New additions - photo intense (dial-up beware!)

[addict]

Well, over the past couple of days, we've added some new stuff for our reef, so I thought I'd share.

The first batch of stuff we ordered through coralfanatics.com, a great little site that has some nice stuff.

Then we decided to finally take the LFS tour of Sacramento, CA that we've always talked about, but never actually got around to, since the kids were spending the night with grandma.

We visited about 8 LFS in the Sacramento area, and our favorites were "O" St. Aquarium, Capitol Aquarium, Paradise Aquarium (all in Sacramento), and Aqua Life (in Rocklin).

Anway, enough banter... here's the pics.

Acanthastrea lordhowensis
I've wanted one of these ever since seeing the first one Luis posted here oh so long ago... it's not a whole colony, but a 14-polyp frag will do me just fine. I got this one at Paradise Aquarium.

Acanthastrea lordhowensis
Got this one at Paradise Aquarium too... it's a bright orange/green morph that glows like crazy under actinic lighting.
Paradise Aquarium looks like a little hole-in-the wall shop, but the owner has a direct connection to somebody that flies to Indonesia to hand-pick all his specimens, then he goes over and hand-picks from that lot. Really nice stuff.

Acropora aculeus
This is the famous "Blue Bomber" aculeus from coralfanatics.com. I was pretty sad when my first frag (which had grown into a small colony) rtn'd and died, so I decided to give it another go. This guy is about 1-1/2" tall.

Hymenocera picta
A pair of Harlequin Shrimp... I just had to copy Woodstock, since these little guys are so darn cool.
I got these at Aqua Life in Rocklin.
You can kinda seem them in the cave sharing a linkia leg... we're going to arrange something with the LFS to get us some chocolate chip stars on a regular basis, and we're going to try our hand also at linkia regeneration (i.e. trimming a leg and then letting it grow back). It was pretty unnerving watching the linkia leg crawl around on it's own for a while before the shrimp decided to eat it. :columbo:
I also made sure that we got both male and female, though I think they're different species. The female has purple tips on her swimmerets (under her belly), and the male's are clear... though at this time the female is about twice the male's size... she's a big momma!

Ricordia florida
Just some common Florida ricordia, though in green and blue morphs. Nothing too spectacular. Got these from coralfanatics.com

Tridacna maxima
Just your common, ordinary, everyday Teardrop Maxima.
We got this guy at Capitol Aquarium, and it's about 4-1/2".
You can kinda see the irradiance on it's mantle, but it's kind of an orangish-purple... really cool.

The next shots are just some zoanthid colonies I got, so I'll just post the photos and where I got them.

Got these guys at Capitol Aquarium

Got these from coralfanatics.com

Also from coralfanatics.com

Third time's the charm... also from coralfanatics.com

We also added in a couple of 1/2" Randall's pistols, since we lost two of them as we were redoing the tank, and our Yasha Haze looked a bit lonely without his shrimp (the other gobies claimed the remaining two).

We went a little bit crazy, but everything is really small, except for the Maxima, so I don't think their will be any sort of undue change on the bioload... plus our tank is pretty bare at the moment, so there's plenty of extra capacity.

I ran a battery of water quality tests this morning, just to make sure everything is in line, and all appears to check out good, though my calcium may be a little low... my two test kits disagreed on the exact level... one said low and the other normal (350-400ppm). I'm topping off with kalk though, so I'm not too worried about it.

I also ordered new lighting the other night. I'm taking out the dual 400w and dual 250w halide systems, and going to a T5/HQI combo.
I'll have eight 36" 39w T5's (6 actinic/2 11K Aquablue) and a single 250w DE 10K HQI mini pendant on an ARO electronic ballast... which should help cut down dramatically on electricity consumption... the last 140 kwH on my electric bill cost me about $.33/kwH, since I was over 300% of baseline usage. :bugout:
Plus my bulb replacement costs will be halved (at least)... right now it's about $350/yr to replace the four bulbs (two Ushio 20K 400w and two Ushio 10K 250w), and it'll only be about $250 every 18 months with the new setup.

Anyway, I gotta get runnin for now.

 

[Woodstock]

Very nice additions! Nice harlequins too! Good luck with that 'leg harvesting' thing; I tried to feed mine like that at first but I got soooo horribly disgusted Now I just toss a whole starfish in the tank.

 

[addict]

Thanks Doni!

Yeah, I agree in the disgusted part... luckily I don't have to use a razor blade to cut a leg off, since I have some poultry scissors that do the job.

But still, the sound of cutting a starfish is one that sticks with you.

 

[Woodstock]

/me shivers~~ ughhhh.. I still remeber it... I have poultry sheers too but the sound was like... yuck! I was amazed at how hard their legs are! Especially the chocolate chip stars!

 

[blue_eyes53813]

Very nice pictures and additions... Ohhh the poor starfish,, the shrimp are cute though..

 

[cheeks69]

Wow some awesome additions David !
Love the Teardrop it looks spectacular

 

[addict]

Thanks blue_eyes and Robert.

It was nice being able to choose from such a wide variety of critters... this way we were able to pick out the best of what we saw (well, within our price range of course). We only have two LFS up here where I am, and they mostly get the common stuff like mushrooms, leathers, crocea clams, etc.

I'm sure we could've spent a lot more, but we had to moderate ourselves.

The teardrop is also probably my most favorite new addition... they seem to sell out really fast whenever they come into clamsdirect, and we never see them otherwise... I guess our local market is just too small for any of the LFS to get any of the exotics.

I'll see if I can get any better photos of the shrimp. They were out for a little bit this morning, but once the fish got active they sought refuge inside a little cave and are kinda hard to photograph. I assume that once they get used to being in their new surroundings I'll see them more often.

 

[Witfull]

I assume that once they get used to being in their new surroundings I'll see them more often.

or when ever you drop a CC star into the tank~

 

[addict]

Ah, so then they're like my cat.

The only time I see that thing is when it gets fed too.

 

[Woodstock]

Exactly! LOL.. If mine are out walking around, I know they are hunting and need to be fed

 

[addict]

Cool, thanks for the heads-up Doni.

Well, I spotted the male peeking out from their cave this morning, so I grabbed the camera and was able to get a fairly decent shot of it.

This one has burgundy colored spots, and the female has blue spots, which leads me to believe that they're different species... they seem to get along fine though, and are constantly together eating, so I think things are going well.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a shot of both of them together soon... as it was, the female was just behind the male on the other side of the rock (you can kinda make out her fuzzy outline next to his left eye), but she wasn't up for posing before she had her morning coffee.

 

[Woodstock]

Nice photo! Cute little bugger I have found that my female is much more shy than the male.. maybe it a defense response to protect the eggs she is carrying....

 

[addict]

Thanks Doni.

Well... momma shrimp must've heard me typing, because as soon as I posted, I went back over to the tank and she was out.

You can see the difference in coloration, and can kinda make out the linkia leg she's still dragging along with her.

And here's a shot of the two of them together...

My son is already calling them 'karate' shrimp, because of the way they move their front claws to scare away critters that get too inquisitive.

 

[cheeks69]

Those shrimp are very cool !

 

[Witfull]

excellent pics and additons

 

[addict]

Thanks Robert.
Thanks Dave.

I agree that they're cool little guys... they're going to be a bit on the expensive side to feed (unless the regeneration thing pans out), but I think it's worth it to have an unusual species. Luckily we don't have any other decorative stars in the tank, just a couple of straggling asterina's that we couldn't find when we were cleaning everything up.

It's pretty nice actually being excited about my reef again... for the longest time I was considering just tearing it down from disgust, but of course, I jumped back in headfirst instead.

 

[livingreef2004]

great stuff!!!! glad to see another harlequin lover. i recently lost my larger of the pair and want to replace it maybe you or woodstock can help me. was the larger of the pair the male or female and how can i tell the differance in sex when i go to get a replacement?
its just depressing to see the little one wonder around the tank like its looking for its mate

 

[addict]

An easy way to tell whether or not a Harlequin is male or female, is look at it's little feet (that I call 'swimmerets') under it's belly. A female will have blue or purple tips on these appendages, while the male's will be yellowish or clear (with no color on the tips).

The fun part is having the guy at the LFS flip them over so you can see.

You'd probably have to catch your current Harlequin too so you can determine it's sex, so then you can make sure to get the correct counterpart.

Normally, the female is the larger of the two (like most marine species).

Hope that helps.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

I just love those harlequins, what do you feed them as I believe their primary diet is starfish? Do you throw in a chocolate chip or brittlestar every so often?

Ditto on the fabulous additions and great photography!

 

[addict]

So far I've just been tossing in leggo de' linkia while I gauge just how much they're going to eat.

We bought a couple of brown linkia's and I just snip off a leg and place it out on the rock in front of their cave... usually it doesn't take them too long to figure out it's there and come out in hunting mode.

Usually they prey on linkia, but will eat chocolate chip stars without any problem... which is good since those are about half the price.

Thanks for the compliment Craig, it's much appreciated.