able to attach itself.  This rock is below the current colony and up in front on the tank.

Anthelia Update

Anthelia Before	Anthelia Current
Not much to say about the Anthelia except it, too, has gotten more dense. I suppose it's only a matter of time before they start removing themselves from the colony and setting up shop elsewhere in the tank.

Star Polyp Update

Star Polyp Before	Star Polyp Current
This may not be a fair comparison - the image on the left is effected my a majano anemone (just right of center) and a few aiptasia (left edge).  There are still a few aiptasia on the current photo but their placement does not effect the polyps as much as before.  I don't know if I necessary noticed this coral spreading, but in the places it is, it certainly looks better.  Also picture at the bottom left of the rock, a calciferous worm has taken up residence.  That is the horizontally running "white tube" just to the left of the bottom-most cluster.

Neomeris annulata update

N. annulata	N. annulata Current
The single "seedling" bleached out after the first picture was taken.  It happened during a time when the power filter was put back into use.  This tells me that nitrates need to be at or below 20 to have this algae.  The current picture isn't the best, but it's amount of spread can be distinguished by color alone.  Nitrates run no higher than 20 in the current setup.

Here's how the anemone is doing.  The male clown can be seen underneath and to the left tending to the eggs they've recently laid.

This particular rock has a sponge that is getting bigger.  It's also accumulating a lot of pineapple sponges.

Stress Graph Adjustment

Just made an adjustment to the Water Change Stress Graph (or whatever I call it).

Instead of nitrates at 40 being 100%, I've adjusted it to max out at a nitrate level of 20.  That change will help going forward, but makes my historical graphs look horrible with those "200%" spikes.

I did a quick search to see the what levels of nitrates stress coral and anemones.  The answer was 20.  That's why the lowered maximum.

BTW, noticed another dead hermit a couple days ago.  Another one bites the dust.

Build it and They Will Come

Been a while since my last post.  I've mostly been hanging out at the Reef Tank forums... learning.  So I suppose a few updates are in order:

My single Stomatella now has company.  I've noticed at least three others.

Since turning my power filter into a chaeto house, water quality seems more stable.  Sure, there are nitrates, but they aren't increasing on a daily basis.  And it's been just over a week since the last water change.  I'm not stretching it to see how far I can go, but I'd also like to not have to blow through 50 pounds of salt in 6 weeks, either.

The last time I removed the power filter I noticed a single Neomeris annulata.  Then when incorporating the power filter once again, the annulata seemed to bleach and nearly go away.  This time I have a small mat of them.  I'll get pictures up sometime soon.

Within the past couple of days I've had another algae bloom.  Mostly cyanobacteria.  So any pictures before the next water change will reflect such.

I'm down to feeding the anemone once a week.  I generally give it three or four freeze-dried krill.  I'm basing this on the amount of krill I found during it's last waste expulsion.  It could probably eat every 5 days, but that's not the easiest thing to keep track of, so once a week it is.

I'm also noticing the beginning of purple and green coraline algae spots on the back glass.  I tend to neglect the back glass hoping that a coral will attach and use it as a growing surface.  Some corals seem like they only grow on the purple coraline, and others... well, I can't really see their perch like I can with star polyps so I can't really tell.

Lost another Dwarf Hermit Crab three days ago.  Not sure why.  Perhaps a lack of food?  I doubt it, but I don't know for sure.  The others (down to 6 from 10) seem to all be doing fine.  I don't know if I blogged about it, but a couple weeks ago I went and got 6 new larger shells for them.  At least three have changed shells.  I know for sure two of the larger ones have the new shells, and the smallest has move into one of the discarded shells.

I'm still working on charting water quality time frames comparing a power filter tank with a non-power filter tank.  It's a work in progress and will be published when results have sufficient data.

Running without the power filter (and a sump) definitely has it's drawbacks, but I'm learning to live with some particulates in the water.  They do eventually settle (over a few days vs a few hours), but are still in the tank waiting to be stirred up again.  I think that's why I'm letting the cyano and other algaes get more of a foothold than normal.  I'm hoping the algae, when removed, will take some of the settled particulates with them.

Other than the process of planning a benthic sump (which will obviously be documented), nothing much else going on except tank watching and forum reading.  I'll see what I can do to get pictures up soon.

Saltwater Aquarium Advice

I was going through some older posts of mine on TheReefTank.com forums and thought I'd share some advice I was giving another person who is just a couple of months behind me:

Originally Posted by 46bowreef
I'm just so worried about getting things and they die I have some mollies in there now to serve the purpose of the damsels so i'm looking to add something nice in the near future.

I think there are two or three big things to consider:

• Take everything nice and slow. Equilibrium can be a bitch.
• Be prepared to answer the question "If you could have only 1 inhabitant, what would it be?" and emulate that environment (whether it's nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich conditions). Also be responsible enough to pass on your #2 choice if it cannot live in the same environment as your #1 choice.
• Listen to the water. It will tell you when it needs changed.

It's OK to worry about losing something, but don't beat yourself up over it, and don't let that stop you from taking on that responsibility if it's something you can realistically handle. It's going to happen. Learn from your mistakes, understand cause and effect, and get to know history (learn from others before their mistakes become your own).

Without getting into specifics, this is the best general advice I can give you. I'm only ahead of you by a couple months. I know what it's like to worry, but there needs to be something somewhere to keep you just outside of your comfort zone. How else will you know the extent of your abilities?

I admittedly have no business with an anemone in a not-even 4 month old tank. I never would have come home from the LFS with one, even if the owner would have allowed the sale. But I figured at the time that survivability in a 10 week tank was better than that of a leaking tank which would be empty in a matter of hours.

The nobility of the anemone keeps me measuring the amount of skim I collect daily, testing every 2 or three days, changing water when conditions require it (even if I just changed water yesterday), and recording what I feed.

In my opinion, it's the statistical unlikeliness of the anemones survivability in an immature tank that makes me a better reefer.

And the Seedling Is...

Neomeris annulata

Also known as Spindleweed Algae, Sea Sausage, Caterpillar Weed, Fuzzy Tip Algae.

From www.midwestmarineguy.com

Requires high lighting like that needed by clams and SPS corals. Neomeris Annulata also requires a lot of calcium to keep growth steady. Pristine water conditions are also necessary, only trace amounts of nitrates to keep the Neomeris Annulata fueled, should be in the water.

Treat the Neomeris Annulata as if it were a coral it should grow like wild for you. This is a very tricky macro algae to keep around(for many who want to keep it) for long periods of time.

Neomeris annulata produces chemicals which deter fish from eating it. Parrot fish , urchins, nudibranchs, and Rabbitfish don’t seem to eat them. Sea Hares will eat the Neomeris Annulata, but it is inconsistent between Sea Hares and the Sea Hare will not rid the tank of the Neomeris Annulata. The Neomeris annulata algae is on the obnoxious algae list.

So it -can- be a nuisance algae, but it is a very, in my opinion, attractive algae that behaves as if coral.  On the "difficulty to maintain" it ranks a 4 out of 5 (5 being the hardest).

We'll see what happens.

Noticings of Early May

I've been eying a few new discoveries in the tank.  Some have been for weeks, others only a couple of days.

Not sure what this is, but to the eye it looks like a seedling.  Here with magnification, I'm back to being stumped.

Not sure what these two things are, either.  A good picture of the "Feather-Mounds" is in the first image of the "seedling" directly to the left.

The Silly Things Bristle Stars Do

For a while now I've seen where folks will exclaim that, during feeding, their stars will "reach out and catch" things as they drift by.  I always thought that was a little over-stated.

Two things have happened to start to sway my opinion:

I did a little "light" reading on Brittle Stars (how they aren't really starfish, their digestive system, nervous system, skeletal system, etc).  I learned the nerves in their legs are sensitive enough to detect light (which is how they know when it's dark even though they have no eyes), and that those nerves are also sensitive enough to be able to detect smell.

Over the past week or so, I've noticed that during feeding time (at least with mysis cubes) the Brittle Star, which generally has a few ends of his legs out on the substrate, will begin to sweep the substrate looking for food.  Today there was nothing of the Brittle Star exposed... until the cube hit the water.  Two or three legs came out from his hole almost immediately.  They were dancing around like a couple of Keystone Cops trying to get out of each others way.

Those legs didn't have too much luck with catching mysis... I noticed one, maybe two shrimp that the Brittle had caught.  It wasn't until I noticed the mysis starting to settle upon a rock positioned above his hole that I became a believer.  A leg pops out of a nearby hole, grabs the mysis directly, and disappeared back from where it came from.

I'm thinking that specific leg detected the odor of the mysis and went straight for it.  It's not quite like plucking food out of the water column that is drifting by, but almost.

So I think I'm more open toward comments as such.

It's also been a while since I've posted some pics.  Here's how things are going now:

Notice the tank has a mostly-green color.  That's the prevalent color of the species of coraline algae that is proliferating.

Looking closer at the coraline, it's still mostly green with some hints of purple at the top right and bottom left.  The bottom right rock seems to be encrusting with a grey coraline.  Hair algae can also be seen bottom left, as well as the last remnants of cyanobacteria.  The center rock, at it's bottom, shows the white color those rocks used to be.  And the mushrooms seems to be very happy.  The specs on the back of the glass are "chaeto critters", some sort of "pods".  They are everywhere.

Here you can see more purple and green coraline algae.  The anemone bowl is also starting to take some coraline.  The longer white specs on the bowl are some sort of tube worm.  The smaller specs are just substrate.  To the left, the chaeto can be seen.  It's about twice to three times as big as when I got it.  Not a good sign for my water, but at least I'm combating the nitrates and phosphates in some fashion.  Hopefully a RO/DI system is in my future.

I have a sponge and some sort of white feathery things on the vertical rock bottom right.  The Star Polyps (center) are still doing great, as is the Anthelia (top left).  The rocks to the left are still brown.  The purple coraline seem to prefer these rocks more than the green.

Clumping Crabs

I noticed a clump of hermit crabs today.  Upon closer inspection they were feeding upon the carcass of the Peppermint Shrimp.  Time to update the tank specs.

I'm curious as to why I don't have much luck with shrimp, but everything else seems to do fine.  I'm sure there's a basic rule on that somewhere, but c'mon!  How much harder is it to keep a shrimp than an Anemone?

As it previous posts, the shrimp was only acquired for the elimination of aiptasia.  And it failed at that.  So between not doing it's "job", plus being nocturnal, the shrimp won't be missed much.

Anyway, RIP Peppermint Shrimp.