More Hungry Corals, Easy Water Changes, and the invasion of the Vermitids

Water quality was iffy for a while there. I discovered that the little blue sponge between chambers 2 (refugium) and 3 (main pump) had become dislodged and was floating around chamber 3. Its only real function is to prevent anything floating around in chamber 2 from getting stuck in the pump. Without it, however, the tank had zero mechanical filtration of any kind, and particulate quickly began building in the water column... one of the byproducts of having high flow throughout the tank is that nothing really "settles". Even the sand is slowly carried around the tank in small dunes by the current.

I left off last time with a possible avenue towards better mechanical filtration and put that plan into action this week. I bought a large roll of polyester filter floss (making sure to use the non-treated kind; some have flame retardant chemicals added) and placed a square piece of it it immediately after the overflow from chamber 1 (intake, heater) into chamber 2 (refugium). This floss is resting on the previously unused drip tray. By keeping the water level at or near the top of chambers 2 and 3, the refugium is always full and water doesn't make a loud dripping/trickling sound as water flows into chamber 2. It's also a little easier to see the proper water level which means RO/DI top-off is easier and more accurate- combating evaporation and therefore increased salinity is a daily or every-other-day task. I used some waste water from my last change to scrub clean the blue sponge. It shouldn't be doing any major mechanical filtration from now on; that is the job of the filter floss. Cleaning the sponge turned the waste water in the bucket from an off-light-yellow to a nasty dark yellow. Below is a picture.. check out how much the filter floss collects in just a couple of days:

I also revamped my water changing method. It's one of those things you simply have to do in order to keep more demanding species and maintain a stable environment. I now have an extra 50watt Jager heater and a Maxijet pump which heat and mix water in a dedicated bucket for a couple hours prior to weekly 15% water changes. The bucket allows me to mix my RO water and salt water to the proper salinity; about 1.021 or 1.022 specific gravity at ~80 degrees. Specific gravity is also a function of temperature, so measuring a cold bucket of water will yield inaccurate results.

I attached a long clear rubber tube to the Maxijet output and use it to take water out of the tank into an empty bucket. When I've taken enough out, I switch it around to send water back into the tank from the fresh bucket of water. When refilling, I have the tube send water into chamber 1 of the tank where it flows backward (through the intakes) into the tank without disturbing sand or corals.

It takes some time to heat up ~5 gallons of water from room temperature.

If you remember the Q = m · C · ΔT equation from basic chemistry, you can do some napkin math to approximate how much energy and time it takes to heat the bucket and how long a 50 watt heater would work to do so. 5 gallons of water is 18.93 liters, and at 1.022 specific gravity (kg/liter) that's a mass of ~20 kg. The specific heat of fresh water is 4.186 Joules/gram·degree Kelvin = 4186 J/kg·K; sea water is a bit less at about 4000 J/kg·K. Let's say we are raising the temperature from 70° F to 78° F: that's a difference of 4.4° Kelvin. Doing the multiplication, it's 352,000 J of energy to heat up the water. The 50 watt heater, if 100% efficient, puts out 180,000 Joules/hour, so it will take about 2 hours to finish the job. There are many other factors like loss of heat to the container/environment and evaporation, the heat imparted by the Maxijet pump, etc, but it is good to have some idea. In any case you can just put on a movie and wait until the light on the heater switches off which is my preferred method.

So enough boring stuff- where are the new corals?? I've got three interesting additions to the tank: A red and orange Acanthastrea lordhowensis. ("Acans"), a Duncanopsammia axifuga ("Duncan"), and Cyphastrea ocellina aka "Meteor Shower" which my LFS fragged for me gratis. Very nice of them. The Meteor Shower is a quick grower and I've affixed it to the contoured white live rock on the left side of the tank where it will quickly spread. Later I can remove the glued frag and put it elsewhere to propagate. There may be some eventual conflict with the small purple clove coral that is also spreading on that rock... something tells me the Meteor Shower is going to win that battle. The rock in question has gone from bleached white the first week to lightly browned with diatomaceous growth, to a smattering of purple as the coralline algae begins to grow all over it. Maybe my PurpleUp is working.

Acanthastrea lordhowensis

Duncanopsammia axifuga

Cyphastrea ocellina

When I glued this to the rock, I had to press hard on the end of the coral- 

wearing off some of its purple material and damaging a polyp. It will grow back in time.

The Duncan has three large heads on it and that's what I paid for- but when the heads close, there are seven heads easily visible (total)... four of them simply hidden below the large crown of nematocysts on the parent polyps. They'll soon grow out into a waving hemisphere of green tentacles. Great deal! The Acan had been fragged and looked a little bit haggard but within a few days it has puffed up and is regrowing its skeleton where it was cut during the frag process. I've heard that these are very hardy corals; their unusually high price is a product of exportation law, popularity, and hype. Both the Acan and the Duncans are fed Mysis on the same schedule as my Lobophyllia open brain. Fortunately the Duncan is a very quick eater and doesn't needed to be shielded like the Dendros. Both are in the same family: Dendrophyllidae.

Happily stuffed full of mysis.

I've decided to give back or trade in several of my hermit crabs. They are more trouble then they're worth, I think. A couple of snails in their place will do more good work in the tank and probably inflict less damage on fauna in the sand and on the rocks. I'll leave 2-3 of the smaller ones in the tank for kicks.

Nefarious hermit crab with innocent expression.

Back to water quality- I've now got a tennis ball sized clump of chaetomorpha algae growing in my refugium... another freebie from the LFS (another customer of his brought in a whole bucket full of the stuff). I'm hoping the growth takes off and it begins consuming a lot of the excess nutrients in the tank. Once this small clump grows to take up the whole refugium, I'll clip half of it and trade it in for something. This is called nutrient export and is only one half of combating nuisance algae; the other half is limiting nutrient import. Overfeeding is the number one cause. I'm going to try something that I recently read on WetWebMedia, one of the best sites out there for question and answer format info/research. A guru was answering a question about mistakes which lead to out-of-control algae growth,"like thawing frozen foods but not decanting the thawed pack juice which is "rocket fuel" for growing nuisance algae, sponges or Vermetids in this case". Sounds like a great idea. That liquid is very rich but doesn't really do anything for the organisms that I'm actually trying to feed; in this case fish and corals. It is, however, scarfed down by algae, planktonic creatures, and the subject of my research the past few days: Vermetid Snails. Here are three on the same rock as my Ricordea.

These gastropods that are essentially snails which plant themselves in one spot and grow onto the rock. Their shell is fused to the hard surface and slowly grows up and away from its base. The snail peeks its head out and to feed, releasing a relatively long line of sticky mucus which collects particulate matter, and retracts this mucus to eat whatever it picked up. This mucus can aggravate corals in the vicinity and, let's face it: looks like snot. At first I welcomed these novel hitchhiking creatures assuming that they were an acceptable part of the ecosystem but the more I read about them, the more I want them gone. They can and will grow in tubing and eventually clog it; they can and will bother corals with their mucus and corals will grow around them; the ends of their calcareous tubes are almost always razor sharp and can slice open a hand; and they reproduce like mad under the right conditions... the list goes on. They can be controlled by having good water quality and low nutrients/particulate matter but I think I'll be handling this population primarily with needle-nose pliers... at least the ones in near vicinity of my corals. I already see baby vermetids growing on rock that was formally barren, which means they are flourishing in my tank. Better deal with them before they become a problem.

My fish remain quarantined. They're well; active and eating, but it seems a crime to have them outside of the tank for so long... looking forward to mid January! The goby is still sullen but has learned, like the clowns, to eat mysis directly from the feeding baster. Days until reintroduction: 26. Seems like forever.

Bummed out goby.

The Mexican Turbo Snails have been doing a stellar job. They aren't yet big enough to bulldoze rocks but they have almost knocked over a frag right before my eyes. I need to position the frags that aren't yet glued so that if they are knocked over, they won't land on another coral and sting/get stung. Corals coming into contact is generally a Bad Thing.

Note the amount of pods and assorted microfauna in just a few square inches of glass in the above photo. I finally got a great picture of the copepod population on my glass. I'm sure their booming population will come into check when there are fish in the tank.

Another big update coming soon!

Marine Ich, SPS

I originally wanted to post frequently but it is becoming more apparent that within the constraints of normal day-to-day life, less frequent posts covering more events are probably more realistic. However in the space of the last nine days, a lot has happened.

Where to start... bad news first, I suppose. I noticed a small white spot on one of the clowns one evening, but passed it off as nothing. The next day I noticed a few white spots on both of them. Their smooth black color made the salt-crystal-sized spots very noticeable. Anyone who has been in the fish hobby for some time knows where this is going... Ich! The Marine "Ich" parasite (Cryptocaryon irritans) is a ciliate protozoa that has a complex life cycle. It is free swimming until it contacts a fish's skin or gills, whereupon it latches on and feeds for a few days. After that, it drops off the fish to the substrate, crawls around, and forms a cyst. During this phase it multiplies and eventually the child organisms hatch out in search of a host or hosts.

Marine Ich occurs all the time in nature but never gets the chance to overwhelm fish due to the vastness of the ocean. In the closed environment of an aquarium, however, it can quickly turn into a huge problem. Unbelievably, there has been NO reef-safe treatment developed for this parasite. If you figure it out, you would be a millionaire in no time. The only surefire way of curing Ich is to treat with Copper-based medication. While fish can tolerate Copper to some degree, invertebrates will NOT; therefore to treat the fish you have to remove them from the tank and put them in a hospital/quarantine tank. As any experienced reef or fish keeper will tell you (especially reef), a quarantine tank is a must-have. I thought I could weasel by without one... nope. There is nothing quite as heartbreaking/infuriating as finding out that your hard-earned reef is infected by something that came in on a new frag or fish. Always quarantine new acquisitions for at least a few weeks!

Anyway back to the story- I was pretty sure of what I saw and knew what had to be done... better to be safe than sorry. Fortunately my LFS was understanding and lent me a small powerhead and a 50watt heater, and I bought a cheap 5 gallon tank to serve as a hospital. Getting the clowns out was easy- only one of them needed convincing with my spare hand to get into the net. My Randall's Goby was a pain... I had to move several rocks and shoo with my free hand to get him out. Now I know what people talk about when they complain of difficult-to-catch fish. I have read of whole tanks being dismantled just to get at ONE small fish.

All of my fish were eventually removed and placed in the tank on Friday the 11th of December. If you were paying attention above, you'll realize that the tank still has Ich in it which I can't kill using medication. The only way to rid the tank of Ich without killing my invertebrate inhabitants (corals, snails, crabs, shrimp, basically everything in there) is to leave the tank fallow, or fishless, for a period of time exceeding the longest conceivable life cycle of the Ich protozoan (it only infects fish). If I took my last fish out on Friday and a parasite had fallen off that very moment, it might be up to 6-8 weeks when the last protozoan dies of starvation after hatching out from the substrate and not finding a fish. If a fish is present any time within this period, the whole life-cycle of the parasite could be restarted. Thus my fish will be on vacation until about January 22nd. It really sucks, and the Goby seems to be taking it the worst. There is a little PVC tube in there for hiding, but the Goby tends to just mope around dejectedly.

On a good note, though, I now have a quarantine tank for future fish acquisitions. As soon as I reintroduce my three fish to the tank in January, I am going to begin quarantine of my next set of fish... probably a McCoskers Flasher Wrasse, maybe a firefish or a pair of small Banggai Cardinalfish.

I am also taking this next week to stock up on a few corals that I wanted to get eventually. Sure, there is a small chance that I can bring in some Ich with the coral, but there are no fish for it to infect for several weeks. As long as I get it early in the fishless period, I am relatively safe... but I wouldn't want to risk getting a brand new piece of liverock or coral frag the week before I put my fish back in the tank... there is always a chance it will come with unwelcome hitchhikers.

Treating the quarantine tank with copper may pose a problem in the future; the tank will still have measurable amounts of copper in it even if I change the water several times. That means it will be unsuitable as a quarantine for new corals. They also need a dedicated light while being quarantined, which I don't have. I need to do some more research. Ich is not the only ailment that can destroy a reef; there are plenty of things that come in on rock or coral that can quickly spread and kill. My instinct tells me I may need to find a way to quarantine corals lest I risk another Ich outbreak... or worse.

Early on, before I discovered the Ich, I bought a Royal Gramma (aka Fairy Basslet). It ended up going straight into my quarantine tank but was not swimming well from the start. These are a deep-water fish and collectors frequently fail to fully decompress the fish as they are being taken up to the surface, which results in swim bladder damage. I'm afraid the fish succumbed to this ailment as its swimming became more and more erratic over several days until it died. The clowns and goby were not affected, so it wasn't a water quality problem that I could discern, and the fish was properly acclimated. Royal Grammas are generally very hardy fish.

The live rock and glass are starting to show more types of algae that are loving both the long light cycle (roughly 8 hours) and the high dissolved nutrients. I added three Mexican Turbo Snails to help combat this before it becomes an issue. I've heard of problems with these Snails as they get larger- they will bulldoze rocks and corals in an attempt to search for food underneath. My nefarious team of hermit crabs have already been causing me headaches- many mornings I wake up to toppled frags. We'll see if this just compounds matters.

Looking at the glass, I've also noticed a huge bloom in pod population- that's a general term that refers to copepods, amphipods, etc. That's a good sign- it means the phytoplankton population is going up, supporting the pod population, which will in turn support other (larger) organisms including my fish and corals. I'm sure the lack of fish predation is helping the population of pods flourish. It really is a tiny little ecosystem in there, and my showcase organisms (corals, fish) are very dependent on that equilibrium and the presence of other organisms in the tank to deal with waste and so on. Once a reef tank is established, there are tons of animals in it that aren't on the list of "livestock" which nevertheless constitute an important part of the food chain. Shining a flashlight in there at night will reveal some of them.

On the coral front, I am growing out a Neon Green Toadstool (Sarcophyton sp.) for my LFS. His is not growing quickly in the pristine water of his SPS tank, and wanted to see if a small frag of it would do better in my "dirty" water. It's quite an interesting little coral. This frag is about dime sized; its polyps extend out over a centimeter and are tipped with neon green tentacles. Once it grows out to the size of a quarter, we may frag it and try to propagate it further. One thing to note about toadstool corals (among others) is that they are known to give off a poison that can affect other corals in the tank. Chemical filtration and/or regular water changes will make this a non-issue. You will only really notice the affect if you have a large quantity of sizeable Toadstool corals or sensitive corals in the tank with them which are susceptible to their chemical attack. The Lobophyllia falls in this category but should be ok.. it certainly doesn't seem to mind thus far. Here's a picture of the Sarcophyton slowly opening up after acclimation. When it "closes up", it looks like a little purple nub.

Some great news: I picked up my first SPS (small polyp stony) corals. These are probably the only types of SPS that I will be able to keep under the low to moderate lighting conditions under the stock Biocube bulbs. One is a Montipora capricornis, orange/red in color. This flattened SPS coral grows fast and will do alright under moderate lighting. I will eventually need to deal with its growth and size by fragging it and selling/trading it back to the LFS. The other SPS coral that I got is a Hyacinth Bird's Nest (Seriatopora hystrix). This is a very delicate-looking branching coral with dark purple polyps and a tan skeletal coloration (there are other color morphs of Bird's Nest). It should also do ok under my lighting so long as it is placed in an ideal position. My LFS was kind enough to frag this for me for free out of his display tank. I glued it to a small piece of rock using my newly bought cyanoacrylate superglue, and will monitor it closely. Both of these corals would prefer more intense lighting but can tolerate lower than what they are getting in my tank.

Here is a new Zoanthid that I picked up in what is the equivalent of a "cheap" bin at the LFS.

Speaking of which- Cyanoacrylate. This glue is amazing: it can and will set underwater in about one minute. I can't imagine it makes the water taste/smell very good for the inhabitants, but it sure does do its job well. I snipped off a bit of rock from one of my zoa colonies and glued the Bird's nest to it. It was set within about a minute of holding the two together in the air (I also dipped it in water to see if it would go faster). Works like a charm. This may also prove invaluable to prevent my hermit demo team and/or mexican turbo dozers/snails from rearranging my frags, but I have to be 100% certain that I want to affix a piece on the rock. Once it's glued, there is probably no going back.

I have been feeding the Dendros Mysis roughly every other day. Some days they're more open than others, but they always eat at least a little bit. By far the biggest eater in the tank is the Lobophyllia brain, however... it really scarfs down on mysis whenever I feed. It is a spectacular coral. The first time it opened up and showed its ring of tentacles I was floored, and have been feeding it almost as often as the Dendros ever since. This coral is also photosynthetic but seems to have quite the appetite for mysis and zooplankton to supplement its energy and growth. I hope to collect more corals like this because the interaction during feeding time is quite rewarding.

Here's a picture of the Dendros in its "feeding guard": a sliced-up plastic bottle top. It's a slow eater and have to protect it or the feeder shrimp quickly steals its food.

The moon LED lighting has raised a question. At first I had them on all night so that I could enjoy the fluorescing corals in the late evening. After leaving them off for a few nights, however, I noticed that the corals go through a full nighttime cycle which they do not go through if I leave the LEDs on. The Frogspawn totally deflates, Star Polyps and Zoas close up, Brain coral opens up and waves its tentacles around, etc. It may be unhealthy to leave the corals under some form of light all day. What I will probably end up doing is getting (yet) another timer that handles the LEDs only, and have them turn off a couple hours after the main lights so that I can enjoy the fluorescence of the corals but they still get their "night time" from about 3:00am to daybreak.

I am also going to design some method of mechanical filtration using a gutted filter cartridge and/or the drip tray and some filter floss. If I change and clean this regularly it should help to clear up the water more quickly after a feeding.

Open Brain Surgery

I continued executing my (reckless) livestocking plan today by picking up a Randall's Goby (Amblyeleotris randalli) and a nice Trachyphyllia Lobed/Open Brain coral specimen that is about 4 inches across.

The goby wasn't shy for the first few minutes- after being acclimated, he drifted down into the middle of the tank (with both curious clownfish in pursuit) and sat there for some time, taking in his surroundings. After a while he retreated to the back of the tank and found a little crack in which he can hide. I realize now he'll be much happier if I can get him a pistol shrimp- in the wild (and in aquariums) these and other gobies share burrows with pistol shrimp. The shrimp are almost blind but are terrific at creating a burrow; the goby keeps a lookout and the shrimp does the digging, all the while keeping one antennae on the goby. When the goby darts into the burrow, so does the shrimp. Definitely a fascinating relationship and something that I'd like to see in action right in my living room... just have to ask around and find one. The shrimp and goby will usually "find each other" in an aquarium almost right away, although some people have had a hard time.

The brain coral is a red and turquoise color morph. It's right in the middle of the tank, under the moon lights, so it will hopefully show off its fluorescent colors at night. They usually prefer more lighting than I have, but given the position in the tank (right underneath the lights), it should be sufficient. There is a low to moderate flow around the coral, and if necessary I'll adjust the heads to direct flow elsewhere.

Another thing to note- the Koralia-1 comes with a baffle that can be added to the output. This reduces the flow slightly, but also serves to disperse it. I attached the baffle a couple of nights ago and I'm pleased with the results... the clownfish aren't having as much "fun", though.

My LFS had some stuff lying around which turned into freebies for me- a set of 5-in-1 API test strips, a good net, Kent Essential Elements, Kent Zooplex, Red Sea Strontium supplement, and PurpleUp. It was very nice of them to send those my way... they should tide me over for some time, and the test strips will last until I finally get an all-inclusive test kit.

Shy Dendros, Clowning Around, and Molten Shrimp

My last post was written a few minutes after I had placed the new additions in the tank. The Frogspawn was totally deflated when I went upstairs and I had intended to go back down and photograph it in the deflated state to do a before/after comparison... it really caught me by surprise that by the time I went back downstairs a couple of hours later, the coral was already inflating itself- even bloating itself- with water.

The Dendrophyllia (still tring to confirm whether or not it is a fistula species) has been closed all day. It was open the first day but was shy since this morning, and I'm not sure why. At first I thought it might have been mistaken for a a sun coral, which are typically open only at night, but it doesn't match the colors or other features... then I read that these corals (and some other non photosynthetic varieties) will usually only come out if they sense food is present. Hobbyists have had some success in "training" the coral to be open at a specific time or even all day via regular feeding patterns. I'll break open the mysis tomorrow and give it a try. I didn't have a picture of them completely closed up, but here they are partially open.

The two clownfish have been extremely active and curious so far. They almost always hang out together and visit all parts of the tank except the places where I can't see them.... they tend to swim directly in front of the Koralia which pushes them into the main pump output, and zoom around the tank. This is done repeatedly... sometimes I wonder how much "thought" an animal that size and complexity can experience because they really do seem to enjoy the brief ride. They are also gently beginning to host in the frogspawn, which hasn't yet shown signs of fatigue from the two small fish lightly brushing up against its tentacles from time to time. This process is fascinating; I took a video of them right after the lights went out on the first night.

The Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp had some irregularities in the thickness of its antennae today. I couldn't see anything else wrong with it, but it was still a bit worrying. I went back downstairs a few minutes ago and saw a lifeless-looking shrimp in a rock outcropping and immediately assumed the worst. Nope- the shrimp had actually molted. Next time I see the antennae looking a bit inconsistent near the tips, it might be a signal that it is time for another molt. Proper Iodine levels are very important for crustaceans to properly molt, so I will need to look into that in the future. I've read that these shrimp prefer to be kept with others- they are also hermaphroditic, and will readily mate in the aquarium. The larvae quickly become food for the rest of the tank inhabitants. Here it is "cleaning" my hand... it knows no fear.

I'm halfway regretting the drab Zoanthids that were my first coral purchase. There are such incredible looking Zoa species out there (scroll down). I don't want to get stuck with a huge colony of boring red ones. Maybe I can trade them in or something. Some of the nicer Zoas are rare enough that they can (later, after propagation) be traded back in at the LFS, which is a nice plus. I guess I didn't do so badly:

I'll be headed to the LFS tomorrow to pick up my test kit and a baster-type thing for feeding corals. Who knows, I might come back with more than that. :)

And then there were fish...

My LFS was kind enough to test my water today. I haven't bought my all-in-one test kit yet but it should be coming in this weekend. The water tested perfectly, so I predictably started browsing the tanks in the shop for some good suitable corals to add.

My shrimp, hermits, Zoas, star polyps, and cloves have all been doing very well. The shrimp in particular is feisty enough that as soon as I reach into the tank, he swims up and climbs all over it to "clean" me. What I have in the tank so far is not very sensitive, but at least I know I had decent chemistry in the tank. I felt pretty comfortable adding some more livestock.

First was a small rock with two heads of Ricordea Florida on it. They'll look good near the bottom front of the tank, where the low to moderate flow and light suits them well. Second was a rock with a pair of Dendrophyllia ("Dendros") on them. This is a pretty expensive coral at ~$50 per head... I was only charged for two heads, but noticed that there are two little budding heads near the base of one of them. There are already tiny tentacles coming out of the two buds, so I will hopefully soon have four Dendros around the front of my tank. These are a great looking coral and add a lot of movement and character when they fill out. Third, a freshly fragged Frogspawn colony (Euphyllia divisa) with three heads that looked stunning in the tank when I bought it. Naturally, it deflated as soon as it was picked up and put in the bag for transport.

 

And finally, my first two fishy inhabitants of the reef- a pair of almost completely black Ocellaris clowns. The LFS was holding them for me as a pair. They are very young and still have a bit of orange on their chin, but that is supposed to turn black with age. Although other variants of Ocellaris clowns are more expensive or rare (picassos, snowflake, etc) I really prefer the black morph. They're very active and difficult to photograph with automatic settings on the camera.

Bought a package of frozen mysis shrimp to begin feeding regularly. Both the clowns and my Dendrophyllia will be fed regularly, and anything else that will accept food. Now that the tank is becoming more inhabited, it is time to start thinking about the macroalgae in my refugium. There wasn't enough load to produce significant amounts of nitrates in the tank until now- with all the coral mucus sloughing off my recently transported additions and the small amount of waste from the two clowns, the inevitable nitrate increase will need to be addressed.

All corals are, for now, in a somewhat temporary position until things start to settle down. Nothing has been glued, and for the most part it has worked out. I am beginning to realize why so many people curse their hermit crabs (or avoid them completely). I have seen my small colony of cloves face-down on the sand, and my zoa colony rolled off my main piece of liverock twice just in the past day.

Another point of good news- there is currently a light diatom bloom in the tank, specifically on the face of the white liverock. No telling how bad the bloom will get, but brown algae is usually a good sign from what I read- it means the tank is more or less fully through its cycle and the nutrients that diatom algae require are being produced by the tank inhabitants. That leads back to the previous statement about possibly beginning my Chaetomorpha clump in the refugium (chamber 2). Maybe this weekend.

I'm starting to realize why one of my friends gave me a sagely, light-hearted warning: "if you get into this hobby, make sure you start with some deep pockets". Yikes.