Absolute Minimal Salt Water Aquarium

[thincat]

+1, great advise Kurt.
Please don't overfeed just to try and see if the clown eats. Mysis is a sure bet. I also use bloodworms, ocean nutrition Formula one sinking marine pellets, reef chile, Ultracolor sinking marine pellets and Spectrum marine formula, baby brine shrimp and tetraMarine saltwatr flakes. My shelf looks like a supermarket,,LOL

[mrg02d]

Hello,
I will try the mysis shrimp tomorrow. The clown no longer hides. he spends alot of time in the corner midway up the water column swimming vertically (Where the current is the strongest). Every now and then, he will swim to the other side of the tank, look around, then go back to the other side and keep swimming vertically. Is that normal? Also, I saw him go poo....How should it look? I know thats a funny Q. but I have read about stomach parasites and such. It was whitish with some green. I havent seen him eat the food (its no where to be seen). It was a short piece of poo and just popped out while he did his vertical swim.

I hope he doesnt miss his buddy! The crabs now keep their distance from him after the fight...

Matt

[thincat]

Clowns swim funny and I guess the other Q. is due to what he ate. Maybe not in your tank but at the LFS. When I buy a fish I always ask them to show me the food that they are being fed. It is better to at least feed the same food in the beginning. Whrn you do buy another clown you should buy either one that is much smaller then the one you have or much bigger. The big clown will be a female and if you went the other way the small one would end up the male. Females end up the boss.

[mrg02d]

Hello,
thanks for the replies!

I just noticed something strange in my tank! Its on the glass (well, acrylic). It looks like an Anemonae! Its TINY and transparent. About 1/8" in diameter with tenticles 1/8" long as well. It just appeared today. It doesnt look like any of the Aiptasia pictures at all. Could it be a baby Aiptasia? Should I nail it with the algae scraper?

Its bascially a disk with 5 tenticles or so attached...And now that I go back to look at it again, its GONE!

I dont know how on earth it got in there. I did put some old snail shells from the beach in there last night, but boiled them first for a few minutes. They were about a year old sitting in a glass vase.

I cant believe its gone. It must have known I was on to it. I hope that wasnt some baby aiptasia!
EDIT: I saw another similar one, but smaller. When I broguht the algae scraper near, he took off! Swam like a jelly fish straight to the sand bed. Looked like a cross between a jelly and a anemonae. DANG! How could this happen? How did they get in here? I also see "fleas" on the glass and swimming somewhat where the flow is low. I guess these are copepods or something? Weird! I didnt put any of this stuff in on purpose!

Ive also now noticed a small colony of what looks like a cross between a fan worm and an anemonae growing on live rock where the water flow is minimal. They are TINY (.5cm) and have fuzzy tenticle like structures at the top of a tube like structure. I ran a wooden stick through them and they just stayed there, attached to the rock. (Unlike the transparent creature that took off).

I dont understand this sudden outbreak of life. Maybe I just never noticed it. (The copepod flea things are new.)
Matt

[thincat]

Those first ones are aiptasia and all more then likely came in with your lr. here is a link that might help: Xtalreef
This is a very exciting part of reefkeeping....
here is another link: http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchhikers.html

[mrg02d]

Hello,
After looking around the google images, it seems this first observation is the hydromedusae. The pictures of hydromedusae on aquarum glass look nearly identical to what I saw. The described behavior also matches. (swimming like a jellyfish).

Could these be bad? They hang around the copepods hangout. (Im guessing they eat copepods)

I am still trying to ID the other strange white things. (The worm/anemonae things). They dont run off or retract when touched.

Thanks for the links!
Matt

[mrg02d]

Hello,
Here is an update on the state of things in my tank...
1-Hermit crabs poop everywhere! I dont see how they can do this, but its all over the places they hang out. I dont have any snails yet, will they eat this?

2-The clown fish no longer hides, but still hasnt eaten anything. Still has strange poo. Lets assume its intestinal parasites. Will the meds for this kill the invertabrates? Is it safe to treat the clown in the DT for intestinal parasites?

Also, is it possible for a clown to have OCD? Once the lights come on, he comes out of his cave (Its been a different place each night) and goes to the same spot to swim vertically against the current. I turned off the power head and he kinda swam around the area looking upset. He dosnt even notice food. I even put in a small piece of garlic. He doesnt seem to give two craps about it. I even tried mysis shrimp. (It floated right past him)

I dont see how, but he is pooping a few times a day. I dont see him eat anything. He seems to obsessed to even think about looking. I get close to the glass, and he backs off a bit, but not by much. Doesnt seem to care that I am there. I shoed him away from his spot with a wooden spoon and he left for a few seconds. When I left, he went right back to what he was doing!

3-I cant figure out what this thing is in the water. It looks like an anemona, but really doesnt look like the aiptasia ones. Its in a white tube with brown spots and it has transparent tenticles. Above it (further up the LR) are these tiny little things with white stalks and bushy tops.


Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: Closer to 10ppm now.
pH:8.2
SG: 1.025
Temp: 77F

Matt

[thincat]

First off, those tiny things sound like mini featherdusters. The other one sounds like peanut worms. Both are not a problem and more then likely came in with your lr. Your fish won't eat a chunk of garlic. Just squeeze some of the garlic juice on his food if you want to use garlic.
OCD- You will have to have someone else answer this/
The crabs are eating detritus and in turn breaking this down to another step in the nitrogen cycle. Some snails will eat this, it depends on the snail. Some only eat vegatable matter.

[mrg02d]

Hello,
thanks for the reply!
Mini feather dusters, eh? Thats good! I wonder where all the copepods came from? As well as the "jelly fish"? Maybe this stuff was in the sand? (The seller claims the sand was full of life.

Yea, I know the fish wont eat the piece of garlic, I just wanted to see if it got his attention. He acts blind. Im willing to bet he will die, just as the other one did. I will NOT be back to that fish store! I think I will call the supplier (they are in my town) and ask to buy directly from them. (They raise them here).

Seems one dying the very next day and the other acting like an idiot that poos weird isnt a fair deal for $18 a pop! Maybe if my parameters were bad. The fish store thinks they are hurting because my cycle was short. They said that no cycle can happen over 2 weeks time. Sigh...

I kinda wish my parameters were off, so Id have some closure. Maybe there was some nasties on the live rock, or the live sand? Parasites or bacteria or who knows?

I will continue to try to feed the clown each day now. (Little bits) But I will write him off as soon to be dead. I havent read one hopeful thing about a clown that doesnt eat and has strange poo. His food goes RIGHT by him! Not even a glace at it. Even when I turn off the power head, and his source of obession is gone! At least the crabs love the food landing near them!

I wonder if he eats the copepods (when im not looking) that are all around him now?

Thanks guys!
Matt

[thincat]

Sorry to here that. You might try some live food. Does the LFS or the supplier have any? Or try a fresh piece of shrimp...very small piece. Most fish love shrimp.