Kathryn Lawson

Thanks!

Where's that? I haven't heard of them!

I think Reef eScape is the only one with true quarantine. There are other good shops (like Blue Ribbon Koi and Marine, Supreme Reefs, Rick's Fish and Pets, Fintastic, and Tropical Exotics), but they don't do a full quarantine.

I like my sliding door trap personally - the door is on a string so you can ease it shut slowly while they eat inside the box, and with the door shut it also works as an acclimation box

I'm in Woodbridge VA if you want to borrow my trap

Where are you located? There's folks here (myself included) with traps we can lend

That's fantastic success, congrats! Do you happen to have a video showing how fast the water is moving around in there? Did you use baby brine shrimp or copepods? I'm testing out a low-tech DIY kreisel which is basically a big, rounded-bottom vase in a heated water bath, with a mini sponge filter suspended in the middle of the vase with a cup on the top of the air tube that rises slightly above the vase's water level, which holds the bubbles in but lets the water gently overflow (hope that makes sense). So far it's been the best low-tech version I've tested, since anything else using air bubbles for movement seems to get my sexy shrimp larvae stuck on the surface regardless of the bubble rate. I've also been working on a 3D printer and am prototyping a printable kreisel insert for a standard 5g tank that would work more like your tank, though that's currently on hold because (a) the printer is having unrelated issues I'm still fixing and (b) the vase with sponge filter overflow seems to be working decently - my current batch of sexy shrimp larvae is living the longest of any so far... (fingers crossed!)

Sounds like you have a ton of experience already! I'd love to pick your brain on some of your previous projects - sent you a DM From a functional standpoint, blue velvet nudibranches might be an interesting challenge, given that they eat flatworms. Or since you've raised mandarins, maybe branching out to ruby red dragonets? They're on my "eventually want to try" breeding list. In terms of symbiotic relationships, there's always the double challenge of electric flame scallops and Lima shrimp!

Tried to message you my phone number, but it seems you can't receive messages - not sure why

I've got a spare 29 tall if you want - I had a seam go a few years back and it saved my tank then. A tank leak sucks! I'm in Woodbridge VA

That is super clean, and really creative! How did you end up doing the overflow? Drilled in the bottom center, pipe up through the sand, and flowing in/out the gap in the side of the rock structure? Is the lid just cut to size and placed on top?

I found these flatworms? on a vendor's coral (montipora) that I picked up from the meeting on Saturday. Anyone know what they might be? I found them while cleaning the frags before dipping, so they haven't been introduced to anything but the other corals I got from that vendor. They don't look like the "normal" red planaria I've seen in the past, and the monti frags do look like they might have been damaged by some sort of pest. Wondering how concerned I should be, what treatments I should use on the exposed corals, etc. Bonus question - also found the egg sacs also shown in the pics. The sacs are 3D and turgid (kinda like a disc-shaped bubble algae), and the inside dots are loose and seem to "rattle" around when the sac is moved. Any thoughts on what they might be? I'm thinking maybe some sort of snail, since they remind me of the egg sacs I've seen from freshwater snails and dove snails, except that those are flat/one-sided and attached to a surface, whereas these could be pulled off the surface they were on and kept their flattened-bubble shape

I use large snail shells! They supposedly like having their foot in a hole, and mine certainly seem to be happy with them. Makes it really convenient to move around as needed

How did you determine the volume or mass of the new brand of salt to add when mixing the saltwater - the same as your old brand? It could be that the composition of the new mix is different (more anti-clumping agents? fillers? other compounds?), so you need to use more of the new brand than you did with the old brand to get to the same salinity.

I love Pender! We see one of their avian vets for my parrots, and they also were willing to prescribe chloroquine for fish quarantine.