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Felicia's 30 Gallon Seahorse Tank - Seahorses have arrived!!!

Ok, so in tank news...I just scored an awesome coral! Although it may look like a gorgonian, its not. Its a spiral wire coral (cirrhipathes sp.) and is part of the group of black corals, which are the corals they use to make black coral jewelry. Turns out they're pretty rare in the aquarium hobby and I got an awesome deal on this one, which is 12" tall, for only $36. They're NPS corals, so they have to be target fed. Apparently they will eat whole mysis shrimp, so I can just give it some shrimp when I feed the seahorses. They'll also eat phytoplankton, cyclopeeze, and ova. Hopefully it does well for me since its such a unique uncommon coral! This will definitely be going into DBTC as soon as I need to frag it! In other news, my titanium grounding probe and moon lights came today. The grounding probe is installed in one of the back chambers, and should eliminate any stray voltage that could stress the seahorses. I have one of these on my main tank as well and think they're great, cheap piece-of-mind. The blue LEDs are perfect as moonlights. They are just an 18" strip of blue LEDs incased in waterproof clear plastic. They have an adhesive back, so I just had to peel off the backing and stick them right onto the bottom of the PC light fixture. They seem to be about the perfect intensity for moon lights. Now I can watch this tank from bed if I'm up late and the lights are already out :)
 
Whew! I just spent an hour and a half acclimating and getting everything into the frag tank. My goodness! I couldn't do it all at once with the little tank, so I had to do shifts by sensitivity: fish first, inverts second, etc. Everything is in the tank and every single thing arrived alive and in great shape! I am so amazed that everything was so great when I opened the boxes. I figured with this much stuff, I'd have at least a casualty or two. Luckily the worst stuff was one starfish lost 2 legs, but is still alive and a freebie gorg from KPA has a bit of tissue loss at the tips, but still looks good overall. I am so happy right now :happydance:

I have NEVER bought that many tank inhabitants at once. It was literally like Christmas morning opening my two big boxes of goodies. I am in such a good mood right now! Aquarium high! :lol:

Ok, let me start with my KP Aquatics order. I would just like to say that they are my absolute favorite online retailer! They manage to impress me even more with every order. Seriously guys! Order from them! Everything was packaged so well and everything arrived in amazing shape. My two jawfish were the first things I located in the box and man were they alert and spunky. They were ready to get the heck out of their bags :lol: I then located my receipt and KPA writes on there what freebies they sent in the box. They sent me not one, not two, but 10 freebies! Granted, some of those were extra snails and hermits, but they also sent me a free "nano" purple feather gorg, a free starfish, an extra smaller red tree sponge (ordered a large one and got a big one and a little one), and a second red ball sponge (ordered one and got 2)! Also, their gorgonians are sooo much bigger than I expected. They are huge compared to the ones I've been getting locally. Also, the sponges are soooo brightly colored and my red tree sponge is huge! The frag tank is packed and the color pop in there is amazing right now and the lights aren't even on! Also, KPA has the most amazing prices. $200 for all that including the overnight shipping! Anyways, point being, awesome order from KPA. Sorry to ramble.

Ok, now to saltwaterfish.com. That order was also very professionally packed and all the fish were alive and looking good when I opened the box. I haven't seen the neon gobies since they went into the frag tank (all the KPA stuff has made it a forest of hiding spots in there!), but I've been watching the tiny clown gobies hop around and they seem to be doing well. I also received 20 nassarius snails, 40 empty coralline-covered hermit shells (20 of these are for Brandie!), a St. Thomas mushroom, 2 8 oz. bottles of AlgaGen Tisbe pods, and a bottle of phytoplankton for the pods. Everything was what I expected and overall a great order. I can't wait for the lights to come on so the St. Thomas mushroom will open up. It looks like it will be green and blue but its hard to tell. It looks like it will be super pretty.

Finally, I just have to tell you guys, these jawfish are THE COOLEST FISH EVER! Why did I not get one before this?! I was a bit worried when I opened the box because they were in separate bags. I wasn't sure how the mated pair would do with being separated like that, but as soon as I added them to the tank, they made it very clear they are a pair. Watching them together is like watching a little old married couple :lol: They spent like 5 minutes sitting in the open checking out their surroundings and then promptly selected a spot and got to work on a home. The two of them are going at it with the burrowing right now. Amazing fish! Also, they're a bit bigger than I expected but they look so healthy and pretty. Their colors are gorgeous!
 
It's like Christmas morning! :happydance: Notice, the official box inspector is hard at work. So many freebies! This should get my fuge going! These two are awesome! This was just a moment after adding them to the tank. They sat there for a few moments to get their bearings and now they are building a home. Pile of snails! Lights aren't on, but you can see how packed the frag tank is. You can also see the color pop from the sponges and gorgs without the lights on. I can't wait to see how they look when the lights come on.
 
Wow, looks great!! Early Xmas.
Keep a close eye on the Ammonia levels. Only 2 fish, but could be a little die off here and there that adds up.
I think people avoid jawfish because of the deep sand bed requirement. Otherwise seem like really neat fish.
 
rygh said:
Wow, looks great!! Early Xmas.
Keep a close eye on the Ammonia levels. Only 2 fish, but could be a little die off here and there that adds up.
I think people avoid jawfish because of the deep sand bed requirement. Otherwise seem like really neat fish.
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Yeah, opening those boxes was a lot of fun! I will definitely be monitoring the ammonia and doing frequent water changes because there are actually 6 fish in there. Granted 4 of them are teeny tiny (2 clown gobies and 2 neon gobies) but its a bit of a bioload for that tank. I've got some macro algae in there to help and its only a short term holding place until the new tank is finish cycling. I've got 2-3 inches in the new tank, which is what most people recommend for the yellowhead jawfish. I know several people with yellowhead jawfish and they are not nearly as difficult to keep as bluespots. It seems like once the yellowhead jawfish are settled in, then they are pretty hardy fish.
 
A few more photos for everyone. These aren't very good, but I have to be stealthy and quick to not startle the new fish.

The jawfish couple in their burrow. They actually buried a frag of my frogspawn with the sand they kicked out of their burrow and I had to rescue it.


You can just make out the citron goby in the red grape.


The yellow neon goby. You can just barely make out the blue one to the left and behind the yellow one. He's on the bottom behind the eggcrate and to the right of the sponge. These two are actually staying close to each other for the most part. They're a pretty cute little couple too :)


The green clown goby.


The colors! They are so much brighter in person. They POP from across the room




My new St. Thomas mushroom. Its still PO'd but starting to inflate. It looks like it going to be a nice blue/teal with lighter bubbles.


My freebie purple feather gorg. Its the one that missing a bit of flesh.


My large purple plume gorgonian. Its huge!


Yellow sea whip, yellow sea feather, and spiny orange sea rod. These are the regular sized gorgs that KPA sells!


Loving the colors!


The yellow leather.


One of the new hermits climbing on a gorg.


The Halloween hermit crab would like to know why his tank is being taken over by little hermit crabs :lol:


And because its shark week...
 
Here's a fun video of some of the new fish. The yellow neon goby kept getting too close to the jawfish burrow and so one of the jawfish kept spitting sand at the neon. Then the green clown goby joined in the fun.
 
And a few photos I took today:

They're so cute!
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Yellow Neon Goby
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Green Clown Goby
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Keyhole Limpet
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The gorgonians have polyp extension today.
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I love the new mushie
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So a few updates on what I've got going on with this tank.

a) I tested the water last night and the ammonia is down to between 0 and 0.25 ppm so I think the cycle is almost over. I still have never seen any nitrites, but the nitrates are at 5 ppm.

b ) I fed the fish in the QT tank last night with food soaked in Garlic Xtreme and Beta Glucan to help boost their immune systems and to help them fight off any parasite they might be carrying before they go into the seahorse tank. They definitely went pretty crazy over the garlic soaked food. I bought the Beta Glucan off of Amazon. Its a supplement thats in gel capsule form, so I just had to pull open the capsules and pour out the powder inside. I just added a small pinch of the powder to the food and let that soak for like 15 minutes. Here's a great article on Advanced Aquarist about the benefits of Beta Glucan:
http://www.advanceda...003/9/aafeature

c) Unfortunately, the power compact fixture on the seahorse tank was heating the water up to much. My goal is to keep the water in that tank between 73 and 75 F but the light was keeping the water at a minimum of 76 and even heating it as high as 78F. That's too high for the seahorses, so last night I added two cooling fans to the back rim of the tank. I just used some sticky velcro to stick the fans on the back rim so that they blow right under the light fixture to disperse the heat. I plugged the fans into the same timer as the light, so they kick on when the light does. The light has been on all day and the water temperature is holding at a steady 73 F, which is what the heater controller is set for.

Here's a photo of the fans:
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And the heater controller, showing they're working!
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The inside of the stand has sooooo many cords! The bucket is the ATO freshwater reservoir.
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And some fun fish photos:
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I wish they'd let me get a better photo of them. They're still scared of the camera.
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Looking good!! Can't wait until the cycle's all over!

LoL, I love love love love love the jawfish! All Denzil ever hears now after I look at your posts are "I can't wait until I can order from KP aquatics" LoL. They are so cute!
 
goldielocke76 said:
Looking good!! Can't wait until the cycle's all over!

LoL, I love love love love love the jawfish! All Denzil ever hears now after I look at your posts are "I can't wait until I can order from KP aquatics" LoL. They are so cute!
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I can't wait for the cycle to finish either! I'm having cyano issues in the frag tank and its getting all over the sponges and gorgs. I've been manually removing it, but its getting old. I'm ready to get the corals into the seahorse tank and away from the cyano. I honestly have no idea why the frag tank constantly has such cyano issues. I use all RO/DI water in there and I do frequent water changes. I would just use some Red Slime Remover, but I read that it can kill sponges. Not sure if that's true, but I'm not going to risk it.

Hehe, glad to hear I've got you so obsessed with the jawfish. I'm pretty obsessed myself. I'm constantly checking on them and seeing what they're up to.

Btw, thanks so much for the beta glucan suggestion. I don't know if you saw the article I posted but it seems like adding it to food is a pretty great idea. Luckily they don't seem to mind the taste or it, or its probably masked by the Garlic Xtreme.
 
Did you check your numbers coming out of the RODI machine? When's the last time you replaced the "insides?" LoL, other than that, I'm not sure why you're having such an issue = /

I came across that article myself after reading up on the beta glucan after Jim suggested it :) it's just been so long I didn't think to link it to you after I told you about it, hehe. Glad that I was able to help in some small way.. just passing it along after Jim, with all his saintly patience for all my questions, helped me out. :)
 
goldielocke76 said:
Did you check your numbers coming out of the RODI machine? When's the last time you replaced the "insides?" LoL, other than that, I'm not sure why you're having such an issue = /

I came across that article myself after reading up on the beta glucan after Jim suggested it :) it's just been so long I didn't think to link it to you after I told you about it, hehe. Glad that I was able to help in some small way.. just passing it along after Jim, with all his saintly patience for all my questions, helped me out. :)
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I haven't tested the RO/DI because the unit itself is only a few months old and I don't make all that much water so there's no way any of the filters or membranes could be exhausted already. I'll test it sometime soon though just to double check. Although, if that was the issue the main tank would have problems and the main tank doesn't have any issues with cyano or hair algae. Whereas I did a 90% water change and scrubbed everything in the frag tank before I got the new stuff and within days there is cyano and hair algae everywhere. I really don't know what the difference is in there. So weird. Oh well, that tank is coming down after I finish using it as a holding tank for this new build.

Well thank you for passing the knowledge along. Its a great idea for boosting the immune system of new fish. I'm going to periodically feed the seahorses beta glucan when I get them to keep their immune systems healthy and hopefully prevent diseases.
 
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