332 replies to this topic

[MtFallsTodd]

The more I look at this thread the more I miss my brackish tank from years back. Keep posting pics, they are great.

[Chasmodes]

Thank you Matt and Todd!

 

I don't have much to update from the weekend except I found another critter hiding behind the tunicates.  It seems to be a pretty good size bristle worm, but I can't tell.  It pops its head out once in a while to check things out or grab a meal (frozen brine shrimp) and with lightning quick speed, shoots back into his hidey hole.  It's cool to watch.  I see various bristle worms in my sand bed, creating tunnels and funnels to the surface where food collects, but I haven't actually seen them poke their heads out like that or move up to feed on the stuff in the funnels.  My guess is that they do that at night, maybe even come out and cruise the tank.  They are home bodies though, so my guess is that they stick to their tunnels or only come out part way or short distances.

 

Before having this tank, I never thought that all of the "other" creatures would interest me almost as much as the fish.

 

I didn't work on the rest of my build(s) or anything other than feed my fish this weekend.  I spent the day yesterday on the ice fishing, and the previous day getting my gear ready.  Ice fishing is one of my passions.  That puts my projects on hold somewhat, until we lose the ice.  I caught 31 bluegills and a couple crappie, saw two trout on my underwater camera and many other various panfish that didn't want to bite.  It was a good day on the ice though, good to get out.  I don't have pics because my camera (iPhone) died on me before noon.  

[Chasmodes]

After feeding my fish, I like to keep watching them until I get sleepy.  During part of that time, I pick up the magnifying glass and search the tank for anything that I can find that I haven't seen before.  While examining the base of one of the oyster shells, I spot the sand move...a bulge up, then occasional sand and debris movement.  I thought it was maybe another bristle worm.  But, there was a little bit of dark space behind the bulge of sand, so I shined my flashlight in there and saw two little appendages of something moving.  Hmmm, after a closer look, it finally moved and it was a mud crab.  About 4" away is another cave under some shells where a mud crab always hangs out.  He was still there.  So, a second mud crab appeared.  I rarely see them.   They've grown quite a bit.  They were about 1/2" across but now they're about an inch across.  There were 4 or 5 crabs introduced into the tank, I think...I can't remember.  I can account for 2 of them.  My bet is that all of the ones that I put in there are still alive.

 

I watched the bristle worm that I found the other day eat a brine shrimp.  It didn't take it long to find it, and man, was it quick in devouring it.  It kind of reminded me of that Jack Black version of King Kong when they fell down into the cavern and gave me the creeps, willies and eebie jeebies.

[littlen]

Google: Bobbit Worm

[Chasmodes]

LOL, it's not a bobbit worm, thank goodness.  I've seen those videos before of them snatching fish and dragging them into their hole.  Amazing.  That said, I wouldn't want to be a little morsel sized critter next to this worms hidey hole!   They're tropical, right?  Man, they'd be a cool sci-fi horror monster.  I can see it now, a movie called Bobbit, where radiation exposure of some sort causes a typical bobbit worm to grow exponentially to Godzilla size.  Anyone want to help write a script for this and send it to Ed Sanchez?

 

I'd consider a species tank for a bobbit worm if I had room for one, if anything, to terrify my friends   

[littlen]

There were a bunch of movies already made that starred a BobbitT, and his worm.

[Chasmodes]

There were a bunch of movies already made that starred a BobbitT, and his worm.

 Oh my!!!!    

[mattknepley]

There were a bunch of movies already made that starred a BobbitT, and his worm.

How sad is it that that is right where my mind went to as well...

Sooo don't want any of that in my aquariums!

[Chasmodes]

I was feeding bottled phytoplankton three times per week. My tunicates seemed to be withering away or not happy, so I increased the amount that I feed them and am now feeding them four times per week. The tunicates looked much better last night. The large barnacle is the only one that had survived, and I never saw it eat much but once in a while would extend its cirri and scoop in some food. Last night, after feeding the phytoplankton, it was constantly scooping in food. My guess is that over time they get weak and don't have enough energy, almost not enough to reach out for food. But, maybe now that its getting food, it has the energy to reach out for more? I don't know, but I'm encouraged by the increased activity.

 

Last night I had a skilletfish stick on the front glass and eat out of my hand, as they often do, and another skilletfish showed up and stuck to it! As a result, the first one let go and they both started to sink, stuck together. Both skilletfish, still stuck together, tried to swim back up toward the food and gave up, sticking to the glass about a couple inches under the surface. They were both still stuck together at this point, both feeding on the food dropping down to them. When they were swimming, it reminded me of the Dr. Dolittle character, push me pull you!   They were stuck like that for about 5 minutes until the "top" one let go. I was cracking up watching them!

[Chasmodes]

I thought that I'd post a couple pics.

 

Grass shrimp feeding on a cyanobacteria patch.  I've seen a few of these shrimp with reddish purple stomachs, so they eat some cyanobacteria and definitely feed on detritus that settles on it.  They don't eat enough cyano fast enough to make much of a dent in it though.  I haven't applied the treatment that I bought yet, hoping that it dies out naturally.  Right now, the cyano isn't taking over the tank, so that is a good thing.

 

Naked goby in his hangout, with some shrimp standing guard.

 

This skilletfish doesn't seem to know which way is up half the time...or maybe he thinks the same thing about me?

[Chasmodes]

I also have a couple videos of my barnacle, who has been very actively feeding lately.  Also, he's been looking for love in all of the wrong places, but more on that when I can capture that on video.  I've been trying, but he has been camera shy.  Of course, the blennies are hams and have to photobomb the videos.  The first video is before feeding, the second video is after I fed the filter feeders bottled plankton.  All of the filter feeders are doing much better.  The barnacle activity is the most solid evidence of that because he's feeding all the time and trying to mate.  I find the barnacles to be very delicate, graceful and quite beautiful despite their ability to found boat hulls.  Also, if you look closely at the tiny tubes around the barnacle and his oyster shell, you can see the plankton feeding tube worm tentacles searching for drifting meals.

 

 

[Chasmodes]

OK, remember the jellyfish budding polyp (scyphistoma)?  After a week or so of me discovering it, all of the larval medusas were released and I never saw them again.  The base of the polyp remained but seemed to wither away to almost nothing.  Well, last night, I noticed that it budding more larval medusas!  These things keep on going!  I'm amazed.  This is really a cool event because the local aquarium is starting up a jellyfish tank, and I promised them that if I saw this again, that I'd donate them to their tank.  How exciting!

 

Here's the old video again in case you can't visualize it from before:

[mattknepley]

That's one hungry filter feeder! He's loving up some of what you're throwing down in there!

The jelly is pretty cool.

You find all the neatest stuff in your tanks. Love that Naked Goby pic, too.

[Chasmodes]

Thanks Matt!  Something seems to surprise me each week.  Every evening, I go down to feed them, then later at the end of the night, I go down to turn off the lights.  When I'm really tired after a long day, I sometimes intend to go down, do the business and leave.  But, every time I intend to do that, I wind up staying an hour or two to watch the tank.  It has me hooked.

[gerald]

Time to write a children's book: Barney the Shy Barnacle.  Casper can illustrate, if you don't.

[Chasmodes]

   

 

Not much to update, everything seems to be going well.  A couple of my gobies have been scratching a little bit, so my paranoia kicks in each time.  But then again, they've always done that to some extent.  I saw the largest blenny scratch and its gills were really pumping a lot more than normal one evening, but since then, it's back to normal.  I think that when I set up the big tank, I'm going to quarantine all of these fish and treat them with copper before adding them to the bigger system.  I'll set the tank up fallow for six weeks at the same time.  So, that is on my to do list, to set up a quarantine system.

 

Now, this video creeps me out...

[Chasmodes]

Last night, after feeding my fish, I watched them so long that I was way past my bed time, LOL, so I'm a bit tired today.  I discovered another live barnacle that I never noticed before.  I'm sure that it's been in there for several months.  

 

Also, I'm pretty sure the worm that was feeding in my last video is a clamworm (aka ragworm).  From what I've read, even though they get large and creepy, that my fish aren't in any danger.

 

In addition, I have a new critter, but I have no idea what it is.  It kind of looks like an anemone, but could be the head and tentacles of another type of annelid.  It doesn't go after the brine shrimp like the other worm does, and I have yet to see the tentacles pull anything in.  That is why I doubt it is an anemone.  

 

If you look to the left edge of the video below of the feeding worm, you can see the tentacles, and they move about 1/2 way through the movie.  Has anyone seen this before?

 

Here's a link to the video again:

[Chasmodes]

I was able to get a better video of the newly found critter.  I have no idea what it is, but I suspect it is some kind of annelid.  It doesn't do much, just sits there, waiting for detritus, I guess.  Anyone know what this is?  This is magnified 6x.

 

Also, I have another anemone, as it turns out.  I think this is a ghost anemone, but it much more pink than my other one.  This is magnified 6x. 

 

 

[Chasmodes]

This video is just a video update of the tank.  The fish aren't very active as this is about an hour after they ate and stuffed themselves silly.  The blennies and gobies are pretty much just hanging out in their hiding spots.  Last night, I was kicking myself because the fish were really active.  I'll catch them more active on the next video.  Sorry for the glass not being clean, I forgot to do that before shooting the video.  But, you can see all of the pods on the tank.

[Chasmodes]

Some recent pics: