A few weeks ago I accidentally brought home a sargassum crab Portunus sayi, with some water from the beach. I had one before, so I knew he needed his own tank. They eat everything. He's in a bucket for now, with a little HOB filter. I got him some sargassum, which slowly died, and he ate it. I just gave him some fresh. He wasn't being photogenic. He swims around a lot.
I've tried growing sargassum in my 16 gallon a couple times, and managed to keep some alive for a couple weeks, but no longer. The stuff we have at the beach is pelagic Sargassum (natans, fluitans). This time I tried collecting a bunch of different samples, and broke all the dark brown stuff off, keeping only the tips. My thought is that with a variety of different samples, some might live. Pickings weren't the best this time. I got it tumbling in the bucket, because when it stays above water it dies. I think that will help. You can see some dying "leaves" from being stuck above water. It's in fresh natural seawater, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphate, etc. I have some nitrate, iron, and Chaeto Grow I can try adding.
Lighting is only an LED daylight light bulb, but I just put an inexpensive purple grow light on it. The little guy might think it's a bit too groovy. I'll work on that. This is low budget.
I would really like to get this growing.
Thanks!
I've tried growing sargassum in my 16 gallon a couple times, and managed to keep some alive for a couple weeks, but no longer. The stuff we have at the beach is pelagic Sargassum (natans, fluitans). This time I tried collecting a bunch of different samples, and broke all the dark brown stuff off, keeping only the tips. My thought is that with a variety of different samples, some might live. Pickings weren't the best this time. I got it tumbling in the bucket, because when it stays above water it dies. I think that will help. You can see some dying "leaves" from being stuck above water. It's in fresh natural seawater, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphate, etc. I have some nitrate, iron, and Chaeto Grow I can try adding.
Lighting is only an LED daylight light bulb, but I just put an inexpensive purple grow light on it. The little guy might think it's a bit too groovy. I'll work on that. This is low budget.
I would really like to get this growing.
Thanks!