Ordered two wild coral heads from DD, one arrived quite dead, all the flesh floating in the bag. That was the one I really wanted (Monticulosa), the other one was fine (Loripes) it's just a little grey. Also got a large Majestic Angel, came in strong, hiding a little but ate right away.
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Jimroth's Big Ol' Tank
- Thread starter jimroth
- Start date
I've been feeding really heavily to (1) keep the incredibly hungry Majestic angel full, so he doesn't eat any more acros, and (2) to try to get the anorexic copperband to eat. I think my GFO may have become exhausted, the glass is getting dirty on a daily basis. On the plus side all corals are coloring up very well, including the pink lemonade I got from Eric, who kept it in culture while it died out in my tank. All the corals which are supposed to are getting purple back on their tips. Another positive is that all the delicious non-dried food has put my fish in top condition and I am seeing constant spawning behavior from the Orchid Dottybacks, the chromis and even the Royal Grammas.
The mystery acro I am regrowing from a quarter-sized patch which survived on a rock is turning into a colony. I had hoped it was the durable pink-and-blue millepora, but it's either Purple Nana or Puple Plana, with purple tips and green polyps. It's very happy right now. The blue tort has many new growing tips it seems very happy. It is not the slower growing Cali or Oregon tort I think, but something a little hardier, with some green on it.
Added a pair of skunk cleaner shrimps.
I have rarely seen the copperband eat anything besides pods and other microfauna and live brine. Once a day it will eat a frozen mysid or a bloodworm. It's fattened up a tiny bit but is still alarmingly thin. I always expect so see it dead, but it is very energetic, even at night, picking picking, picking. It has the unfortunate copperband habit of picking at snails, I forgot they do that.
One thing I have had to learn was the incredible intensity of the Radion LEDs. They don't look that bright but are actually more intense at some levels than the 400 MHs (and I have 3 units instead of 2 MH units). A couple things proved this to me. First, I have a prism brain someone gave me, purple and green, and it was clearly suffering in the open area of the bottom of the tank, losing polyps around the edge. I moved it to a shadier area, and trend reversed. Ditto the green trumpets, into the shade and they started growing. None of the pesty mushrooms that have cursed me since 1997 will grow on a horizontal surface, they can't take the light, they stick to the shade and vertical surfaces. I now think I killed my meteor shower cyphastrea colony by failing to take this into account when I switched, although the green cyphastrea doesn't care.
One of the projects I'm thinking about (after re-sealing the leaky skimmer) is setting up a 'fuge after all these years. Never done it and I think it could be good.
Was going to add some new frags this week, but I'm headed to San Fran for a week, so I think I'll just do a water change, clean the skimmer and leave it at that.
The mystery acro I am regrowing from a quarter-sized patch which survived on a rock is turning into a colony. I had hoped it was the durable pink-and-blue millepora, but it's either Purple Nana or Puple Plana, with purple tips and green polyps. It's very happy right now. The blue tort has many new growing tips it seems very happy. It is not the slower growing Cali or Oregon tort I think, but something a little hardier, with some green on it.
Added a pair of skunk cleaner shrimps.
I have rarely seen the copperband eat anything besides pods and other microfauna and live brine. Once a day it will eat a frozen mysid or a bloodworm. It's fattened up a tiny bit but is still alarmingly thin. I always expect so see it dead, but it is very energetic, even at night, picking picking, picking. It has the unfortunate copperband habit of picking at snails, I forgot they do that.
One thing I have had to learn was the incredible intensity of the Radion LEDs. They don't look that bright but are actually more intense at some levels than the 400 MHs (and I have 3 units instead of 2 MH units). A couple things proved this to me. First, I have a prism brain someone gave me, purple and green, and it was clearly suffering in the open area of the bottom of the tank, losing polyps around the edge. I moved it to a shadier area, and trend reversed. Ditto the green trumpets, into the shade and they started growing. None of the pesty mushrooms that have cursed me since 1997 will grow on a horizontal surface, they can't take the light, they stick to the shade and vertical surfaces. I now think I killed my meteor shower cyphastrea colony by failing to take this into account when I switched, although the green cyphastrea doesn't care.
One of the projects I'm thinking about (after re-sealing the leaky skimmer) is setting up a 'fuge after all these years. Never done it and I think it could be good.
Was going to add some new frags this week, but I'm headed to San Fran for a week, so I think I'll just do a water change, clean the skimmer and leave it at that.
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Good luck with the recovery.
I had freshwater fish (a pair of german rams) that acted like you are describing the copperband. Eventually i discovered they had intestinal parasites, but even after treatment were too far gone and died about a month later.
It might be worth seeing if they accept food with garlic juice. Unless you routinely soak with a supplement with garlic anyway.
I had freshwater fish (a pair of german rams) that acted like you are describing the copperband. Eventually i discovered they had intestinal parasites, but even after treatment were too far gone and died about a month later.
It might be worth seeing if they accept food with garlic juice. Unless you routinely soak with a supplement with garlic anyway.
I kept rams without too much trouble, but the camalanus worm is a nasty parasite - i never had a chance with that particular pair. I was handfeeding live blackworms with tongs trying to give em nourishment.
I like to use frozen brine to administer meds. More surface area for things to stick to. If you make your own by pressing a garlic clove, you'll need to play around with how much garlic juice to water to use. If its too garlicky its unpalatable to the fish.
I like to use frozen brine to administer meds. More surface area for things to stick to. If you make your own by pressing a garlic clove, you'll need to play around with how much garlic juice to water to use. If its too garlicky its unpalatable to the fish.
Jim,
I had a lot of success with my Copperband once I introduced live blackworms. It ate them like it hadn't eaten in a week, which was probably true at the time. Live black worms are a pain to keep feeding. Eventually (after like 6 months) I started introducing the frozen mysis at the same time as the black worms. He eventually started eating the mysis along with the worms. After that I was able to completely wean him off the worms and he ate mysis with vigor.
Eric
I had a lot of success with my Copperband once I introduced live blackworms. It ate them like it hadn't eaten in a week, which was probably true at the time. Live black worms are a pain to keep feeding. Eventually (after like 6 months) I started introducing the frozen mysis at the same time as the black worms. He eventually started eating the mysis along with the worms. After that I was able to completely wean him off the worms and he ate mysis with vigor.
Eric
Eric, they have worked well for me in the past, they seem like a natural food for the CBB. This guy has had live, wriggling blackworms bouncing off his head (!) with zero interest. Last week, I fed a bunch which were eaten with gusto by the other fish, and then a while later he picked up a dead blackworm and ate it. So I'm picking some up from AB Fish today and I'll try again. I'm gonna pick up some live brine too and give them the garlic butter treatment, just to see.
Growth rates on the Green Slimer are amazing, but you knew that.
Growth rates on the Green Slimer are amazing, but you knew that.
Went away for a week. The big tank was fine, on the biocube tank the return pump got shut off at some point and it got nasty. Both the shrimp gobies died but the pistol shrimps seem to be okay, at least the big tiger pistol is.
Going to use the opportunity to switch to agoby less agressive than the watchman, who has lost his nice yellow color anyway for a kind of minnow silver.
In the reef, the copperband is eating Hikari Mysis like a pig. It's definitely fatter.
All the acros are colored up and encrusting well. I ordered a couple of live acro heads, stuff that grows super slow like A. Monticulosa, I hope the Majestic leaves them alone. Also picked up a maricultured A. Solitaryensis, which was cheap.
Salinity has drifted a lot, I was shocked to check it and find it at 1020 on the Milwaukee digital meter. Trying to bring it up gradually to at least 1024.
Going to use the opportunity to switch to agoby less agressive than the watchman, who has lost his nice yellow color anyway for a kind of minnow silver.
In the reef, the copperband is eating Hikari Mysis like a pig. It's definitely fatter.
All the acros are colored up and encrusting well. I ordered a couple of live acro heads, stuff that grows super slow like A. Monticulosa, I hope the Majestic leaves them alone. Also picked up a maricultured A. Solitaryensis, which was cheap.
Salinity has drifted a lot, I was shocked to check it and find it at 1020 on the Milwaukee digital meter. Trying to bring it up gradually to at least 1024.
Thanks Mike, I'll check it ASAP.
Jim, sorry for the loss on the biocube. 
I wish I could figure out your success on Copperbands. I've tried two, and refuse to kill another fish. What is odd is that I have a cousin....long nose butterfly...and he's doing great.....actually a pig...eats everything.
I wish I could figure out your success on Copperbands. I've tried two, and refuse to kill another fish. What is odd is that I have a cousin....long nose butterfly...and he's doing great.....actually a pig...eats everything.
This was my toughest ever. The fish was $39, I spent $50+ on brine shrimp and blackworms trying to get it to eat! It was certainly mostly eating microfauna for the first couple of weeks, and getting thinner. Richard Ross said to mix the live brine with various frozen items. They try more foods when they're NOT totally hungry, plus it causes "accidental" eating of the frozen stuff. I've confirmed all three different pistol shrimp survived. They are some tough little mothers.
Jim, sorry for the loss on the biocube.
I wish I could figure out your success on Copperbands. I've tried two, and refuse to kill another fish. What is odd is that I have a cousin....long nose butterfly...and he's doing great.....actually a pig...eats everything.
I picked up a replacement shrimp goby today from Sea Level Aquarium in Parsippany. That place gets better all the time. I'm not sure what kind of shrimp goby it is, they gave me a kind of generic name,(Elegant Shrimp Goby?) but it worked great. Normally there's a kind of courtship, doesn't always work out. This guy got in the tank, scoped out the shrimp burrows, and dove right into the tiger pistol's burrow. There was some snapping by the shrimp, but within minutes they were paired, and the shrimp was expanding his burrow and coming out again, doing all the behaviors like tapping the goby on the tail. Really worked out better than I expected.
I also added a really small tuxedo urchin, the size of a marble, couldn't resist it.
I also added a really small tuxedo urchin, the size of a marble, couldn't resist it.
My wild and maricultured acros came in looking good. Gave them a super slow acclimation so they wouldn't stress out and get tasty to the Majestic. Fed everybody heavy now I'm watching him like a hawk. Going to start the new acros low in the tank and move them up gradually. The monticulosa is very bright.
One of the Beckett injectors on the skimmer seems to have clogged last night and it was squirting water onto the floor of the garage. I did not know it could do that. I lost about 5Gals, mostly just a pain in the butt. All cleaned up now and skimming better. Salinity did not drop measurably. I probably will need to run filter socks to keep junk out of the injectors.
One of the Beckett injectors on the skimmer seems to have clogged last night and it was squirting water onto the floor of the garage. I did not know it could do that. I lost about 5Gals, mostly just a pain in the butt. All cleaned up now and skimming better. Salinity did not drop measurably. I probably will need to run filter socks to keep junk out of the injectors.