Turtle's Miniature Moray Menagerie

[SashimiTurtle]

I picked up Rods for anemone, chunks of seafood and whole shrimps

I thought of the LRS chunky too...

Another idea I have is live feeders... no, not going out and buying a $10 damsel every week to feed him. Acclimating mollies to saltwater and breeding them. They reproduce like rabbits. I have a hand full of empty tanks. I can set up my little 5g for the molly breeding tank. It's a little more work than just thawing frozen, but if he refuses to eat it...

 

[siggy]

Another idea I have is live feeders.

That tread would land you in the Steam pot from the Tank Cycle police:mad:

 

[SashimiTurtle]

That tread would land you in the Steam pot from the Tank Cycle police:mad:

Lol... shhh, we won't let them know. Besides, it's mollies.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Maui went for an excursion and found the back chamber with the marine pure spheres... he's getting restless and still won't eat.

Since he got himself stuck back there, I figured it was time to clean the tank up. The GHA had gotten a little out of control and I moved the urchin over to the Deep Blue Sea to help boost the CUC over there.

Went to one of the chain pet stores near the house and picked up some mollys. Now, I gotta figure out how to acclimate these things to salt water and get them breeding. One or two are going to end up as feeders right off the bat.

 

[sfin52]

I believe you start them in fresh water and over the next week bring up the salinity. Never done it

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, Maui is settled in the tank and I rearranged the rocks, and added an acrylic skull I saw in the pet store. Always wanted an eel living in a skull. Maui hasn't found it yet, but I'm hoping he'll hang out there some. I might encrust it with some cyphastrea.

Read a few threads on different forums where people just throw them into saltwater as feeders for various anglers, eels, lions and other predatory fish and they last a few days until eaten. Im gonna give them a 30 minute drip then they are going in my QT tank. Now I gotta figure out which ones are males and which ones are females.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Mollies are in 1.025 salt water! Completely unfazed by the change. Tough little guys. They are already eating pellet food after being in salt for a few minutes.

We found out how to sex these guys too.

Females have a fan shaped anal fin.

Males have a pointed anal fin.

So counting the boys and girls, I have 3 boys and 2 girls. Looks like a boy is going to the Menagerie. I was planning on keeping the females for breeders anyway.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Mollies are in 1.025 salt water! Completely unfazed by the change. Tough little guys. They are already eating pellet food after being in salt for a few minutes.

We found out how to sex these guys too.

Females have a fan shaped anal fin.

Males have a pointed anal fin.

So counting the boys and girls, I have 3 boys and 2 girls. Looks like a boy is going to the Menagerie. I was planning on keeping the females for breeders anyway.

Was just going to post about the fins. Mollies are hardy for sure. In the old days I used them to cycle freshwater tanks (shhhh....).

 

[NY_Caveman]

As you probably know they are live bearers.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Yes, live bearers. I had some when I was a kid and they spawned/gave birth. I saw some frozen baby brine in the freezer at that pet shop... probably should have picked some up for when I have babies. Oh well it's only about 15 minutes from the house as long as I avoid rush hour.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Guess what Maui found!

View attachment 20180228_224945.jpg

 

[sfin52]

Has he shown any interest in the mollies

 

[SashimiTurtle]

The molly was still alive last I checked. I'll look in the morning and see if it's still in there or if it's been eaten. I'm not expecting him to eat the first night. It may take a day or two.

Super blue, this was right before lights off at the end of the ramp.

 

[jazonPartij]

He’s doesn’t look that big. What fish did he eat of yours?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

He’s doesn’t look that big. What fish did he eat of yours?

Oh yea he's small, 6-8". Somewhere in there. There's fish small enough that he can eat tho.

Hi fin goby, gold assessor basslet, flame cardinal... few others. All about the same size as or smaller than those mollies. Right about the time he stopped eating in mid December is when I started losing fish. They'd just disappear without a trace. The one fish I actually found after it died was my line spot flasher wrasse, and I'm not sure if he tried to eat it and it was too big, or if something else happened to the wrasse. The wrasse was in good shape and eating very well, so I'm leaning towards being partially swallowed as cause of death.

 

[sfin52]

enything fluorescent encrusting whould enhance the skill

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Yea, I want something with wild colors. Like a WWC Bizarro cyphastrea... that's probably what I'll get, unless someone shows me something with crazier colors than that.

And encrusted like this, except with eye holes.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Lol, should have looked sooner... the reef shop closest to the house @AquariumSpecialty has a Bizarro on their website. I'll stop by tomorrow and see what they look like in person.

 

[sfin52]

Maui has to have a place to come out

 

[SashimiTurtle]

No Bizarro frags, just the grow out piece left in store.

We did find this piece of cyphastrea. The one dead center. I saw that one on the large tile half bleached out and we figured out the acan echinata was stinging it, from about 5-6" away... nothing wrong with the tank, someone placed a coral in the wrong spot. I don't know what the designer name is, or if it has one but I liked the colors. It's got an ice blue base with purple polyps.