evolved's 190g Reef: Wrasse Retreat (Updated 2/6, Pg 33)

Whatupdates?

 

^ seriously..

 

He's like me Shin, has to wait for his buddy to come over and take good pictures to post lol

 

No one will come over to my house and take pictures.

 

Go west young man, go west.

 

Is this timely enough for you?

Nah, I just have to find the time to actually take out, learn, and practice with the camera. Who has time for that? A buddy did take some fantastic wrasse photos a month ago; I didn't even share them here. :

And at some point, you'll be seeing a story and photos from Tony Vargas from back in February... But I suspect another famous aquarium photographer will beat him to the punch after he takes photos this coming week.

You need to offer better brides.

Or this.

Update incoming.

 

Bout time ;D

 

What type of sick business do you think I'm running over here buddy?!!

 

So let's get everyone up to speed. And you know how I can blabber on. Bear with me.

Losses in the past 6 months; I'd rather not total them all. Quite a few LPS and a handful of SPS (more on that in a minute). One fish (melanurus), but a few fish additions (more on that in a minute too).


First, the LPS woes. Why? Unfortunately, I wish I could tell you. The best culmination I have is some of them starving (lack of nutrients - who knew I could have that problem?) and mainly a bacterial or viral issue. I lost all my acans, and almost all my chalices (including the big red w/ yellow eye showpiece I had in the center). That chalice from the center I did everything I could on; dipped many times, in everything I could think of, fragged off the skeleton and edge of dying tissue & glued the exposed edge of the skeleton - twice. Nothing stopped it. It basically "looked" like something not visible just kept attacking it and spreading from the initiation site. Sort of like white banded disease, but without any "jelly". Just death spreading across the colony. Other "fleshy" LPS died the same way. It seems to have ceased now and things are stable again, whatever it was.


Next, the SPS woes. Ready? I have acro eating flatworms (AEFW). Yes. Me. I said it. How did I get them? No idea. I've always been very careful; never have I added a plug from someone I didn't trust (I know, that's not much of a warm fuzzy either). I keep a log on this tank, and unless I've had them for a very long time and never knew it (possible), I would have to track them to a maricultured hoeki I picked up from DD. I can't point the finger at them, because there's no way to be certain. That's just my best guess. I cut off the colony and pitched the entire mariculture base, before I ever dipped, let alone add, the coral to my tank. But all it takes is one to sneak in...

Here's the good news with them; so far it's manageable. I've been using KZ Fatworm Stop coupled with their Coral Booster now for about 4 months, and I do think that's helping. I'm also "blowing" off all the SPS at least bi-weekly, but I do think I should be doing that more. As far as I can see, they only have a strong hold on two colonies now. The other SPS seem unaffected. Some acros never were affected, for that matter. They seem pretty selective in what they like. I believe the KZ products are helping, as a few acros I once saw some bite marks on have healed and shown no more.


Next up, fish news. I lost my melanurus a few months ago, likely to an internal issue. He was quite bloated for several weeks, and I was a bit concerned. But not knowing what the specific problem is, means I don't know what to treat for. And then one day, after being bloated for weeks, he was back to normal size one morning. Weird. A few weeks later, he was bloated again, but not as big as he once was. Then he went missing, and I found a body in a couple days. Dunno. Death happens.

In the new addition department, I added another female johnsoni after my pair was spawning so well (recall the video here which Advanced Aquarist ended up showing). She was so tiny, and made me realize how much the other two had grown since I had received them. All three are doing well, but now I have one stunning terminal male, another terminal male, and a submale. :-/ So much for females. (If it isn't broken, don't fix it?)

The other new addition, and possibly much more exciting, is my Paracheilinus attenuatus. One from the dream list, that one. He was sourced from someplace I don't normally buy, and therefore I QT him for ~8 weeks. He had flukes and later developed ich, but both of those were dealt with. He's doing great in the DT now; exceptionally bold. He also had quite the color shift within a week of adding him. He turned nearly black down the back; you'll see in the photos I have coming.


Last bit of "blog" talk. The Red Bell's Pincushion Urchin I had died a while back. He starved. No idea what that species eats, but it didn't grow in my tank. The Red Tuxedo continues to do fine. I still have the abalone; neat ugly critter he is, and quite the workhorse. And I also have a Blue Linckia that's going strong 7-8 months now. But come to find out, Linckia's are mostly nocturnal... Regardless, it's a species I've always wanted to keep, and planned to do such in this tank. I felt it would be large enough and offer enough of the unknown the species needs, and so far so good. But we know I can't really know that for certain until I get to two years or so with him.


Alright, enough chatter. Time for the eye candy. And there's some good stuff y'all haven't seen yet.

 

nice update