[zhenya]

Woke up this morning to find my Caulerpa serrulata going sexual
AGAIN Could hardly see through but I quickly tore out all that I could get to and disposed of it.Changed some carbon in the bag and will do some w/change later on.
Here's a pic of what it looked like...second time in two weeks I have to deal with this. I had big plans for this morning to do some cleaning in my 75 and its the 110 that will take all the time I have this day

[Ninong]

Gene,

Did you notice any gametangia building up on the underside of the thalli prior to it sporulating? That would be a clue to remove it.

I believe one of my Neomeris annulata may have gone sexual yesterday. At least it looked like it was as it was turning white all the way up to the top, not just the lower part that is calcified on the outside. Anyway, it's no longer there, so either it went sexual and broke up or Primus decided to eat it. There are only five or six of these in the tank and so far Primus has not shown any interest in snacking on them. He did finish off all of the red Gracilaria that had grown from a little piece that came in one of the shipping bags from Hawaii.

[zhenya]

Hi Ninong,

It is very hard to see anything with this Caulerpa for the reason of its location in the tank. I did prune some of it very recently after the first event. I am sure the signal were there but I just did not see it
Now I have to run some tests and see what exactly had been released back into the water column. I'm sure there is PO4 and NO3 and such...water change again...

Originally Posted by Ninong

I believe one of my Neomeris annulata may have gone sexual yesterday. At least it looked like it was as it was turning white all the way up to the top, not just the lower part that is calcified on the outside. Anyway, it's no longer there, so either it went sexual and broke up or Primus decided to eat it. There are only five or six of these in the tank and so far Primus has not shown any interest in snacking on them. He did finish off all of the red Gracilaria that had grown from a little piece that came in one of the shipping bags from Hawaii.

I had a good size clump of Halimeda growing from out of nowhere about 3-4 month ago and then one day it started to turn white and I just yanked it out. I thing your Neomeris algae might've done the same thing,like you said. I really don't think that Primus would eat it before all of the Gracilaria were gone. I believe you can get some more if you need it,one guy on RC I know is selling it for sure.
Are you thinking of getting Primus some company anytime ? If yes,who?
PS. Found a pic of the Halimeda. It was a beautiful algae to watch growing unlike this invasive serrulata menace.

[Ninong]

Check out this link: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~edrew...alsex.htm#ejac

The gametangia start forming the day before the alga goes sexual. It usually releases its gametangia just before dawn the morning following formation.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Are you thinking of getting Primus some company anytime ? If yes,who?

Sure, I think about it all the time. Some of the fish that I would like to introduce early on are potential jumpers and I haven't really done anything yet to guard against that possibility. I realize that many hobbyists, especially in Europe, have open top tanks with no extra protection but I'm worried that if I get any firefish I will find them on the floor the next morning; and I wouldn't even dream of getting a flasher wrasse until I decide what I need to do to make the top more jumper proof.

I don't know what's next up on the agenda. Many of the fish that I might be interested in are not available locally and I am hesitant to order online. If necessary, I would rather ask one of the LFS around here to order something for me in their next regular shipment. One of the LFS has access to all of O.R.A.'s captive bred species, so that's a plus if I'm ever in the market for clownfish or dottybacks or T. maxima clams.

I just checked my water parameters a few minutes ago in anticipation that I might decide to vist one of the LFS this afternoon. They usually get their shipments on Tuesday mornings. The tank is still not ready for SPS yet but it can support softies and LPS if I see anything I really like. This morning's numbers were: pH 8.1, salinity 35 ppt, ammonia undectable, nitrite 0.05 ppm and nitrate 25 ppm. I'm still overfeeding the sand bed a little. I don't think I should attempt any SPS frags until I can get the nitrates down to 10 ppm or less. I did get a reading of 10 ppm once last week but most of the time it is closer to 25 ppm.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Check out this link: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~edrew...alsex.htm#ejac

The gametangia start forming the day before the alga goes sexual. It usually releases its gametangia just before dawn the morning following formation.

Thank you,Ninong,for the link. Quite spectacular video as well there
My Halimeda never had a chance to go sexual as I removed it fast enough before it had a chance. When I noticed that the plant started to turn white on some part of it I simply removed it. The pic that I posted was of a plant many weeks before I removed it from the tank. The plant leterally appear out of nowhere.At first I thought I had Neomeris starting to grow but few weeks later it was clear that it was Halimeda sp. Last night I did not pay close enough attention to the Caulerpa,if I did perhaps I might've noticed the build up of gametangia. Funy thing is,I came down early enough this morning to see my actinics go on and there was nothing going on in the tank but fish begining to graze and interact. When metal halides came on (9am) I was not there to see anything but came down again at around 10am and witnessed latest part of the release.Water was cloudy already and I started to change carbon and took of silencer off of my skimmer to increase air intake.I usually have piece of cotton in there to make my bekett quiet. I did get to watch for about 2 minutes or so before finally starting to run about like a chicken without its head



FWIW, Ninong, I never had my NO3 in the 110g bellow 10ppm,ever...and all the frags that I got from people were growing just fine in there.The purple tips remained perple and green acropora did not turn brown,if it wasn't for the beasty bta I would still have some of the SPS in there. I'm not saying that you should jump in and get some,just sharing some observation from my experience with them.I do agree that NO3 should be bellow 10 and maybe even bellow 5ppm for SPS but your DSB should bring you there soon enough.

Post pic if you get anything,please.

[zhenya]

Well, the tank had cleared up and so far the tests did not show any increase in PO4 or NO3. However, I'll do water change regardless later on tonight when aeration of new water is complete.
I was able to take a pic of one of my snails sporting Aiptasia on its shell
looking at the pic I'm not sure how I can remove it from there without hurting the snail. It's getting more and more complicated with restarting this tank,do I keep snail like that or what to do with it?

Ninong, if I take this snail out of the water and it withdraws,could I perhaps scrape those Aiptasias off with a razor blade?What do you think,is it worth a try?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Ninong, if I take this snail out of the water and it withdraws,could I perhaps scrape those Aiptasias off with a razor blade?What do you think,is it worth a try?

I don't know. It looks like the Aiptasia has it's stem inside the shell??? Weird! Reminds me of the movie, Alien.

I wonder if it would be possible to inject a little boiling water into the Aiptasia without hurting the snail?

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I don't know. It looks like the Aiptasia has it's stem inside the shell??? Weird! Reminds me of the movie, Alien.

I wonder if it would be possible to inject a little boiling water into the Aiptasia without hurting the snail?

Thanks for your reply,Ninong.
Alien indeed. I'll try to do something in the morning with a better light.I'm not quite sure what I'll do becouse snails are so sencitive to salinity changes I'm afraid to try any fresh water,but then again it could be for a very breef moment.I'll post results when I'm done.
On another note,from all our talking about coralline algae I ended up scraping everything in my 110g tank and I think I like it

Will post pic of that in the morning.
How was your trip to the LFS?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Thanks for your reply,Ninong.
Alien indeed. I'll try to do something in the morning with a better light.

I hope you have better luck than Sigorney Weaver. Of course if she had killed the Alien then there wouldn't have been an Alien II and an Alien III.

I'm not quite sure what I'll do becouse snails are so sencitive to salinity changes I'm afraid to try any fresh water,but then again it could be for a very breef moment.

Why don't you just remove the snail in a small Tupperware container with tank water and inject the Alien with boiling saltwater in a syringe while the snail is still in the Tupperware container? Just don't over do it.

How was your trip to the LFS?

Interesting.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Interesting.

Well,well... do tell. Was there anything tempting?

I'll try the topperware trick and post what happens,Thanks!

Originally Posted by Ninong

I hope you have better luck than Sigorney Weaver. Of course if she had killed the Alien then there wouldn't have been an Alien II and an Alien III.

You're right about that...there wouldn't be anymore Alien movies.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Well,well... do tell. Was there anything tempting?

I'll post pics in my tank thread tomorrow or the next day. The digital camera's not working right now, I think it needs a new battery or something.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I'll post pics in my tank thread tomorrow or the next day. The digital camera's not working right now, I think it needs a new battery or something.

Oh sure, blame it on a poor camera

I can wait though, sometimes it's really worth it

[almostdiva]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Oh sure, blame it on a poor camera

I can wait though, sometimes it's really worth it

DITTO! The suspens is killing me.

That snail IS weird, Gene! I like Ninong's idea though. Should work (I hate those pesky things!). Hopefully you won't have to shave off all your hair to battle the Alien like Sigourney did, either!

Your shot of the tank cleared up is fabulous, by the way.

Rebecca

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by almostdiva

DITTO! The suspens is killing me.

That snail IS weird, Gene! I like Ninong's idea though. Should work (I hate those pesky things!). Hopefully you won't have to shave off all your hair to battle the Alien like Sigourney did, either!

Your shot of the tank cleared up is fabulous, by the way.

Rebecca

Hi Rebecca,

Do not worry,Ninong always comes through Also,I'll try to keep all my hair on my head,I think I can beat that Alien without shaving.

Ninong,

As promissed,here's the shot of the tank with glass scraped clean off of coralline. I think you can even see my Gigas in there now(scraped clean as well ) Hopefully I can get to the back wall when I break this tank down.I think I'm going to steal your rock support structure design and arrange my rock so I have access to the back wall at all times.
Could not do anything about the snail this morning as I had to leave early and just got back from driving my wife to do SHOPPING
As you can imagine this is one of my favorite things to do in life

[lovesalt]

C'mon Gene, SHOPPING isn't that bad, though my husband would never go with me

Your tank looks really great. My rockwork was rearranged so that I have much more room in the back. I really like the look of it and my fish can swim all the way around.

My surviving bta has decided to stake out a spot in the back, hopefully he will eventually decide to move closer to the front.

Have a great day.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by lovesalt

C'mon Gene, SHOPPING isn't that bad, though my husband would never go with me

You're right,April,especially when you know exactly what you want to buy that particular day Seriuosly,I don't mind really and my wife can count on me to carry all the shopping bags anytime
Thanks for the compliment on my tank but it is "going down I tell ya" I hope you noticed all the lovely Aiptasias in there that I need to get rid of and changing my sand bed and new sump is a MUST.

I hope your bta moves to the front as feeding it in the back might proove to be a hustle. Adding a space behind the rock structure is something that Ninong made me aware of and I'll definately implement this in the new aquascape. The only problem arises when you take in account that my tank is only 18" deep and the only solution I see is adding good size DSB,refugium and use less rock.Something to work on while I'm down the shore next week.
Here's some pic of the mushrooms I've found after ripping out some of the Caulerpa out. It could be a Rodactis or some other variety.I remember having something like those couple of years back but I traded them back to the lFS(I thought all of them )

[lovesalt]

Gene

Those are very pretty mushrooms. Let me know if you want to get rid of them!!!
I don't really have to feed my bta, as my pair of maroon clowns do it for me.

Good luck with the tank.

Take care

[mrok12]

Originally Posted by lovesalt

Gene

Those are very pretty mushrooms. Let me know if you want to get rid of them!!!
I don't really have to feed my bta, as my pair of maroon clowns do it for me.

Good luck with the tank.

Take care

Good luck with that. You will over come it.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by mrok12

Good luck with that. You will over come it.

Thanks,Mike. I hope it will go smooth.

April,

I'll definately try to get rid of them and would love to send them to you but shipping cost to Washington for two polyps is just way too much