The not so exciting biocube 29 rescue

Should I add a pincushion urchin

  • Yes

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Maybe So

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1
  • Poll closed .
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bsn_rn_cen

bsn_rn_cen

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My grandfather mentioned above was not a man of many words. I tend to be like him in that aspect. It drives my wife crazy. Sometimes when she goes on about this and that, I just don't have any input. She thinks because I am not talking back that I am not listening to her, but that isn't the case. In fact I think it annoys her even more when she accuses me of not listening and I repeat everything back. Anywho my maternal grandfather was just the opposite. He was an ornery man. I don't know how many times I heard him tell anyone who would listen that "I couldn't get rid of Suzy (my grandmother) with a broom and a bucket of ****." He always had a joke or a story...

I remember when my brother was in first grade my parents were asked to come to the school to talk about his behavior. The school was really concerned about the lies that he was telling. My parents had to kindly inform them that he wasn't making up stories, because his grandfather did in fact tell him that he taught Michael Jackson how to dance... I did not inherit his masterful dancing skills. In fact my dancing was limited to a middle school homecoming dance. Oh I wish everyone carried around cameras back then... I am sure a video of me, all knees and elbows, awkwardly turning circles with a girl several inches taller would be priceless. I really can't remember dancing again until last year. There must have been some subliminal programming in Fortnite, because everywhere you would go kids would flailing their arms and legs like honey bees giving directions to the prime flower patch. I was ok with it at first, after all it provided me with my welcome to reef2reef gif


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After months of this ^^^ it had to stop. We couldn't even go grocery shopping without the youngest two boys flailing about. That was when I started making up my own dances. It is amazing how quick my sensational dance skills stopped that :D;Woot What does this have to do with a reef tank? Well nothing really, but the 4 newest additions to the biocube 29 rescue are just as entertaining as embarrassing the kids, but we will get to that.

@Katrina71 was right. Walter needed a friend and I had a Live Aquaria coupon so why not. I ordered him a Alpheus randalli. I was a little hesitant to order it. I have tried twice to order Alpheus randalli and both have died in transit. I am happy to say this arrived alive and full of attitude. In fact while in the bucket acclimating he took over a whole side and popped at anyone who came near. My son thought he should be called Philip because that is a grumpy old man name too (Once again apologies if you happen to be a Philip reading this). I should have taken a picture of him then because I haven't seen him since. I am pretty sure he found Walter right off and is doing well because every morning the sand is rearranged in front of his favorite hiding spot. I figured if I was going to make an order, I might as well make it worth the shipping. I am planning on this tank being a mainly anemone focused tank and what is cooler than a crab that carries them around. I ordered two pom pom crabs but sadly only one arrived alive. The survivor is really cool, however he didn't have anemones to carry around. He is not as shy as old Phil and I was able to snap a shot of him.

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With all the talk of dancing I am sure that you have probably guessed what the last 4 critters are. I probably should have waited a bit for things to settle in but I bought 4 sexy shrimp. They are funny little creatures. It is pretty entertaining watching them dance around. The wife and kids are always at the tank now. If I would have known how much they like watching them, I would have bought them for my original tank. If I had, maybe they would have helped talk me in to buying a bigger tank. Well maybe not, but it is my story and that is how I am going to tell it ;)

sexy.jpg
 
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bsn_rn_cen

bsn_rn_cen

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I'm betting you'll start seeing a lot more of Walter and Phil out in the open within a month or so! Awesome additions!

I hope he decides to burrow towards the front so it is easier to see them both.

Your pom pom has the same look...a grumpy cheerleader??

I would be grumpy too if I lost my anemones
 
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It has been some times since I have updated my build, 5 months in fact. I have been a total reef2reef slacker. My situation has changed a bit and it has been eating up my time. I have a large family so after some discussion I decided to adopt. I adopted 77 boys and girls. Well let me clarify, I took a new job and am now the manager of the ER and have 77 employees. It is amazing how "professionals" can be so childish. I knew getting into this that there would be a lot of additional drama involved... after all I used to feel left out and would find ridiculous things to bug my boss about. I still can't believe she didn't give me fmla for the summer to search for Walter... As per norm I am a little side tracked so an update on the tank. The past few months have went surprisingly well with the tank. It has been very stable and once the nems all settled into their spots everything seemed perfect. I didn't see my pom pom crab for several weeks and assumed he had passed on, and then one evening he reappeared with a nice nem on his left claw. I don't know what was more shocking, that it reappeared after so long or that he in fact had a pom pom. Walter quickly became the favorite of the tank. He never found Phil, who occasionally comes out and tugs on the rock flower anemone in from of his burrow which results in lots of angry snapping. Walter took to a hole right on the top of the rocks where he could keep an eye on all passerby's in case they were going to feed him. His behavior was so different from the goby pair in my other tank. As I mentioned above Walter is missing. He has been for close to 2 weeks now. While I keep holding out hope that he has found Phil and they are snuggling under the rocks, I have a feeling something much more sinister has happened.
walterhole.jpg


As this not so excellent picture demonstrates, Walter picked a home in a rough neighborhood. I have the feeling one of the 3 maxi mini anemones had a feast, but I will keep up hope that he will return like my super cheerful pom pom crab...
 
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Well it has been close to a month since Walter went missing and we are calling off the search. My wife is still upset about it and wants me to get a Walter Jr.
@hdsoftail1065 I finally caught a picture of the pompom out. It is super low quality per my norm but you can see his little anemone.
pompom2.jpg

I had a day off recently and drove a couple hours north to the only decent fish store around. Unfortunately the owner was out of the store that day and his little brother was covering. His brother doesn't know coral and didn't know prices so I didn't get the chance to pick any new coral. However I did see this in the frag tank. I thought it was just a rose bta, but it turns out it is a black widow. I really didn't care what name it was given I was curious about the price. He text his brother who said $100. I will be honest I didn't know the difference between a rose and a black widow but I did a quick google search after he called it a black widow and $100 was way cheaper than anything that popped up. I didn't want the guy to have his brother mad at him so we took a picture and I pointed out the exact bta. He text back that it was indeed $100 so I bought it up.
newnem1.jpg

It was firmly attached to that lovely pvc ring so I put it in my tank and hoped for the best. I checked on it about an hour later and it moved down the rock and took up residence right on the back corner where the clown fish host. I thought it was a perfect location. Cheryl thinks otherwise and pretends it doesn't exist. Hopefully someday she will be enticed to host, if she can keep the sexy shrimp out.. A couple more pictures of where it settled because why not.
newnem2.jpg
newnem3.jpg
 

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Bummer about Walter. If you meant to post pics I don't think it worked. I pulled the 5th wheel to the lake and my cell phone service is weak, so I might just be me if they are posted and I'm not seeing them.
 
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20190711_233103.jpg

The lights were out when we got home from the fair so I snapped one with a flash. It amazes me how pretty it is even without the glow from blue lights.
 

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20190711_233103.jpg

The lights were out when we got home from the fair so I snapped one with a flash. It amazes me how pretty it is even without the glow from blue lights.
Very pretty! I have never seen one in any of my lfs's. I'm afraid to show this one to my wife because she will start looking for one! Thank you for taking the time for the pic. :)
 
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As I have mentioned before Cheryl is mean as ell. She still attacks me or anything that enters her tank. I have manned up as well and no longer throw water all over the walls and floor when she bites me. My wife is very happy about this, dark hardwood and saltwater makes her madder than Cheryl.While watching the tank tonight I noticed some strange behavior from her... She keeps doing drive bys on the new nem. Getting super close and I thought for a minute she was going to try to host. I watched her for a good hour but no luck. It is probably for the best, she is pretty aggressive and it is still kind of small.
drive by.jpg

I am really liking the way this tank is shaping up. Everything seems to be falling into place (except for poor Walter RIP). I am excited to watch it evolve.
tank shot.jpg
 
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A lot of changes going on with the website today. While exploring I noticed the video button and wanted to try it out. Problem is I am not very good at capturing pictures, let alone videos of my tank so I thought I would try it with a video of my boys. I took them up to Chicago to see their first cubs game. We left early because we didn't know how traffic was going to be and didn't want to be late. Not getting the chance to go to many games I didn't realize that on Sundays they sign up kids to be able to run the bases after the game. I come from a long line of Cubs fans and Wrigley Field is a sacred place. I hope that some day they will bring their kids to the park and tell them they ran the bases. Just a warning, a loud mouth day next to me couldn't stop screaming so may want to put it on mute. My boys are the two in blue, but wait what does this have to do with my tank? Well nothing really today so I will throw in a couple more pictures of the clowns flirting with the bta.






flirting.jpg
flirting2.jpg
 
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It is hard to tell in with my high quality photography, but in some of the earlier pictures you may have noticed a long spine urchin. My son absolutely loved it, but my do they grow. It was getting to the point where I couldn't work in the tank without moving it around. It also had everything in the tank in a hissy when it pushed its way by. Long story short it was relocated. Not that I really think they care but it is nice to see the anemones open all day instead of bundled up after it cruised by. My back wall actually has some coralline now! Super impressive right...
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My son is not as impressed by the coralline growth as I am sure all of you are... :cool: He gets real serious and tells me how much he misses the urchin (mind you it took him a couple days to notice he was gone...) I am a sucker for his sad face, but don't want the hassle of a long spine again. I was looking into a pincushion. Are they less destructive? I have read that they are nocturnal feeders so if I buy it will it just hide all day? Should I even bother.. as he always says.. yes no maybe so
 
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I noticed the new bta has bifurcated tendrils. I have never noticed this on other anemones. Is it common for them to do this or is it a sign something is wrong? The one looks a little rough at the top which makes me wonder.
20190720_142556.jpg
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Well the vote is in and it was a landslide.. Wait that sounds to exciting and this is the not so exciting biocube 29 rescue thread so let me rephrase that. The vote is in and it was decided by one vote.. Well that seems exciting as well. One more try. The vote is in and it was unanimous.. That sounds a little over the top as well.. Oh well. All three are true! Maybe with a sample size of one I should leave it as inconclusive, but where is the fun in that? My favorite online retailer for livestock has been out of pincushion urchins for a bit. Wednesday morning while getting ready for work I received the alert that they had a limited number in stock so I placed my order.
u1.jpg

I can tell already that this yet to be named feller is going to be a good addition to the tank. He has a bit of personality and rides around on the snails.
u2.jpg


But wait.. what is that photo bombing my photo? No unfortunately it is not Walter, he never showed up. Everyone in the family missed him so while ordering the urchin I picked up a new ywg. He doesn't have the personality of the original, but maybe he is just wore out (Cheryl picked on him his first few days in the tank. She has since relaxed but I was very disappointed in her behavior.). The boys have taken to calling him Walter Jr. the Third. (Walter Jr is the baby yellow watchman I put in my office tank.) Walter never did find poor Philip since he chose to live on top of the rock, however Jr. the Third has stayed pretty low so my hope it that they will soon link up. Thanks for taking the time to read. One more picture :D
u3.jpg
 
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