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Aptasia Death, by peppermint shrimp


obrien.david.j

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Victim(s) 5, Sixth Morning (Sunday)

  • I'm claiming success again! (again)
  • All visible aptasia are gone.  Caveat, history has shown there are still a few lurkers hidden down in the rocks that take a few more days to ferret out.   But nothing visually interesting.

The next step is to clean the last four rocks from the main tank

  • But, they are taller than my 10" frag tank and have the bulk of SPS on them.
  • My solution, I need to pull rocks out of the frag tank, and I'll set a taller glass tank temporarily side.
  • A small pump up/into the glass tank will create an infinity look as I let it overflow the rim back into the frag tank.
  • Needless to say, this may take a couple of days to get going.
    • Before the cleaned rocks can go back into the display tank - I want to glue them into some kind of rigid structure.  That's where the time is going to go.

 

Today's interesting photo - Feeding the shrimp with this many aptasia, in a tank with zero other preditors and generally low flow rates - almost all the shrimp look like "This". (pregnant with eggs)

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Today's documentation.

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Phase 2 of this project has begun!

Frag tank only has ~10" water depth.  Remaining four display tank rocks are > 10" tall, and have SPS on them.

Solution, set a 20g long tank Into the frag tank.  Pump water up into it, let it overflow back - kind of like an infinity pool.  

  • Step 1 - Catch all shrimp.  24 of original 26 remain.
  • Step 2 - get 20g tank situated
  • Step 3 - drop in first rock.

 

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Victim 6, First Morning (Tues Eve / Wednesday morning)

  • Step 3 - drop in first rock
  • Shrimp have no other place to go, so they're swarming all over this rock

 

Tank is Barely dep enough for the peak SPS.

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Top Down looks pretty interesting.

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First Morning, Aptasia are more open/comfortable.    Ready to be munched.

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Victim 6,  Second Morning (Thursday)

  • What's more fun than a barrel of monkeys?   
  • A tank full of 24 peppermint shrimp, and no where to go than a single aptasia infested rock!
  • They've been busy already.   Open aptasia are no longer visible, and this is just Day 2.
  • I circled multiple gut piles, obviously work in progress

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Multiple Aptasia gut piles.   Works in progress.  IMG_4283.jpg

 

 

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21 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

Phase 2 of this project has begun!

Frag tank only has ~10" water depth.  Remaining four display tank rocks are > 10" tall, and have SPS on them.

Solution, set a 20g long tank Into the frag tank.  Pump water up into it, let it overflow back - kind of like an infinity pool.  

Brilliant!  Now I want an Infinity Pool tank in my Reefer XL 425. 🤣

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Victim 7,  First Morning (Monday), and Immediately after adding (Sunday ~noon)

  • Returning V6 to the display tank did not go perfectly yesterday.  I set it on a flat try to drip, and it tipped over.  Yes, snap goes a few SPS including the big blue one.   guess I'll glue up some frags. 
  • V7 was transported with much more caution.   It shows aptasia much better tops down.
  • I'm including photos immediately after adding, and first morning.  Look at tops down, it's obvious the shrimp have Swarmed this piece already!

Immediately after adding:

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The First Morning.  Check out this top down comparison.   Dramatic reduction, and lots of gut piles already.

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Victim 7,  Second Morning (Tuesday)

  • Gut piles everywhere.
  • Top down viewing is awesome.   Doesn't hurt that what I'm looking at is 1-3" under the surface, close
  • For a while I was adding amphipods weekly.   They are now regularly in my filter socks.   Today, they were all over the aptasia rock. 

 

  • For your viewing pleasure, I offer:  Polyp extension, Guts, and an Amphipod
    (Manually restart this video from the beginning.)

 

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Victim 7,  Third Morning (Weds)

  • Active munching continues.
  • Gut piles (strings in the current) continue to be visible.  
  • But, I can also see smaller Aptasia slightly hidden behind some SPS sticks.   May have to leave this rock in longer than 5 days.   Let the shrimp each their fill of easy stuff, digest it, get hungry again, and get them into scour the rocks mode.

In case anyone doesn't know what a gut pile/stringy mess looks like.

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Victim 8,  First Morning (Monday)

  • Biggest Rock, with largest colonies on it is now being swarmed by "The Shrimp!"   
  • (this is 2nd to last rock)
  • Including a nice shot of Tigers Blood? (came from Jeff @CuttleFishandCoral)
    • Besides killing aptasia.  I'm enjoying getting to see certain corals Much Closer in the shrimp tank.

Front View

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Tops Down

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Tigers Blood (?) - Thanks @CuttleFishandCoral

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Oregon Tort (thanks @shaywood)  and Frogspawn.   This is another problem for another thread.  These things have stopped opening up.   They used to be Huge.   Here, and two other locations, including my frag tank.  So different lighting, different flow, and some wo/target feeding and some w/target feeding.   Another challenge for another day.

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a

2 hours ago, SuncrestReef said:

Good job moving that large rock without breaking off any corals!  I'm sure that wasn't a fun exercise.

Thanks.   There's about an inch of room to spare.   It was tight!

40 minutes ago, shaywood said:

Nice color on the tort 😀

It has colored up nicely.  I think it's become a deeper blue in the past two months.   Lighting, Flow... Or because I've been on the Reef Moonshine program since beginning of Nov.  

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Victim 8,  Second Morning (Tuesday)

  • The shrimp have been Active!
    • A big aptasia I saw last night is either Gone or Guts only this morning.
    • Some are still visible, checkout yellow circle as an example
  • A number of emerald crabs are also on this rock - and one is clearly visible this am.   (2nd yellow circle)

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SPECIAL DAY!

Victim 8,  Fourth Morning (Thurs) 

Victim 9, First Morning (Thurs) <-- Last Rock needing cleaning!

  • History has shown each rock needs a few more days after the last Aptasia is no longer visible.  Victim 8 stays in the shrimp tank.
  • Milestone day, Last Rock from the display tank needing cleaning Also Fits in the shrimp tank.
  • Moved Victim 9 in ~7pm last night.  By ~7am this morning, two main gut piles are already visible!
  • Approx one week from now, this exercise will sunset.  

 

Victim 9 - The Last Rock

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Victim 8, looking clean

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Victim 8,  Sixth Morning (Sat) <-- nothing visible going on

Victim 9, Third Morning (Sat) <-- Last Rock needing cleaning!

  • Cockroaches!
  • It's amazing how many shrimp are on each rock when I sneak into the tank room and turn on the lights to take these morning pictures.   But they're as fast as cockroaches scurrying away from the light.
  • Today I snapped a pict as fast as I could.  Managed to catch four of them.  There was easily twice that many at first.
  • You can see them at the bottom, after climbing down and on their way back into the shadows.

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Victim 8,  Ninth Morning (Tues) 

Victim 9, Sixth Morning (Tues) 

  • No pictures for a few days, because nothing was visible.
  • Based on prior learnings, leave the rocks in the tank a few days after last visible Aptasia.  Let the Shrimp Scour!
  • Today == SURPRISE!  There's a big one Hiding!

This is the Ninth Morning for Victim rock 8 with the shrimp.  Using a flashlight, I found a mature Aptasia down deep at the base of the Red Planet acro.    What do you do, hit it with Reef Delete!

9 days with >20 hungry shrimp, and they still hide in the deeper cracks.  Grr

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