My other hobby, even more beautiful than Orchids

[Tindomul]

Nice Tunicates!! And nice hobby. I could never do that. Thanks for sharing.

[Jeffery]

[QUOTE=King_of_orchid_growing;300293]Cool, cool.

A while back, I have seen Cat's Eye Tunicates (Clavelina sp.) for sale. These are colonial tunicates with an indigo body and a greenish-yellow ring around the cavities. They were around $35. But the problem was I kept reading how they don't last long in captivity and that there're no reliable bits of information on their long term care.

I've had many little tiny tunicates grow all over the place from time to time, but they just don't live very long. They definitely won't last long if you've got Centropyge spp. ("pygmy" saltwater angelfish) in there.

Same goes for hydroids or hydrozoans. I've even had tiny jellyfish floating around in the tank (they get lost in a large tank though). One time, I noticed a very colorful free swimming worm. It's pretty neat.

The hitchhikers that invariably make it in the long run are the fan/tubeworms. I'm not talking about the giant Hawaiian tubeworms you can buy individually. It's the tiny calcareous tube building ones that proliferate all over the place (not the Christmas Tree Worms either unfortunately, their symbiosis with Porites spp. is way too tight). Then there're the tiny bristleworms, isopods, and amphipods. Of course there are the little transluscent reddish-brown flatworms that can reach plague proportions if left unchecked and can cause problems. Rarely would I find a chiton.

Now that I think of it...the colonial encrusting sea squirts tend to live longer lives than the colonial or solitary sac-like sea squirts do.

Sponges last very long too, provided they're not exposed to air or choked out by algae.

Reef tanks are full of life. I'd love to have one again, but it's just not the right time for it right now. [/QUOTE

I think the Tunicates are a lot like a Carnation Tree Coral's for requirements, which are very difficult to maintain, because of lighting requirements, which is low and specialized feeding, could be why I found them on the back side of rocks.
I love the tubeworms as small as they are, the color are so brillant on em, unlike your duster worms.
I had a serious investation when my reef was coral only and no fish, I had bristleworms, isopods, and amphipods by the 1000's, so enter my purple firefish goby and mandarin goby and pecula clown, they ate the heck out of the isopods and amphipods, for the bristleworms, I bought 6 traps for them, it worked quite well, another pest was those glass anemones, so I invested is a bunch of peppermint shrimp, they took care of the probleam, and later I got the tang to keep some plants in check.
I tried the Christmas Tree worms once and didn't have much luck with them, this reef was my 3rd attempt at the hobby, my first 2 failed miserably and I killed lots of animals and lost well over $1000, but I was thrilled to finally get it right, the reef is now over 4 years old.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Nice!

If I do it over again, I'd honestly only grow a couple SPS species, 3 at the most in one tank. And I'd just keep a small group of fairy wrasses.

I've found that it was impossible to "collect" a whole bunch of different species.

Acropora can secrete toxins as growth inhibitors towards nearby corals. These toxins can travel in the water and really disrupt the growth of or kill nearby competing Acropora corals.

Biochemical warfare is very real in a reef tank even if you can't see it happening. Unfortunately, I didn't quite understand this well enough.

If you really love Christmas Tree Worms, here's how to keep them alive...

You gotta make sure the Porites coral it grows on/in is alive and healthy. The worms have a very close relationship with Porites spp. (Boulder Corals). It might be that it partially feeds on the mucus of the Porites coral it grows with.

If the Boulder Coral is dead or dying, the Christmas Tree Worms won't be far behind.

I really wish they'd stop collecting Dendronephthya spp. for the hobby. They're just impossible for any aquarist to keep/grow. Scleronephthya are just as difficult and frustrating.

Dendronephthya spp. are highly specialized feeders from what I've read. Not only are they filter feeders, they only catch phytoplankton that's within a certain range of sizes. Everything that's too large, the polyps will ignore. Anything too small will pass through the tentacles. And they might be picky about the type of phytoplankton they feed on as well. From what I understand, there have been studies that show that they are able to detect their prey biochemically not just physically. Then there's the whole thing where they eat a lot! This is the real kicker...the water flowing through the branches has to be just right or the currents that pass through will not efficiently carry their prey to them and wash their waste products away.

Knowing this, it's just not worth the trouble.

Anyways...

I hope your tank continues to do well. It's a very neat hobby, but it's also very expensive and needs very careful planning.

[Jeffery]

I have to agree on your comment about the Dendronephthya spp. I am sure your talking about the Carnation Coral, they have to be the most beautiful of the Corals and your right, its pointless to keep collecting them, I have never heard from other reefers of keeping them alive in there tanks for any length of time and these days so many of Corals we buy are all aquacultured and not collected from the wild reefs unlike the carnation corals.
The one small SPS Coral in the right side of my tank is a blue Acropora Coral I got as a frag, it keeps falling over..hahaha, I need to get some poxy or something and glue that sucker to a rock.
When I had the Christmas tree worms it was in my 1st attempt, could be why it died, cus everything died.
Check this out, last week I found on E-bay, someone from Lancaster, CA had up for bid a 120 gallon tank, I can't remember all it included, but had a 60 gallon sump, some type of canistor filter, skimmer, the hood had the metal halides, 4 fans for cooling in the canopy, 160lbs of live rock, many many corals, live sand of course, and the high bid was only $460, thats what it sold for, I wanted to bid $600 on it, my wife said hell no, we can't afford it, I told her the the life stock alone in that tank was worth over a $1000, the lighting system and the filter system each was worth more than the starting bid at $400, there has to been over $3000 worth of stuff there and it went for $460, boy was I angry at her when I seen that sell for $460, a once in a life time thing.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Yes, Dendronepthya = Carnation Corals. Scleronephthya are very close relatives.

You're going to hate me for this, but I'd agree with your wife.

One was enough for me when I was into this hobby.

Think about it this way, you also don't know what condition the livestock would arrive to you.

Then there's space and time, do you have enough for two?

I'd just concentrate on growing your SPS corals to massive proportions. They can quickly double in size in a year depending on the species.

Just my .

It was an awesome deal though!

[Jeffery]

Look at this one on ebay right now, current high bid is $476, its a 100 Gallon.

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Yes, Dendronepthya = Carnation Corals. Scleronephthya are very close relatives.

You're going to hate me for this, but I'd agree with your wife.

One was enough for me when I was into this hobby.

Think about it this way, you also don't know what condition the livestock would arrive to you.

Then there's space and time, do you have enough for two?

I'd just concentrate on growing your SPS corals to massive proportions. They can quickly double in size in a year depending on the species.

Just my .

It was an awesome deal though!

Will it was for pick up only and I don't think Lancastor is to far from Glendale, I sure would have exchanged a 120 for a 75 any day... hahaha!! with only 160lbs of rock in a 120 gallon there was still lots of room for more rock, I would have emptied the 75 in to the 120 and what didn't fit I would just got rid of... it sure would have been a great up grade from my 75.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Jeffery

Look at this one on ebay right now, current high bid is $476, its a 100 Gallon.

Wow...

This is crazy. That Colt Coral or Finger Leather, (not sure which it is from the pic size), would've been roughly a 1/4 the amount of the current bid price alone!

I can't believe it!

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Wow...

This is crazy. That Colt Coral or Finger Leather, (not sure which it is from the pic size), would've been roughly a 1/4 the amount of the current bid price alone!

I can't believe it!

Yea!! ain't that something, very healthy tank, my wife hates when I check out reef tanks on ebay, I start dreaming...hahaha. check this one out, another 100 gallon, a little more though at current bid $700

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Unbelievable, the halide system alone would cost roughly $700! One of those fixtures with 2 double-ended HQI MH's with 4 actinics or something, can't really make out what they are.

It's a nice set up.

Quite similar to the way a natural reef is constructed.

Naturally, the back barrier reefs are full of low to the sand, coral rock islands with a few corals scattered about, with a few coral colonies that are nicely established.

Some of these islands are very small. Others are very large.

In a lush coral community, there is a diversity of fish, but the population is sparse group wise (what I mean is that there are only maybe a handful of different species around a coral island but the numbers in a group/school are fairly good sized, probably about a dozen or more individuals per schooling species).

I was in the Caribbean islands and went snorkeling to observe a natural reef. The tank that's going for $700, looks very close to what I saw out there.