Macro Algae & Corals 25 Gallon Peninsula

[vetteguy53081]

I’m calling in the experts here… @vetteguy53081, @Mibu, @Daniel@R2R, anybody… Our cleaner shrimp recently molted and now exhibits small spheroids in her abdomen. Is she pregnant?!

Egg capsules for sure

 

[OldRed1]

Egg capsules for sure

Holy buckets! Wow!

 

[OldRed1]

Yep! Those are eggs!

Holy moly! This is so cool!

 

[Goaway]

Holy moly! This is so cool!

In a couple of weeks, she'll fan off the larva at night. Very amazing to see

 

[OldRed1]

In a couple of weeks, she'll fan off the larva at night. Very amazing to see

That long, huh? Drat. By then we will likely have fish in the tank, so I’m doubtful any of these will survive.

 

[Goaway]

That long, huh? Drat. By then we will likely have fish in the tank, so I’m doubtful any of these will survive.

They are very difficult to raise. They need their own system dedicated and very small food source. It aint easy
None of them are going to survive.

 

[OldRed1]

@Mibu Relatedly, just this morning my purple short spine urchin started pumping out these oblong translucent sphericals. Could these be unfertilized urchin eggs? When the urchin expels excrement, it tends to sink immediately to the sand bed. These spheroids seem to float in the water column. Unfortunately, many have ended up in the overflow!

 

[Goaway]

I never had the chance to see urchin eggs, mine is a male. Congrats! Those very much look like eggs.

Edit: yes, infertile.

 

[OldRed1]

I never had the chance to see urchin eggs, mine is a male. Congrats! Those very much look like eggs.

I now feel much better about calling her Ursula haha. I sure wish James was still around these forums…his joy and excitement about reefing helped to inspire me to get into this hobby. This seems like the kinda thing he’d get excited about.

Really appreciate you making the time to chime in on all this with your feedback, too! You’ve been a big source of inspiration as well. I hope to learn enough about this hobby to help others as much as you do!

 

[Goaway]

I now feel much better about calling her Ursula haha. I sure wish James was still around these forums…his joy and excitement about reefing helped to inspire me to get into this hobby. This seems like the kinda thing he’d get excited about.

Really appreciate you making the time to chime in on all this with your feedback, too! You’ve been a big source of inspiration as well. I hope to learn enough about this hobby to help others as much as you do!

You will. We all go through tough phases. Fight through them, and you will be much happier with yourself. Sometimes the solution is just too obvious, we end up skipping it.

We're here to help, just hopefully not to add to the headache of reeefing troubles.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Wow! Great build! I just read all your 8 pages and I'm really loving your live rock and all your hitchhikers! The Shelly crab is my favorite!! I wish I was able to do live rock, I'd make a tank just for that and keep as many hitchhikers as I could.

Great build, great documentation and I'm defining going to follow along!!!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Also, what was that new powerstrip that you got with all the individual switches on post 77? I need to get one of those!

 

[OldRed1]

Also, what was that new powerstrip that you got with all the individual switches on post 77? I need to get one of those!

I love this thing! It has made tank maintenance so easy! Here is a link to the item on Amazon.

 

[OldRed1]

Wow! Great build! I just read all your 8 pages and I'm really loving your live rock and all your hitchhikers! The Shelly crab is my favorite!! I wish I was able to do live rock, I'd make a tank just for that and keep as many hitchhikers as I could.

Great build, great documentation and I'm defining going to follow along!!!

Thank you for your kind feedback! I love the hitchhikers, and everyday I find something new. Just this morning I found a new cup coral that I hadn’t seen before.

 

[OldRed1]

Found another new hitchhiker this morning! Thanks to the folks in the ID thread for their help with identifying this small creature! Looks like some kind of chiton. How cool!

 

[OldRed1]

Any cleaner shrimp experts around? Since becoming pregnant, my cleaner shrimp’s appearance and behavior seems different. Is this typical?

Visually, the shrimp’s internal organs appear to be darkening. I’m contrast to the other shrimp, the organ’s of the pregnant shrimp are very dark as shown below.

I’m terms of behavior, the pregnant shrimp seems “off” compared to normal behavior. At times, she is seen attempting to climb on the glass as if she’s hungry. But when I offer raw shrimp or scallops, foods she normally eats, she nibbles a bit but then discards the food.

Thoughts?

 

[OldRed1]

Here is a photo of the male shrimp in comparison to show the contrast in organ color.

 

[OldRed1]

Also, sad lesson learned: Limpets will eat tunicates. The other day, I posted a photo of a purple tunicate (erroneously identified as a sponge) that I spotted in my tank. It had grown a bit, and seemed to be doing well in its new position after moving the rock.

Yesterday, I noticed a limpet face hugging the portion of the rock where the tunicate was growing. This morning, the limpet had moved and in its wake appeared to be nothing but bare rock. Sad face!

 

[OldRed1]

This hermit crab may have had other plans for a Monday afternoon, but now its plans consist of being a decoration for Ursula! Poor little guy!

 

[OldRed1]

New toy for the tank! Thanks to everyone at @PNWCustom for this slick magnetic frag rack! Just in time for our local frag swap later this month!