WHAT DO WE KNOW THAT THEY DON'T

[Isopod80]

I believe that we as reefers may have an opportunity at times to witness certain things within our tanks that experts in the field of science may not. This is due to the fact that we monitor the same individual organisms multiple times a day, day in and day out, for years at a time. I'm interested to hear what others may have witnessed that they think the mainstream may be unaware of. Also, have you ever witnessed anything that seems to defy standard thinking reguarding a particular organism?

 

[James_O]

I have not personally yet, but I’m very interested in seeing what other reefs have to say!!

 

[Isopod80]

I have not personally yet, but I’m very interested in seeing what other reefs have to say!!

Same here. I figured this could be interesting.

 

[blaxsun]

Well, I had a green urchin that hunted down and killed a horseshoe crab, along with numerous other snails and crabs. It actually tore chunks out of the horseshoe crab - starting with it’s eyes. It actively chased that crab down and laid in ambush for it every chance it got.

It would also perch on a ledge and haul rocks that I’d wrapped seaweed on up to feed - rather than simple scamper down the 1” it would’ve required. We could drop seaweed all the way across the tank and that thing would zip over in mere minutes. We called him Godzilla.

 

[Isopod80]

Killer green urchin. That's a good start.

 

[X-37B]

Well here is one I just witnessed a month ago. I totally forgot about it until the last post. I should have taken a video.
I have 2 urchins 1 tuxedo and one halloween.
The halloween took a smallish snail off the front glass. I thought it was going for a ride.
I watched it turn it over and suck the snail out of its shell eating it.
This may be why I add snails every couple of months, lol.

 

[Isopod80]

Here's one of mine. I had a bumblebee shrimp that used to ride on the backs of my snails shells. I've seen other reefers mention this behavior as well. I realized he was taking shots at the snails eyestalks and feelers. Every time one or the other would crest the top of the shell he'd strike at it. He knew to ride just behind the snails head. I believe it was a substitute for the tube feet of echinoderms they eat in nature. Thin and fleshy. He was well fed but did this constantly anyway.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I’ve seen my torch coral sting another torch. The coral was growing at an impressive rate. A hippo tang and niger trigger sleeping in a cave fin to fin. First time I saw my mandarin eat mysis shrimp I looked like this for 8hours

 

[Isopod80]

Anyone else?

 

[Dkmoo]

I think the biggest difference is, scientist study them within the context of "now they are in nature" as the standard condition so have set certain expectations of what considered good for corals

As reefers, I think there are limitations as to how much we can truly mimic nature, so if certain aspects will always be limited, then perhaps other aspects may also deviate from the "nature" standard in order to compensate. One example is the hotly debated "whats the right NO3 level". One side would point out that "ocean levels are nearly undetectable so we should keep that as low as possible in our tanks". However, IME this line of thinking overlooks two physical limitations that we cannot overcome in our tanks 1) water volume and 2) biofauna biodiversity. Natural sea water may have undetectable no3, but they are extremely nutrient rich in forms of microfauna/plankton. Corals do not need to get their N source from nitrates bc there are plenty of plankton for them to capture in the water. There are research done on this that demonstrated this exact fact - natural sea water grew acro the best, "filtered" natural sea water that removed the organism and particles but kept the chemistry, did worst. In our tanks, I know we dose aminos, feed phyto and other things, but this still cannot compare with what's available in natural sea water. Given this limitation, the perhaps it is better to have a bit of elevated nitrate to compensate and supplement the N source for corals. Indeed, although there is no definitive scientific research on elevated nitrate in enclosed and limited home aquarium settings, there is more than enough anecdotal evidence that a bit of elevated nitrate is at least just as good, if not better, than keeping nitrate close to the undetectable levels found in NSW

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying "scientists don't know that higher nitrate in home aquarium can still be good for corals"

 

[N.Sreefer]

Not in saltwater as of yet but when my 150 was FW I had yoyo loaches breeding constantly and everything I read said it was impossible without hormone injections. Couldn't find any info on how to rear them or any reports of succesful breeding.

 

[ADHD Aquatics]

I believe that we as reefers may have an opportunity at times to witness certain things within our tanks that experts in the field of science may not. This is due to the fact that we monitor the same individual organisms multiple times a day, day in and day out, for years at a time. I'm interested to hear what others may have witnessed that they think the mainstream may be unaware of. Also, have you ever witnessed anything that seems to defy standard thinking reguarding a particular organism?

Do you have a YouTube channel or Instagram I can follow you on? You seem very knowledgeable and I'd like to see your set ups