Tank Journal Archive
Here is a couple of pictures to a couple of corals,
These mushies are really nice and if I recall rite the LFS that I got them from just had them in their multi mushie tank which made them fall under the pricing on the front pane (all mushrooms $10 ea) going to see if I can find more of them or just more unique types, 90% are the plain bright orange mushies / plain bright green rhodacts.
If there is 1 coral that I got as a bit of a 'test' not sure whether it would do well under the current setup...is the blasto cluster I got, although not the greatest in colors it certainly is thriving under the current filtration setup.
Been doing a lot of rethinking about the equipment for the upgrade and have down graded certain areas to bring the overall est. costs down from $5k-$6k to $3k-$3.5K by basically having 1 light per tank (instead of per compartment), having no Kalk reactors (manual top ups) and by downgrading the phos reactors from 550's to 150's which I already have 2x 150's so only need 1, the powerheads rite now are turning out to be the single most expensive area coming in at $1040 for 16x Tunze 6016 (2 per tank).
Either way so far I have saved a lot by managing more :)
These mushies are really nice and if I recall rite the LFS that I got them from just had them in their multi mushie tank which made them fall under the pricing on the front pane (all mushrooms $10 ea) going to see if I can find more of them or just more unique types, 90% are the plain bright orange mushies / plain bright green rhodacts.
If there is 1 coral that I got as a bit of a 'test' not sure whether it would do well under the current setup...is the blasto cluster I got, although not the greatest in colors it certainly is thriving under the current filtration setup.
Been doing a lot of rethinking about the equipment for the upgrade and have down graded certain areas to bring the overall est. costs down from $5k-$6k to $3k-$3.5K by basically having 1 light per tank (instead of per compartment), having no Kalk reactors (manual top ups) and by downgrading the phos reactors from 550's to 150's which I already have 2x 150's so only need 1, the powerheads rite now are turning out to be the single most expensive area coming in at $1040 for 16x Tunze 6016 (2 per tank).
Either way so far I have saved a lot by managing more :)
A small start as far as equipment goes but a start nonetheless
Here are a pair of TLF Phosban 150 reactors both presents from earlier on so all I need is 1 more and the 3 pumps to go with them + some tubing :), from the first day that I started to plot the filtration upgrad I always intended to maintain them as 3 different/individual systems and maximize all available space so I could not only get better filtration but more accommodations for stomatopods.
Here are a pair of TLF Phosban 150 reactors both presents from earlier on so all I need is 1 more and the 3 pumps to go with them + some tubing :), from the first day that I started to plot the filtration upgrad I always intended to maintain them as 3 different/individual systems and maximize all available space so I could not only get better filtration but more accommodations for stomatopods.
Have seen similar for sale for closer to $100, so very nice pick up!Here is a couple of pictures to a couple of corals,
These mushies are really nice and if I recall rite the LFS that I got them from just had them in their multi mushie tank which made them fall under the pricing on the front pane (all mushrooms $10 ea) going to see if I can find more of them or just more unique types, 90% are the plain bright orange mushies / plain bright green rhodacts.
Indeed which is why I plan on going back for more :P there basically superman rhodactis with electric green rims :D
After taking that picture of those mushies I decided to move them to DIY PVC burrow of Rocky specifically to act as a bit of a 'door mat' for his lowest plateau and within minutes after placement he greeted me at that door in his usually 'Get outta my face' manner :D
Rocky has taken a big liking to his new home, never leaving it and defending it aggressively, with the far greater ease of access for him to enter and exit every hole in the burrow it makes me a lot more nervous putting my hand in the tank...
Rocky has taken a big liking to his new home, never leaving it and defending it aggressively, with the far greater ease of access for him to enter and exit every hole in the burrow it makes me a lot more nervous putting my hand in the tank...
Here are a few more pics from Rockys (G.graphurus) compartment this evening...I ended up swapping a few corals out and moving some around, I took the Goni & Xenia out as they have yet to open up at all...and I moved the hammers on the very large plateau out and onto the substrate in front, in place of the hammers I placed the Elephant Eat Mushies which seem to really love it and have opened up swiftly, in the process the large brown & gold one has covered the small flaw in the corner of the plateau its only noticeable via extreme side views as shown in the picture (front on you can not see it anymore as the mushy hangs over it).
I also placed all the zoas together and on the substrate, replacing the 3 clusters acting as the lowest entry/exit points 'mat' with my nice superman with electric green/yellow rim mushies, where the Xenia was my lone fluffy morph sits and where the Zoas up top use to sit the small Blasto colony now resides. In place of the Goni I added 3 more Ric's to that 2nd largest plateau and now it is a true Ric only bench hosting...Ric's only my 5 largest went onto it all 50mm dia+
Overall layout now (you can see the home owner looking out at the camera up in the penthouse :) ).
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/rockysnewcorallayout.jpg/]
[/URL]
The Ric Bench hosting my largest Ric's might move the front 2 grey ones on the left back a bit and bring the other 2 forward seeing as those back 2 have nicer colors then the ones in front of them.
Here are the Elephant Ear Morphs, you can clearly see the 'damage' to the plateau at this angle however this isn't a normal viewing angle and it's the most side view shot I could actually get, front on the Brown & Gold Elephant Ear hangs over that 'damage' enough to hide it :D love it when that sorta stuff works out!
This is the lone fluffy in detail, you could see it in the previous pic but not clearly not exactly a 'prize winner' in my books (I think I was just trying to round off the final bill and looked for something cheap to fill it in), this mushie will likely be moved else where in the future.
Here is my version of a picture edited/cropped for only the focused area left, it's of my 'lesser' hammer (being 1 color and the other being 2).
Finally a multi mushie image with Rocky in it too :) he is more aggressive and interactive now then ever...his interaction stems from me taking close up pictures, so if my camera is situated near a entry/exit point, Rocky will swim to that point from within the PVC and threaten/defend it by poking out in an intimidating fashion, it's a good sign at least for the stomatopods health :D
More to come :D
I also placed all the zoas together and on the substrate, replacing the 3 clusters acting as the lowest entry/exit points 'mat' with my nice superman with electric green/yellow rim mushies, where the Xenia was my lone fluffy morph sits and where the Zoas up top use to sit the small Blasto colony now resides. In place of the Goni I added 3 more Ric's to that 2nd largest plateau and now it is a true Ric only bench hosting...Ric's only my 5 largest went onto it all 50mm dia+
Overall layout now (you can see the home owner looking out at the camera up in the penthouse :) ).
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/rockysnewcorallayout.jpg/]
[/URL]The Ric Bench hosting my largest Ric's might move the front 2 grey ones on the left back a bit and bring the other 2 forward seeing as those back 2 have nicer colors then the ones in front of them.
Here are the Elephant Ear Morphs, you can clearly see the 'damage' to the plateau at this angle however this isn't a normal viewing angle and it's the most side view shot I could actually get, front on the Brown & Gold Elephant Ear hangs over that 'damage' enough to hide it :D love it when that sorta stuff works out!
This is the lone fluffy in detail, you could see it in the previous pic but not clearly not exactly a 'prize winner' in my books (I think I was just trying to round off the final bill and looked for something cheap to fill it in), this mushie will likely be moved else where in the future.
Here is my version of a picture edited/cropped for only the focused area left, it's of my 'lesser' hammer (being 1 color and the other being 2).
Finally a multi mushie image with Rocky in it too :) he is more aggressive and interactive now then ever...his interaction stems from me taking close up pictures, so if my camera is situated near a entry/exit point, Rocky will swim to that point from within the PVC and threaten/defend it by poking out in an intimidating fashion, it's a good sign at least for the stomatopods health :D
More to come :D
Went back to my LFS today and really scoured through their Mushy tank with a fine tooth pic :) in search of something other then plain orange or plain green and again I came up with the goods :D found a few various different types, they actually had Superman Rhodactis in there too all for the same price of $7.95 ea so I took what I saw of them (having paid $40 for 1 at a different LFS) I also spied what I thought to be a dead/dying coral 'lump' but it's actually a mushy! It is bright white whitch a tinge of fluro green/yellow over it, very unique I have never seen one this bright, it's just very small about the size of a pinky nail, can't wait for it to open up a little then switch off the white lights (leaving online the blue on) because even though both lights are on rite now, that tiny little morph is the brightest thing in the tank xD...
Also picked up a few more victims >:) got a handful of the common chromii & also got another sick fish thrown at me this time an Angel fish though o_O... I told them that the battle between the trigger & Leviathan is still on going and that the Angel would be too large for Morgoth to bring down, they gave it too me anyway...lol.
Last time I recorded Morgoth was on the 23rd of Dec last month, taking down a stripey as soon as the handful of Chromii landed in the water in his tank he poked his eyes and antenna up through the sand (Chromii were all placed in STAND C but in a half not inhabited by a spearer), the leviathan seems really interested in this Angel (having placed the angel on the other side of the spearers divider), The Leviathan is poking a good 3-4inchs out of the sand as if trying to get a better look at the angel...this is the first time I have witnessed this
Pics of the shrooms as they open up and vids of the live prey inc. :D
Also picked up a few more victims >:) got a handful of the common chromii & also got another sick fish thrown at me this time an Angel fish though o_O... I told them that the battle between the trigger & Leviathan is still on going and that the Angel would be too large for Morgoth to bring down, they gave it too me anyway...lol.
Last time I recorded Morgoth was on the 23rd of Dec last month, taking down a stripey as soon as the handful of Chromii landed in the water in his tank he poked his eyes and antenna up through the sand (Chromii were all placed in STAND C but in a half not inhabited by a spearer), the leviathan seems really interested in this Angel (having placed the angel on the other side of the spearers divider), The Leviathan is poking a good 3-4inchs out of the sand as if trying to get a better look at the angel...this is the first time I have witnessed this
Pics of the shrooms as they open up and vids of the live prey inc. :D
A few more pics :D
This is my plain hammer (1 color throughout), this is with both white and blue LEDs on.
Reverse Frogspawn Green Stems & Purple Tip.
Frogspawn Green Tip & Purple Stems.
2 of the 3 Supermaniac Rhodactis :) again got these for a steal at only $7.95 e.a. :D (rather then $40 else where).
Finally there are 3 different Morph types in this pic with the far left 1 being mostly cut out due to it being a common green one but with orange pok a dots (the pok a dots is why I got it :P) the other on the far right is a purple type with a dark green star/flower pattern over it just like the Supermaniac Rhodactis but different colors and slightly larger...however none compare to the tiny morph in the center...the Fluro yellow/green tiny morph that I thought was fresh dead coral :D...can't wait to see this little bright beauty get larger!
FCS (Full Compartment Shot) take note, even though that tiny fluro morph is basically the size of a pinky nail...it still stands out even in the FCS shot! :D
More to come! :D
This is my plain hammer (1 color throughout), this is with both white and blue LEDs on.
Reverse Frogspawn Green Stems & Purple Tip.
Frogspawn Green Tip & Purple Stems.
2 of the 3 Supermaniac Rhodactis :) again got these for a steal at only $7.95 e.a. :D (rather then $40 else where).
Finally there are 3 different Morph types in this pic with the far left 1 being mostly cut out due to it being a common green one but with orange pok a dots (the pok a dots is why I got it :P) the other on the far right is a purple type with a dark green star/flower pattern over it just like the Supermaniac Rhodactis but different colors and slightly larger...however none compare to the tiny morph in the center...the Fluro yellow/green tiny morph that I thought was fresh dead coral :D...can't wait to see this little bright beauty get larger!
FCS (Full Compartment Shot) take note, even though that tiny fluro morph is basically the size of a pinky nail...it still stands out even in the FCS shot! :D
More to come! :D
Just found out what that tiny little green mantis species is...G.falcatus ='[
Since going into his temp home with PVC I have never seen him and just then I tilted the PVC so the entrance could be seen and more importantly the inside, looking at it face to face I could see the Pale green/Pale yellow meral spot with white ring around it which is the I.D. of G.falcatus.
Since going into his temp home with PVC I have never seen him and just then I tilted the PVC so the entrance could be seen and more importantly the inside, looking at it face to face I could see the Pale green/Pale yellow meral spot with white ring around it which is the I.D. of G.falcatus.
A large and angry spearer is a daunting thought already but when the spearer comes out of it's burrow to make itself even more intimidating it's a frightening sight...here The Leviathan now truly fed up with being incapable of catching the latest intended prey starts to try and scare the fish to death by coming out of the burrow more and giving of threatening intimidating displays of power and aggression, at full "threat" (when he opens his raptorial appendages as wide as he can, too look bigger) he is over 6inchs wide around the head, I actually suspect he cannot open his raptorial appendages to full extension for threats because the tank is to slim...these threatening displays from such a timid species is a rare sight and it seems to me that if you want to invoke this behavior, give the stomatopod something slightly larger something you know it can take down but not with ease :), thus frustrating the stomatopod and making it angry.
There was also round the board dead food offerings this evening, just some simple prawn flesh :) of all the stomatopods I only captured Nicole & Tintin in photos :P I guess they were all starving xD...
Nicole
Tintin
More to come :P
There was also round the board dead food offerings this evening, just some simple prawn flesh :) of all the stomatopods I only captured Nicole & Tintin in photos :P I guess they were all starving xD...
Nicole
Tintin
More to come :P
The Lord & Master of STAND C now truly fed up with his large live food offerings and inability to catch them...turns his angry threatening glare upon me! As I attempted to get a close up of just his eyes poking out of the sand...he launched out, through his arms up in defiance and put on a threatening intimidating display of power, all the other shots I have got of him during this 'anger period' have been directed at prey so he is facing them and hard to get a good shot...in this he was facing me and that threat was directed at me...
Who said large spearers weren't interactive ?
Who said large spearers weren't interactive ?
Finally.....
After a month and a half of searching with absolutely NOTHING to go off and no help in my hunt...I found the name to the piece of Music I was searching for & find the song by itself (was in a trailer so had other noises too).
It'll be in the next short video (1-2min) that I make.
EEEEEE been searching so long.....became a member on so many random forums to get help....finally!!!!!!!!!
After a month and a half of searching with absolutely NOTHING to go off and no help in my hunt...I found the name to the piece of Music I was searching for & find the song by itself (was in a trailer so had other noises too).
It'll be in the next short video (1-2min) that I make.
EEEEEE been searching so long.....became a member on so many random forums to get help....finally!!!!!!!!!
Well as soon as I found the music I had long been searching for...I couldn't wait to put it into a video :p and this is the result, it is based off the 2007 Earth movie trailer by DisneyNature, it was so hard to find this music....
1080p HD capability
Hope you like it :D
1080p HD capability
Hope you like it :D
Glad you enjoyed it :)
I plan to make a 10 part series on stomatopods soon, detailing individual species and having myself talk to the camera describing them etc. just like a show on Nat Geo / Discovery etc. Each episode will be based around a single species that I have although multiple specimens might be involved in the episode (so it's not individual based) for example when I talk about the G.smithii (likely the first episode) I will have all of my G.smithii (inc Zuzu the unique) in it.
Rather then focus entirely on the natural habitats etc. of the stomatopod (there will be short info on them in the wild) I am going to make it more aquarium based, there is little information on stomatopods in general (like in the wild) and there is even less information on stomatopods for aquariums.
The music from my latest video will be the opening for the series (albeit modified for the YouTube series).
As a bit of a laugh I also found the discovery channel song 'Boom de ya da' where the film starts off with 2 astronauts singing in space :) "I love the mountains, I love the clear blue skies, I love big bridges, I love when Great Whites fly...etc." then many different Discovery channel shows & people from them say something that they love about the earth, well I added my own little short slots, with 1 of me saying "I love stomatopods" whilst I'm looking close up at 1 of mine & another of the juggernaut (replacing optimus prime) smashing twice saying "Boom de ya da, Boom De ya DA!" :)
Considering how short each change is it won't take long however finding the rite place to put 'I love stomatopods' is something else all together, the whole song rhymes and I don't want my words to be indifferent :)
Will post when I complete it :P
I plan to make a 10 part series on stomatopods soon, detailing individual species and having myself talk to the camera describing them etc. just like a show on Nat Geo / Discovery etc. Each episode will be based around a single species that I have although multiple specimens might be involved in the episode (so it's not individual based) for example when I talk about the G.smithii (likely the first episode) I will have all of my G.smithii (inc Zuzu the unique) in it.
Rather then focus entirely on the natural habitats etc. of the stomatopod (there will be short info on them in the wild) I am going to make it more aquarium based, there is little information on stomatopods in general (like in the wild) and there is even less information on stomatopods for aquariums.
The music from my latest video will be the opening for the series (albeit modified for the YouTube series).
As a bit of a laugh I also found the discovery channel song 'Boom de ya da' where the film starts off with 2 astronauts singing in space :) "I love the mountains, I love the clear blue skies, I love big bridges, I love when Great Whites fly...etc." then many different Discovery channel shows & people from them say something that they love about the earth, well I added my own little short slots, with 1 of me saying "I love stomatopods" whilst I'm looking close up at 1 of mine & another of the juggernaut (replacing optimus prime) smashing twice saying "Boom de ya da, Boom De ya DA!" :)
Considering how short each change is it won't take long however finding the rite place to put 'I love stomatopods' is something else all together, the whole song rhymes and I don't want my words to be indifferent :)
Will post when I complete it :P
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