A little about tidepool species in tropical tanks

[irshprncsk]

Just wanted to share my experience with collected tidepool species in my tropical tank. Over the last year I have slowly added different species in an attempt to study which can survive and thrive in a tropical temperature. Here is a list of species I have tried and the outcomes:

Aggregating Anemone - successful and prolific, divides frequently, feeds on frozen commercial foods

Giant Green Anemone - unsuccessful due to size of specimen - very small, inadequate lighting conditions - returned to area of collection.

Proliferating Anemone - successful and prolific, more colorful than aggregating anemone, same care.

Hairy Hermit Crab - unsuccessful - outcompeted and predated by tropical hermits (Blue left-hand, scarlet reef, halloween)

Kelp Crab - successful, feeds on commercial dried algae and frozen foods, grows well, changes color according to surroundings and type of algae consumed. May also eat tropical algaes - witnessed eating sawtooth caleurpa and halimeda. Great characters that love to be hand-fed.

Porcelain Crab - successful, feeds on commercial frozen plankton (cyclopeze, rotifers), needs protection from predators, especially wrasses.

Keyhole Limpet - varied success dependent on ease of collection, otherwise performs well in tank, feeds on diatoms. Likes the inside of my skimmer.

Purple Shore Crab - successful only if allowed to exit water. Must have a very secure lid. Feeds on commercial frozen foods.

California Mussel - unsuccessful - usually predated by other inhabitants.

Oregon Triton - unsuccessful - predated by other inhabitants.

Sand Shrimp - unsuccessful - predated by other inhabitants.

Black Tegula - very successful, same species sold in shops as Mexican Black Turbos or Margaritas. Many have barnacles attached that normally survive in the tank and are quite happy to be transported into food-rich areas. Feeds on diatoms, green algae, and cyanobacteria. Manage to keep in the tank for two weeks and they'll stop trying to escape.

Rockweed - successful but usually predated by tropical snails.

Surfgrass - unsuccessful, difficult to root.

Branching Coralline - unsuccessful in my tank, but may do well with better lighting and high calcium levels.

Acorn Barnacles - successful, often predated by other inhabitants, especially wrasses. Feeds on phytoplankton, cyclopeze, rotifers, other commercial planktons.

Emarginate Dogwinkle - unsuccessful, predated by other inhabitants.

Checkered Periwinkle - successful, feeds on diatoms, green algae. Will escape! Likes the inside of my skimmer.

This is one of my first posts, so please give comments.

Kat

[vanz]

WELCOME!

 

Great first post. Do you have any pictures of your specimens?

[Nyles]

Thanks for sharing the info, glad to see some more locals aboard.

[tidalsculpin]

I picked up some of that branching corraline on my recent trip. It is beautiful. What are your lighting/ tank conditions? Interested. I'm keeping some of these animals in coldwaters.

[irshprncsk]

My tank:

16 gallon bow

Seachem black aragonite substrate (2.5"), about 15 pounds of live rock

Filtration: Prizm skimmer with Aquaclear surface skimmer attachment. I put rubble in the final chamber of the skimmer to increase biofiltration. Also has an Aquaclear 50 with double biomedia and no carbon.

Lighting: Coralife Aqualight 96w 50/50 compact fluorescents, little blue moonlight

Average temperature is about 76-78F

I'll try to get a few pics, especially of the kelp crab (he's the coolest so far ) One of the proliferating anemones recently took residence on a scarlet hermit and has successfully t'd the crab off by sticking to everything he touches and slowing him down. I also found one of the keyhole limpets that has at least tripled in size since I got him. And I'll try to get one of the black tegula covered in little live barnacles.

[DChemist]

I'd love to see some photos of the anemones.

[reef165]

how long is the aclimation? how long have they been in the tropical environment?

[irshprncsk]

Acclimation was 2 hours floating with 1 hour drip. The anemones have been in the tank for about 6 months and the snails and crabs since the second week of January.

[AquaticEngineer]

Thats awesome!!! I did a 60 gallon coldwater marine a while back with a home made chiller from a flip top freezer and a crap ton of vinyl tubing that had aluminum coil molded into the vinyl. It was super sweet. I made the refugium out of a 12 gallon eclipse tank and literally took a big square out of winchester bay on the sand flats where the sea grass was and planted it in the fuge.

 

It worked great until my roomate moved out and I got poor and had to move in with my g/f.(flame)

 

I told myself that I would have another one someday, and you my friend have inspired me(clap) I think I'm gonna do a mirror system of the 12g Nano I just setup, but with coldwater species.

[irshprncsk]

Some fantastic news for those of us with hair algae - my little Kelp Crab started mowing a large patch in my tank last night and has knocked out two whole patches! He is so awesome. Here's an article on kelp crabs (I love this site):http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?fotogID=991&curPageNum=19&recnum=SC0034

I'll post pics of him next. I got a few today.

[irshprncsk]

Here are some pics - sorry, I only have a Canon Powershot A75 so this is as good as it gets.

 

Infamous awesome kelp crab:

 

 

(eating caleurpa)

 

Aggregating Anemones - started as 2 individuals:

 

 

Proliferating Anemones - one still hasn't found a permanent point of residence:

 

 

Black Tegula with mini barnacles:

 

 

Hope these are ok. That's the best I can do.

[Sixty-five]

How sweet is this?!? Very! Very very! More photos (including a full tank shot), updates, please.

 

How are you collecting? Do you need permits? What's the deal on this?

 

Edit: Never mind -- found it on tank thread.

[JManrow]

From what I see in your photos, the anemones pictured are not Proliferating Anemones (Epiactis prolifera) http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=Epiactis_prolifera , but rather Aggregating Anemones (Anthopleura elegantissima) that have expelled their zooxanthellae http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=anthopleura_elegantissima .

 

Has the Kelp Crab (Pugettia producta) shown any signs of a molt or growth in your tank?

[irshprncsk]

First answer - yes, the kelp crab has shed twice since I got him. He has about doubled in size.

 

Second answer - the only reason I thought they were proliferating anemones was because they looked very different from the aggregating. I do not have a key and only have pictures to go from. As for shedding zooxanthellae, they really haven't changed color since I collected them and I've never seen them shed it. It could be my camera with the poor settings. I have to adjust the exposure really low in order to get the pics to look close to normal. They eat shrimp like crazy.

 

When I found the kelp crab he was dark maroon with three big white spots. Now he is brownish green with only the remnants of the spots. I am feeding dried green algae so the color change was expected. It would be interesting to get some dried red algae and see if he changes back. His carapace is only the size of my thumbnail.

[illcssd]

Did you get the kelp crab off our coast? And if you did, i wonder if it eats bryopsis. If so i need about 20 of them lol.

Did you need a permit to collect this stuff, or is it just secret agent style?

[irshprncsk]

I can't remember the exact location I picked him up - I was stopping a lot along the coast that day - but yes, he was from somewhere between Florence and Yachats. Since he is listed in the OR regulations I am covered by my shellfish permit. I'm still not clear on the regs for other "isms" yet - am I supposed to have a permit to collect one anemone? These are in unrestricted areas, mind you. And I did read the 07 fishing regulations. Clear as mud.

Oh, and as I said in an earlier post, he's mowed my patches of hair algae (bryopsis). It's his next favorite to the dried seaweed. I offer him meaty items about once a week but he is really much more interested in algae (which is strange, because from what I've read the young specimens are more omnivorous). If they all have appetites like his then we should inundate the market with these algae machines!

[illcssd]

One very special and important client at the store is having a terrible problem with bryopsis. He can pull out 10-20 pounds every two weeks. There is no end in site. He has done alot for our shop and i really want to help him. Guess where i am going sun...To the beach.

[fish.freak]

I am quite frankly surprised at your results, I would have assumed that the organisms would have been too adapted to cold water. Guess they were adapted to changes in temp and salinity due to being intertidal organisms.

[JManrow]

I am quite frankly surprised at your results' date=' I would have assumed that the organisms would have been too adapted to cold water. Guess they were adapted to changes in temp and salinity due to being intertidal organisms.[/quote']

 

If you look at what organisms were successfully kept in the first post of this thread, you will notice the success rate is very low.

 

The Kelp Crab and Black Tegula snail http://www.gastropods.com/6/Shell_2406.html ranges from The Pacific Northwest to Baja California (Northern Mexico).

 

Aggregating Anemones, limpets, and Periwinkles are found in the high tide zone and are exposed to air and full sun many hours of the day.

 

The remaining majority of organisms are listed as unsuccessfully kept by irshprncsk.

 

The result of this experiment shows that unless the organism is exposed to higher temperatures part of the day or a given species range of distribution extends to near-tropical regions, they are best kept as close to natural temperatures as possible.