Pom-Pom Xenia Update

My new Pom-Pom Xenia was pulsing a little bit last night. It was kind of difficult to tell how much because the current would cause it to sway and tended to keep its polyps mostly closed. Not clenched shut like a fist but but the current wouldn't allow them to open all the way. This coral, by the way, is on the opposite side of my tank from the powerhead that I had running.

I unplugged the powerhead to see how this would affect the coral. Within a few seconds the coral came alive like the finale of a fireworks display. All of the polyps were constantly closing and opening at random times. Pretty amazing to watch. I really hope I can get this one to grow and thrive.

Red Scooter Blenny

While at Beyond the Reef on Thursday I decided to pick up a Red Scooter Blenny. They had red ones and they had the normal brownish grey ones. I thought the red would stand out more so I payed the extra $10 for him. It turns out that when he is sitting on the rocks he is difficult to see because the red blends in with the Coralline. It's a cool fish to watch scoot around looking for food. They have oversized ventral fins that they perch on. They spend much more time resting on these fins than they do swimming. It essentially uses these fins as legs.


Looking at this fish makes you think about the resemblance to Tiktaalik as discussed in Neal Shubin's book Your Inner Fish. It also resembles the Darwin fish car plaques that show the tiny legs protruding from the fish's body. Also take a look at their eyes. Click on the picture above to zoom way in. Their eyes look like lizard eyes. What will the descendants of Scooter Blennys look like in a few million years? Will they some day leave the ocean floor and head for the beach? Maybe they will if we humans don't manage to destroy their habitat first.

Shrinkage

My poor Xenia has shrunk away to practically nothing. It's still there but it is almost microscopic. The arrows in the picture point to what is left. I have no idea why it did this. All of my other corals are growing.

Perhaps it is not to be in my tank. Maybe my temperature, 78deg F, is too high. Perhaps it likes a slightly different salinity or different lighting. Who knows? This is supposed to be an easy beginner's coral but I have not been able to get it to thrive. Even in failure I'm amazed at what this Xenia has done. What other animal shrinks and shrivels away to nothing? Animals, in general,grow throughout their lives until they reach their final size and then die. This thing has shrunk down to the point where it is about to disappear. It still has the little coral polyps but they are tiny. How has it done this? Can you imagine an ill human shrinking away to oblivion? It just doesn't happen. Perhaps it would if we didn't have skeletons.

I do love the look of a pulsing colony of Xenia. I walked into Beyond the Reef on Thursday and they have a massive colony of white Pom-Pom Xenia pulsing away in their display tank. It is amazing and hypnotizing to watch. They did have some frags for sale so I bought one. See the picture below. Maybe I'll have better luck with this variety. It is pulsing in my tank albeit a little slower than I would like. Perhaps it too will shrink away to nothing. If it does, I'll give up on Xenia. At least for a while.

Seeing Pink

In my first attempt at a saltwater tank 14 years ago I wanted to grow Coralline algae so badly. I was never able to do it. I was just using the standard lights that came with my tank and I was using tap water. The only thing I was able to get to thrive in my tank was hair algae and a couple of clownfish. Everything else died within a month or so. The clownfish liked it though. They would host inside a patch of hair algae on a piece of lace rock. They wiggled around in that algae just like it was an anemone.

In my current tank I haven't seen any hair algae. There may have been a little on one of the pieces of live rock that I put in the tank. However, it quickly disappeared. This tank is definitely dominated by the pinks, purples and even some greens of Coralline algae. It continues to spread like crazy. When I saw the the first circles of the algae on the glass I was overjoyed. Now, however, the algae is starting to become somewhat of a pain. I have a hard time keeping up with it. Even though I clean your typical green, red and brown algaes off the front glass every few days with my magnet cleaner this doesn't keep the coralline under control. Once it takes root it has to be scraped off with a razor blade. It is especially bad at the sand bed where I'm afraid to clean with the magnet cleaner for fear of trapping sand in the cleaner and scratching the glass.

The following pictures were taken yesterday. This is approximately five months after starting my tank.

If you are curious you can look at the pictures from January 13th, 2008 and October 17th, 2007 for reference.

I know lots of people would love to have this problem. It does indeed look nice and I don't want it to go away. However, it does tend to increase the maintenance that has to be done. So what am I doing to get the algae to grow so rapidly? I'm not completely sure but here is a list of things that I bet contribute:

1. Only RO/DI water goes into the tank. Never a drop of tap water.
2. 48" Odyssea 260 Watt Power Compact Lights from the Fishman on eBay w/ stock 10000K daylight bulbs and true actinics. Daylight bulbs go on at 8:00 am and turn off at 10:30 pm. Actinics turn on at 7:45 and turn off at 10:45. So, I have roughly 14 1/2 hours of lighting in the tank.
3. Dose with 15 ml of each part of Oceans Blend two part calcium and pH/Alkalinity daily. Well almost daily. If I sleep in after 8:00 on the weekend (pretty much every weekend) I won't dose since the instructions say to dose before the lights come on to avoid pH spikes. My calcium level is at 460ppm.
4. Dose with 1 1/2 cap fulls of Kent Marine Tech I iodine each Sunday.
5. Water change using Instant Ocean every 3 to 4 weeks.
6. Use a protein skimmer.
7. Last but not least live rock. Unlike other algae in your tank the coralline won't show up unless you seed it. You need to add live rock. The rock I bought had a lot of coralline growing on it already. The quality of your rock probably makes a big difference.

That's all I can think of. Good luck on getting Coralline to grow in your tanks.

Crawling Tongue

A few days ago I had to move my tongue coral. This thing moves along the sand bed. It moves at a pace that makes a snail look like it is reved up on Red Bull. Over the course of the last few months it moved from its home between the glass and live rock up to the front glass. It started out parallel to the glass and ended up perpendicular to it. I had to move it so I can clean the glass with my Mag Float glass cleaner.

I have seen the coral move itself at least twice. Each time it only moved a few millimeters. Just before moving the coral changes from brown to green and partially retracted its tentacles. Then, all at once it pushes itself by swelling the tissue that is in contact with the sand bed. It then extended its tentacles and turned brown again. It moves itself just a little bit and then goes back to being its normal sedentary self.


This time I'm going to watch it closely and document its progress as it moves. Here is a photo of its current location.

Hosting Brain Coral

Well, it looks like it's final. My Ocellaris Clownfish has decided that it wants to host in my open brain coral rather than the green bubble tip anemone in the tank. For the last several months the clownfish has hung out near the coral. It would even venture between the walls of the big polyps. Today, I noticed it rubbing around inside a polyp over and over again and sometimes just laying down inside of it. I guess it makes sense. One of the preferred host anemones for the Ocellaris is the giant carpet anemone. This open brain coral resembles a green carpet anemone more than the green bubble tip anemone does.

It is somewhat of a disappointment though because I hoped i would be able to see the clownfish wiggle around inside the tentacles of a real anemone. I knew that it was unlikely that the two would bond when I bought the anemone several months ago but I decided to go for it anyway. This is still fun to watch though.

Your Inner Fish

I just finished reading Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin. My wife reviews books for several blogs and she brought this one home. I picked up before she could read it and couldn't put it down.

This book answered a lot of questions that I always had about human development. Why do almost all animals on earth have pretty much the same body structure? Head and mouth in the front followed by two arms or fins followed by two legs or another fin and of course the anus in the rear. It is written in an easy to read format with just enough science to get the point across but not so much to lose you.

One thing that fascinates me about this hobby is how we get to raise and study animals that don't fit that mold. Anemones and corals don't look anything like us. They look more like plants than animals. The author of this book does devote some of the text to jellyfish, anemones and corals. We actually do share some of our DNA with them. We are more similar than one may think.

Whether or not you believe in evolution or creationism I highly recommend this book. If you are an evolutionist, like I am, you will find this book fascinating. It takes you through the fossil record and describes when different types of animals showed up on this planet. If you are a creationist, don't worry. The author does not shove evolution down your throat. I believe the word is written only one or twice in the entire book. If you believe in a creator you will be amazed by the common genetic formula that exists in us all and how closely we are linked to Gods other creatures. I urge you to give it a try.