So it has been a few trying months since I have posted here and thought I would bring you guys up to date on the tank.
My 75 gal sps tank was just hitting its stride at the 16 month mark when my condo association was conned into throwing a circus tent over the building to kill all the termites. I had to move everything off site for three days which set me back substantially.
I was only homeless for a few days but I had already started to drink.
Luckily that was a temporary thing and I got the tank set back up at home after five days of drunken hell.
Of course everything that I thought would stress out did fine and everything that I thought would do fine stressed out; including me.
Ended up loseing one nice blue tort which I probably gave up on too soon when it bleached 80 percent and pitched it in impatience and frustration.
A week or so after getting set back up at home a fellow reefer wants to gift me a starving copper band. Ya this is exactly the time I should be doing this.
After visiting his tank and seeing the terrible state of starvation this poor little fish was in I did not ask any questions took him in.
I then proceeded to pollute my tank with over feedings of every prepared food I could get my hands on and no dice: no copper band eat. I finally resorted to gut loading live adult brine which I think saved this fishes life. He would eat it.
Needless to say purchasing, gut loading and feeding adult brine was getting old fast. I then thought back to my fresh water days when I use to go to the pond down the road and collect grass shrimp and daphnia to feed my cichlids.
It then occurred to me that I live in south west Florida and work six days a week about 20 yards from a saltwater grass flat. Five minutes of waving a medium size brine net over the top of the grass yielded about 200 micro shrimp; tiny little guys and many of them mysis. Takes longer to clean the debris and unwanted items out of the catch than it does to catch them.
Copper band eats!!!
Of course all the other fish eat them too. I shut down the return pump and toss about 50 or so in and then repeat in the evening and let nature take its course.
Surpriseling few end up in the filter sock after turning the sump pump back on and it might just be me but it seems that all of my fish exhibit a more natural behavior knowing that a live food supply is in the tank through out the day.
The copper band in particular will hunt even when not hungry rousting out the shrimp that have managed to hide in the rock and letting the other fish come in and take them up.
I have not fed any of the frozen stuff for some time now but I have a freezer full of it.
It seems that everything happens for a reason. Even in the reef tank world and the world of termite tents.
My 75 gal sps tank was just hitting its stride at the 16 month mark when my condo association was conned into throwing a circus tent over the building to kill all the termites. I had to move everything off site for three days which set me back substantially.
I was only homeless for a few days but I had already started to drink.
Luckily that was a temporary thing and I got the tank set back up at home after five days of drunken hell.
Of course everything that I thought would stress out did fine and everything that I thought would do fine stressed out; including me.
Ended up loseing one nice blue tort which I probably gave up on too soon when it bleached 80 percent and pitched it in impatience and frustration.
A week or so after getting set back up at home a fellow reefer wants to gift me a starving copper band. Ya this is exactly the time I should be doing this.
After visiting his tank and seeing the terrible state of starvation this poor little fish was in I did not ask any questions took him in.
I then proceeded to pollute my tank with over feedings of every prepared food I could get my hands on and no dice: no copper band eat. I finally resorted to gut loading live adult brine which I think saved this fishes life. He would eat it.
Needless to say purchasing, gut loading and feeding adult brine was getting old fast. I then thought back to my fresh water days when I use to go to the pond down the road and collect grass shrimp and daphnia to feed my cichlids.
It then occurred to me that I live in south west Florida and work six days a week about 20 yards from a saltwater grass flat. Five minutes of waving a medium size brine net over the top of the grass yielded about 200 micro shrimp; tiny little guys and many of them mysis. Takes longer to clean the debris and unwanted items out of the catch than it does to catch them.
Copper band eats!!!
Of course all the other fish eat them too. I shut down the return pump and toss about 50 or so in and then repeat in the evening and let nature take its course.
Surpriseling few end up in the filter sock after turning the sump pump back on and it might just be me but it seems that all of my fish exhibit a more natural behavior knowing that a live food supply is in the tank through out the day.
The copper band in particular will hunt even when not hungry rousting out the shrimp that have managed to hide in the rock and letting the other fish come in and take them up.
I have not fed any of the frozen stuff for some time now but I have a freezer full of it.
It seems that everything happens for a reason. Even in the reef tank world and the world of termite tents.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire