That moment you realize.....

AquaticallyDistracted22 · Jun 20, 2013

....WAIT! That isn't my Maxi Mini Carpet Anemone doing something cool and interesting....That's my Engineer Goby already half eaten by my carpet anemone!!!

Literally two minutes after feeding and seeing that everyone was fine I looked back at my aquarium and saw something I hadn't seen before. My first thought was weird, I haven't seen my carpet anemone turn his stomach out, I didn't think it would be black and yellow. Then went....OH $4!7, that's my Engineer Goby! I was able to pull him away and since his head had not been taken in by the anemone he was still able to breath. He lived for another few hours or so, but was SO badly stung that he didn't have much of a chance. Ironically when I went to remove him from the aquarium, after he had died, he slipped from my hands and the current blew him right back into the anemone. I thought of pulling him out again, but hey, if my anemone is hungry I'd rather him eat the already dead fish than attack another healthy one.

Anyone else have a "That's cool....WAIT!!!" sort of moment?

Mrfresh · Jun 20, 2013

I placed sps frags all over my system ( superglued down )
Now that my tanks doing great they are all encrusting. Happy my corals are going.
Until I realized I placed a lot of them to close to each other and now that they are growing they are either trying to encrust over each other or sting each other....

AquaticallyDistracted22 · Jun 20, 2013

Mrfresh said:
I placed sps frags all over my system ( superglued down )
Now that my tanks doing great they are all encrusting. Happy my corals are going.
Until I realized I placed a lot of them to close to each other and now that they are growing they are either trying to encrust over each other or sting each other....

That is always my first thought after seeing an aquarium, especially a nano aquarium, that someone has loaded with coral frags. Yes, it is nice and very colorful....but how long until things have to fight for living space. There's another discussion in itself...people discuss fish compatibility, but I've seen far too many aquariums, and nothing against you Mrfresh just a general comment, in which people don't seem to consider the future repercussions of coral placement within an aquarium

WirelessMike · Nov 6, 2022

AquaticallyDistracted22 said:
....WAIT! That isn't my Maxi Mini Carpet Anemone doing something cool and interesting....That's my Engineer Goby already half eaten by my carpet anemone!!!

Literally two minutes after feeding and seeing that everyone was fine I looked back at my aquarium and saw something I hadn't seen before. My first thought was weird, I haven't seen my carpet anemone turn his stomach out, I didn't think it would be black and yellow. Then went....OH $4!7, that's my Engineer Goby! I was able to pull him away and since his head had not been taken in by the anemone he was still able to breath. He lived for another few hours or so, but was SO badly stung that he didn't have much of a chance. Ironically when I went to remove him from the aquarium, after he had died, he slipped from my hands and the current blew him right back into the anemone. I thought of pulling him out again, but hey, if my anemone is hungry I'd rather him eat the already dead fish than attack another healthy one.

Anyone else have a "That's cool....WAIT!!!" sort of moment?

Almost the same story…but with a small foxface.

Nano sapiens · Nov 6, 2022

AquaticallyDistracted22 said:
That is always my first thought after seeing an aquarium, especially a nano aquarium, that someone has loaded with coral frags. Yes, it is nice and very colorful....but how long until things have to fight for living space. There's another discussion in itself...people discuss fish compatibility, but I've seen far too many aquariums, and nothing against you Mrfresh just a general comment, in which people don't seem to consider the future repercussions of coral placement within an aquarium

As always...'it depends' (in this case on the point of view).

In a successful nano (or any sized reef aquarium) the corals will eventually spread and grow into each other. One can let them go at it (as they would in nature) or try to control it by intervening (or any combination thereof).

Since we put the corals in an aquarium, there's a natural human tendency to feel responsible if they injure each other. But the reality is that competition for limited space on the reef is what they have been doing for millions of years and has helped shape all the wondrous species that we so admire.

14 years of infighting in a 12g: