Another log of a Newbie starting out with TBS rock!

[slave-of-rock]

if you get him out would you wanna hand him off to me

[fishonadic]

Ya, you want to keep an eye on the cucumbers if they die they can expel harmful things into your tank and it could wipe alot of your livestock out. You may want to remove them but you don't have to.

[dwculp]

Originally posted by slave-of-rock
if you get him out would you wanna hand him off to me

Nah, I will throw him into my 29 gallon tank and turn it into a mantis tank.

[evolution]

Originally posted by fishonadic
Ya, you want to keep an eye on the cucumbers if they die they can expel harmful things into your tank and it could wipe alot of your livestock out. You may want to remove them but you don't have to.

I would highly recommend removing them. They will starve, and die, and bio-nuke your tank.

Thats the only thing I dont like about these "packages" that sell you CBSs, fourteen cukes, 500 assorted snails and hermits and 30" brittle stars. Start slow and patient and research EVERYTHING before you buy. Dont make the same mistakes I have made *cough*fourstripeddamsels*cough*...

The CBS will eventually eat a fish or two, ditto with brittles. The cukes should never be sold to anyone with a startup system. IMO it is inhumane. I am just now thinking of getting a single tiger tail and my tank is already over a year and a half old. I was told to buy one when I first started and my rock and small batches of sand were well established from a 4 year old system and the cuke still kicked the bucket because the sandbed was not nearly established enough.

Seriously though. You found the right place, use these forums to your advantage, and I wish you many, many, many sidetracked hours with your new reef

OH.... btw, do watch your thumbs with the mantis

[Scuba Oz]

DW

Glad to hear you found the little bugger, hope he is an only child

[dwculp]

Originally posted by Scuba Oz
DW

Glad to hear you found the little bugger, hope he is an only child

I just saw him again! He was staliking a pepermint shrimp!!

[dwculp]

The mantis has been out and about a few tuimes today. I have not tried to capture him. He seems more interested in barnacles than shrimp and crabs. I will put together a trap and begin leaving it overnight starting on Monday.

He is bigger than I originally thought, he is about 2 inches or more in length. Very cool looking animal.

I think I found the type of mantis shrimp, but I am not sure. He does look a LOT like this: http://www.gulfspecimen.org/Mantisshrimp.html

[dwculp]

Wow, Mantis shrimp are not really true shrimp: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/mantis_shrimp.cfm

[vrob]

Oh my goodness!!! I have one of these that keeps lurking out of a hole! I can only see the top part of his body, but it looks like this. I haven't heard any clicking or anything, so I didn't think I had anything to worry about (I guess he's a silent killer). Anyway, I guess I need to get him out before I get the 2nd shipment of my rock and he decides to do some damage. DW, what kind of trap are you going to set?

[dsp78213]

I have three of them in my 55g and they have been in there eating away for 6 months. I had four; one died in the tank; didn't nuke anything.

With the TBS package you get LIVE sand right from the bottom of the ocean and its shipped in water.

It is, perhaps, the best part of the package. The sand comes with tons of life.

JME

Jim

Originally posted by evolution
I would highly recommend removing them. They will starve, and die, and bio-nuke your tank.

. . . . The cukes should never be sold to anyone with a startup system. IMO it is inhumane. I am just now thinking of getting a single tiger tail and my tank is already over a year and a half old. I was told to buy one when I first started and my rock and small batches of sand were well established from a 4 year old system and the cuke still kicked the bucket because the sandbed was not nearly established enough.

[dwculp]

On the TBS site they have a picture of a simple trap.

Basically you take a small drinking water bottle, cut the top off and invert it creating a funnel, put some shrimp inside and place it into the aquarium.

I have heard Richard say the mantis shrimp from TBS are not really that dangerous. Gonna remove him anyways and put him into his own tank, they can get to 8 inches in size. Actually, I heard they are quite tasty also!

[thrlride]

Awesome pics in this thread!

[dsp78213]

I have three still in my tank (one biggie, two babies). They don't bother the fish or the shrimp.

However, they have offed almost all of the barnicles (they would probably die anyway) however, the biggie has started on my snail and blueclaw populations.

Not really that dangerous, but probably better in their own tank.

Jim

Originally posted by dwculp
On the TBS site they have a picture of a simple [url=http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/diy.html" trap.[/url]

Basically you take a small drinking water bottle, cut the top off and invert it creating a funnel, put some shrimp inside and place it into the aquarium.

I have heard Richard say the mantis shrimp from TBS are not really that dangerous. Gonna remove him anyways and put him into his own tank, they can get to 8 inches in size. Actually, I heards they are quite tasty also!

[H2OLUVSME]

check out www.blueboard.com for all your mantis info. also they have a pic gallery, take a look at Neogondactylus Wennerae. they are the most common mantis from the gulf. there are a few other species that you could have recieved, but they are also Neogondactylus and very similar to Wennerae. these stomatapods are highly variable in color, and it depends where they are found. a lot of the TBS Wennys are red or purplish, because of all of the coraline (this is a guess) but you also get a lot of vibrant green ones from the macro algae and kelp beds.

good luck with that little sucker. he will be the favorite if you keep him in the class.

BTW, if you can get a pic of the mantis's meral spots (on the smasher) and the telson (last segment of the tail) Dr. Roy in the mantis forum can get you an exact id very quickly. i believe the Wenny has four pointed pieces at the end of his telson.

landon

[Scuba Oz]

I read the TBS site awhile back, and they show the inverted bottle top as a way to catch them. I also read somewhere on RC that you could inject with a turkey baster lime juice into the hole he hides in and he would come out. (I read this so I dont know if this is safe for the water) and also the same method using hypo-salinity instead of lime juice.

I have no experience hunting this kind of varmin, might want to call Bill Murray from Caddy Shack LOL

When you catch him (I have faith in ya DW) throw us a pic

[dwculp]

Here it is on Saturday, almost exactly one week since putting part two into the tank. As I said in an earlier post the tank parameters were a bit out of whack, well today they seem to be swining back to normal. Glad I followed my own advice and "rode it out"

Temp: 26C
SG: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 2.5 (the lowest it has ever been!)
Nitrite: 0.01
PO4: 0.2
CA: 450

The tank looks great and more and more alive. A co-worker commented that the sand looks like it is "crawling" because of all the stuff in it. Just like part one, I am seeing more and more things on the rock every day.

One of the cucumbers is all over the tank, the other has not moved since I placed him in and I am thinking about removing him. The anemones are doing great although one shruck up last night and is still in that position today. Once again, I will "ride it out" and see what happens.

I do not see the mantis shrimp but I can hear him in there! On Monday I will begin in earnest trying to catch him.

The nitrate level is lower than it has been since I have had the tank. I guessed the color at 2.5ppm but it was probably even lower than that. Probably an indication that the clean up crew is doing its job. One note about the clean up crew, too bad you cannot give them directions!! They really remove algae pretty good, but I wish they would concentrate on the front glass!!! As they are mowing through algae on the back glass I am screaming on the inside at them "HEY!!!! Move to the front you morons!!!"

I have some parents mad at me. Their kids want reef tanks, a parent was floored when I told them my little 40 gallon tank was upwards of $1,300.00 for everything!!

More pics on Monday!

[dwculp]

Oh yeah, one other thing. I have definite coraline algae growth on the power heads and a few spots on the glass!

[Scuba Oz]

1300? Who you BSing Just kidding

Glad to hear that everything is doing well. I forgot, and in a bit of a hurry, but are you using some sort of bio-wheel? Cant remember what you said in the first page, but that might be the culprit, but they are still low even for a bio-wheel. Most people think 10 is low

The parents should thank you, they dont have to spend the money, you did Plus tell them they learn even more for their tax dollars!!!

Doing a great job, We can feel your smile in this thread

[dwculp]

Nope, no bio-wheel, just LR, LS, and a skimmer.

I use bio-wheels on the 2 FO tanks, but not the reef!

[N8C]

Teach -

Keep in mind that if nitrites are present, then nitrate tests can be off slightly (and vice versa). It is possible that your n03 is even lower than indicated.

Still either way, sounds great. Keep the updates coming.

Nate C

[alexchern75]

Hello! I just wanted to thank you for sharing this experience with us! I wish I would have taken notes and pictures of my tank while it was in its infancy so I could compare and learn. The only thing I remember from highschool Oceanography (Miami) is the reef tank that the teacher had set up. Iguess it worked, 11 yrs later my house looks like a fish store

[dwculp]

Water parameters still swinging back to normal:

Temp: 26C
pH: 8.2
SG: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 2.5 (the lowest it has ever been!)
Nitrite: 0.1
PO4: 0.2
CA: 450

I went ahead and started feeding the tank today. I fed the cup corals, brains, anemones, sea stars, etc.....

When I came in today there had been a minor rock slide sometime between Saturday eveneing and this morning. The fish is MIA again and I think it is about time to list him KIA as he is no where!!!

I will transfer the Coral Banded Shrimp from QT to the reef sometime this week.

Speaking of fish, I was going to add the first fish over our Christmas break, close to the new year. This is my fish list:

1 Percula clowns
1 Coral Beauty or Flame angel
1 Royal Gramma
1 Flame Hawk fish

What do you think of the list and which should I add first. I will QT the fish first as I learned a hard and expensive lesson on my 29 gallon FO tank. In fact, it is my QT tank now. I have a Niger Trigger in there now and he just passed the three week mark on Saturday. Once he leaves I can begin to QT another fish or two.

I will try and get some pics up today.

[Scuba Oz]

Gotta love the clown to be number one

No yellow eyed tang on the list

Thought of a mated pair of clowns?

Once that trigger gets in there, good ol mantis better watch his a@*

[dwculp]

Originally posted by Scuba Oz
Gotta love the clown to be number one

Once that trigger gets in there, good ol mantis better watch his a@*

The trigger is going to the 75 gallon, if I put him in the 40 gallon my entire cleanup crew would be in danger!!

[Scuba Oz]

True, plus all the corals would be in danger also. My bad I forgot you said he was going in the 75