War Coral - Nighttime Photography

When the lights go out on the reef tank, all hell breaks loose with the War Coral! There are numerous feeder tentacles waiting for nighttime creatures to accidentally brush against them. I can't image what the sting might feel like on my fingers.

You can even see that the War Coral is attacking the Coralline Algae at the base. It's most likely clearing a space for future expansion of the colony.

I used the camera's built-in flash to capture this nighttime image.

Here's a daytime, close-up image of the War Coral's "peacetime" look.

Emerald Crab on Red Goniopora

Last night, I took this flash photo of an Emerald Crab on the red Goniopora.

It's artsy fartsy, no?

Ocellaris

An Ocellaris clownfish staring back at the invasive macro lens.

Non-emerald Emerald Crab

I just bought this non-emerald Emerald Crab (Mithrax sculptus) at AquaticWarehouse (AW). For acclimation, I decided to just equilibrate the temperature and chunk it into the main tank. I think crabs seem to be less sensitive to water changes. It immediately went to work picking at algae on the rock work.

Tank-Raised Banggai Cardinal 4 Sale

This tank-raised baby Banggai Cardinal measures about 1.5 inches and popped out of its daddy's mouth about 7 months ago. I fed it baby brine shrimp (BBS) for a while, but now it exists solely on whatever it can find swimming about in the refugium. I'm putting it up for sale since I've got a new batch of Banggai's to manage.

Here's a comparison of the two different generations. The new generation has about 9 surviving members last time I counted. About 5 others didn't survive the transition because I handled them harshly or they were somehow maimed on their way out of the main tank to the sump.

I think the older sibling is being tempted by their bite-size-ness.

SPS-eating Fish

I had a frag of a three-headed Hammer Coral fall and land between the Orange Montipora digitata and the ORA Green Bird's Nest corals. It wasn't more than 24 hours contact time, so I thought there would be a little bit of loss. Over the course of a week, however, I noticed that the corals kept loosing more and more tissue. The white skeleton underneath kept getting more and more exposed!

After careful observation, I noticed that my Pygmy Angels, especially the Coral Beauty, were picking only at the weakened tissue. Given more time, I think the fish will just work their way around the entire colony. Then, I noticed the Coral Beauty picking at the new SPS frags that I just transferred over.

I've decided to ask around for a fish trap on the hobbyist boards because I'm not going to be very successful trying to grow SPS frags with the Pygmy Angels always on the hunt.

Banggai Batch No. 6?

I've lost count on how many times my Banggai Cardinal pair have released batches of babies. With the first batch, I was able to rear one fish. After that, they seemed to have been eaten by the mother or the Timor Wrasse (a suspect which is no longer present). Today, so far, five brave fish left their daddy to take a gulp of air for their air bladders. As they did so, they either got swept away and ended up in the sump, or I netted them. One was just getting comfortable around a Frogspawn coral where two Ocellaris Clowns reside. Two of them were injured because they got caught in the filter sock. And, one of them died instantly; I must have squashed it during the rescue attempt. There are several more babies still waiting to come out, but I hope they do it on my watch. Otherwise, they may easily become fish food for the larger fish in my reef tank.

Here's one of the babies that I've moved to the refugium. They seem a little more mature this time around.