Captain’s Quarters (16G, 16G, 50G)

[Kensington Reefer]

And the ricordia, is the population increasing on their own, or do you keep getting more of them?
How many did you start with, and how long did it take to get to the current number?

 

[DaddyHook]

@Kensington Reefer I no longer purchase them unless it’s something I don’t have in the tank. Once the clowns started displaying their mating behavior I increased feeding for the system and lowered the salinity from 1.026 to 1.024. That was late June before the first clutch was laid. In the last 2 months since the increase in feeding and the extra meal of baby clowns the Ricordea have become expansive. I’ve pulled about 10 or so baby Ricordea in the past 2 months and have a few more in hard to get to spots, that are being shaded out.

I initially purchased a couple at a time after the tank cycle and would add a few at a time. Here is a picture of the the early ugly stages.

After the tank settled I made 2 large orders for a total of 30 and have added a few here and there. The last purchase I made for this tank were the 2 Bali rainbow Ricordea in the bottom left corner at CFM in March. The last time I counted it it was at 60+ that was Januaryish. I have no idea now.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Many thanks for the info.
Your Ricordia collection is most impressive
You have Ricordea florida only in there from what I can see
a ricordea from Bali would be a Yuma unless they are farming Florida’s over there

 

[DaddyHook]

Many thanks for the info.
Your Ricordia collection is most impressive
You have Ricordea florida only in there from what I can see
a ricordea from Bali would be a Yuma unless they are farming Florida’s over there

Yea definitely a Florida Ricordea. I truly don’t know probably just a miscommunication from the vendor and I was regurgitating it.

 

[DaddyHook]

Just got back last night glass is a mess. Here are a few top down of Pirates Bay.

 

[DaddyHook]

It has begun!!! All cleaned up. Thanks @Srt4eric for the tank!

 

[DaddyHook]

And we’re wet and the scape is up I might go a little bit higher on the right side pillar.

 

[DaddyHook]

Very unfortunate times.

Dagabah is facing a mass casualty event due to a carnivorous pod population that has apparently been dormant for a few months. I’ve lost about 50% of my ricordea population in under a week. I will have a more detailed write up in a few days on how I’m handling this situation.

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” ~ Master Yoda

Very disheartening to say the least, but only part of the hobby. Hopefully I can save the other half.

 

[MolaMola]

Some sort of pods ate your ricordea?! Isopods? I will wait to read your sad tale. Sorry this happened.

 

[DaddyHook]

Some sort of pods ate your ricordea?! Isopods? I will wait to read your sad tale. Sorry this happened.

I’m not sure what species the offending party is. Ive never dealt with this before and I could only find a few occurrences that matched my situation online.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Bummer
You need a bigger box so you can benefit from useful fishes
Sorry to hear, but let’s see the beasts in action

 

[DaddyHook]

Bummer
You need a bigger box so you can benefit from useful fishes
Sorry to hear, but let’s see the beasts in action

Yes something larger once we move. Definitely.

 

[DaddyHook]

The rainbow section on the bottom left sand bed was my first observation of the small pods.

September 14

September 28th

October 1st

I first thought the ricordea was exhibiting normal pedal laceration. The splitting took place much to fast now that I look back. In about a day or two. Once it split it began to cup up towards the light and I noticed a mucus coat surrounding the foot of the ricordea. Within this clear mucus are translucent specs no larger than a grain of sand. After consuming the basal(foot) end first they would then work towards the outer tentacles. Once they consume the tentacles they take on the fluorescent color of the ricordea.

The picture below shows the mucus coat and what looks like small granules of sand. Those are the pods that devoured the ricordea. This is one of the frag plugs left in the remaining sand bed after pulling everything.

It initially started on the sand bed and only affected the one rainbow ricordea. The next day it transitioned to a few others that were adjacent to it. I pulled the affected polyps dipped in coral RX for two(2) minutes followed by a two(2) minute fresh water dip. Placed them back in the tank off the sand bed. I also increased the flow. Increasing the flow was the wrong thing to do as it only help the offenders spread. With each day it continued to get worse. Some develop a brown jelly which I assume is from a bacterial infection due to the trauma from the pest.

This is a photo after they devoured this green ricordea to the left You can see the pods taking on the color of the fluorescent algae.

Here is the aftermath. The 2nd and 3rd picture was a shroom box I dropped about 5 loose ricordea in. They all deteriorated. The cloudy white slime and the remanence of ricordea I dropped in there after a day.

I made the decision to break down the rock and do another round of the dipping method I used above. Followed by a ten(10) minute emersion made up of BA aminos and Oyster feast mixed in salt water.

I then placed them in a hospital tank.

A few continue to wither and show signs of the pest. I dip any that do. At this point I’d say maybe 50% are still looking ok. Some are doing better than others.

I will continue to observe and follow up with any change that occur.

 

[thesassyindian]

Here is a look at the control board. I made the board after all the tanks were up. I couldn’t stand the rats nest that I would have to navigate through every time I needed to do something. My goal behind this board was efficient operation of all equipment. Using the Kasa power strips allows me to individually control each outlet with the touch of a button. Rather than pulling each plug out or having to shut down the entire power bar.


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These are the cable grommets. Made of aluminum, the front flap flips up to pass the cables through.

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Just after routing the holes and installing grommet. Getting ready for tape and paint. I used a piece of 2’ x 4’ x 1/2” birch plywood for the actual board originally it was going to be acrylic but decided on plywood because of cost.

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Painted and mounting hardware installed. Sanded with extra fine grit paper. Primed and painted flat white.

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I color coded the power stripes and Ink bird controllers specific to their tanks. Blue ~ Pirates Bay, Pink ~ Fantasyland, Green ~ Dagabah. The white extension cords are 1‘ with a 360 degree flat swivel plug. Each outlet is labeled. Keeps everything uniform in front. All out to tank cords are then ran through a single piece of braided wire loom to make it look like a single cable running to the tank from behind the control board.


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At the bottom of the control board are my tank data sheets where I track my tanks. They attach to the very bottom via magnets.

I aspire to have a setup as OCD pleasing as @DaddyHook some day.

 

[DaddyHook]

Need to up date this thread. A lot has changed in this build. I’ve also been working on a dual frag tank build.

Here is the control board for it. Not complete but almost.

 

[DaddyHook]

here it is very similar style to my other control board. Tight space so it doesn’t fit as well as I’d like.

 

[svreef]

Looks great!

 

[DaddyHook]

Fantasyland was broken down shortly after grabbing the new Biocube from srt4eric. This new Fantasyland is a Mixed Anemone System.

Does anyone else’s conches put in the work like this?

Livestock
SA Black Midnight Lightning Clown
SA Chocolate Nearly Naked Clown
Orange Back Fairy Wrasse
GBTA
RBTA
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
2 Tiger Conches
Emerald Crab
Various other CUC

 

[Kensington Reefer]

All inverts look very happy…
but I do feel sorry for that wrasse in “small studio apartment“
clownfish do not require the need for space to roam
may they all live long time…

 

[DaddyHook]

All inverts look very happy…
but I do feel sorry for that wrasse in “small studio apartment“
clownfish do not require the need for space to roam
may they all live long time…

That’s a very subjective opinion.