Tullamore Reef Update Pictures

Well its been about 4 - 6 weeks since I last updated you on how things are going here in Tropical Tullamore so here are some pictures taken tonight.

Before lights out this evening



Blue Green Chromis. One of 3 in the tank



Blue leg hermit crab



Cauliflower Coral - Nephthea species



Cleaner Shrimp. One of 6 in the tank



A. ocellaris pair (hopefully)



Colt Coral - Alcyonium species



Feather Duster Worms (4). 2 lost their heads a week after introduction but quickly grew back thankfully. Must have been the shock of moving from Indonesia to Tullamore!



Afraid so! Flatworms. Anyone recommend a good wrasse to take care of these guys?



Giant Green Metllic Mushrooms Rhodactis species



Kupang Damselfish. One of 3 in the tank. Pretty well behaved as Damsels go. The 3 chromis bully these guys!



Metllic Blue Mushrooms - Discosoma species



Metllic Green Star Polyps - Pachyclavularia species



Mystery Growths on Liverock. ? Macroalgae. Can anyone tell me for sure?



A. ocellaris pair with toadstool in the background



Large colony of Pulsing Xenia. The pulsing action is hypnotic!!!



Pulsing Xenia Closeup



Purple Plating Montipora - Montipora species. My only hard coral



Red Mushrooms - Discosoma species



Ricordea yuma (I think)



Scarlet Leg Hermit Crab. One of 3 in the tank.



Stick Polyps - Acrozoanthus species. Growing on a worm tube. What happens when the tube begins to break down? Anyone ?



Toadstool (Leather) Coral - Sarcophyton species



Toadstool (Leather) Coral. Closeup of polyps extended.



Colony of Yellow polyps - Parazoanthus species. Looking a little pale here. Might move them to a higher light area.



Yellow Tang (Bertie)



Bertie cleaning the last of the algae.



Mystery Goby which arrives on some live rock. What a bonus! (Makes up for the other hitchhikers, namely the flatworms)Very shy / Very small (1 inch) See next picture (From the WWW)for a clear image of what he looks like.



Flaming Prawn Goby - Discordipinna griessingeri


Other inhabitants not pictured include
1 large black brittlestar
Turbo / Astrea Snails
Copepods by the millions
Amphipods by the thousands (only seen at night)
1 small crab. Hitchhiker. very small. appeared last week. Will keep a close eye on him.
Spaghetti worms. Night shift only!
2 sponges beginning to grow from a piece of liverock. 1 brown / 1 yellow.
Strange brown banded worms that extend out of the liverock at night to feed on the crap
Algae Blenny didn't make it I'm afraid Dave (He was emaciated) My fault for not checking him closely.

Over 100kg of liverock in this tank now. So plenty of natural filtration and reef life in general.

It's been a steep learning curve from ordering the tank and equipment 4 months ago to the ocean view I have now!

Thanks for looking. If anyone can answer the 3 questions asked above, I'd really appreciate it.

Seany

Nice tank Seany,and even better photographs.
Love the Prawn Goby.

Wow ... so many excellent pictures !!!
Thanks Seany !

One day ...

Valerie

The pictures are great seany.
The goby is a real jem. If you were to buy one of these it would have cost you more than any of your fish or corals. So definitely a real bonus.
Just be careful some of the fish dont mistake it for food.
Check on it now and then to make sure it is getting food. Even brine shrimp is to big for them. They can only pick at it.

Thanks Valerie, Monsterfish and Darren,

Yes the goby was a surprise. To be honest I thought he would be long gone when I first noticed him about 4 weeks ago. The only shrimps are cleaners so he should be ok with them. As for the hitchhiker crab, I may move him to a QT tank if he looks like he's getting bigger. Even if I wanted to catch the goby, it would involve taking out 100kg of liverock and examining every nook and cranny to locate him, a big job. He will just have to take his chances.

As for food, yes he has a pretty small mouth and the artemia and mysis are definitely too big to fit into his gob! However there is plenty of copepods and amphipods for him at the moment. Also when I thaw the frozen food, I don't strain it or clean it anyway. Once thawed, the whole lot goes into the tank, fragments and juices as well. Some of the discomas, fanworms and yellow polyps amongst others are seen to curl up in a feeding behaviour shortly after.

Any recommmendations for a wrasse to take care of the flatworms?
What happens to the stick polyps when the old worm tube begins to break down?
Are those green growths pictured the beginnings of some macroalgae?

Regards
Seany

The bottom clown is a young female the top one is a immature male, both could spawn is about 4 months if you kept 14 hours of light and 10 hours of faint moonlight provided the temp is 27C

Fr Jack,
Temperature is 25 degrees +/- 0.5 degrees
Actinics on at 8am off at 8pm
MH on at 9am off at 7pm.

We'll see how things go. Female chasing food at the moment but none is actually been eaten. Will keep a close eye on her for the next few days.

If they do breed, I have Joyce Wilkerson's book \"Clownfishes-A guide to ther care, breeding and Natural history. Excellent book. Raising the fry is a major job though espically through metamorphosis. I understand once they start breeding, regular batches are the norm. Plenty of time to experiment, eh!

Seany

This temp suits the inverts (24-25C) but not to condition the clowns, I guess it hard to please every one in the tank!, may be if the actinic are on for 14 hours and the MH 11 hours and you maintain 26C you might get them to spawn without killing the inverts

\"Any recommmendations for a wrasse to take care of the flatworms?\"
I dont know what wrasse will eat these for you.
There is a product that you can add to the tank that will kill them. They will float when they die so you scoop them off the surface with a net and you need to do a water change afterwards.
I havent used it myself but Keiron or Paul have. I'm sure if they see this post they will advise you. In the mean time they are harmless to your livestock.

\"Are those green growths pictured the beginnings of some macroalgae?\"
These look like a sea grass to me. They will grow like this for 3-4cm and then open into thin grass that will grow about 10-15cm.
Some times they never open and will grow to 3-4cm and die back again only to repeat the process and never fully grow into grass. I dont know why this happens.

\"What happens to the stick polyps when the old worm tube begins to break down?\"
i have never come across this before maybe your Calcium levels are too low. Should be about 350-400ppm

Platty252

Calcium levels are fine at 420ppm

What I meant is that the stick polyps, Acrozoanthus species, are only found growing in nature on the parchment like worm tube of Eunice tibianaThe tube been made from the organic secretions of the worm. When imported without the worm to maintain the upkeep of the tube, being made of an organic material, it will break down eventually. Has anyone tried to remove pieces of the tube and attach it to some other subatrate with success?

Kind regards

Seany

Hi Seany,you could try a six line wrasse or a mandarin dragonnet.I've had some in my sump,put a mandarin in and they are nearly gone !.Salifert's \"flatworm exit\" works well,just follow the instructions to the letter .

Thanks Kieronr,

I've heard about the Sixline Wrasse (Pyjama Wrasse) alright. With regards to the Mandarinfish which species? I believe the spotted Mandarinfish - picturatus, is better then the striped Mandarinfish - splendidus.

Kind regards
Seany

Hi Seany,thanks for that.I did'nt know one was better than the other !.I've got the striped variety.I'm putting him back into the main setup as he will eat all the good critters in the refugium.

Here are the buggers all over a piece of rock. Population gets bigger everyday!



Here one of the sods on the glass near the back of the tank.



I will need to take action sooner rather than later.

Seany

Just a quick Update.

Problem 1: Flatworm infestation.

I was up in Dun Laoighaire (? spelling) the other day and dropped into Fish Antics. Met Simon. Nice Chap.Small shop but has some amazing inverts on display) Picked up a 6 line Wrasse (Pyjama Wrasse) and a fantastic torch coral. Both have settled in well to the tank and the Wrasse has already halved the faltworm population. He is swimming around with a very fat belly!

Problem 2: Sick Xenia.

Tried Iodine / Trace supplements / Increased Calcium and Alkinity. All to no avail. From my books and the WWW. Everyone has a different opinion as to why xenia does so well in some tanks and awful in others. My last thought is that it maybe the victim of some chemical warfare from the soft corals in the reef tank and so this morning I have moved it to the hospital tank. Will let you know what happens.

Kind regards

Seany