saw the most random thing last night! A foot long shoe string skinny bristleworm on a suicide swim went straight into the skimmer bulkhead only to come back out to the water column a few minutes later via the return bulkhead.....in pieces! it was just crazy to see. It must've been the return pump that sliced it up when it sucked it through o.O
in other news the newly formed CuC is doing well. So far it consists of 2 Nassarius snails (1 in the fuge section of the sump), 1 Nerite snail, a coral banded shrimp and a Strombus snail! Cant forget about the hitchhikers: various brittle sea stars sprinkled throughout. Last count was 1 big, 3 medium and like 10 small. Bristleworms as well. I counted several small ones as well like 8 or 9. Theres about 4 or 5 over 4 inches now which is a bit of a worry. Their new food interest is the shrimp's leftover feed and if that's not around then it's the little sticks with hair algae on them, or random patches of green algae. The shrimp was having a bit of a go at one this morning which was funny to watch. One passed by him in his little hole and he nipped at it. The worm turned around, sized him up a bit and then kept on passing lol.
Ammonia is steady at 0 , salinity 1.025, temp 75, ph 8.3, nitrites 0, nitrates 25 ish. Thinking about adding a couple trochus snails and a few more nerites. Nervous about adding a crab. There's enough omnivores wandering around to monitor. After a few more algae eaters, ill look into adding a couple fish! Looking at a lawnmower blenny and a scopas tang. i may wait until I get back from the states though before adding fish which is at the end of May. Just want to make sure my environment stays sound.