My attempt at a native tank

I think it was just the bacteria needing time to grow in numbers. Slower then in a reef tank as Crusty said.
Yes these urchins are powerful creatures in their own right. They do move things around as they go.

Another difference with a reef tank is the absence of the need to top up your tank. I had all the materials to make an ATO system, but have not bothered so-fas as there is no visible lowering of the level for a month on end.

Just made a 4 min video clip.
Unfortunately the video does not do justice to the true colours and youtube impairs on the resolution, but at least you get the idea of the dynamics.

Here is the link:
Lya's native tank

Long time no see. Things are going real well. Fish are growing as well as some algae: Green slaps growing from Coral and some intriguing red weaving algae from some stones. Nothing overwhelming though.
Water quality is fine. Nitrite kept in check by the filters and nitrate kept in check by 60% water changes about every month. Last one January 18th.
The looks of the tank is a little less interesting as all o the greenery has died off and with these storms there is no chance of getting anything from the shore.

This morning however, I saw an interesting unwanted development. On of the mullets has some black spots on his sides.. One side more so then the other.
Anyone know what this is? Only one other fish (we call it green shiny, its a wrasse) has two of these stips on his tail. No others have anything.
Also he looks kind of emaciated, although he eats and is lively enough.
Is this contagious?

Have a look at the pictures and let me know if you have a pointer for us....

Hi Joukeder,

Great to hear from you. Actually only saw your video today, looks amazing, plenty of action in there. Summer is coming and surely so will the macros cant wait. I dont know about the black spots, if you have the possibility to quarantine him until you know more just to minimize the risk. Are you on Facebook? There are a few groups that might be able to help with advice.

Good luck and pictures and videos are always very welcome
May I ask what camera you are using? Great quality even after youtube trashing

Hello adictus,
Thanks for your kind words. We'll keep in trying...
Have you any facebook page in mind?
I was using my canon 450d today for the stip fish with a 85mm fixed lens. And used a samsung nv 24 for the 720p original video.
May bring the stip back to the sea. We just borrow them you know...

Indeed we do only borrow them Might be the best to let nature sort it.
Thanks for the info on cameras. I am looking into taking the plunge into DSRL myself. Quality is just amazing.
The groups are here, might be worth a try for interest.

British Marine Aquarists Association
www.facebook.com/groups/thebmaa/

Porcupine Marine Natural History Society
www.facebook.com/groups/190053525989/

Really inspiring- great to see a native tank looking so good.
Do you use artificial salt water for this or just collect from sea- apologies if this is a stupid question but don't know much about native tanks...

Joukeder- to me it looks like black spot parasites in their young stage. Have a look there:
www.fishactive.com/pdfs/Blackspot.pdf
Hope it helps.

@springbok
Sorry, but there are no stupid questions!
I use seawater because we live very clise to the shore. Now that the filter is working, we need to replace about 50% of the water just once a month this operation is done in an hour now that we have honed the procedure. The major reason for refreshing the water is to reduce the build up of nitrates and to replenish trace elements that occur naturally in seawater.

@ Tomi
Thanks for the link

Your tank looks absolutely fantastic. I am more in awe of the native species that you have, I would never have guessed that they would look so exotic and colourful.

I'm off to look for Crusty's thread now.

Go Native, You will never regret it
I agree with you, so surprisingly exotic looking especially the Rock Cook Wrasse. Joukeder may I ask where did you find them? Just by Netscooping in seaweeds?

Hi Adictus, i have two Canon 450 d's. One is for sale in case you are interested. It allows me to make these pics without flash in my moderately lit tank. I am also into portrait photography. Great for that too.

The wrasse was in a shrimp cage of my friend Johnny who fishes in the Kenmare bay. Together with some more goodies like the pink large Urchin.

Hi Joukeder,

Thanks for asking but I have my mind set on the D3200 Need it for video too.

Thats handy in our hobby to have a fisher friend and his bycatch is your joy. I never saw them in pools before they are just deadly looking.

All the best and thanks again
Marius

@ Joukeder. PM ed you re the "Black Spots" on the mullet
@Tomi. My first thoughts also
@ Marius The RockCooks turn up at ELT in Streamstown Bay just north of Clifden,
and the Goldsinnys are also found at Streamstown bay, and Ballinahkill Bay, Letterfrack.

Thanks Crusty, I keep that in mind if I am heading out that way, I let you know.
Cheers

We wondered why so many mussels were opening up one by one.
until we one day saw mr/mrs crab.
We had not seen it since we put it in about a one Euro coin big.
One day it appeared, in wonderful pink colour, and we knew immediately why so many mussels died and their shells nibbled on or broken.
The crab had a good run, but was immediately transferred back into the sea. Mussel death has stopped now.......




We have seen some anemones develop out of nowhere that we did not know we had. We think they came with the mussels from our mooring









All fish are coming on tremendously and it gets a lot more busy in the tank. Certain fish and the shrimp do not show up much as a result of all this activity.

We have therefore resolved to reduce the number of fish to two or three per specimen (for instance mullets from 16 to two) and introduce more anemones snails and invertebrates to promote balance and tranquility in the tank environment.

Great observation with the crab. Looks like he has almost doubled in size from the euro coin size when you added him? Always nice to be able to give them back to the wild once they grew too much isnt it?

The Plumose anemone is amazing, never found them in the pools, its the a nice surprise when stuff just popps out from nowhere

Good luck and keep the updates coming

That's one of the reasons I only keep hermits and I don't add crabs to my tank!
@marius I have a few extra plumose if you would like them.

Indeed, I heard the brown crabs can also be a pain as can they shift rocks by trying to bury underneath them which can cause sleepless nights with nightmares of flooded living rooms and stuff Unfortunately by the time they can cause problems they arent big enough for dinner yet But Hermits can get very abusive and bullying against anemones and snails when they get too big as well. Saw one of mine ripping of an "ear" of one of the seahares. He will have to go next.

Thanks Crusty will come back to that offer when I am up your way Do you guys feed them specifically? Heard they need very small particles of food like artemia or delikes? I guess in a native system with fresh seawater every so often they probably find enough food in the water?

Marius, I can bring them into Galway for you, if that suits, let me know which day, next week you can collect them

very cool mate, im always amazed at these set ups and the things that pop up in our rock pools, id love to do somthing like this one day,

Sorry for the big hiatus folks, but the beautiful summer with the bees and guests as well as the loss of Morlo's best friend Tina have taken their toll.

As to the tank: It is doing fine. We have had however some significant changes.
Fish were growing quickly and the exotic mix of different kinds and personalities proved a bit hard or even lethal to some species and so hard on others that they went into hiding.
As novices we liked and added any and all species to our tank.
Also we ourselves learned to establish what we really like in our tank. As a result of that process it was decided to remove some larger and more nervous or aggressive fish from the tank and convert it to a tank with less and smaller fish that swim quietly and go together well with anemones, shrimp, pipefish seahorse tube worms and the like.
We have already removed 3 Blenneys, 6 Mullets, three Cork-wing wrasses, two Crabs.

We are half-way through the conversion. A Ballin wrasse, one Mullet a Blenney and two Connemara suckers still need to go, but these last candidates have, unlike their earlier brethren, so-far refuted the invitations to swim into our trap.

So we have resolved to take all the rock out of the tank next week and to scoop them out and return them to the sea from their extended holidays with us. There they will realise how good it was with us! HA ha
If anyone is interested in any of them they are available free of charge on the Beara peninsula.

We had an abundance of green algae in the tank to the level that it became a nuisance and needed extra cleaning. Everything was brown and green and pumps and filters needed cleaning more then once a week at its peak.
But the addition of some extra limpets, snails and hermits as well as shrimp, plus the addition of NP reducing BioPLeets XL (€37.50/500ml mind you!) have really taken care of the problem and the tank has cleared itself up. Perhaps a bit too clean now, the cleaning crew still needs to be fed you know......

We have also resorted to some naff artificial greenery in the tank (Ikea) as shelter for the sticklebacks. We have little time to go out and collect the natural stuff yet but we will shortly.
Two of the three stickleback are eating thank god. Only after overfeeding the tank significantly so that the bigger fish did not disturb them anymore. Another argument for selective tank contents.

We change about 2/3 of the ware every month or so or whenever the nitrate is over 40.

Please find some pictures below. Any help and suggestions welcomed.

more pics:

Well done - I love the look of this tank, and the nativeness of it is really impressive. I'm a freshwater guy, but sometime in the future, if I was to be tempted, this might be it.

What temperature do you have to keep it at?

Nice one Joukeeder! Thanks for keeping us updated! Your fish look so big compared to mine really nice to see them grow and you even have to return them. The sticklebacks are terrible feeders, very picky too.
How big is that Ballan? Did you pick him up as a juvenile? great to see them do so well.
The plastic plant doesnt even look as bad as I thought when I read through your post
Well done for keeping it up through the summer. The pools are soon going to look nicer again and some nice unspoilt seaweed will be available hopefully. Need to stock up too. The summer was just a mess of annoying green slime and now red microalgea so looking forward to some proper seaweeds.
Good luck and keep it up!

Thanks,
I run the tank from 17 to 19 degr C in summer and from 16-18 in winter.

Yes Marinus the balin went in as a juvenile. His demeanour in the tank is very goo. He is clearly the boss, but not overly aggressive. It's perhaps 10cm now.
The stickle backs are very picky indeed. He eats strips of mussels. You must cut them very thin in long strips. They also have a preference for dark colours. They like Bloodworms too, but I just have ran out of them. Will order some more today.

Thats amazing that she grew to that size! Really shows how well they can do in aquariums and her colour also shows the adaptation to the surroundings. really cool Very good that you get them to eat dead food, that makes it a bit easier to feed them I guess. The only thing my stickleback used to go really crazy for was live mysis, didnt even look at stuff that doesnt move Started to breed them at the time but I guess its too much work and all your other fish would probably be faster anyway and snatch them away.
All the best

I think it is time to ask JohnH if you can update the title of this and remove "attempt"

Tank looks great

Q_Comets wrote:

I think it is time to ask JohnH if you can update the title of this and remove "attempt"

Tank looks great

+1 on that

Just an update and question.

Crusty was here earlier and took most of the predators and our bigger fish for their next holiday in Galway and Clifden.
Morlo and Crusty also embarked on some fishing expeditions including with our fisherman friend Johnny. The result is a tank with smaller fish and more shrimp, anemones Sticklebacks, butterfish etc. The Sticklebacks are both eating. One of them only bloodworms, the other bloodworms mussels and shrimp. This later one is notably fatter... Because the atmosphere in the tank is more tranquil the shy fish like butterfish show themselves often. Eye candy

See two pictures here of the tank this morning. See the very small white strip on the first one right of centre. the strip is ONE mm wide/



The second picture is this what strip on Macro. They are EGGS. Stuck to the front glass.



My question is this: Who knows what species the eggs are of?