Saturday, April 1, 2017

Baby Rock Flower Anemones!!

So as I've said in past posts, I want to breed Rock Flower anemones. Well it seems that that has happened! Over the past month I've found 7 small baby nems throughout the tank, all different sizes. From what I've read of others experiences they will be different colors then the adults. I'm still not sure who the parents are, but I have an idea about the fathers since I've only seen two of them spawn and those are the big red one and the big green one.

Some of these babies are tiny! The latest one I found is about he size of the end of my dropper for my refractometer haha. They all seem to be doing well and I've corralled them in a small dish with rubble and sand to keep them from disappearing. The bigger of the two are big enough to accept a small Omega 1 pellet, but the other 5 I'm still feeding plankton. They aren't showing any real color yet, but I figure it's still early and the two bigger ones with start showing some soon since their pattern is developing.

I was trying to get them to spawn this spring, reading that they normally spawn around the spring solstice (some time around March 20th), but that hasn't happened and I'm not sure if it will. Both of my males seem to be a little stressed for some reason that I cant find. The big red one has it's stomach all puffed out and has been that way for about a month or more. It's still looking good besides that and accepting food. The large green one just keeps standing tall and wont calm down and flatten out like he should be. The only thing I can think of would be the lights, but the other nems I have in the tank all seem fine, nice, flat, and open.

At some point I will do a write up of all my experience with these guys as well as what I've collected from around the net for my reference as well as sharing this collection of information since I've see lots of others interested in getting these gorgeous little guys to breed.

Monday, February 20, 2017

75 Gallon Stocking List

Since I've got a little more room with the 75 gallon now and a good sump going so far, I decided that I could stock a few more things to give the tank a more real "mixed reef" look. Here's the livestock list so far:

Fish:
2x Clownfish (1 regular Ocellaris and 1 snowflake)

1x Regal tang
1x Flame Fin Tomini Tang

Inverts
1x Large Banded Brittle Star
Mexican Turbo Snails
Cerith snail or two
Micro Brittle stars (white and banded)
Limpets

Corals
Purple Mushrooms
Yellow Yuma
Orange Yuma
Blue and Orange Ric Florida
Capnella
Neon Candy Cane
Green Candy Cane
Purple Candy Cane
Acan Bowerbanki
Green Plate
Green Tongue
Maricultured Red and Green Millipora
Orange Montipora
Purple Chalice
Pink and Green Chalice
Deep Water Acro
ORA Purple Nana
Green Porcillopora
Misc Green Acro
Red Stylopora
Yellow Cup Coral
Purple and Green Hammer
Green Torch
Galaxia
War Favia
Bleeding Heart Favia
Maze Brain
Blue and Green Zoas
Rasta Zoas

This may look like a lot, but when the pieces are still small and the tank is this big, there is always 

Saturday, February 18, 2017

75 Gallon Tank Build!!!

So for the past few months (actually since about July of last year) I've been working on a 75 gallon tank to replace the 40 gallon breeder that I had set up. A little over a month ago I finished it, set it up and now it is fully running with a few more additions then the 40 gallon had. Mostly some corals, but a few new fish as well. Links are at the bottom of the post.

The stand is the same one that the 40 was set up on that I refurbished awhile ago, adding more support and a top for the stand. I also added a nice dark mahogany stain and new hinges on the doors.

This setup started with a 75 gallon tank that I got from a garage sale for $15. Damn good price for a tank that needed a little work and I was going to do a few other things to it as well. I got it all cleaned up and the first step was to get all the silicone out and put a new seal on the tank since I didn't trust it and had no idea how old it was.