The build thread: 430gal. display

[Ummfish]

I think they are flatworms but Ron Shimek says that they also could be large (very large) ciliates:

 

[Zooid]

I was thinking ciliates but Ive never seen huge ciliates like these hehe.

 

[Mantid]

Are they all over your tank or they like to attach themselves to the eggs only? Do they worry you at all?

 

[Ummfish]

I'm not worried. I've seen them for years. Things still hatch and develop. ***Shrug*** I assume they are cleaners of some sort.

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Differences in developmental rates in sixline wrasse embryos. All of these are 19.5 hours old. All photographs are taken in situ in a one quart canning jar.

 

[Zooid]

nice pics. Do you have any calanoids yet Andy?

 

[Ummfish]

No.... Dang it. I'm waiting for new algae starters, too, so it'll be quite a while until I could keep any calanoids alive.

 

[Ummfish]

Differences in developmental rates are still evident in the sixline wrasse prolarvae. All of these are now 43.5 hours post-spawn. The fish have tolerated very minor water changes (just with a pipette, so slllooooowwww) and the addition of small amounts of the flagellate+greenwater that I want to try as first food.

Oil globule and yolk are to the left of this larva.

Oil globule and yolk are below the larva in this shot.

Focus is a little lower in this shot so you can see fin development.

A question: We're now at about 49 hours post-spawn and some of the prolarvae have adopted a tail-high stance in the water column before swimming off. None of them are doing it all the time. What does it mean? Has the oil globule been absorbed?

 

[Zooid]

hmmmm, maybe their eyes are starting to develop and it's too bright for them?
Clown larvae do this but I don't really know about prolarvae.

 

[Ummfish]

Well, could be. But I would think that until they lose that oil globule it would be hard for them to float head-down. It'd be like trying to touch the bottom of the pool in a life-vest.

I had some losses overnight, but at least one is still kicking.

 

[Ummfish]

At least one of them is still holding on for me close to 86 hours post-spawn, which is a new record for me. I did a small water change and added more possible prey. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any photos.

 

[Mantid]

Not sure exactly what you mean when relating too much light to eye development in too bright of conditions. Maybe Im reading it wrong? What exactly does too much light do to them?

 

[Zooid]

Clown larvae are very light sensitive. If the light is too bright they will stand on their heads at the bottom of the tank to try and get away from it. Prolarvae are different though since they have to develop their eyes after they hatch, so they may not be light sensitive.

 

[Ummfish]

I still have one hanging in there, five full days (120 hours--I miss-counted the hours earlier) post-spawn! By far a new record for me and it looks to me like it might be eating!

 

[Zooid]

Excellent news Andy! congrats

 

[Ummfish]

I did lose that little guy. Now that the puppy is doing better I think I'm just about ready to give them a go again. It's been a while since I posted though, so I thought I'd show a couple of recent photos.

Here's an amphipod female in a closed-off sand burrow (sugar-fine sand), with a developing brood:

And here's a tubeworm. I think tubeworms are amazingly beautiful. It's too bad that the larger ones don't seem as hardy and that the hardy ones are too small to really appreciate.

 

[Mantid]

Nice shots! the tube worm looks like its make of gold or some metallic color.

 

[Punjab]

When I first glanced at that picture of the amphipod I immediately wondered if your "sand bed" was actually made of Jelly Bellys.

 

[Ummfish]

Thanks, y'all! Yes, the sandbed _is_ made of jelly bellys. I've found that it helps keep my 9 year old interested.

 

[Ummfish]

Well, I'm fairly irritated at the guy that built my rocks. He built the whole thing in front of me _except_ the three pieces to cover the pump intakes. Well, one of them delaminated and I took a good look at it yesterday evening. What do I find? He used freaking _aluminum_ gutter guard as the matrix for the concrete! Grr. It's a lot of water volume and it certainly didn't get to toxic levels for most of the inverts in the system, but this could very well be one of the contributing factors as to why I haven't been able to keep any of the more delicate inverts, and especially not in the display tank. Hmph.

First water change to get rid of the metals today.

 

[Mantid]

So, I assume you ripped out all that he didnt do in front of you. How much did you have to rip out all together? That sucks to hear man. Has this guy done reef tanks before? I hope you end up contacting this guy. what a bummer!