Tank birthday, 40 years
- Thread starter Paul B
- Start date
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I never thought of that, thanks
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
The small stuff like shrimp, snails, amphipods and bacteria I collect in a tide pool in Port Washington. Thats where my boat is. Tropical fish i collect on the south shore in the late summer.
I use my boat to get here but you can drive there, it is just a long way off to legally park and you must go at low tide. At high tide the water is 8' deep
This place in Cuamset State Park there are diamond back terripins which of course are protected so you can't collect them. There are also small sand sharks, hermit crabs and fiddler crabs.
I use a scene net for the smaller stufff and blue claw crabs which I eat.
Here off Execution Lighthouse in the middle of the Sound I dive for lobsters and if you dive just a few hundred yards north of here at night, there are huge, 7" mantis shrimp that do very wellin a tank by themselves.
And from the top of the thing
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- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
The bluestripe is gone which as I said happens every time I stir up the tank. I can't do that when I have them but their lifespan is only about 3 or 4 years so it is not too bad. She was about that age.
I have also found that when SPS grow very fast like acropora, it grows thin and brittle. The urchin sometimes breaks off pieces as it bulldozers past it. I have frags all over the place which I glue to large rocks. I like urchins because all healthy reefs have large populations of urchins but they are destructive.
I have also found that when SPS grow very fast like acropora, it grows thin and brittle. The urchin sometimes breaks off pieces as it bulldozers past it. I have frags all over the place which I glue to large rocks. I like urchins because all healthy reefs have large populations of urchins but they are destructive.
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I just got home from boating and I dumped in a couple of dozen mud snails and a few hundred amphipods, my fish are so happy
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
The tank is still doing very well although the nitrates are now at about 40. I was going to lower them but the soft corals are growing so fast that I want to experiment for a while with the high readings. My giant mushroom for years was a tiny 2". In a few weeks it blossomed to about 9" across and is taking over a quarter of the tank. The leather corals that I could not even find because they were so small are also 4 or 5" tall and are stretching in all directions.
The SPS seem fine but don't seem to be growing anywhere near as fast as they were when the nitrates were 5. My plan is to get the nitrates to 15 with my newly designed denitrificator coil then keep them at that reading.
My tiny clam also doubled in size in a couple of months.
I am certainly not recommending that we let our nitrates get so high. It is usually a sign of deteriating water conditions. This is an experiment like everything I do with the tank.
I am still using the baby brine shrimp feeder every day and 2 mandarins and a scooter bleeny are fat and happy looking, that feeder is one of the best things I ever designed and most of the fish use it including the copperband who fills up every day on live worms.
The main problem now is that being the soft corals are growing so fast, they are covering many of the corals stuck to the rocks that I can't move.
Survival of the fittest.
It is what it is.
The SPS seem fine but don't seem to be growing anywhere near as fast as they were when the nitrates were 5. My plan is to get the nitrates to 15 with my newly designed denitrificator coil then keep them at that reading.
My tiny clam also doubled in size in a couple of months.
I am certainly not recommending that we let our nitrates get so high. It is usually a sign of deteriating water conditions. This is an experiment like everything I do with the tank.
I am still using the baby brine shrimp feeder every day and 2 mandarins and a scooter bleeny are fat and happy looking, that feeder is one of the best things I ever designed and most of the fish use it including the copperband who fills up every day on live worms.
The main problem now is that being the soft corals are growing so fast, they are covering many of the corals stuck to the rocks that I can't move.
Survival of the fittest.
It is what it is.
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I am not much of a sleeper so last night about 3:00am I decided to look at the tank with a flashlight. Of course the fish were all sleepping and the corals were all retracted except for their sweeper tantacles but I noticed all of these white things on the glass about as large as this " o", They are of course tiny snails, hundreds of them and I never see them in the daytime. I see them all the time just before the lights come on but I never saw so many of them, but I don't usually look at the tank at that time.
As I was checking out the snails I noticed things swimming through my flashlight beam. There are (I don't want to call them swarms) but "many" creatures swimming all over the place. I was trying to get a close look but they are fairly fast and definately not any of the numerous amphipods that are in there. Amphipods swim kind of slower and on their backs, these looked more like they knew where they were going. Well, they were swimming in a straight line anyway.
I am not sure if they are a spawn of some kind or just some plankton type of creature.
Again, I don't usually peer at the tank at 3:00am.
These things keep me from sleeping and I wish I could have captured one to put under my microscope. I see a tiny trap in my future.
These things, and things like this have facinated me since I started my first tank. Angelfish, tangs and butterflies don't do it for me. They are too common and just get in the way of the more interesting creatures. Imagine how facinating a copepod would be if it was 2" long.
As I was checking out the snails I noticed things swimming through my flashlight beam. There are (I don't want to call them swarms) but "many" creatures swimming all over the place. I was trying to get a close look but they are fairly fast and definately not any of the numerous amphipods that are in there. Amphipods swim kind of slower and on their backs, these looked more like they knew where they were going. Well, they were swimming in a straight line anyway.
I am not sure if they are a spawn of some kind or just some plankton type of creature.
Again, I don't usually peer at the tank at 3:00am.
These things keep me from sleeping and I wish I could have captured one to put under my microscope. I see a tiny trap in my future.
These things, and things like this have facinated me since I started my first tank. Angelfish, tangs and butterflies don't do it for me. They are too common and just get in the way of the more interesting creatures. Imagine how facinating a copepod would be if it was 2" long.
- Location
- Long Island, NY
They were probably Mysis shrimp.
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I was hoping for manta ray fry
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
Phil, everything piques my interest.
Everything except big hairy guys. I prefer supermodels or at least Babes.
OK any type of female.
- Location
- NJ
man 40 years is great, hope i can do it
- Location
- riverhead long island
Paul do you have a link or thread picturing or explaining your brine shrimp feeder?
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Reefs
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Reefs
- Location
- riverhead long island
Please excuse my last post....i was being lazy. Do you hatch every day?
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Reefs
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Reefs
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I hatch every day in my brine shrimp hatchery.
Here is a link to that feeder
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/124355-they-all-love-feeder.html
Here is a link to that feeder
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/124355-they-all-love-feeder.html
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
This week I am going to Montauk which is the most eastern part of NY and it sticks out in the Atlantic. There is nothing near there and no industry for many miles so the water is very clean. I am not going there for water especially but I will collect 15 gallons while I am there. I am going there to go crabbing and claming. Blue claw crabs make a great linguini sauce and my wife loves to suck every bit of meat from the tiny legs and claws. to much trouble for me. But the clams are my favorite food, I can eat them from the sea like M&Ms.
Besides water, clams and crabs there is codium seaweed all over the place there and I will most likely pick up some of that. It looks nice in a tank and lives a few months.
Hopefully I will be able to collect some amphipods and maybe even some interesting fish and crabs. Almost whatever I find that is small enough I put in my tank unless it is a baby of something that will get 9' long.
I was always under the impression that these infusions from the sea greatly benefit a captive reef. Even if I didn't have a tank I would go just for the scenery and crabs.
My tank is doing very well and I am now again able to get blackworms. My newest longnose hawkfish didn't jump out yet but he probably will, they always do. I almost added a purple firefish today but they jump even faster than hawkfish. I never lost any of them any other way. I never lose any fish unless they jump out.
You can tell healthy fish easily just by looking at them and the fish that jump out may even be among the healthiest fish. Jumping doesn't mean they are sick or there is anything wrong with your water, it just means, they got scared or figured out that they are held prisoner. I would jump also.
Healthy fish also don't have any scales out of place, have clear eyes and are interested in their surroundings and not just to try to escape. They actively hunt and many fish, especially damsels or bottom dwelling fish are always looking for love. It is what fish do.
I am also totally amazed at the amount of brittle stars in this tank. I don't remember putting birth hormones in the tank but these things are in every cranny. There is one like every inch or more. I also don't know what they are eating as they are particle eaters and I don't think they get any nutrition from the water itself, they may be sending out for pizza because I don't overfeed that much and what they do get fed is live worms, mysis and clam. No little particles like you would get from flakes or pellets.
I think I am going to try to build a brittle star trap just to see if I can. I don't want to remove them, I kind of like them.
Besides water, clams and crabs there is codium seaweed all over the place there and I will most likely pick up some of that. It looks nice in a tank and lives a few months.
Hopefully I will be able to collect some amphipods and maybe even some interesting fish and crabs. Almost whatever I find that is small enough I put in my tank unless it is a baby of something that will get 9' long.
I was always under the impression that these infusions from the sea greatly benefit a captive reef. Even if I didn't have a tank I would go just for the scenery and crabs.
My tank is doing very well and I am now again able to get blackworms. My newest longnose hawkfish didn't jump out yet but he probably will, they always do. I almost added a purple firefish today but they jump even faster than hawkfish. I never lost any of them any other way. I never lose any fish unless they jump out.
You can tell healthy fish easily just by looking at them and the fish that jump out may even be among the healthiest fish. Jumping doesn't mean they are sick or there is anything wrong with your water, it just means, they got scared or figured out that they are held prisoner. I would jump also.
Healthy fish also don't have any scales out of place, have clear eyes and are interested in their surroundings and not just to try to escape. They actively hunt and many fish, especially damsels or bottom dwelling fish are always looking for love. It is what fish do.
I am also totally amazed at the amount of brittle stars in this tank. I don't remember putting birth hormones in the tank but these things are in every cranny. There is one like every inch or more. I also don't know what they are eating as they are particle eaters and I don't think they get any nutrition from the water itself, they may be sending out for pizza because I don't overfeed that much and what they do get fed is live worms, mysis and clam. No little particles like you would get from flakes or pellets.
I think I am going to try to build a brittle star trap just to see if I can. I don't want to remove them, I kind of like them.
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
Today I went to a large LFS and they have a huge selection of corals and they are cheap so I picked up some pipe organ. I also got a yellow clown gobi to keep my older one company. As soon as I put her in the tank, the older one swam right over and did his spawning dance which looks similar to the Macarana. I love these little clown gobies and always have a few in my reef. I now have a couple of yellows and a black guy.
Their only problem is they only live a few years and they need tiny food. That is no problem in my tank because I hatch baby brine shrimp every day and they also eat the smaller blackworms. The best part about these little guys is that they are about $5.00 and are bright yellow. They stay in the front in a piece of acropora but I don't know how they avoid predators in the sea being a real Sissy looking tiny fish.
They come in yellow, green and black but the black ones are larger and hide a lot.
Their only problem is they only live a few years and they need tiny food. That is no problem in my tank because I hatch baby brine shrimp every day and they also eat the smaller blackworms. The best part about these little guys is that they are about $5.00 and are bright yellow. They stay in the front in a piece of acropora but I don't know how they avoid predators in the sea being a real Sissy looking tiny fish.
They come in yellow, green and black but the black ones are larger and hide a lot.
- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
Yes they are notorious SPS munchers
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I have always had them but I have a good talking to them when I get them and they don't bother anything. A few times I have had 6 or 7 of them at once with no problems.
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