Long overdue updates!

So, I have been really really busy with school and vet school applications etc so the blog has suffered. So here is a large update!

A couple of weeks ago the two anemones that I had cut, for some odd reason just shrunk down and eventually, atleast what I think happened, a bacterial/protozoan infection took them out. The other anemone that was in the tank did not suffer any damage so Im questioning if this was due to chemical warfare. The one anemone that was not cut is not the same clone as the other two. Due to being cut and not eating as well as before I believe all these issues came to a head and the anemones could not cope with them all and succumbed to infection.

Before I knew that these anemones died I went to the LFS, (Local Fish Store) to get some water. That same day a guy brought in some clones from his tank that he did not want anymore and so I bought 4 of them, all for $10 each!! And one of them was just about to split off another clone! They were very small but very much the same as the ones that had just died in my tank. I brought them home and put them in the tank in the garage. I have been feeding them about every two days and they have taken to my tank quite nicely.







I also have taken out the one anemone that has no clonal tie to any of my anemones and put it in a breeder basket zip tied up in my main show tank in the house. The color of this anemone has really taken off under my metal halides and I am glad I decided to buy this one anemone, it shows a lot of potential.






My blastomussa colony that has been in my tank for ages now has recently just sloughed off a ball of tissue with some skeleton attached and so I got a picture of that to show you guys. I have fragged up this colony once and I will in the future due to its very nice coloration.

Mother colony feeding on mysis shrimp first and then the daughter colony.






I also purchased a nice colony of clavularia, clove polyps, that have awesome coloration, a bright green middle with orange highlights on the pinnule. This stuff is really growing fast in my tank and so will be fragging up this stuff as well.






And last but not least, I took some pictures of the anemones during feeding time and also some pictures of some colonies feeding in my main tank. About 45 minutes after feeding all of the anemones were back to looking like nothing had happened. I have also noticed that 2 days after feeding they are ready to eat again. I have also not noticed much rejection of the food (PE mysis and Hikari mysis) that I am feeding and so I will continue this feeding regime. I have tried krill and chopped up silversides to no avail and so I am sticking with mysis shrimp for now.

During Feeding








After 45 minutes, back to business!






I also have been testing the amount of food that I offer the anemones and have noticed that if the mysis shrimp are not attached to a tentacle that the anemone will not feed on it. They seem to "know" how much they want and if I pile it on the oral disc they reject most of it. I will have to fine tune this technique since I want to maximize feeding and reduce metabolic costs so these anemones will grow quickly.

Examples of too much food given. Notice the "pile" on the oral disc.





Here is a good example of the right amount of food given, it is the same picture as above. Notice all of the mysis shrimp are surrounded by tentacles and all of them are being pulled towards the mouth. Of course this is my personal experience and opinion, take it as you will.





My trachyphyllia colony at the beginning of feeding.







The same colony with a nice picture of the mouth starting to envelope the shrimp.






Random pics of a nice sized acan colony and a favia colony eating. The acan colony spreads out so much that its polyps get pushed up against the tank glass, that is why it looks so weird. :)

Updated pictures

So here are a few pictures of the updates that took place awhile ago. I have been quite busy this summer and so the blog has been neglected.

this photo is the tank from the side showing the standpipe and the hose to the sump. The sump is a 40 something gallon Brute garbage can. I use an eheim return pump that is throttled all the way down and shot through the spray bar. I know is not the prettiest setups that I have seen, but it gets its job done. Also don't mind the slime algae, its finally getting under control now that I have added the skimmer. I am using an old ASM g1 skimmer I had laying around. I decided to add a spray bar from parts from HD because I wanted to add a little bit more uniform flow around the tank.




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Now some pics of the anemones. The pictures are kinda fuzzy since the anemones are in bad locations and the angles I had to use to get the pictures were horrible!

The first picture is all from the left side of the tank. The anemone that is on the left and the right side are the same anemone. I am trying out the anemone in the middle to see how the heal time is on it. It is the next one to be cut. It has a nice green tint on the tentacles and also the oral disc. It also has always had bubbles unlike the others that I am keeping. The smaller anemones are the ones that were cut before. They are starting to really expand with my feedings and are looking alot better.








This last picture kinda shows how large the anemones are, it is hard to get a good picture with the light reflection. The PVC pipe that is just below the bubble anemone in the middle is a piece of 2" PVC cut to about a 4-5" long section.

I hope you like the pictures and updates! I will be updating soon with my cuttings!

Sorry for no pictures...I know its lame!

For once I am very pleased with my anemone tank in the garage. I just got done doing a late night feeding and all 4 anemones are taking the new mysis shrimp very well. I usually feed PE mysis to everything in my tanks but I decided to try the Hikari bio-pure mysis shrimp. I promise to get some pictures of the difference between the two this sunday! Anyway, the Hikari brand mysis shrimp are tiny and I believe that the anemones and also my corals take to this stuff alot easier. Time will tell if they do better on the Hikari or if I will be going back to the PE mysis. I believe the smaller size helps the corals/anemones to take it in easier. I will update really soon with updated pictures and also a picture of the food. Thanks for looking!


Ian

Updates

So, not much has happened to the farm lately. The only news that is interesting is that one of the sleeper gobies jumped out of the anemone tank. So I ended up just throwing the other one in my main tank in the house. I will just focus on anemones and peppermint shrimp for now. I also just set up a new shelving unit in the garage to be able to grow my own phyto and rotifers for my tank and possibly in the future for fish larvae. I also have a larval trap on its way. I will post about it as soon as it arrives.

Ian

Some Updates to the tank!

So I finally got some better lights for the anemone tank. I bought a 2-bulb 36" T5 retrofit kit and was able to put it together today. I will most likely never buy a retrofit kit ever again, it was annoying trying to get the lights to hang correctly and get everything where it should be. The tank looks alot brighter and the color looks more pleasing to me eye. I used a 18K bulb and a 6700K bulb.

This is how I put them together. I had some scrap plywood that I just screwed the sockets to and then wired the lights together. That is my dog, samson, in the last picture. He likes to support me in my endeavors.





This is the fixture lit up over my tank. As you can see the lights are not hanging straight. It took me forever to get it at this point so if it really bugs me I will end up straightening up the lights.

Fish Brood Stock

So, I have been reading the marine fish breeding book by Matthew Wittenrich and decided to dive in to the realm of breeding fish as well. I bought these guys last week thursday, and they have been eating nicely on mysis. At first they were very skittish but now they have calmed down and are starting to roam/sift sand in their tank. I will be upgrading my RBTA tank which the fish are in at the moment to more of a centralized system with multiple tanks. I will be keeping the peppermint shrimp/sand sifting gobies/anemones in the main tank with a 20 gallon and a 10 gallon extra for growout and larval rearing of both the shrimp and fish.

Here are the fish I bought, luckily they were in the same tank and looked like a pair.

Post Cutting Pictures

So I apologize for my late post, I had two tests these past two weeks and so I was kind of busy. Anyway, here are some pictures of the anemone 4 days post cutting. I will have to get some 24 hour post pictures next time I cut because it was a pretty rapid healing process with these anemones.






Here are some from just about 5 minutes ago. The lights are out in the tank and so I took the picture with a flash. You can really tell how well these clones are healing by the first picture. They both have fully formed mouths and are eating PE mysis like pigs! I believe the success with these anemones after cutting is to really have more than adequate water flow just after being cut.

Rose Bubble is cut!

About time right? So I finally went ahead and cut the oldest rose bubble tip in my grow out tank in the garage. It was 9 weeks this week since I bought it thinking it would split on its own. I guess the anemone had different thoughts since it refused to split naturally. I have set up some pictures of how I did the manual propagation of the Rose bubble anemone.

First I did a five gallon water change and put the water aside. I then set up a cutting area with all the necessary tools. My handy dandy fish towel, a filet knife, a plastic cutting board, some Revive and a little tupperware for dipping.

Now, I gently removed the anemone from the side of the tank and laid him out on the cutting board. I made sure to try and get all the tentacles off the oral disc and to line up the mouth just right. Since the anemone had already started to split I also tried to align the anemone so I would be cutting with that already split part.

I put the filet knife in one side of the mouth and cut straight down from the corner of the mouth. I then repeated this same step with the other side. I then placed the two halves into the bucket with the old tank water and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes with an air stone to create some water movement. It is key to let the anemones purge all their nasties after cutting in a separate container than the tank. I then took the tupperware and added in some old tank water and then added a cap full of Revive as a post cut dip before I placed the two halves into the tank. I let them sit in this dip for about 5 minutes.

I then placed the anemones into the tank and turned on all the pumps to create some water flow to help heal the anemones. The first picture is seconds after putting the anemone into the water. And the following pictures are about 1 hour post cutting. The last picture shows pretty well how the cutting went with the anemone.

I just went down and took a peek at the two halves and they are doing great! They are already almost pinched closed from where I cut them. I will update you guys tomorrow with 24 hour post pictures! Keep in tune!