By now my livestock list has grown pretty big for a 29 gallon, so here's a recap. The corals are listed roughly in the order that they were added to the tank. Refreshing this list is something I needed to do anyway, so here goes... if anyone knows the species of one of these that I'm missing, let me know.
Coral:
- Clavularia sp. (Purple "Snowflake" Cloves)
- Zoanthus sp. (Zoas, several species)
- Pachyclavularia violacea (Green Star Polyps)
- Dendrophyllia fistula (Dendros)
- Ricordea florida (Pink/Purple Ricordea)
- Euphyllia divisia (Frogspawn)
- Lobophyllia sp. (Lobed Brain)
- Sarcophyton sp. (Neon Green Toadstool)
- Duncanopsammia axifuga (Duncans)
- Seriatopora hystrix (Hyacinth Bird's Nest)
- Cyphastrea ocellina (Meteor Shower)
- Seriatopora guttatus (Neon Green Bird's Nest)
- Montipora capricornis (Orange/Red Monti)
- Acanthastrea sp. (Acan)
- Euphyllia glabrescens (Torch)
- Xenia umbellata (Pulsing Xenia)
- Favia sp. (Christmas Favia)
- Montipora digitata (Red Digi) new
- Ricordea yuma (Yuma) new
- Palythoa sp. (Brown w/ Green, Striped) new
- 2x Amphiprion ocellaris (Ocellaris Clownfish, "False Percula", Black, Male/Female Pair)
- 4x Thor amboinensis (Sexy/Anemone Shrimp)
- 1x Lysmata amboinensis (Skunk Cleaner Shrimp)
- 2x Pusiostoma mendicaria (Bumblebee Snail)
- 3x Turbo fluctuosa (Mexican turbo snails)
- 6x Cerithium altratum (Cerith snails)
- 4x Nassarius distortus (Nassarius snails, "Super Tongan") new
- 4x Trochus sp. (Trochus snails) new
I haven't written about or photographed a couple of these new additions as of a few weeks ago. The Ricordea yuma is a about dime-sized specimen and is a brilliant, translucent neon-orange. It does eat and has grown a bit since I got it, so I try to feed it often. Feeding is difficult because of the marauding band of Nassarius snails, shrimp, and crabs, which have the audacity to clamber all over any coral and steal food right out of the mouths. The yuma is related to the Ricordea florida, and large specimens can fetch a pretty penny.
The Montipora digitata is related to the capricornis but instead of forming plates of skeleton, it forms knobby "fingers", hence its name. The fingers are not as delicate and thin as bird's nest coral, and are covered in tiny reddish orange polyps that collectively disappear within the calcareous skeleton from time to time. It does encrust a bit as you can see in the picture. A bit of bad news- I had this piece wedged into the main rockwork of the tank, where it had been stable for some time. A few nights ago, one of my beastly turbo snails rammed the Monti off of the rock... I found it the next morning. It had landed upside down, right on the Lobophyllia brain coral. Below are pics of the aftermath.
This is a prime example of why corals should generally never come into contact with one another in your aquarium. I like to think of these conflicts as historic naval battles. Two vessels bristling with cannons pull up and broadside each other with stinging cells. Unfortunately for the digitata, the brain coral had it both out-armored and out-gunned. The result was the carnage evident above... I'm hoping for a full recovery but it will take time. The Lobophyllia was unaffected.
The brown and green Palythoa was a bit of an impulse buy. I knew their requirements but I didn't go to the store to buy it specifically- I just happened upon it and thought it had a striking color and pattern. It's related to the Zoas, and the rock that it came on had a couple of cool critters including another micro brittle star.
Four Trochus snails were a great find. My LFS finally had them in stock. These snails are one of the better algae eaters that you can find. They're larger than the Cerith snails and thus consume more (and faster) and if they fall on their backs they can right themselves without issue. Their shells are unique and attractive, and the shape makes it difficult for hermit crabs to kill them. I picked up four of these and they've been busy cleaning my glass and rock ever since. These snails are somewhere in between the Cerith and Turbos in terms of size and capacity for eating algae.
Nassarius snails are sand-burrowing detritivores that I originally bought for janitor duty, but quickly found that they took upon themselves the role of food bandits. They lay buried in the sand all day with their siphons poking out and at the faintest smell of food, they come bursting from the substrate like something out of a scifi movie:
I bought four of these but found that I did not want or need that many. Even though they 'stir' the sand and keep it somewhat aerated as they burrow and surface, they aren't worth the headache when it is feeding time and I have to babysit corals to make sure that these snails don't climb up on top of the coral and steal the food. They're so aggressive with food that they'll even drive away hermit crabs. I ended up trading two of these in. I don't have a good picture of these snails for some reason; I'll try and get one soon.
My two clowns got sick again. I'm not sure what the cause was this time. The larger of the two, apparently the female, began to show signs of finrot on the front of her dorsal fin. Finrot usually occurs because of stress or injury from some other source. It's a bacteria infection that quickly eats away at the fin material, right down to the base of the fin, and eventually causes death. I managed to get them into the hospital tank and treated the finrot with Maracyn Two, an effective gram-negative antibacterial/antibiotic medication. After the five day treatment, the finrot subsided and it is already growing back.
My water tested fine and it's hard to identify the root cause of this disease. The bacteria are always present in the water, but only become a problem in a fish that is somehow weakened. It might be from trying to host in the Torch coral, which has a potent sting and sharp internal skeleton. I'm hoping not to have to catch these little fish again, as this is their second time in the hospital tank for treatment. It is hard to describe how difficult it is to remove them from the tank without total live rock and coral upheaval, and they aren't even in the running for most difficult aquarium fish to catch... many an aquarist has cursed a damselfish or wrasse that simply refused to be caught without being literally the only thing remaining in the tank aside from water. I wonder if sport fisherman would get the same "rush" out of trying to catch a damsel with a net that they get fighting a marlin with a sea rod. I'd say the damselfish is probably a bigger challenge.
More bad news, this time on the Acanthastrea front. Something caused some tissue damage and the whole colony began to progressively deteriorate. One of the polyps is almost gone and has receded away to reveal the skeleton underneath. I'm really hoping for a recovery as this was not only a somewhat expensive coral, but was attractive and a lot of fun to feed. I have yet to lose a coral and this would be my first... a failure in my eyes, especially since it had been thriving up until the last week. All clues pointed towards the sexy shrimp as culprits. I had noticed them sitting on the Acan from time to time, and assumed that they were only lightly picking at it as they do on the Lobophyllia, or eating mucus that the corals sometimes secrete... one day, however, I saw a shrimp violently tearing tissue from the outer ring of flesh, so it was at least contributing to the coral's problems.
This incident prompt me to build a makeshift prison in the tank. I poked several holes in one of the little plastic containers that you use for salsa at a Mexican restaurant, and in one evening caught two shrimp in the act. Since they've been incarcerated in my makeshift underwater prison, I have yet to see a sexy shrimp on the Acan. Perhaps it was only those two shrimp who had a taste for coral, or maybe the other two have learned by example. The two guilty parties were locked up for a few days and the coral immediately appeared to be doing a little better. They were converted into store credit on my next LFS visit.
That's all for now. I didn't mention the coolest news because I'm saving that for its own post in a few days. With one sick coral, two recovering fish, and a Montipora colony that is a barren skeleton on one side it seems like a lot of trouble but really... it isn't that bad. These types of problems are all par for the course in this hobby.
