40 Gallons with a few Soft Corals

[SonOfaGoat]

What a cool progression with the tank. The Duncan's are looking great. Those yellow mushrooms bring such a nice contrast, im going to have to keep my eye out for some of those. I wonder if your softy the sad looking stretched out toadstool is getting too much light? It's slowly shrunk down, could be chemical warfare as well with your big leather.

 

[EricR]

What a cool progression with the tank. The Duncan's are looking great. Those yellow mushrooms bring such a nice contrast, im going to have to keep my eye out for some of those. I wonder if your softy the sad looking stretched out toadstool is getting too much light? It's slowly shrunk down, could be chemical warfare as well with your big leather.

The one leather I had (on the left side of the left rock) eventually just got smothered by the tree (sinularia/Kenya/whatever) coral that got way too big before I finally trimmed it. Oh well...

 

[EricR]

I had posted back in 10/2024 about my clownfish biting the tentacles off of my duncan:
Clownfish Biting Tentacles off of Duncan

I think it was just the clown's way of trying to get used to being hosted by the duncan, which was probably too small at the time.

Now that the duncan is just big enough, the clown finally uses it as a fun hangout:
*no anemones in the tank so next best thing I guess

 

[EricR]

My Banggai cardinal died unexpectedly.
Had him for about 3.5 years so not sure if that's about expected captive lifespan or not.
Was perfectly fine late one evening but swimming sideways and upside-down the next morning.
Died that day,,, didn't see any signs of trauma, disease, or anything like that. (Other fish are fine and haven't added ANYTHING to the tank in ages).

Bummer...

 

[EricR]

I had another massive micro brittlestar spawning event,,, which happens from time to time.

Came downstairs to see my tank beyond cloudy and started to panic,,, until I figured out what was going on.

Tons everywhere spawning,,, pictures don't really capture it well but here's a few anyway:

 

[EricR]

The next day after the micro brittlestar spawning event,,, there were still a few out and about.

Here's a few "monkeys in a tree" that I thought looked cool:

 

[EricR]

Just a couple of pictures of my duncan coral (my favorite coral that I have):

 

[Tahoe61]

Just a couple of pictures of my duncan coral (my favorite coral that I have):

Sure looks like a happy and healthy Duncan.

 

[EricR]

Haven't taken any full tank shots in a long time so...

This is last month (January) before my Banggai cardinal died unexpectedly:

Here's current from last weekend:

 

[EricR]

Decrepit toadstool -- this thing has had a bit of a rough life and never took off (growth) like I had hoped but is still somehow alive:

It was just laying, unmounted, in a box with other scrap corals at my LFS when I got it 2.5+ years ago for $5:
- perked right up in my tank and got it to grab onto a frag plug
- started growing a bit but the head never really got full/wide like I hoped
- over its time in my tank it's been carried off by urchin, FORGOTTEN for long periods of time, remounted a couple of times, shaded by my tree coral,,, etc, etc, etc.

It's not ever going to be a centerpiece but it gets an "A" for resilience so keeping a spot for it.

 

[EricR]

Urchin has been carrying around a patch of GSP for months -- pretty sure he's dropped it a couple of times and then picked it back up a few days later (or found another),,, but still.

I found a picture from 12/2025 when I first saw him carrying one around,,, so almost 6 months? I guess he likes it:

 

[EricR]

Nothing exciting but:
- urchin yanked off another chunk of GSP (from back wall, I assume) so is carrying two now.
- one of my wave makers died so picked up another one cheap on ebay.
--> with the new one and cleaning my other one, tree coral is flatter and branches stretching horizontally -- not great since that thing is already taking up too much room but we'll see how it goes.

 

[vlangel]

Nothing exciting but:
- urchin yanked off another chunk of GSP (from back wall, I assume) so is carrying two now.
- one of my wave makers died so picked up another one cheap on ebay.
--> with the new one and cleaning my other one, tree coral is flatter and branches stretching horizontally -- not great since that thing is already taking up too much room but we'll see how it goes.

It sure looks cool even if it is taking up a lot of real estate!

 

[EricR]

My skunk cleaner shrimp that I'd had for just over 2 years disappeared about a week ago. No idea what happened.

New shrimp in 10G QT now is TINY.
Picked up 4 XL nassarius snails as well -- these suckers are huge but I guess I didn't take any pictures yet.

I keep some extra live rock at the back of my tank for when I want to setup invert QT. Lots of micro brittle stars in the rocks came out and started spawning when I moved the rock to QT:

 

[EricR]

Here's a couple pictures of one of the XL nassarius snails I have in QT.
I hope these things are safe and not predatory.
They look and act like the smaller Nassarius Vibex (I think) that I've had for a long time so hoping for the best.

The only odd thing I've noticed:
They don't seem to go after Masstick but my smaller nassarius go crazy, immediately for the stuff,,, so that's odd but not sure if it means anything.

 

[EricR]

After seeing a really cool microscopy thread on here, I broke out my digital microscope that I haven't used in probably a couple of years, to try to image some copepods.

My last post in the microscopy thread is here:
Copepod under microscope

...just for me to remember, here's one image:

 

[vlangel]

After seeing a really cool microscopy thread on here, I broke out my digital microscope that I haven't used in probably a couple of years, to try to image some copepods.

My last post in the microscopy thread is here:
Copepod under microscope

...just for me to remember, here's one image:

It looks prehistoric!

 

[EricR]

Coolest shrimp molt ever!
*2nd molt for my tiny skunk cleaner shrimp in QT

The flow from HOB filter is making it look like it's alive:

*don't feel like dealing with YouTube right now so hopefully the video attachment just works

 

[EricR]

My sister-in-law got me a HomiQ aquarium camera that sticks to the tank for my birthday last month.

It works well for video monitoring of the tank when away.
*still pictures aren't the greatest, especially on fish in motion, but not what I use it for anyway

I have limited mounting options as:

• left side of tank would’ve been ideal but is too close to nook wall to fit
• right side (where it is now) has stuff mounted inside the tank so had to mount it kinda low for unobstructed view

I was previously using a cheapie webcam that I got on Amazon during some sale for like $12 a couple of years ago.

That one had remote aiming so that was nice but, other than that, I like the HomiQ better

 

[EricR]

Dr. Reef's Quarantined Fish order showed up yesterday.
Ordered one Carpenter's flasher wrasse (and some inverts) but had said "Yes" to question on form about accepting additional livestock so he sent me two. (Cool -- but I maybe should've thought more about that before saying "yes" on the form).

In very large acclimation box in main tank right now:
*iPhone having trouble with focus but oh well