The Ocean over at Floris Elementary School

[davelin315]

This is the pygmy angel I added from saltwater fish. I'll have to see how they do over the weekend. I know they have a tendency sometimes to pick at corals, but I will have options for placing it into other tanks at school if it becomes problematic. I really wanted to add an angel of some sort and this one is so small that I figured it would be a good fit. Entertaining for the kids, while easy on the budget!

 

This is another shot of it. It's still in the "acclimation chamber". I took the bags and dumped them into some science tubs and acclimated everything from 9:15AM until nearly 4 by adding tiny amounts of tank water about every 15 minutes. This warmed them up and introduced them to the system water nicely. I ended up taking out nearly 5 gallons of water through slow water changes throughout the day.

 

Here's two of the conchs we got. One went into the 15 because it's got some slime algae problems, one is going into this tank, and the other is destined for my home tank until we get other tanks set up. I weighed the options and I thought that it was best to get a queen that would climb the rocks a bit versus a fighting conch which would just stay on the bottom. My thoughts are that we are going to end up with about 6-8 tanks (2 more teachers asked for them and they've been written into our school plan!) and that these guys will begin to make trips around the school. It'd be great if they really outgrew the tanks and could become part of the touch tanks I'm imagining for kindergarten and 1st grade.

 

Here's the bicolor blenny. It's been a long time since I've had one, but it's good to get one back again. I think the last time I had one was in 1992 or so. I still remember the antics and the random appearances it made. Again, it's being acclimated in the same manner as everything else.

 

Here it is again hours later.

 

Here's an extremely poor shot of him in the tank at around 4:00PM.

[davelin315]

Here's the royal gramma being acclimated. The kids were really excited about this one.

 

Here's a side shot of it. It'll be interesting to see how the tank dynamics work out with three small, somewhat territorial but not necessarily aggressive fish introduced at the same time. There's tons of rock, although some will be replaced fairly soon.

 

Here's the peppermint shrimp. I'm pretty disappointed by the size of them, they certainly did not advertise them as being smaller than krill, but I figured why not, I'll give it a try. That's a piece of window screen in there from shipping, by the way. Nice idea to give them something to cling to. Never thought about that before.

 

Here's a side view of them through the container, which really magnified their size. In the back there's an aiptasia I scraped off of the tank for them during the day to see if they'd eat it. One swam up and grabbed a tiny aiptasia I put in, but it didn't hold onto it for very long. See? I'm already reducing the number of aiptasia by 2!

 

Here's the feather dusters I ordered. Like the blenny, it's been a long time. I figured these are something good that the kids can really look at and admire until I start putting corals in. They've always been a favorite of mine, but I haven't bought them for years, not sure why.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Nice looking livestock Dave! Some yahoo over at RC thinks your shrimp are "camelbacks". :wall: Gotta love RC with it's groups of "know-it-all's".

 

Let me know when you're ready for corals.

[davelin315]

Hey Adrienne, I should be ready for things by mid next week, so if you're willing and in the area, let me know!

 

Dave

[davelin315]

Was in school for conferences today and the fish are all doing well. The queen conch seems to have bitten the dust, though, and I could only see one of the peps, but since they're so small, I doubt I would see them even if they were in the tank. I'll check the sump tomorrow and see if I can find them.

 

Tomorrow, since I have a late morning conference, I'll also be moving things into the tank. It'll be interesting to see the kids reactions when they come in and the tank has corals in it and looks like an actual reef. I'll try and snap a few pictures as I stock it.

[davelin315]

Had a chance before morning conferences today to transfer the donations from Martin, Keyoke, and JSD to the tank. I also did some more aquascaping and removed some of the more infested rocks. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'll think of something. I also added 3 fully packed quart bags of chaetorphia to the "refugium" portion of the sump. I'm hoping to see some of the mysids making an appearance in the tank from the transfer. Anyway, here's some of the pictures.

 

These are the green star polyps from Jeff Davis. They're all closed up right now and are a different color than the other ones in the other tanks. Jeff (Keyoke) also gave me some but I forgot to take a picture of them. I'll try and snap a picture of them when they open up.

 

Here are the candy cane/trumpet corals from Jeff Davis. They are a really neon green color. I snapped off a branch to propagate at home and also a branch to put into the 15 gallon, but there's enough heads there to look great without those. I am hoping that they begin to take off and I can keep on fragging them to spread out in the school.

 

Here's a closeup of some of the heads. They opened up immediately in the defensive mode with their sweeper tentacles out and ready for action.

 

Here's some sort of colt coral (?). Not sure exactly what kind, but it's a nice piece.

 

Here's some yellow polyps. In the foreground you can see the head of one of the featherdusters I added last week.

[davelin315]

Here's a shot of the cucumber I added before. It's settling down on the bottom of the tank. I haven't seen it eating yet, but then again, it's a cucumber and I am not exactly keeping it under surveillance.

 

Here's a nice gorgonian from Jeff Davis. I fragged it a couple of times already and am mounting them to distribute to other tanks. I left the majority of it intact as it's a really nice piece. There's also some blue mushrooms on the base of it that you can't really see too well.

 

Here's some xenia from Martin. I am not sure if they're actually anthelia or not, but they should start to do much better as they were buried under chaeto in my home tank until this tank was ready for them.

 

Here's a shot of the frogspawn that was donated by Jeff (Keyoke). It's mid level in the tank and slightly under an overhang so that it doesn't get burned by the metal halide. I know it spent some time on the bottom of Jeff's tank so I didn't want to push it too far on the first day in the new tank.

[davelin315]

Here's another shot of a feather duster. I saw them directing their crowns towards the current today. It's very relaxing to watch them slowly rotate, but unfortunately, school's always callling!

 

Here's a closeup of the long tentacle anemone from Jeff Davis as well as the cinammon clown that came with. It took me about 10 minutes of trying to catch the clown this morning to realize the easier method would be to simply remove the anemone from the tank and let the clown go along for the ride.

 

Here's another shot from further back of the LTA and cinammon clown. I put it towards the side of the tank so that it gets indirect lighting from the halides. I know that Jeff had it under PCs and so did I, so I decided to keep it away from the light so it didn't get burned.

 

Here's a piece of cabbage leather coral on the same rock as the LTA. There's actually some star polyps next to them as well as some miscellaneous zoanthids spread across the rock.

 

Here's a full tank shot. It's really shaping up nicely! And, all of the fish seem to be doing great. I saw them all out and about today and no one seemed to have any fin problems today.

[Guest alex wlazlak]

looks great! i like how you said you had to get the clown out. haha. have the peppermints been taking care of everything?

[davelin315]

Thanks, it took a few minutes for common sense to kick in...

 

As far as the peps, they haven't done any visible damage yet, but I'm trying a multiple technique approach right now with the fact that the aiptasia are so out of control and I got some newly donated rock. In reality, if I left it solely to the peppermints, I think it would take close to a few months to finish up the job, especially because they are so small.

[dbartco]

Inject the big ones if you can. It will be a long time before the peppermints do damage to them.

 

I have some green digitata and capricornus for you if you think it is ready. Also sarcophyton and a few shrooms. Looks like you have the capnella I was going to donate as well, but if you still want some more let me know. I will stop by after school lets out to deliver. Again, just tell me when you think the tank is ready (you might want this livestock to settle and get the filters caught up).

[phisigs79]

that xenia looks like clove polyps check out live aquaria to confirm. They dont pulse but grow like weeds. some think they are pest since they sting other corals and spread all over the tank. I love them though i have some that i started from 4 polyps 2 months ago and have a colony now!

[davelin315]

Inject the big ones if you can. It will be a long time before the peppermints do damage to them.

 

I have some green digitata and capricornus for you if you think it is ready. Also sarcophyton and a few shrooms. Looks like you have the capnella I was going to donate as well, but if you still want some more let me know. I will stop by after school lets out to deliver. Again, just tell me when you think the tank is ready (you might want this livestock to settle and get the filters caught up).

44581[/snapback]

 

That's my intention now. I've got a hypodermic needle and some syringes that were leftover from some flu vaccine last year (were never opened, when it came time to use them on the kids the kids were sick, so we ended up just putting them away). Anyway, I'm going to try and inject some of them a few at a time and see what that does. The last thing I want to do is end up with aiptasia on everything new. I also don't want to inject too many at once because I don't want that to mess up the balance in the tank either.

 

I'll let you know when I'm ready, and I would like the capnella as well since there's more than one tank in the school that could use some.

 

Maybe when you stop by to drop the stuff off we can talk about the streaming video as well.

[Guest alex wlazlak]

did you get your bristle worm population down any? ive been noticing more and more of these suckers. they just freak me out. i saw a big one (

[Caribbean Jake]

Dave

Come by either Thursday or Friday and pick up your frags. You can also see the dead Acro you brought in a month ago. Call me before coming to make sure I'm home. Nice pictures...

[ErikS]

Nice pics!

[Guest alex wlazlak]

so hows everything going? got any new pictures too?

[davelin315]

The kids have taken some pics lately, but they have been incredibly out of focus, so I'm waiting to post more until they get the hang of the camera. I will post soon, though!

[Caribbean Jake]

Dave

I have a 30 G Tank you can have. It is all glass and no scratches. LMK when you want to pick it up.

Jacob

[Caribbean Jake]

Dave

Kids have GYM class Wed and THU, so you can pick up Friday or Sat. Just call me.

[davelin315]

Will do Jake, thanks for the offer. I think that will give us 13 tanks at school. I have to do a recount, but I'm pretty sure that's the number right now. Now I just need to find the time to finish setting things up!

[Caribbean Jake]

Great. Just give me a call at 703.437.8189 or 301.529.9321 before coming to my house to make sure I'm home and not stock in traffic or snow...

[davelin315]

Hi Jake, I'll try and swing by this week to pick up the tank. I'll call first before coming by.

 

On the tank itself, I picked up all of the clowns from Howard, 2 for myself, and 2 for the school tanks. The mated pair of maroons was actually a maroon and a cinammon, both females, so I took the cinammon for my 33. It instantly took the long tentacle anemone away from the other cinammon, but it's apparent that they've already become a pair as there is zero fighting and they hang out together all of the time. The LTA has some adjusting to do, however, as the new clown is MUCH bigger being a female. If we have time on Monday to snap some photos, I'll post them.

 

The "other half" of the mated maroon clowns is a large female gold-bar maroon, so I bought that one to go into the tank across the hall which will be housing the snowflake from phisigs - I figure that the two of them can get along just fine.

 

I'll update with more when I get the chance. The kids were beginning to complain the other day that they don't get to do enough. Also, start looking for macro shots taken with a microscope of things in the tank. Hopefully (bet you've never heard that before) I'll be able to find some cyano and other pest algaes to look at.

[davelin315]

Okay, now I'm a bit confused. The two clowns have bonded together from what I can tell, and there's absolutely no agression so far, but in looking over the clownfish forum on Reef Central, I found a picture of a clown known as the Australian Clownfish, and it looks to be the same as the one we have. I'm now thinking that there's a possibility we have two different species of clown, so it'll be interesting to see if they actually have paired up and if they have, what the result will be. Maybe we'll have a hybrid type of clown. I'll post some pictures of them together and separate later to illustrate the differences and the pairing that they've done.

[davelin315]

Here's the new cinammon clown that's obviously a female from its size.

 

Here's a shot of the original cinammon as it swims by the anemone. Notice its stripe is very thin. This is why I am not sure what kind it is.

 

Here's a shot of the two of them together. The male seems to have a larger stripe since it's moving, but it's not the case as you'll see in other shots.

 

Here's a shot of the female in the LTA with the male hovering close. Notice there's no aggression between them. I am not sure what's going on since they act like a pair, but if they're not, then the female would, in my experience, be tearing the male apart.

 

Here they are together again.

 

And again. In this one, the difference in the thickness of the stripe is very obvious.