Tank turned 41 years old

[Paul B]

Those fish seem fine for that tank, you can even add a few more. Royal grammas hide a lot and in the sea I have seen them very deep, over 120' and usually in cave overhangs.
The yellow watchmans also are not open water swimmers but stay in a protected area near some rocks. Only your clowns and angel will really be swimming around much.
You can also add one or two Bangai cardinals which whii swim in the open more and they have a striking black design on them.

This guy is very young

This is what they become

Rainsford gobies are nice but you need a little algae for them

These guys are always out

 

[mullinsd2]

Why do the gobies get darker over time (lol is it just because hes turning into an old man, or does it happen fairl early)? I had the Bangaii's recommended to me once before already, and I am really thinking about getting a 2 of them and just one clown. Seems llike everyone has 2 clowns! Hopefully the clown will host with one of the corals, and that can be his little tank mate.

 

[Paul B]

Why do the gobies get darker over time (lol is it just because hes turning into an old man,

I am becomming an old man and I am turning lighter

Mine started out yellow like that and when they started to turn brown, it happened in a few weeks. It's just what it is

 

[mullinsd2]

Well, maybe I will go with a different goby. What about the diamond one?

 

[Paul B]

Diamond gobies are fine. It's just your personal taste. I like all sorts of gobies.

 

[Paul B]

I have five or six very large mojanos which were all living on the same rock. They have recently started to migrate off the rock to other places which they are forbidden to do

They think I don't notice because they move a little each night, now all but one is off the rock which they have been on for over a year.
I was born at night, but not last night.

I gave them a stern talking to and if they are not back where they are supposed to be in a few days, they will be in my mojano eradication experiments.

I already stopped their meals of fish eggs.

This is their baby pictures

 

[Myteemouse]

About to spot feed my corals with salmon eggs right now!!
My dendros love them..
As do my candy canes..
Thanks for the input PAUL!!
very good food..

 

[Paul B]

I may start eating the stuff myself

 

[Myteemouse]

I would if they didn't smell so bad and have that sticky texture.
BBBLLLAAAGGUU (that was me pukeing)

 

[Paul B]

I did have a plate of raw oysters last night at my marina but I stop at Salmon eggs which have the consistancy of Elmers Glue

 

[Paul B]

I just did one of the things that I love to do which I have mentioned before. I removed a bottle that I have not emptied in years and dumped it out in a flask to check out what is living in there. It is an entire eco system. There was a nice strand of seaweed growing right in the center like a mineature garden or bonsai tree. The thing was just teeming with pods, worms and all sorts of other cool little things. This to me is what makes this hobby so interesting. I sometimes get more excited to watch this stuff than my fish.
I had to do some work on the tank because I have a small auto feeder mainly for the hippo tang that puts a few flakes and pellets in the tank in case I don't show up for a couple of days.
I heard the thing cycle and the surface of the water was covered with flakes. The top came off the feeder and about a can of flakes went into the tank. I skimmed a lot of it out but the rest sunk so I had to get out the diatom filter and do a thorough cleaning. As I was doing that I found the coral that I had been looking for that my urchin transported into a cave. It seems fine.
I also did a little aquascaping to re position all the rocks the urchin moved and to re pile anything that had fell.
I also have a problem with corals toppling onto each other so I fixed most of that problem. I also added a few very pregnant grass shrimp. The fish will enjoy that. Tomorrow I will collect some more of those which seem larger this year for some reason.
They are all around my boat along with zillions of amphipods.
That all goes intio the tank.
Have a great day, whats left to it.

 

[Paul B]

Today was an interesting day of boating and collecting. I went to my usual place at low tide, the tide pool goes under a road and on the other side there is a lake that spills over these 20' long walls ibnto this tide pool. At high tide the lake is almost the same height as the sea.
Anyway these walls are about 4 or 5' high with freshwater spilling over into the salt water. The walls look like they are made of barnacles. There are no cement patches, it is all barnacles. As I was checking them out as I always do I noticed the walls loked like they were crawling with something. At first I thought it was just the barnacles which a lot of it was (I didn't have my reading glasses on) Then I noticed it was tiny creatures, different from any amphipods I have ever seen, and I have seen more amphipods then most people, believe me.
These things look like tiny trillobites about 3/16" long. There were billions of them.
I collected a bunch along with sheets of barnacles to put in my reef. I know the barnacles will not live more than a month but I am curious about these "pods". Wierd.
I also collected a few hermit crabs for my local tank.
We tried to get some blue claw crabs for dinner but all we got were two, so we let them go. One of them was the largest blue claw I have ever seen.
I am going back tomorrow then tuesday it is the south shore for tropicals.

Barnacles

NY hermits

 

[Paul B]

Here is a picture of the box fish we collected a few days ago. It is in my un lit, un filtered Long Island Sound tank which has raw NSW in it which is kind of green. I took the picture through a jewelers loupe but the fish never stops and is only a half inch long, the glass is also filthy. It is just an experimental tank so I don't go crazy on it.

 

[Myteemouse]

he's cute!

 

[Paul B]

New pictures of locally collected stuff. I just love this 1/2" boxfish or burrfish.

And of course these guys

 

[jhampton_wsu]

I'd like to hear more about you're local Long Island tank. What temp is the NSW where you collect it? How often do you change the water?

 

[Paul B]

I change the water with old water from my reef or I collect some when I go collecting. I only have a 14 watt light on the tank and a tiny HOB filter for circulation. The nitrate must be very high.
There are some snails, shrimp and two types of crabs along with local pipefish, wrasses, barnacles, anemones, butterflies and that puffer.
This tank has been running for decades and I don't really do anything to it.
It is not even aquascaped, it is just a place for animals that I can't put in my reef

 

[Paul B]

Here is some stuff I collected today along with a million pipefish which I returned to the sea, another million blowfish, which I also returned and a load of trumpet fish, needle fish, and wrasses.
We also collected five gallons of spearing, to eat. Me not the fish.
This picture was taken in my local tank where there is a regular light bulb so everything is yellow. The water also was just poured in right from the sea so it is turbid. The fish really have yellow and black stripes.

 

[Paul B]

Coral eating a Salmon egg

 

[Paul B]

Now this is a very cool picture of the fish corner of my workshop.
The big blue thing hanging is the RO/DI water tank. It is high because it siphons to the tank above the ceiling about 30' away.
You can just make out the acrylic DI resins to the left of the blue bucket. There is a homemade float switch in the bucket which shuts off the electric valve to the RO.
The 15 gallon tank is filled with tropical and some local critters I collected in the Atlantic including a few butterflies and that boxfish/puffer/burfish whatever it is.
The long thin horizontal white thing is my new worm keeper which I just built 10 minutes ago. It is the Mother of all worm keepers. The small worm keeper is the acrylic one below it. On the 15 gallon tank is the black and yellow brine shrimp hatchery.

Yes, I know, everything is very neat just like the pictures many of you guys post

:lol: