Zoey's Reef is Growing Up . . .

Maritimer · Feb 19, 2018

That was the plan - either there or Compleat Angler in Darien.

Thanks for the reminder about the tippet, 'cause I think all we've got 'round here is my son's 50# spiderwire braid!

~Bruce

drawman · Feb 19, 2018

Bruce sorry to hear about the parasites. Hope all (including the parrotfish) are doing well!

Maritimer · Feb 20, 2018

Thanks, Drawman - everyone seems to be doing well except the Labout's wrasse, who had contracted ... something ... schmutzy and whitish that covered his head like a thick film. Nobody else has shown a trace of similar symptoms, and I hope they don't - the Labout's was lost about a week into QT.

~Bruce, now armed with size 26 dry fly hooks, hehehehehe . . .

fabutahoun · Feb 20, 2018

Good luck with your fish treatment, it is really irritating when you QT your fish and have a healthy disease free tank then tank got infected after adding a coral or an invert.

been there before

Maritimer · Feb 21, 2018

Thank you, Fabutahoun.

It's a risk, for sure . . .

~Bruce

Maritimer · Feb 27, 2018

Clever girl . . .

I've tried a couple of times now with a baited size 26 dry-fly hook (have you ever tried to tie and bait a hook the size of a brine shrimp?! Not to be attempted after age 50 . . . ) with mysis parts and formless smidgeons of LRS, and the midas blenny has looked at it, kissed it, stolen a mysis tail from it ... and is still in the display.

Grr.

Photos for your enjoyment, and to satisfy my curiosity:

Pistol shrimp. He doesn't love gobies, and sometimes he hurts my fingers.

Is this the mushroom they call "Red Devil"? That's the closest thing I've found. It does have a richly red fluorescence, with sky blue speckles that develop as it ages.

Fire coral - attached to a piece of KP Aquatics Florida Keys liverock. Seems to be thriving!

Are these pale brown / beige threads dinoflagellates? There are numerous algaes which have made their presence known with the tang, blennies and parrotfish out of the tank. Sargassum plants are growing again, as are Halimeda, Neomeris, Bryopsis, Caulerpa, wiry red turf, and several whose names I can't begin to guess.

~Bruce

Maritimer · Mar 21, 2018

My quarantine & fallow is now officially a nightmare. After 30+ days of copper, fish began to die - at this point, I'm thinking copper overexposure / toxicity. All wrasses, parrotfish, coral beauty and flame angelfish are gone, as is my kole tang. My clownfish isn't looking good . . .

The blenny is still pretty certain he owns the display, and has remained un-catchable by trap or hook.

Corals don't look too bad, for whatever consolation that provides. Below, a journey through Kingston & Zoey's Reef in the evening, under the blues:

There appear to be new crabs, and the blue coral banded shrimp has been sighted - and appears to have nearly doubled in size. Gorgeous creature, it's a shame it's so very shy.

~Bruce

Ento-Reefer · Mar 21, 2018

Nice video. Very sorry to hear about the loss of your fish.

fabutahoun · Mar 22, 2018

Sorry Bruce to hear about losing all this fish, what kind of copper medication and test kit did you use?

Maritimer · Mar 22, 2018

I've been using Coppersafe and API - but never relied on the instructions on the back of the bottle for dosing. I've always been the "add five ml to 75 gallons in the morning, add 5ml in the evening, test copper level" guy.

~Bruce

drawman · Mar 22, 2018

Maritimer said:
I've been using Coppersafe and API - but never relied on the instructions on the back of the bottle for dosing. I've always been the "add five ml to 75 gallons in the morning, add 5ml in the evening, test copper level" guy.

~Bruce

Very very sorry to hear this Bruce.

jsker · Mar 22, 2018

That throws a wrench into things, sorry about the set back

Maritimer · Mar 22, 2018

A wrench and a setback, yes ... and I won't say it don't hurt ... but I'm down, not out.

There are black mollies drip-acclimating as I type this; the fallow period for velvet is passed, and I'm going to "molly-test" the tank. If there's a marine disease in there, it ought to show on these velvety-black fish within a couple of weeks.

Strange story - while at the local Petsmart today, looking at mollies (theirs were in iffy condition), the young lady attending the fish department asked what kind of tank I had. "220 gallon coral reef". "Oh..." says she, "We don't carry anything for salt water." I started to explain that mollies can do very well in salt, and she said "I'd have to go and get a manager. I'm not allowed to sell you this fish for a saltwater tank."

I drove halfway across the county to get mollies in better condition. From a Petco. (The few LFS we have around here are almost exclusively marine!)

~Bruce

Maritimer · Mar 24, 2018

Thought I'd do an update on the "brownie" colonies I picked up at my fave LFS. Some are doing well, others ... not so much.

Older brown colonies, shown above, as they are today:
Pocillopora is mostly a beige/pink color, with a little greenish, the acro here is still pretty gray, but has lovely polyp extension. Barnacles seem to be doing well . . .

This guy is brick orange, and still home to an acro crab.

Pale purple color. Most of these colonies show little to no fluorescence.

Tips on this guy are bright, pale sky blue. About 40% of the colony has no coral tissue, but I have hope.

Still don't know what to call this guy. Pale by daylights, it's red with green tentacles under the blues. Encrusting.

This colony has slowly disappeared - there's a single corallite that appears to be alive. Sadness.

This one had showed pale tips with green further in, but the green seems to be fading back. Shown under the natural light of a sunbeam that comes to play in Spring and Fall, but not during the Summer or Winter. Color mostly appears as a pale magenta pink.

A few colonies picked up more recently:

Lots of color possibilities in this guy - and cool corallite structure!

This fellow looks like it might turn out to be orangey, pinkish or yellow, with thick, chunky branches. Looking forward to see what it becomes! That's an Oregon tort next door, so you see what my phone's camera is doing to colors here . . .

This guy looks like he may go toward the purple end of the spectrum - and seems happy to be in the tank!

~Bruce

Maritimer · Mar 26, 2018

No real change in the news from Kingston & Zoey's reef ... Now down to rather few fish in QT, while the blenny in the display remains symptom free and in apparently perfect health. Corals and other inverts also appear to be thriving.

Spend a few minutes traversing the nearly fishless reef, while a friendly sunbeam bounces off of the front glass to add color . . .

~Bruce

fabutahoun · Mar 27, 2018

Maritimer said:
No real change in the news from Kingston & Zoey's reef ... Now down to rather few fish in QT, while the blenny in the display remains symptom free and in apparently perfect health. Corals and other inverts also appear to be thriving.

Spend a few minutes traversing the nearly fishless reef, while a friendly sunbeam bounces off of the front glass to add color . . .

~Bruce

Tank looking Good.

I will still be paranoid about velvet, maybe the blenny developed immunity for the velvet, and he still carrying some of the parasites but showing no symptoms, meanwhile the parasites are waiting to add new fish to hit back again. I guess it will be safer if the blenny went to QT also.

Maritimer · Mar 28, 2018

Thanks, Fadi!

I'm currently working on adding freshwater black mollies to the tank. They shouldn't have any immunity to marine diseases, so if velvet is lurking, its white spots on black fish ought to tell the tale.

It would be safer if the blenny went to QT - I agree - but I might have to saw his favorite rock in half to get 'im there.

~Bruce

Maritimer · Jun 2, 2018

Overdue update ...

The remaining fish have been returned to Kingston & Zoey's Reef, but it's a paltry handful; two Talbott's and three azure damselfish, one zebra-bar dartfish, the target mandarin and starry blenny, and the pair of watchman gobies. While the fish were away, corals were added from R2R sponsors AquaSD and Boom Corals. The AquaSD corals were delayed in shipment for 24 hours; all but three made it through anyway! Good job to the packers at AquaSD! Two separate purchases from Matt @BoomCorals, and I'm very happy with the way he "does" corals by now. Corals came in with good color and PE, and I'm pretty thrilled with three "blind picks" that I ordered from him as well. Sweet little surprises! Corals from both vendors have shown some growth, encrusting or increasing the number of their polyps as the case may be. I think the reef probably has most of the corals it needs, so now it's going to be all about growth and color.

A few new fish have been through QT, coming from LA-DD. Sadly, the kole tang I ordered didn't make it - never ate prepared foods, though it did "kiss" the PVC fittings a little bit, and had issues with breathing. General Cure was administered, but after the fish's passing I performed a freshwater dip, and two flukes were recovered. A trio each of zebra-bar dartfish and Rolland's damselfish made it through QT and into the display, though. The CB Rolland's are a straight delight! I don't often see the old zebra-dart, and the smallest of the new trio has vanished, so may need a couple more of those guys to make a decent school.

QT is open, and there are fish on order from Michael's NY Aquatic's Memorial Day sale. Will have to see how they go, when they arrive.

Here are a couple of recent photos and videos, just in case you had nothing else to do this weekend:

Temperature-acclimating corals from Aqua-SD - a "laundry-line" strung across the front of the tank!

Corals from Boom - Hawkins Echinata, Red Planet, Christmas Mirabilis, Bubble Gum digitata, Tyree purple dragon-eyes, Tierra del Fuego and BoomBerry in the front row, two "blind picks" on the tiles in back. All appear to be doing well today, so call me a happy camper!

Here's a quick FTV (or ... _nearly_ FTV):
And here's a more up-close and in-depth look at life on Kingston & Zoey's Reef (Tangs, parrotfish, foxface, angelfish ... they're going to be very happy whenever they arrive . . . ):
~Bruce