The build thread: 430gal. display

[prolawn_care]

Oh my bad i was thinking of chris's tank... It's late, my apologies!

 

[prolawn_care]

Did you happen to get a video of the spawn?

 

[Ummfish]

Oh, it's no thing. Truly, the coral success rate in my tank has sucked, but I'm feeling pretty good about moving on with it from here. I was pretty worried for a while that the concrete rocks might be leaching something, but most of the deaths can be traced back to some instability in the way the tank is running. But the tank _is_ maturing even if it is slow and I'm taking the recent coraline success as a good sign.

 

[Ummfish]

Oh, no I didn't video it tonight. But I have a couple of old videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXB2-o4rl3E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zL7PAiAwwU

 

[Ummfish]

Woohoo! The grammas finally placed eggs where I can see them!

And papa guarding them:

 

[hoodrat]

What kind of corals are you planning to do andy?

 

[Ummfish]

Well, the truth is that LPS seem to do the best with the way I keep the tank. But I do want some SPS as well. It's all about just trying things and seeing how they do.

 

[Ummfish]

Life in the tank is starting to really take off. Here are some shots of hitchhikers:

I don't know what this is. It builds a tube like a tube worm, but it doesn't have the double-crown of tentacles. Maybe a tube snail? But you can see the mucus net and the stripes. Odd, but very pretty.

And an absolutely gorgeous tube worm. Unfortunately, they are pretty small. But I'm still psyched to see their population spreading.

And, here we have a cute little colony of soft corals that came in on the bottom rock of a gorgonian and are spreading:

 

[Ummfish]

The gobies have moved their operation to the back side of an aquarium magnet. Seems like the perfect opportunity to try out some artificial incubation. Excellent!!

 

[Zooid]

That is perfect. You could put an airline under the cleaning head and put an airstone right under those eggs.

 

[Ummfish]

Looks like the eggs didn't make it though. Test driving the magnet? Whatever, they aren't guarding it today.

 

[Zooid]

bummer

 

[prolawn_care]

That sucks! But they should be back at it soon!

 

[Ummfish]

Yeah, I kind of wondered about their placement. That's over near where I drop food in the tank, so there's lots of traffic around there. Maybe next time.

 

[Ummfish]

So, I have a show for you all tonight. There are lots of pictures, so I'll only direct-link a few. If you are interested in the rest I will give you links.

The starry blennies decided to spawn right out in the middle of everything, right on top of a magnet. It wasn't a huge surprise that they spawned as the female was huge, just kind of crazy that it was out in plain view.

More like that:

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_06_11-24-09.jpg

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_11_11-24-09.jpg

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_13_11-24-09.jpg

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_12_11-24-09.jpg


The eggs are pretty much gorgeous. This is from the back so you can see the attachment fibers:

More like that:

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_01_11-24-09.jpg

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_03_11-24-09.jpg

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_04_11-24-09.jpg

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_07_11-24-09.jpg

Unfortunately, lots of animals like eating eggs:

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_08_11-24-09.jpg

http://www.ummfish.com/starry_blenny_spawn_09_11-24-09.jpg

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlpYB1sPYCY

 

[Zooid]

great pics as usual.
I can almost see the egg thief drooling.

 

[hurrafreak]

Andy thats pretty sweet!! You going to try and grow these guys or do you think they'll be goners??

 

[Ummfish]

Zero eggs left this morning. The female's still pretty new at this--at most this is her second spawn--so I wonder if the eggs were actually viable. I do know that the male made almost zero effort to protect this nest and was eating them himself. So, I'll assume that the pair just isn't ready yet.

Honestly, they are fairly big fish and the eggs were relatively large, too, so I would assume that they would be pretty good candidates for a CB program. I would certainly love to try these at some point. Heck, I have a larval tank full of rots right now....

 

[hoodrat]

Another amazing pic is there a update on the corals since the meeting?

 

[prolawn_care]

Wanna get rid of dome rots??? My horse would be happy to eat them for you! If so how much you want for a good size culture and maybe some food for the rots if you have any?