Cold tidepool/beachcombing aquarium

[musselman]

I add what the ocean spits out. I would definitely like to have more species of anemones. Currently, I have almost forty, of three species: Anthopleura artemisia, Epiactis prolifera, and Metridium senile. You can see them in some of the pics above. The biggest of them are about 1 inch in diameter and most are less than half that size. Since my only opportunity is when they show up attached to seaweed, it is unlikely that I will get any big ones, although they are growing as I feed them. I could drive an hour and easily find others, but I think I am going to stick to just what I can find on my beach.

 

[JonoH]

Love this thread, and looking forward to seeing this progress!
Makes me want to start a rockpool inspired tank also!

 

[musselman]

Eelgrass bubbling away happily in the sunlight. The tank gets about two hours of natural sunlight each day and although they also bubble under artificial light, it is nowhere near as much.

 

[musselman]

A new experiment! These will be the first critters added to the tank that are not local. These are farm raised red abalones (Haliotis rufescens). The tank has been rapidly taken over by macroalgae, so I am hoping that these two can make a dent.

I'm not sure how successful this will be. Red abalone are found all the way up to SW British Columbia, but they don't reproduce north of California, so the temperature is probably not quite comfortable for them. I run the tank a little bit warmer than the ocean temp, so maybe it will work. They have been in for a couple days so far and I haven't seen them eat much, but they do move around at night.

 

[musselman]

Abalone/nudibranch interaction:

 

[musselman]

Decorator crab hanging out with anemones:

 

[musselman]

Unknown worm laying eggs on the glass. We just caught the end of it. You can see the eggs moving through the worm.

 

[musselman]

We just discovered that we have a second, smaller decorator crab. This one just molted. You can see the molt beneath him. You can also see the hooks on his carapace since it is fresh and clean.

 

[asap]

Wow impressive.

 

[musselman]

This cute little bugger is one of the earliest residents. I haven't been able to ID him. Might be an Oregon cancer crab. He is very shy and only rarely appears for photos.

 

[ydoc_]

abalones are cool