Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef Biotope Tank

[Chasmodes]

OK, so this isn't my oyster reef, but it's a project that I need to finish before I can move onto my larger oyster reef build. I'm making progress with my faux rock wall 3D sytrofoam background, so I thought that I'd share. In the pics below, my work space is my oyster reef aquarium stand ;Wacky

I painted the last lighter layer of this paint mix. I'm really happy with it so far. It is still a monotone color, although it no longer is the charcoal color of the cement dye, the yellow gives it a greenish gray tint. So for the next layer or two, I plan to add a little brown and maybe green. I don't think that I'll cover the entire wall though, just a dab here and there. I may even focus on a few of the shale layers to add to differentiate some strata, as you might see in nature:

I really like how using Drylok rather than a layer of dried cement allows you to bring out the detail that you carve. That is a good thing unless you carve a mistake! In this case, the faux fossils that I pressed into the foam show up well. I'm happy that i started with the darkest color first and then added the highlighting, because it really makes the cracks and faux fossils pop.

I used springs that I had laying around the house to imitate crinoid stem fossils by bending them and pressing them into the foam. I also pressed in small sea shells to imitate brachiopods and other bivalves. The coral that I pressed into the foam turned out nice too. It is subtle, but was enough to break up the flat shiny surface of new foam board. I don't know how much will show up later after algae builds up, but for now, I'm happy with how it turned out so far.

 

[Dsnakes]

Very nice builds! I hope you are able to raise the fry eventually.

 

[Chasmodes]

I sponged on a little brown last night on a few layers to break up the monotone color and display a more stratified effect. I will touch it up a little more perhaps before installing it into the tank this weekend.

 

[iDeath]

Wow! That looks like real rock to me. Your attention to detail is very inspiring.

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you iDeath!

 

[Chasmodes]

The naked gobies laid eggs. Now, all three species are spawning. Here is a video of a male naked goby (Gobiosoma bosc) guarding eggs, but most of the eggs have already hatched:


At the same time, the male skilletfish is also guarding eggs. If you look closely, around the 7 second mark, you can see a baby fish swim toward the surface:


There are fish fry swimming at the water's surface just about every day now. I believe that the ones currently swimming around are naked gobies, but it is very hard to tell them apart. These seem a lot skinnier with smaller heads than the ones that I caught on video previously.

I picked up a breeder cage from a LFS the other day so I can try to see if I can keep them alive. I need to find another way to hang it from the tank because the metal hanging devices that came with it will most likely rust.

 

[Dsnakes]

The naked gobies laid eggs. Now, all three species are spawning. Here is a video of a male naked goby (Gobiosoma bosc) guarding eggs, but most of the eggs have already hatched:


At the same time, the male skilletfish is also guarding eggs. If you look closely, around the 7 second mark, you can see a baby fish swim toward the surface:


There are fish fry swimming at the water's surface just about every day now. I believe that the ones currently swimming around are naked gobies, but it is very hard to tell them apart. These seem a lot skinnier with smaller heads than the ones that I caught on video previously.

I picked up a breeder cage from a LFS the other day so I can try to see if I can keep them alive. I need to find another way to hang it from the tank because the metal hanging devices that came with it will most likely rust.

That’s great that they are spawning. Healthy tank! I hope you’re able to grow the fry out eventually.

 

[Chasmodes]

I caught the skilletfish in the act of spawning yesterday. Both the male and female were in the shell together for about an hour and a half past the time that I first saw them. There were eggs on one shell half, so I'm not sure how long it took them to lay them. Anyway, despite their objection over the lack of privacy, I shot a video. A striped blenny was curious of the activity as well, looking for a cheap thrill, no doubt. Enjoy!

 

[Chasmodes]

Last night, I removed the aluminum hanging strips from my new breeder cage. Then, I rigged the cage so that it would hang in my tank. I'm not happy with how it is working, so this weekend, I plan on designing a permanent solution. But, it is working as it should. I transferred as many fish fry that I could into the cage, and already, they've lived longer than any fry that I've kept so far. Now, my problem is that I don't have any live food sources other than what lives in the tank. Since barnacles and tunicates survive in my tank, then perhaps there is food for the fish too. I do have some frozen artemia nauplii that I fed them this morning. I read a blog about raising a similar species of clingfish (assuming these fry are skilletfish), and after four days, they were eating live artemia nauplii. I have a kit to hatch and start a culture, but I have yet to do so. I will start that up tonight.

I suspect that my filters and predation were the main causes of their previous disappearances.

So, that leaves me with two questions that the future will answer. First, can I raise these fish? Second, what species are they?

Eventually, I want to set up a tank to raise the fish fry. If I'm successful, I should have plenty to stock my larger tank, and also enough to give to my friends. I don't know what I'll do with them after that.

 

[Chasmodes]

It's been a while since I posted about this aquarium. I had one sad set back. One of my male blennies all of a sudden became blind about three weeks ago. I discovered that he wasn't swimming out to accept food, and the other blennies were terrorizing him. And, after observing him for a while, I determined that he was blind. So, I moved him to my 20g high, away from the other blennies that picked on him and outcompeted him for food. From that point on, I fed him using a turkey baster, and he was much happier, just blind. That is, until a couple nights ago, where he acted very sick, swimming near the surface and breathing heavily. I suspect that some sort of disease overcame him, probably the one that I quarantined him from before, suggesting, perhaps, that his immune system was compromised. So, I euthanized him. I didn't feel much like writing about this, because I was pretty emotional about it. The other fish in my 20g long are all doing well and healthy.

I don't understand why this happened, and I may never know, but usually, this happens to fish that become malnourished. I think that the blindness was the result of that, but I have to wonder if an internal parasite may have been the root cause of the malnutrition, especially since, prior to this, the fish ate readily everything that I offered. I feed them quality food, either fresh or frozen. I don't feed them flakes or pellets at all, except when I'm on vacation. However, included in the mix of food were meals of frozen brine shrimp. I fed them frozen brine shrimp every third meal. I haven't heard of any studies on this, but some have suggested that, over the long term, fish that eat frozen brine shrimp sometimes become susceptible to blindness. Has anyone experienced this before? So, the only change that I've made over the past three weeks was to give up on the brine shrimp. I feed my fish frozen or fresh sea food now. The fish love it, but my wallet doesn't, especially with the food purchased at my LFS.

As far as the tank goes, all three species spawn about every three days to a week, depending on the species. All seem healthy and eat well. My attempt with the cage failed, not because of the cage, but probably the fish starved and need live food, not just frozen baby brine shrimp or oyster eggs. So, I'm going to set up a system to raise these fish soon, once I get some free time.

To keep this from being a depressing post, I included a video that I shot from a while back, showing my fish doing their thing. About 2/3 through the video, you'll see that two male blennies will have an encounter. The blenny that the camera is tracking changes coloration, one that is common after or during aggression with another blenny. You'll notice that the dorsal half of the fish, from the eyes back, becomes very dark, almost black. This is an indicator of an aggressive mood in these fish. I haven't seen anyone document this before, so, there ya go, now it's documented

This was after a feeding session, including a dose of Oyster Feast. I hope you like it.

 

[Breadman03]

Sorry to hear that

 

[Chasmodes]

Thanks Breadman. It was so heartbreaking.

Last night, when I went to feed the fish, all of the blennies came out to feed aggressively except one of the males kept hiding in his shell. This is the blenny that I dubbed, "King", because at one time, he was king of the tank. He no longer is, as the other males caught up to him in size and can hold their own against him while defending their piece of the rock. "King", staying hidden and not eating reminded me of the behavior of the one that went blind, so I was quite concerned.

After I finished dispersing the food, I decided to shine a light in the shell and see if he was OK or if I could find signs of disease. Just as I picked up the flashlight, he came out to feed, so I shined my light into the shell, and lo and behold, I found eggs. He was guarding eggs! This confirms my thoughts on a question that I had, that one female will breed with multiple males. I've seen two other males hiding out like this, the first was the one that I filmed guarding eggs a couple months ago. The second male blenny acted the same way, but I couldn't verify if he was guarding eggs or not, because his territory is in the back of the tank. This blenny was right in front. How convenient!

So, I went upstairs to grab my phone, brought it down and set it up on my tripod and waited for him to leave his shell and catch a vid of him guarding the eggs and also a good shot of the eggs. It took about an hour, and he came out to fight off a rival male, and gave me the opportunity to get a shot.

I have two videos, and I'll post the other one tomorrow. This is the second video that I shot, but it has a close up of the eggs, so I thought that I'd share it first. It also features what the other fish in the tank are up to. Hope you like it.

 

[Chasmodes]

Here is the other video that I promised. I didn't have time to finish processing both of these yesterday:

 

[vlangel]

Kevin! I did not know you were on R2R. Your thread came up in my notifications. I am really happy because I like to follow your tank but it was too hard for me to find it on RC since there are so many.

I am beginning to really understand why you are a blenny fanatic. They have such fun personalities! I was very sad for you on your recent loss but at least you were able to make his last days more comfortable by QT him and feeding him with a turkey baster.

How many blennies do you have? It certainly looks quite active in your tank. You and your family must be constantly entertained.

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you Dawn! I didn't realize that you were on here too I've learned so much for the folks on both sites, so I guess I feel the need to share on both. I've been hooked on this species for years ever since I saw a few in a lab back at the Univ. of Md. many years ago. One thing that I really like about this site is how easy it is to post videos and pictures. I find that threads are more appealing with visuals.

I currently have 5 striped blennies, four males and a female. I also have 5 naked gobies, and 4 skilletfish, and several species of invertebrates. When I finally set up the larger version of this tank, I will make sure that they aren't as crowded as in this tank. The limiting factor is aggression. I think each male blenny needs a benthic surface area of about 64 square inches, but no less and 36 square inches, to keep aggressive incidents to a minimum. My current 20g long allows them about 25 square inches of space, just a tad too tight. The females pretty much roam all over the tank, and no matter how many males are in there, the females will be harassed. Most of that harassment is normal spawning behavior. These conditions are pretty similar to what we see in the wild.

Edit: I also need to mention that it has to be quality space, with a piece of cover, such as an oyster shell that meets their requirements. There was a study that showed that male striped blennies prefer oyster shells with gapes of 10-11 mm on average, about the width of their body. The study was done by Roy E. Crabtree and Douglas P. Middaugh on 1982, titled, "Oyster Shell Size and the Selection of Spawning Sites by Chasmodes bosquianus, Hypleurochilus geminatus, Hypsoblennius ionthas (Pisces, Blennidae) and Gobiosoma bosci (Pisces, Gobiidae) in Two South Carolina Estuaries. So, I had to place open empty oyster shells strategically around the tank to lure to provide them cover away from their competitors.

The gobies and skilletfish require much less space, and the three species pretty much ignore each other.

 

[rjvencken]

Looks great. Very interested in this. Considering similar setup inspired by other side ATlantic.

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you rjvencken! Let me know when you get started. What a beautiful biotope option! I'll definitely follow along!

 

[Paul B]

I love that tank!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you Paul!

As of last night, the blenny eggs are still there, not yet hatched. The male is defending the area vigorously and barely comes out to eat unless the food is less than a body length away. Meanwhile, a male skilletfish is guarding eggs in the back of the tank again. There is a chance that there will be blenny and skilletfish fry swimming about the tank at the same time.

 

[Chasmodes]

The male blenny in the last video that I posted is still guarding the same eggs. At least, I think that they're the same eggs. So far, 10 days and they haven't hatched yet. I expect them to hatch very soon.

Contrast this with skilletfish, who lay eggs about every four or five days. Their fry hatch that quickly. In addition, they will lay eggs even as the male skilletfish guards eggs from the last batch. I find that amazing.