$5 Frag Madness!

Evie and I dropped by Einstein Aquatics to check out the coral sale. After impressing Chris and his mother with her cuteness, Evie sat back and watched the fish while Daddy picked out some new frags. :)

Here are some photos of the frags acclimating on the bottom of the tank. This is the blue-green Acropora:















This is the Acro. from another angle. A new chalice coral (Oxypora or Echinophyllia spp.) is behind it. Not pictured is a 2-headed red Acanthastrea Hillae. It did not seem to like the dip I gave it, so it is acclimating in a dark, quiet corner.















The coral on the left is a new Favites frag, it is an interesting yellow and orange color. The coral on the right is one of the two warty corallimorphs (Discosoma sanctithomae) that we moved to the front of the tank; it has really expanded!















Here is another Acropora frag. It's already at the top of the rock, and has started to show some pretty cool colors. (I have no idea what is is supposed to look like.)




























This is a "night" photo of the new Favia extending its sweeper tentacles. I think that's a good sign that it is settling in- now we just have to decide where to place it. ELFie seems to think it is interesting too!

Welcome Back Big Girl & Little Boy!

Our (Amphiprion ocellaris) clownfish "Big Girl" and "Little Boy" came back to the main tank, and we are all very excited! We have had them for more than a year, and they have grown a ton since then as they were just tank-bred babies at that time. In their time away from the main tank, LB has grown to be larger than BG, but the names seem to have stuck. It isn't clear which one is now the female (the larger and dominant member of a pair joined this young becomes the female) so we'll have to wait and see.















ELFie (Evie's Little Fishie) was a little belligerant at first, but they seem to have settled into a truce (or stalemate) and are pretty good buddies now. Little Boy is even giving him some attitude! They will probably establish a territory, but for now they are roaming all over the place, even choosing the algae magnet for the night. :)
















Here is a better photo of the starfish. He still does not come out much while the lights are on, and when he does he moves surprisingly fast so there won't be a lot of photos like this!

The red Acan is next to the starfish, and that's the Ricordea florida in the background in a new location with more shade and less current.

New Aquascaping

Here is the latest aquascaping at the topmost live rock:















We decided to add the small birdsnest frag next to the larger colony. We'll see what happens, but it may look pretty cool when/if they grow together.

Here it is from another angle:















The coral on the left is some kind of el-cheapo Acropora frag that I picked up for $5 today at Keen Reef- the closest store to us and conveniently (or inconveniently...) on the way to the Farmer's Market. Anyway, the polyps are yellow with a brown-purple color to the rest of the coral. We'll see how it does!

This is the new starfish. He moves around a lot, amazingly fast, once the lights are off, but during the "day" it is usually under a rock, but I caught him running around yesterday:

New Coral Pics

Here are some photos of our new corals photoadapting on the bottom of the aquarium:

The Pocillopora:















The Poci. and the purple Acan.:















The green and purple Acan.:















The Favia:

Welcome back, Shrimpie!

Welcome back Shrimpie! He had been waiting in our 10 gallon tank downstairs until the time was right. :)

We have had Shrimpie for about a year and a half, and he has grown a lot since then. He is a Pacific Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis) that to date has not done much cleaning, except for my finger nails, but he is very friendly and a lot fun to watch.


(There is a very similar Caribbean species (Lysmata grabhami) that is identical except for the pattern on the tail.)

New corals!

We picked up some new corals today (the rest of my birthday present from Papa and Nana) that we're really excited about. Here is a photo of them acclimatizing:

These are all stoney corals. The large one is a maricultured Poccillopora, the reddish one is a Favia coral, and the other two are Acan. lordhowensis frags.




















We also got a little starfish.
They are evidently very sensitive to pH changes, so he stayed in this dish for an extra long time. :)














Here are some updated photos of a few other things...

This is a shot of the top of the tank. The M. capricornis and S. hystrix are in the foreground; the new green M. spongodes is in the background.















This is the Kenya Tree (Capnella) coral- new location.















These are some old zoanthids (3 different kinds) that I glued together on a rock. The gorgeous hammer coral is in the foreground:















An old zoanthid colony newly epoxied to a rock:

New Tank Photos

Here are the latest. It's looking good if I don't say so myself! :)
The Hammer Coral is really looking good. We seem to have found a good combination of light level and water flow for it.










































I know it's kind of hard to see any detail, but if you click on the picture, it will pull up a larger image.

Sealife Critters

Here are some photos of the soft corals we recieved from Sealife Inc., now that they have settled in to the aquarium a little.

These Discosoma sanctithomae mushrooms are a nice surprise. One is tan, the other is green. They've expanded a lot... well the green one -had- expanded a lot until I sucked it into a bucket during the last water change. Hopefully it will improve!















Here is the red mushroom. There is some kind of other mushroom like thing on the same rock, but it hasn't expanded or anything, so who knows. Any ideas?














And finally, the (free) yellow sea whip gorgonian Pterogorgia citrina. It is looking very good, with great polyp extension. Hopefully it will stay that way since these are supposedly kind of finicky. The polyp extension is actually better than shown in this picture.

Thanks Guys!

Papa Joe and Nana Sandi sent me a birthday present- and this is what we picked up over the weekend!














This is an aquacultured Montipora spongodes coral from ORA. ORA is a wholesaler that specializes in aquacultured corals and fish; their corals are 6+ generations removed from the original wild stock, and were also selected originally to look good. :)

We happened to get this small (and non-ORA) Seriatopora hystrix fragment for free with our purchase. It looks to be the same color variant as our larger colony. Yes, it is on its side but the hermit crabs keep knocking it over...

Thanks guys! We got a good deal, so we'll be able to pick up more stuff later.

New coral frag

I visited "Einstein Aquatics" a while back to see if they had a fish for Evie. They didn't... but Chris did have a very nice coral frag tank, so I picked up this nice 2-headed Acan frag (Acanthastrea lordhowensis, I believe) for $12.















Chris is currently running his shop out of his parents' basement, so I guess it's the least I can do... ;-) Should I have gotten a discount from getting blocked in their driveway by the other customer?

Caulastrea feeding tentacles

Our C. furcata (candy cane coral) has been extending feeding tentacles every night and evening since it was placed in its current location in the display tank. It's been fun to watch it catch and eat frozen mysis shrimp.

The current location was temporary- but not any longer! It had not exhibited this behavior previously.

Happy Birthday to Me :-)

It just so happened that an order of mushrooms that we purchased from Sealife Inc. arrived today. As usual (birthday or not) Ken included some freebies, so here is what we have. Pictures to follow of course!

2 Discosoma sanctithomae coralimorphs. They are different colors, so I'm excited to see what they will look like once they acclimate! (One is a "bonus" from Ken.)

Several red Discosoma mushrooms (ordered 2, received 3) These were the main reason for the order- our "Big Girl" clownfish will expect a large mushroom when we move her back into the display tank!

Green and purple Ricordea florida. Ordered one; received one double-mouth plus a small guy!

Totally unexpected, a yellow sea whip (Pterogorgia citrina). It's epoxied in, so pictures will follow soon!