Phischy's Project: PtII-New Critters

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Phischy

Phischy

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Nanotank Members and Visitors:

Welcome to the second installment of the construction of my reef tank. In "Three Days to Start" ( http://www.nanotank.com/viewtopic.php?t=255 ) we saw the design and construction of my tank, the setbacks, the questions, and the lessons learned. Most noteibly how damn expensive these things can be. Later on I'll repost my costs to date, something I'm dreading as I've also wanted an Ipod for awhile and when I see the cash dumped into this setup I may cry. And as they say, it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Well, back to the point. My water chem levels are balancing out as I exit my cycling stange, thus taking me out of 'starting my tank' and making the old thread obsolete. Bigger and Better my friends, plus huge threads are intimidating for people to read start to finish so I'm tricking you by starting another one. This is, afterall, just a continuation.

The good news. Tonight I'm performing a 5gal water change, the first ever, plus topping off with another 5gals of water into my sump. That skimmer has been pulling a ton of water out of my system and every two weeks I need to add more. I will be lowering the aggressiveness of my skimming now that the cycling is over.

I've also purchased my first critters. Five crabs, two blue legged hermits, two scarlets and another I've already forgotten it's name, but it's got white claws. I aclimated them last night and inserted them into the tank. I think they may have done a small dance knowing they were the first. Duncin' Krubs. Ha ha.

So that's my news, I also set a trap to get what was believed to be a carniverious copopod baited with krill. I removed the trap this morning but was rushing to work so I couldn't stop to really check it out.

More news to come and please, vote tomorrow.
 
Sugar Magnolia

Sugar Magnolia

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Woo! Congratulations on this next phase of your tank! I know how exciting it was for me to finally get to add the first critters to the tank and see some movement in there.

Let us know what it was that you trapped. A pic would be great!
 
Phischy

Phischy

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It's been awhile but my tank is still curing. Yesterday I added a full complement of a cleanup crew consisting of 10 snails of different varieties, 10 small hermits of various breeds to go along with the zebra and 2 scarlets (both the blue hermies died or are still mia). One emerald crab and I finally got around to adding 10 or so pounds of live sand. Did a little re-aquascaping and I know I've got to get rid of a few pieces of live rock b/c they don't 'fit' the scene. I plan to put those into a fuge later on.

I killed 2 'pods. The pillbug kind, one actually rolled up when I disturbed him, I was after a third but he was really fast and I couldn't get to him. Saw some other beneficial pods lurkin' about so that's kinda cool. And my tank is springing up with small feather duster type critters.

So now I think I'll let the tank go for another 2 or so weeks and monitor the nitrites to make sure they're gone and then maybe by December I'll start adding some shrooms or something. What a process!

I'll try to post some pics shortly
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Phischy

Phischy

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Sorry for no pics yet. Got side tracked yesterday but as I was inspecting my tank, I killed yet another pillbug style 'pod but I also found out where they're breeding and I saw at least four or five more, along with a ton (15-20) little squigglers that were so small I'm not sure what they were.

Will these things kill crabs or snails?!?!?! I saw one dead crab out of it's shell last night but it could have died from anything.

I also found something else new, I couldn't see the body but I saw what appeared to be long tenacles. 3-4" long, white & red bands and appeared to be about the same thickness as monofilament (fishing line), but really thin.
 
I

incysor

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Phischy said:
Sorry for no pics yet. Got side tracked yesterday but as I was inspecting my tank, I killed yet another pillbug style 'pod but I also found out where they're breeding and I saw at least four or five more, along with a ton (15-20) little squigglers that were so small I'm not sure what they were.

Will these things kill crabs or snails?!?!?! I saw one dead crab out of it's shell last night but it could have died from anything.

I also found something else new, I couldn't see the body but I saw what appeared to be long tenacles. 3-4" long, white & red bands and appeared to be about the same thickness as monofilament (fishing line), but really thin.
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More than likely they're just amphipods. They're detrivores and many fish/critters eat them. About 2-3 months after I initially set up my 55gal tank I found a mated pair of psychodelic madarins at a LFS around the corner from me that is terrible. The place is a HORRIBLE pet store, but I sometimes go in and get air stones from them because it's close. I saw the pair doing their dance and I just had to get them out of the store before they killed em. My tank wasn't anywhere near mature enough so I ordered amphipods online and set up a 10gal tank for them and just sucked some of them out with a turkey baster a few times a day and squirted them near the mandarins. It worked. I had the pair for about 8 months before we had a plumbing issue and lost about 5gal of water over the front of the tank. The female went with the water. The male was still with me until the big move which is when I lost him.

B
 
Phischy

Phischy

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Ok, well as long as their not fish eating paracitic bugs then I'm cool with it. They can really move too when they want to. I guess I should stop killing them then.

The other thing I've got to address post haste is to put a cover over my overflow so a snail doesn't attempt to crawl down into my sump. That would lead to 10 or so gallons of water being pumped onto my floor a my pump running dry for who knows how many hours. Considering I"m gone 13-16hrs a day it could really cause a problem. I was just going to hack up a fruit crate (the little green ones that strawberries come in) and place it over. Stupid snails. There even a sign that says "Do not enter" but you know snails, they just go whever they want. Think they're the king of the world those little ego maniacs.
 
I

incysor

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Phischy said:
Ok, well as long as their not fish eating paracitic bugs then I'm cool with it. They can really move too when they want to. I guess I should stop killing them then.

The other thing I've got to address post haste is to put a cover over my overflow so a snail doesn't attempt to crawl down into my sump. That would lead to 10 or so gallons of water being pumped onto my floor a my pump running dry for who knows how many hours. Considering I"m gone 13-16hrs a day it could really cause a problem. I was just going to hack up a fruit crate (the little green ones that strawberries come in) and place it over. Stupid snails. There even a sign that says "Do not enter" but you know snails, they just go whever they want. Think they're the king of the world those little ego maniacs.
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How big are your snails? I've had whole fish go down my overflow and didn't clog up the line.
 
Phischy

Phischy

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Only one is big enough to potentially cause problems. The way I had to plumb my tank due to the drawers was to put 2 45d bends in my 2.5" pipe. I could just imagine that big sucker gettin' up and in there and deciding, "Hmmm....I wonder where how deep this rabbit hole goes?" and taking a dive to find out. See, snails aren't too bright. They should realize that sucking drains are not good places to go splunking AND that rabbits can't breath underwater. Ergo...two reasons to not go down the hole. To boldly go where no snail has gone before I suppose. Then his stupid house he lugs around with him could get jammed in one of those bends. I swear, if they weren't packrats they'd realize they wouldn't need a double-wide shell. Hmmm...maybe he's a big pimp and he's got some cozy female snails in there with him. That'd be kinda cool, so long as he doesn't drain my sump, short out the pump and burn my place down. Not cool.

Anyway, I'll have to put a snail guard on it soon enough.
 
Phischy

Phischy

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Hey, it Could happen!!! That's all I'm sayin'.

Well, I finally ID'd my pod problem once I saw one big enough to see it's beady little eyes. And this guy is a big'un.

I found this article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.htm

Which goes into the nasties. Sho'nuff, I've got: Cirolanid Isopods.

"The three remaining types of isopods are all highly mobile, very active animals. One group is comprised of the harmless scavengers in the group called the Family Sphaeromatidae. One very large group of isopods, the Family Cirolanidae, is comprised of carrion-eating scavengers and parasites. The parasites may prey on and suck the blood of some fishes. Both types of Cirolanids may be found in aquaria, and actually they are quite common. The final type of isopod that we need to be concerned about will kill and eat fishes. These are animals from the Family Aegidae."

I need to do more research but it looks like they've got to go. Rolly-pollies, you've been formally notified your asses are getting evicted! It looks like it could take awhile for them to die off on their own, so I guess I'm gonna have to give 'em a helping hand.

I may re-bait my trap and attempt to get them out that way. One of the articles I read suggested using a yellow tang as live bait and then pulling it out and removing the paracites from it until they're all gone. I think this is in-humane to the fish and would stress the hell out of it. So I won't go this route since I don't have any fish in there currently. My bait trap and turkey baster should be the way to go.

In fact, I may mod a turkey baster to become the "Anti-Pod Gun" cuz I don't like evil pods anymore. To battle!
 
J

Jennie

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I love the way you can make a serious topic funny at the same time. The 'bad' pods, has anyone ever been able to take an actual picture of them? I've got some 'rollypolly/acrobatic' pods that are extremely large, and have been curious about them.
 
Phischy

Phischy

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"I am Phishcy Wallace, and I see a tank full of my countrymen being attacked by the evil isopods. We will fight the enemy now, and show them what true Scot-phisches we are, or we can run. And many years from now lie dying in our beds wishing for just one chance, one chance, to return here to show our enemy that while they may take our lives, they'll never take our Freedom!!!!"

Ok, a little melodramatic but I do have a problem. It looks like I'll have to take care of it as well. I had a triangle meeting with the head snail (who likes to be called Phabio) and the head hermit crab (Duke). Phabio made a very vaild point in his argument of why they won't fight. The lack arms. It was hard to get an answer out of Duke. You'd think crabs would be excellent fighters given their numerous legs and big claws, not to mention armored shells. But as it turns out, crabs are pretty ditzy. Duke started to talk and trailed off..."Well ya see we'd like to hel.... oh, hmm...I wonder if that tastes good..." then he'd pick something up and give it a taste, then spy something else and he'd amble over, taste it and very shortly he totally forgot why he came. Maybe they've got ADD. What it means is I've got to get a surplus US Marine turkey baster and get to work.

Now that I'm actually checking my tank out on a regular basis, I'm finding all sorts of cool things. I think I found two very small hitch hiker crabs. Not hermits, but very small and very pale. They don't seem to do much but sit in a hole in the live rock and look for passer by's to eat.

Any rate, my water is still coming into nomial range so I can spend a few nights blastin' 'pods. I'll just get a flashlight and a sixer of beer and get to work. All in all, it sounds kinda fun.
 
Sugar Magnolia

Sugar Magnolia

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you are too dang funny phischy.

hey before you put the next pod to death, snap a pic of it so we can get a verdict from the jury as to whether they are indeed the murderous blood sucking variety.
 
Phischy

Phischy

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Will do. They're itty bitty boogers so I'll have to try. My camera doesn't like macro photography super well, you really have to see their beady little evil eyes. I swear they glow red when the lights are off.

I'll get to work on it tomorrow. I just realized I need two Turkey Blaster setups, one for the tank and one for my homebrew! I'm bottling this weekend, woot! Maybe I'll make an "Evil Isopod Ale" next. People will never know what it is!
 
Phischy

Phischy

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The 'pod may drink my beer! I'm not sharing my beer with any lowely scavanging bug! Not when they won't leave my tank when I ask nicely, no sir, I'm not giving those bugs my beer!
 
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