Aqua Mans journey

Nano sapiens · Nov 15, 2021

Aqua Man said:
2020

2021

Need to do some trimming of Xenia and the GSP. Thinking I need to move the Kenya also. Not sure how though, it’s firmly attached to rock.

When I want to move something and not leave any tissue behind, I take a small screwdriver and file one side of the blade down to make a sharp chisel. Then carefully chisel around and under the coral to remove it. You'll be left with an intact coral and a rock base to place it somewhere else.

Aqua Man · Nov 16, 2021

Nano sapiens said:
When I want to move something and not leave any tissue behind, I take a small screwdriver and file one side of the blade down to make a sharp chisel. Then carefully chisel around and under the coral to remove it. You'll be left with an intact coral and a rock base to place it somewhere else.

Last time I tried this to remove a Mushroom, I broke the whole rock in half! Still worked out though. Was able to get the mushroom! I’ll it give another go, this time “carefully” !! Lol

I keep telling myself not to put discosomas In my tanks, it’s hard cause they so Purdy!!

Aqua Man · Dec 12, 2021

Was actually surprised how easy it was to remove the Kenya tree! Pried it up with thumb nail on a corner and then slowly peeled it off. Trimmed the Star polyps with a razor blade. They sure do sulk for days after being out of the water for a minute.

Aqua Man · Dec 19, 2021

Ringo says hello!! Growing and healthy, been just over a year now!

Aqua Man · Jan 31, 2022

Tank is 8 years old this month!!

After removing the Kenya, there was a thin layer of flesh. I thought it would just go away/die. Apparently not! In only a few weeks I started to see it growing back!

Awhile back I noticed an Aiptasia and of course located in a very hard to reach spot. In the back, behind and under the branch rock that the Acan sits on. I’ve killed them before with kalk, but with the location I was not confident that I would get the kalk in the mouth and risk spreading. The Aip was starting to get bigger so I took out a few rocks to get at it. Scraped it off and dipped the rock, just the end, in some diluted muriatic acid.
Scraped off the kenya again and cleaned up some bubble algae.

Gobstopper with an unknown mushroom. Mushrooms hitched in on a frag. So far these 2 corals are playing nice.

Nano sapiens · Jan 31, 2022

Congrats on 8 years! Good that you went after that aiptasia (those I saw, I destroyed without delay). And surprising to see 'shrooms playing nice (I'd be careful of letting them contact the zoa's oral disks).

Aqua Man · Jan 31, 2022

Nano sapiens said:
Congrats on 8 years! Good that you went after that aiptasia (those I saw, I destroyed without delay). And surprising to see 'shrooms playing nice (I'd be careful of letting them contact the zoa's oral disks).

Thank you! I’ve been watching the Gobstoppers carefully. It’s starting to get out of hand though. I’m thinking of carefully cutting the shrooms off of the
plug so the Zoas can have some room.

What are the chances of the shrooms growing back if I miss a bit of the foot?

Nano sapiens · Jan 31, 2022

Aqua Man said:
What are the chances of the shrooms growing back if I miss a bit of the foot?

Very good, I'm afraid. 'Shrooms are highly regenerative (especially Discosoma sp.).

Aqua Man · Aug 27, 2022

Nano sapiens said:
Very good, I'm afraid. 'Shrooms are highly regenerative (especially Discosoma sp.).

Yup, it grew back! Took awhile and very small, but did grow back. Now I’m not seeing the little booger. I’ve been having a issues with my shrooms getting shredded!! Only thing that makes any sense is my snails. Very little algae these days, so my thoughts are the snails are being aggressive around the coral to get at the algae.

This one looked great one day and then the next was looking beat up. Eventually puffed up and looked better after a few days. Then a couple weeks later I saw it laying on the bottom, like something had ripped the coral right off! Most of the foot was intact so I’m trying to save it.

The big momma Yuma that was in the bottom left has been shredded beyond help! Very sad! Had that one for 8 years. She did leave lots of babies behind! I have no crabs. So aggressive snails is the only thing I can think of.

Aqua Man · Aug 29, 2022

Small victories! Added this frag couple years ago. Thought it was a goner a couple times. Flesh all gone but could still see a few polyps, so I left it alone. Before and after

footgal · Aug 29, 2022

Maybe if there’s a lack of algae you could give the snails a very very tiny amount of nori, I do that for the urchins

Tank looks great!

Aqua Man · Aug 30, 2022

footgal said:
Maybe if there’s a lack of algae you could give the snails a very very tiny amount of nori, I do that for the urchins Tank looks great!

Thank you! That’s a good idea, I’ll add a bit of Nori or try those algae wafers. I also removed one of the larger Astrea snails. So that leaves 2 snails.