Aclamating the snails and sea cucumbers…

Adding the snails and sea cucumbers…, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

Here’s a fun shot of my son and myself adding the Reef Tank Tuneup to our tank.

Full Tank

Full Tank, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

Here is a full-view shot of our aquarium after we added the Reef Tank Tuneup. You’ll have to forgive the reflection of our patio!

Overall, everything seems pretty smooth two days after adding the coral, snails and two pink cucumbers…

Yoyo Coral

Yoyo Coral, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

While the Yoyo is one of the largest specimens in the aquarium, I haven’t done much research on him… The reality is that he is HUGE and seems to grow bigger by the day. He dominates the left side of the tank.

For better or worse, my research to date has been focused on the animals in distress, but that is not a good reason to neglect this very cool coral..

Right-side of the tank

Wide Open Fiji Coral, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

Nothing new in this photo, but I really like it…

Both the Toadstool and the Leather Coral are wide open… Plus the photo has one of our snails and a clownfish!

A Candy Cane Coral?

Our Reef Tank Tuneup arrived today around 11am (I wonder why the company emphasized it was a PM shipment? I must have misunderstood what the “PM” stood for…)

It was both a little more and a little less than expected.

First the “less”. They didn’t ship any crabs and we were suppose to get 12 microhermits. We definitely have a problem with the hair algae starting to take over in some areas and I was looking forward to the crabs helping out with this problem…   We also didn’t get the Hawaiian Turbo Grazer.   It is definitely a disappointment that the Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (IPSF) didn’t ship everything they said they would…

The little bit “more” is that they added a Candy Cane Coral (Caulastrea sp.) to the package. This required a bit more research than I had anticipated because I wanted to get him into our tank quickly. For the time being, I found a relatively empty place in our tank and glued him down. However, I’m a little concerned that it might be a little bit too much light for him. I’ll do some more research with the hope that I won’t have to move him again any time soon…

So far the snails they sent have been uninspiring in their adventurousness (i.e. most of them have not moved more than an inch seven hours after being put in the tank!). However, I’ll give them a full day to recover as some of them are likely night-eaters before I pass judgment on their health.

Overall, I’m a little disappointed, but that could change if the Caulastrea opens up and is able to light up a part of our tank…

Photos to come soon…

Moving of the Rose Open Brain Coral

The Trachyphyllia geoffroyi was at his very smallest when I got home from work today and it definitely concerned me. Since I have learned he is a lagoon dweller normally found on sand or muddy bottoms and we have him on a rock (same as previous owner), I’ve been meaning to do some more research on him. One of the first sites I found seems well-informed and starts with the advice that T. geoffroyi should never be put on rocks:

We begin first with a bit of history and general information on Trachyphyllia for improved care in reef aquariology. T. geoffroyi is a free-living animal at maturity and can be found in lagoons and protected margins of the reef buried in sand or muddy substrates. They should always be maintained as such in display. The conical skeleton of this species has evolved to serve this very orientation specifically. Placement of these animals upon rocky substrates can sometimes lead to abraded tissue from daily polyp cycles (expansion and contraction) or displacement when an inflated animal becomes imbalanced.

Based on this information, I made some space in a sandy portion of the bottom of our tank and I moved him there… I’ll try to follow up with photos soon.

When big is not big enough…

This guy needs a blog!

A guy going by the handle Goodwin has been posting his adventures in building out a 600 gallon reef tank on the Vivid Aquarium forum. Fascinating.

Octopus Frogspawn Coral (Genus: Euphyllia)

Octopus Frogspawn Coral (Genus: Euphyllia), originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

This is one guy I haven’t exactly figured out yet…  While similar to the already identified, this one was called an “octopus” coral by the previous owner. However, it appears that a lot of different species under the genus Euphyllia divisia are called Octopus Coral, so that hasn’t helped my research much.

Once I can identify them all, I’ll be in a much better place to solidify their eating habits.  The good news is that this Euphyllia has been growing quite a bit and often extends his tentacles by over an inch, so I’m pretty sure he’s happy for the time being.

Also of note is that he is definitely poisonous to other coral as he seriously wounded our disk coral one day when he inched a little bit too close (they’ve since been moved far apart and the disk coral is doing much better!).

Leather Coral, Sun Coral and Orange Zoas

Leather Coral, Star Coral and Orange Zoas, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

All three of these species are doing really well…

The Sarcophyton elegans (Yellow Fiji Leather Coral) is a huge specimen that grows to reach from one side of the tank to the other.

I put the Tubastraea sp (Sun Coral) under the S. elegans because his previous location gave him too much light. After moving him here, he has seemed much happier and regularly opens up completely when feeding shrimp in the tank.

I’m actually a little surprised the Zoanthus sp (Orange Zoas) in this location are doing as well as they are. I moved a huge rock full of them to a much higher location in the tank and I didn’t expect much out of the remnants at this location. However, they elongated tremendously in order to get light (the S. elegans blocks almost all light in this area!) and seem to be thriving. These polyps are quick strong and I expect them to continue propagating all over the tank!

Blue-Striped Mushroom

Blue Striped Mushroom, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

There seems to be little disagreement over whether to classify these guys as Actinodiscus or Discosoma.

Nonetheless, they are a beautiful green-blue color and they’ve already began to propagate more mushrooms. A small brown baby mushroom can be seen at the bottom middle of this photo. There are at least two other baby mushrooms, although they often hide (yes they move!) under one of the two larger mushrooms.

Also, some times they are referred to as a mushroom and other times a coral.  I need to get a better understanding of this species!

Moon Coral — Flavites abdita

Moon Coral, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

Despite the fact that the coloring is really off (it has a purple tint, not brown), I choose this photo of our Flavites abdita to upload because it shows two interesting things…

One, there are some beautiful, but small, polyps at the bottom and two, there is a white thing growing on the bottom right of the rock that *might* be a baby moon coral.

Trachyphyllia geoffroyi Eating a Shrimp

Trachyphyllia geoffroyi, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

This picture was taken while he was in the middle of eating a small shrimp. I need to work on my underwater photo quality, but the interesting part is that you can see the ridges that formed with tentacles. The entire inside opened up at this point in order to bring the shrimp into his mouth. It was very cool to watch.

Small Leather Coral

Small Leather Coral, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

The small Sarcophyton elegans has really blossomed as of late.

He was originally attached to one end of the HUGE Sarcophyton elegans also in our tank, but I couldn’t find a way to position them both in an acceptable way. After moving him to a new location, he quickly dug in some roots and it blossoming on a regular basis!

Rose Open Brain

Open Brain, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

The Trachyphyllia geoffroyi can sting other corals, so I need to be careful with this guy.

Most interesting is that he has finally started eating after a month or so of very little activity. His top has also curled tremendously to adjust to his position on the rock.

His method of eating is very impressive as a row of tentacles popped out at the boundary between the rose colored section and the inner white circle. The tentacles grabbed the shrimp and passed it to an enlarged center. Very cool to watch.

I’m so glad he is acting healthy.

Yoyo Coral

Yoyo Coral, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

This guy dominates the left side of the tank, which is amazing considering how small he gets at night.

I really need to find his scientific name!

Full View of the Tank

Full View of the Tank, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

With the exception of the disk coral which is behind the Yoyo coral, every coral and fish can be seen in this photo!

Check out the Flickr version of the photo where I’ve identified each species.

Pink Tip Frogspawn Coral

Pink Tip Frogspawn Coral, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

The Euphyllia divisia has grown tremendously in the past few weeks. He regularly stretches out to three or four inches during the day and retracts to only an inch or so in diameter at night.

Also of note is that I glued him to a place near the bottom of our tank and he seems to be very happy there. Until I glued him, he would become lopsided during the day and tip over.