The build thread: 430gal. display
- Thread starter Ummfish
- Start date
IF those are eggs. It's also possible that those are poop, but I'm waiting on confirmation. 
In fact, that one in the photo is eating an Aiptasia as we type. So, I'm up to four recent egg ribbons; hopefully there will be quite a horde in the culture tank in a couple of months so I can start turning them loose in the display.
In fact, that one in the photo is eating an Aiptasia as we type.
So, I'm up to four recent egg ribbons; hopefully there will be quite a horde in the culture tank in a couple of months so I can start turning them loose in the display.Those look exactly like the photos of egg bearing Berghias from http://www.berghia.net/market_size.html.
You should be overrun with Berghias in no time
My Berghias in the dedicated tank have decimated the aiptasia. I'm going to have to start moving some of my rock into their tank if I can't get a population going.
You should be overrun with Berghias in no time
My Berghias in the dedicated tank have decimated the aiptasia. I'm going to have to start moving some of my rock into their tank if I can't get a population going.
I just found a crazy nudi that was eating a colony of blue anthelia polyps that I brought back from San Antonio. The colony gradually dwindled away and as I was checking the rock the other day, I lifted it out of the water and I saw what I thought was a little patch growing on the underside of the rock....NOPE it was a nudi camouflaged as the coral! I pulled him out but didnt get a chance to snap a pic, and now he has passed on to nudibranch heaven!
As you've seen, I've been spending some time playing with creature cultures lately. Unfortunately, really, because it's become a necessity. I should have enough soon to start seeding my display tank with them (they are all in culture at this point).
Two young adults doing, well, what young adults do:
And a little older Berghia:
Two young adults doing, well, what young adults do:
And a little older Berghia:
Andy, you always have such awesome pictures... My girlfriend is looking to get a microscope from her folks for her birthday. I was hoping to help her find a good one that we can use her camera to take pictures of the stuff under the microscope. Chad mentioned you got a pretty go deal on whatever you use. Do you think you could point me in the right direction for a good quality microscope?
Well, first off, woohoo!!!! http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/coral-subscriber-drawing-winner-announced
Thanks, Aku! What's the budget, you think? (The reason I ask is that you can get one like mine for cheap but the optics on mine are mediocre at best and you said you wanted good quality. Good glass is, unfortunately, expensive.)
And, what does she (and you ) want to look at? (There are a couple of broad categories in entry-level scopes: dissection scopes with fairly low magnification but a lot of room to work under the optics and compound scopes with more magnification but very limited space under the optics to put your specimen--you are mainly limited to slides.)
Thanks, Aku! What's the budget, you think? (The reason I ask is that you can get one like mine for cheap but the optics on mine are mediocre at best and you said you wanted good quality. Good glass is, unfortunately, expensive.)
And, what does she (and you
) want to look at? (There are a couple of broad categories in entry-level scopes: dissection scopes with fairly low magnification but a lot of room to work under the optics and compound scopes with more magnification but very limited space under the optics to put your specimen--you are mainly limited to slides.)Haha, nice pump you got there.
...I'm pretty sure the scope is going to get used for all kinds of things. But mainly bugs(she would to learn the sex of her spiders) and fish tank stuff. So, there is going to have to be space under the lens. It sounds like a dissection scope might be the way to go.
We are hoping to find one around a couple hundred bucks. It doesn't have to be the best on the market, but I really would like to avoid something chinsey. Think thats a reasonable amount?
...I'm pretty sure the scope is going to get used for all kinds of things. But mainly bugs(she would to learn the sex of her spiders) and fish tank stuff. So, there is going to have to be space under the lens. It sounds like a dissection scope might be the way to go.
We are hoping to find one around a couple hundred bucks. It doesn't have to be the best on the market, but I really would like to avoid something chinsey. Think thats a reasonable amount?
Ummfish;33209 said:
Well, first off, woohoo!!!! http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/coral-subscriber-drawing-winner-announced
Thanks, Aku! What's the budget, you think? (The reason I ask is that you can get one like mine for cheap but the optics on mine are mediocre at best and you said you wanted good quality. Good glass is, unfortunately, expensive.)
And, what does she (and you ) want to look at? (There are a couple of broad categories in entry-level scopes: dissection scopes with fairly low magnification but a lot of room to work under the optics and compound scopes with more magnification but very limited space under the optics to put your specimen--you are mainly limited to slides.)
Thanks, Aku! What's the budget, you think? (The reason I ask is that you can get one like mine for cheap but the optics on mine are mediocre at best and you said you wanted good quality. Good glass is, unfortunately, expensive.)
And, what does she (and you
) want to look at? (There are a couple of broad categories in entry-level scopes: dissection scopes with fairly low magnification but a lot of room to work under the optics and compound scopes with more magnification but very limited space under the optics to put your specimen--you are mainly limited to slides.)
Well, something like this might be your best bet then:
http://cgi.ebay.com/20X-40X-Stereo-...ltDomain_0?hash=item5d28647ec4#ht_6236wt_1167
You can't do any back-lit cell work, but that not really what you are looking for with a dissecting scope.
I've never used an Amscope so I have no clue what their optics are like, but this one gives you decent magnification and a camera. If you need more or less magnification later, you could change out the 10x eyepieces for 1x, 5x, or 20x (so then your total magnification range would be 2x-4x, 10x-20x, or 40x-80x), which would give you a really respectable range of magnifications.
Like I say, I've never used one of their scopes. Most of the lower-priced scopes are really pretty decent these days, though, and to get nice glass (Zeiss, Nikon, Olympus, etc.) the price goes very high, very quickly.
BTW, expect that the scope will be under-lit. I wound up buying a separate lighting package and that makes a _huge_ difference. But you could easily make up some supplemental lighting with some super-bright LEDs. Heck, I used an LED flashlight as a supplement for quite a while. But you really have to expect that you'll supplement the light with something eventually. These manufacturers save money by putting in cheap lights.
http://cgi.ebay.com/20X-40X-Stereo-...ltDomain_0?hash=item5d28647ec4#ht_6236wt_1167
You can't do any back-lit cell work, but that not really what you are looking for with a dissecting scope.
I've never used an Amscope so I have no clue what their optics are like, but this one gives you decent magnification and a camera. If you need more or less magnification later, you could change out the 10x eyepieces for 1x, 5x, or 20x (so then your total magnification range would be 2x-4x, 10x-20x, or 40x-80x), which would give you a really respectable range of magnifications.
Like I say, I've never used one of their scopes. Most of the lower-priced scopes are really pretty decent these days, though, and to get nice glass (Zeiss, Nikon, Olympus, etc.) the price goes very high, very quickly.
BTW, expect that the scope will be under-lit. I wound up buying a separate lighting package and that makes a _huge_ difference. But you could easily make up some supplemental lighting with some super-bright LEDs. Heck, I used an LED flashlight as a supplement for quite a while. But you really have to expect that you'll supplement the light with something eventually. These manufacturers save money by putting in cheap lights.
So, I've been looking at this scope off the amscope website:
http://store.amscope.com/sw-2t24z.html
I think I would like to try to get a trinocular scope so we could hook up the olympus slr with a camera adaptor. The camera that comes with the other one, just doesn't look that good. I'm going to keep looking around to see if I can't figure out exactly how that would need to be hooked up.
http://store.amscope.com/sw-2t24z.html
I think I would like to try to get a trinocular scope so we could hook up the olympus slr with a camera adaptor. The camera that comes with the other one, just doesn't look that good. I'm going to keep looking around to see if I can't figure out exactly how that would need to be hooked up.