Forty Fathoms

[Nebthet]

Well I am a little sad today.

I can't find the mandarin anywhere. It went missing last night after being in the tank for over 5 hours.

It was there swimming around and eating pods and then all of a sudden, poof gone. I even got up in the middle of the night last night with a flash light going around the tank to see if I could made him out, but nothing.

I really have to wonder what is doing on in my tank now.. and if the mandarin was another victim of the cleaner shrimp or if there was something else wrong.

I do know it wasn't my pod population, because it is booming. Taking the flashlight to it at night, and they cover everything. Big ones, small ones, tiny ones. Different shapes and sizes.

I also found a hairy crap in the tank last night too. It is about the size of a quarter. It is suppose to eat algae, but under hitchiker guides it is listed as not reef save, so I have to figure how to get it out.

So any one have any ideas on what could have happened with the Mandarin?

[jimskoi]

He could go missing for a day or so.They love to hide in the rocks looking for pods in the LR.

Do you have lid?If he was chased he could of jumped.
_________________
"Its all fun and games until the glass breaks"

[Nebthet]

I have the egg crate. Plus half the tank is covered with an acrylic sheet too.. I checked the floor several times. Behind the tank, and to the sides. Nothing.
The snails are still dispersed every where too so I do not think they have had a group feeding yet but who knows.

I will keep my fingers crossed that he is in one of the caves hunting for pods.

I know I have one really good cave system in the centre of the tank that goes around in a circle and is about 6 -7 inches in diameter with several exits from it. I hope that is where he is.

On a nice note the elegance coral is really happy in my tank. It's tentacles are fully extended waving in the current. It is making me want to move the other corals away from that side of thank and get another elegance for that side.
I am also hoping if the clowns won't host the anemone, they may choose the elegance instead.

The clam is also moving a little bit on it's own. I had it tilted nicely so the light reflected off of him and now he has tilted himself the other way. Hopefully it will get good footing soon and tilt forward again. Thankfully he is in an area that he has no choice but to do that.

[rkelman]

Hopefully he's just hiding. I've tried Mandarins a few times with no luck but they don't die that quick... Mine get eaten by my carpet nem I think.

[Nebthet]

Still no appearance yet.. keeping my fingers crossed.

[Nebthet]

Well there have been some hits and losses with the tank over the last few weeks. Definately a learning experience when it comes to elegance corals and chemical warfare.

BTA: RIP. I think the combination of chemical warfare and the stupid cleaner shrimp stealing food directly out of it's mouth caused it to starve. It fell off the rock the other day so I fished it out and flushed it. The mouth was all white, and after research that was not a good sign, so I cut my losses and got it out before it could foul my tank up.
Frogspawn also declined and died.

Everything else is goind good. Clam is really happy in it's new spot. Duncans are in a lower flow area and seem happy down on the sand.
The Elegance coral has really expanded in size now and my two paired clownfish, Big Momma and Jigsaw are showing signs of wanting to host it. They have been hovering over it a lot and lightly touch the tentacles every once in a while, but no dive bombing yet.
My blue devil damsel is doing the same thing to the elegance as well, so it will be interesting to see which one takes the plunge first. I just hope they don't go rough on it, as I have read that that can cause a decline in these type of corals.

It also seems that some of the encrusting algae on the glass, especially at the corners is getting to the stage where I can effectively clean it with the magfloat and some elbow grease. FINALLY!! That has been driving me nuts for a while.

I also have lots and lots of chitons in the tank. Usually 15 can be seen underneath the sand on the front of the tank. Tiny little things they are.

I have also added my Koralia 1 back to my tank. I shifted the K4 for a little causing a slight reduction of flow to the front right side of the tank, so I put the K1 back in to help with that a little. I am thinking I need to get a Knano to put under the K4 but on the back surface facing the front of the right side of the tank because the front right corner is getting extremely low flow and needs more.
So, this gives me up to almost 33x's flow now in my tank.

The sps are really happy still. The green bottlebrush is glowing radioactive now, the MontiCap is a nice pastel green rimmed in pink. Very pretty. Both have grown a lot in the last few weeks. The Bottlebrush continues to encrust on the plug and has new polyps forming where it has encrusted. The MontiCap is growing like crazy though with lots of seperate platelets forming.

Xenia is happy and spreading on the rock slowly.

Baby clowns are ever growing. Omen is just about the same size as Jigsaw. Just a half inch smaller. Runt continues to be small though. I think I appropriately named him. Still no aggression between either pair of clowns.



Here are some updated pix from a couple weeks ago.

RIP ms. mandarin. I haven't seen her for a few weeks so I am assuming the worst. She was thin when I got her, as you can tell by a couple of the past pics. There have been plenty of pods in my tank to eat, but never know.


The tiny Cardinal. I really need to get him a buddy.


The Right side of the tank before I moved some stuff. The clam has been moved to the Left side. The duncan to the far right where the red shrooms used to be.



The Green Bottlebrush, this is the color when it is not under atcinics.

This one is under actinics.


MontiCap not under actinics. The color is very close to what it looks like in person.

then under actinics


This is a sequence shot of how small the Elegance coral is at night, to how large it gets after 5 hours with full lights on.




and this is just a close up pic I really liked of the Elegance.


Lastly, I found a strange snail in my tank one night. I did some searching and was able to determine that it looks like a type of Stromella snail since the shell is rounded and not pointed like a limpets.

[bob]

I've heard those snails referred to as "abalone" snails.
I have em, came as hitchhikers.

[Nebthet]

Thanks for the extra info.
I haven't seen it hurt anything yet but I am still keeping an eye on it just in case.

[bob]

I have noticed they are pretty harmless and don't seem to
live as long as most other types of snail. But there is always a few touring around my tank

[rkelman]

Looks like a Stomatella to me. See below.




"Stomatella are active day or night, but come out mostly at night and are fairly secretive during the day. A look at the tank walls after dark with a flashlight will usually spot this critters if they are present in the tank. They will reproduce in the reef tank, but don't seem to reach nuisance population levels. Breeding has been observed during the daytime with all individuals climbing up to high points on the live rock and simultaneously releasing their eggs and sperm into the water. This can cause the tank water to look milky for a short time, but is nothing to worry about. The filter feeders get to eat well when this occurs."

[Nebthet]

Yep, that would be it for sure, except mine is more white.

As far as I can tell I have only seen the one and only at night or just when I turn the lights on on my tank.

I am just really glad to verify that they are not harmful.