mogurnda
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Posts posted by mogurnda
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Bump for hungry sacoglossans.
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I have my nuisance algae culture tank set up, and could use some more Bryopsis if anyone has a handful to spare. I got a nice mix of Bryopsis and Derbesia from der ABT, but the Derbesia has been winning this round. Although the slugs are currently green and happy, the E. clarki are still not laying eggs, and I suspect that adding more Bryopsis to their diet will get them in the mood.
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If someone is the type to neglect the stuff in the reactor and leave months old GFO in there with floss that was brown after two days and is now gray then I don't predict success in their reefing career.
Ow, that hurts
.I agree with Alan. It is rare that you will find a spot to throw a bag of medium and the water will flow through, rather than around it.
To paraphrase a famous fake person, "I don't always use media, but when I do, I use a reactor."
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Good to see another local reefer coming on line. As noted above, there is an almost constant parade of equipment for sale here, and usually at very good prices. If you don't see something you like today, wait a few days.
If you can, go to the next club meeting. Talking to people about their tanks is a great way to get ideas about your own, and it is in your neck of the woods.
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Good to know it's still in the running. The slugs are still being pretty slow about generating progeny, so things aren't moving at breakneck speed.
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Any decisions yet?
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Any chance they are snails?
Depends on your definition of snail. Since we still are unsure of what they are, it is certainly possible.
Not to hijack this thread but here is a macro of the eggs a few days ago
And here is the eggs tonight, with 2 new borns
How can you hijack a thread about your own tank?
Great shots. Again, I am astounded that you found them.
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Oh wow, that is so awesome. Thank you so much for running back to the office to photograph them, your photos are much better than mine haha.
Your photos were pretty darn good. I wish I had played with the lighting a little more. Thanks all for the nice words.
To give a different sense of scale, here is one on a mag float.
It is pretty cool that these guys keep popping up in her tank. Probably because there are lots of sponges that may be their food.
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Jessica (Squishie89) was nice enough to give me a quick tank tour, plus a quartet of small nudibranchs, from her tank this evening. I ran back to the office and shot a few photos throught the dissecting scope. I love this club! Anyway, I have not ID'd them, but am thinking they may not be nudis after all. They seem to have eyes (look at the dark spots behind the rhinophores), and have no gills. The gills in some nudibranchs are hidden, but I don't think any species has eyes.
Anyway, here are the photos. In the first photo, each mark is 1 mm, so these guys are tiny. Amazing that she saw them at all.
On its side:
If I ever figure out what they are, I will let you know.
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Looks like Halimeda opuntia.
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There are many kinds of Xenia, or maybe it's a star polyp or a clove polyp like Alan suggests.
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Definitely not a branching gorgonian, maybe a weird variant of an encrusting species.
Sure looks like Xenia to me. Why so certain that it isn't?
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I currently have two, a variegated and a rock-boring urchin, in my 90. They are great at keeping nuisance algae down. For better or worse, there is plenty of coralline, both on the rocks and on the glass. My weapon of choice is the razor blade attachment to the mag float.
Eight years later, that is what I have to say.
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Very cool creatures, and interesting setup for sure.
Thanks! It has been interesting to try to do things a little differently. The challenges have sometimes been a bummer, but I have learned a lot.
Most beautiful slugs I ever seen man
For a lot of people, that may sound pretty funny. When I tell people I have tanks with slugs, they don't realize how cool molluscs can be. I just wish I could get them to lay eggs like the clarki.
Justin should sacrifice for science and keep growing the bryopsis in his so you'd have a reliable source. Sheesh, Justin.
Bad Justin! More like Bad Dave for having squandered all those pounds he gave me. It's funny how hard it can be to grow a pest algae without another pest algae overgrowing it.
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Way overdue update. The tank has been going since the beginning of the year, and I have learned quite a bit.
It has been tricky growing plants in a tank without major grazers. I want to leave the algae for the slugs, but not have the tank choked with filamentous algae and cyanobacteria. At first, it was pretty furry:
Dosing vinegar as a carbon source was a good first step. The other was a DIY sponge filter made from perforated 1" PVC, a few fittings, an Eheim 1048, and a Hydor Flo. This keeps things stirred and removes detritus without killing the slugs. ]
The tank is looking pretty good at this point, and the plants are growing and propagating.
For now, I am keeping all of the Elysia clarki at work, with this tank being reserved for E. crispata. They seem to be quite happy in their home.
Although they are eating a little of everything, they really like Bryopsis, so please let me know if you have an infestation you want to take care of
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Wow, very good to know. Are they coral safe?
They only seem to eat food in the water column, so I do not expect them to pick at corals.
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What size tank do you have them in? How small do you think they would be ok with? Seems like they don't need a lot of swimming space...?
The two are quite comfy in a heavily planted 10 gallon right now. I imagine they would be fine in a smaller tank, but this is all pretty new. No matter what, they will want places to hide, even if they spend most of their time out hunting. They are sit-and-wait predators, so they just hang in one spot and wait for food to go by. The female is eating flake like a pig now. The male still prefers frozen.
PS. Note that these are Caribbean pikeblennies, probably yellowface, which only get about 4". Places like Liveaquaria tend to sell a Mexican species that gets significantly larger.
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My experience with ballasts is almost entirely with Workhorses, but this may help. For each configuration, Fulham provides a wiring diagram, which has most certainly kept me out of trouble. For two 54 watt T5s, a Workhorse 5 will cost you less than $30, and then just follow the instructions to wire it up.
HTH
PS. No idea about the blue wires. If you are replacing with a different ballast, you don't really need to know.
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They look awesome! Are they only eating live food right now?
Had to try a few prepared foods today. Totally scarfed frozen brine, but did not seem to figure out the flake. We'll see how things evolve.
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Very interesting...
Indeed.
Very cool. They look like little dragons to me.
I am waiting for the male to start displaying. Then they are really supposed to look like dragons.
Do the go after shrimp or small fish??
It's hard to get across how small these guys are. They are more likely to be a meal than a predator for most fish. They are wrestling with the large amphipods in the tank, and I have trouble imagining one eating a shrimp as large as a sexy shrimp. I would worry more about a peppermint or coral banded shrimp eating one of these guys.
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They look awesome! Are they only eating live food right now?
They are pretty cool, eh? At this point, I haven't tried prepared foods. Stay tuned. I expect they will at least go for frozen.
Love that last photo, they look quite similar to pipefish.
They seem to have similar behavior, but have huge, rather than small mouths.
Do they have "pike" type mouths?
Yep, looks like they could swallow quite a mouthful.
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I have wanted to try pikeblennies for years now. KP Aquatics had some in stock, so I had them send me a pair with my last order of slugs and plants. They are like cute little snakes, and have been chowing on the overpopulation of amphipods in one of the slug tanks. They are only about 3-4" long, and would make great nano inhabitants.
Here's the male
He and the female seem to spend a lot of time swapping places. Here she is, in the same spot.
Love those eyes
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Thanks everyone.
I'll take it apart and if nothing is obviously wrong I'll swap out the ballast if it's not too expensive. This is sort of a high end light, about $250.
I have quite a few bits and pieces lying around, so give me a PM when you know what kind of ballast you need. I am a huge fan of CF lights for planted tanks, in part because lamp prices have gone way down now that LEDs are taking over.
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Why not just buy fiberglass window screen?
Got Bryopsis? (part tres)
in General Discussion
I think I'm missing something. I am asking people if they have Bryopsis that I can have. Does your post indicate that everyone has gotten rid of it?