ReefGrammie's 90-Gallon Reboot

DiefsReef · Oct 13, 2020

DaddyFish said:
Is that a typo??? CAN catch them??? Do you have Spiderman reflexes or something?
I'm definitely in the "hate damnsels" camp. They are evil little... mean as all get out!
But everyone has someone who loves them. You can have all my damnsels, IF I ever screw up and buy another one.

A keen intellect and cat like reflexes... not gonna let a little fish beat her!

ReefGrammie · Oct 15, 2020

DaddyFish said:
Is that a typo??? CAN catch them??? Do you have Spiderman reflexes or something?
I'm definitely in the "hate damnsels" camp. They are evil little... mean as all get out!
But everyone has someone who loves them. You can have all my damnsels, IF I ever screw up and buy another one.

Not a typo! I have a fish trap that I spring with a piece of dental floss! My two are model citizens...you make me hesitant to ever buy another one, though. I'm sorry you hate your "damnsels." ;Hilarious

ReefGrammie · Oct 15, 2020

DiefsReef said:
A keen intellect and cat like reflexes... not gonna let a little fish beat her!

I almost let a six-line wrasse beat me...and a purple pseudochromis!! ;Sour Those two were horrible. I finally got them, though...took about 3 days with the six-line. Not so much the keen intellect and cat like reflexes...I just won't give it up!! ;Shamefullyembarrased

btmedic04 · Oct 15, 2020

Last year I introduced ich to my 40 and ended up having to remove every piece of rock just to catch my green clown goby. By far the most difficult fish I've ever had to catch!

ReefGrammie · Oct 15, 2020

btmedic04 said:
Last year I introduced ich to my 40 and ended up having to remove every piece of rock just to catch my green clown goby. By far the most difficult fish I've ever had to catch!

Well, I sucked my green clown goby out during a water change! He went right through the siphon and into the bottom of a 5-gallon jug. He is still fine, but I have to get a visual on him every time I do a water change now. He's still very "curious" about the siphon.

I imagine deliberately trying to catch him would be about impossible. Maybe stick a siphon hose in the tank if you ever have to catch him again! ;Joyful

ReefGrammie · Oct 18, 2020

This has nothing to do with my 90-gallon tank, but @TriggerFinger took me on a little walk through memory lane regarding my former mantis shrimp tanks. Actually, I've didn't remember the third one, but I actually had 3. So, this doesn't seem like a normal thing for a lady reefer, but at the time my sons were teenagers, which meant all of their friends were always at my house. Everyone loved the tank, but the mantis shrimp (especially Bo) could draw a crowd.

The first mantis, Princess, was a hitchhiker from the LFS, found in the huge tank of live rock. My son had seen a documentary on mantis shrimp and he was fascinated by them (me too), so we brought Princess home and set up a tank. Princess was probably a common Caribbean mantis shrimp and only got about 2, maybe 2.5 inches long. This picture was from September of 2009, so almost a year after I set up the 46 bowfront. These pictures don't do the colors justice. They are beautiful creatures!

Princess the mantis:

I can't remember how long we had Princess, but at one point, my son talked me into buying Bo, a Gonodactylus smithii mantis (also known as a purple spot mantis). Bo was larger at around 4 inches and I had Bo from late 2009 until sometime in 2012. I guess the biggest downside to owning mantis shrimp (at least to me) was they dined on my CUC. The tanks always had algae because if you put snails in there, they ate them. I know, gross, but not to teenaged boys.

Bo was a smasher (there are also spearers), so he would take those clubbed front appendages and basically beat the tar out of whatever he was trying to get, which was usually a snail. Oddly, Bo's tankmate was a 3-stripe damselfish that was in there for several years with him and eventually went to live in my 46. He never bothered the fish.

I had one unpleasant encounter with Bo when he smashed the crap out of my finger. I usually didn't touch anything in the tank unless I had my tongs in hand (which were hit many times), but I got careless one day and didn't realize he was lurking right at the entrance of his den. I stuck my hand in there to do something quickly and he hit my finger with those smashers...talk about scaring the living crap out me. It also hurt REALLY bad. He hit me more on the nail and it didn't break the skin. Mantis shrimp are also fondly known as "thumb splitters." I guess my experience could have been much worse.

That ended my days of putting anything in the tank without tongs in hand...

Some of the pictures aren't so great, but these show the amazing colors. Note those pink smashing appendages...they hurt...just sayin'

Bo the mantis:

My favorite picture of my son "playing" with Bo. They are supposedly very intelligent (I have no idea who you determine that a mantis shrimp is intelligent), and he would follow you around, probably hoping you stupidly put your hand in the tank to he could smash the daylights out of your finger! ;Hilarious

TriggerFinger · Oct 18, 2020

They were very pretty!! Glad you still have all your fingers!

ReefGrammie · Oct 30, 2020

TriggerFinger said:
They were very pretty!! Glad you still have all your fingers!

I survived the mantis, but smashing dry rock with a hammer might be the thing that hurts the worst! I'm off to the LFS tomorrow to get some more dry rock for the new tank. I'm sure I'll have a hammer out afterwards..I try to keep the fingers out of the way. ;Happy

LRT · Oct 30, 2020

I would love to have a mantis! Matter of fact i have a whole entire sump freed up right now

Seriously considering putting one in. They are incredible creatures for sure!

ReefGrammie · Oct 31, 2020

LRT said:
I would love to have a mantis! Matter of fact i have a whole entire sump freed up right now Seriously considering putting one in. They are incredible creatures for sure!

Do it!!! They are fascinating. We've had a total of 4 over the years. I could even stick another one in my refugium...except it's the time-out location when something is being "naughty." ;Hilarious

LRT · Oct 31, 2020

I think you talked me into it

I'm going to my favorite fish lfs. He had one last time i was there. Ill let you know

ReefGrammie · Oct 31, 2020

Waiting for water to heat up is like watching paint dry. I'm not feeling very patient today. I'm ready to re-scape the BioCube a little bit and I need some saltwater ready in case my water displacement calculation is off. I've had a pretty big rock sitting in there that I've decided to take out.

Ok, water change done, rocks taken out/added, salinity matched. This is a side view. I'm still planning to stack more rock up the back wall, but wanted to clear the perimeter so I can at least run the Mag-Float without knocking stuff over. Utter Chaos is really mad. I found an aiptasia right in the middle of it, so I took out the rock and globbed some super glue gel right over the aiptasia. UGH. ;Sour

ReefGrammie · Oct 31, 2020

A few pictures of the 90...

Fire shrimp

Royal Gramma in his man cave, daring anyone to come near!

Bizarro cyphastrea...this one has really started spreading on the rock.

My favorite acan with new babies!

Stellaria chalice. This piece is finally bigger than a nub and I'm starting to see the colors. I'm loving what I see!

TriggerFinger · Oct 31, 2020

The bio cube reacape looks great! Everyone looks happy and healthy. The gramma ;Hilarious That’s on my fish list eventually.

ReefGrammie · Oct 31, 2020

Here I go again...stop having live sales, people! I had to buy another tank because of you! ;Joyful

TriggerFinger · Oct 31, 2020

you could have worse habits ;Smuggrin

ReefGrammie · Oct 31, 2020

TriggerFinger said:
The bio cube reacape looks great! Everyone looks happy and healthy. The gramma ;Hilarious That’s on my fish list eventually.

Thanks!! I'm sure I'll change it up 50 more times before I'm done.

I love that royal gramma. My last one stayed hidden all the time except for feeding (no one was picking on it either), and I almost didn't get another one for that reason. This one is totally different and has lots of personality!