Elos Mini build thread (new photos page 14)

[Anonymous]

Well one bit of good news. I stopped by a hardware shop on the way home to pick up a carbide cutter, but unfortunately discovered they close at 1 on friday. So I came home and tried cutting the frag disks/plugs with one of the accessories I did have lying around, a reinforced cut-off wheel. To my surprise it actually managed the job quite well. I'll still get the carbide bit, but in the meantime at least I can get these couple of frags mounted.

And the cut-off head of xenia appeared. Just floating along the sand bed when I came home. So whatever the critter is who keeps laying into them, he doesn't always seem to eat them. Seems to reinforce the idea of it being a decorator crab, but I checked that lose sympodium I mentioned and there's no sign of him there.

 

[Anonymous]

Alright. Bad news....

All the xenia circled in red has been eaten in the past seven days.

Good (sort of) news...
I'm now pretty sure the problem is a eunicid worm. Based on the amount of xenia that goes missing at a time and the gash marks left behind, if it is a worm eating it I'd have to guess it to be between 1/4" and 3/8" wide, which on a eunicid would imply a body length of around 8". At that size most eunicids are primarily detrivores... but even at that size, they have a taste for xenia and will eat it preferentially.

I never find any tracks in the sand near the affected colonies; a eunicid wouldn't leave any, since they extend their bodies from holes in the rockwork.

I never see the culprit; eunicid's only come out at night and are shy even then. The slightest movement or vibration and they retract completely into their holes almost instantly.

Nothing gets touched other than xenia; larger eunicids will happily eat just about anything in a reef tank, but even then they prefer soft corals. Smaller ones however are predominantly harmless, aside from their xenia chomping.

The xenia that's left behind when some is taken has ragged edges, more consistant with having been the subject of many bites than of being cut repeatedly with sharp claws. Eunicids have five sets of jaws and powerful bites.

The xenia that's taken is dragged away. This is definitely consistant with a eunicid, who would bring it's food back with it to it's hole when it withdraws.

It's all circumstantial evidence, but it fits. The downside is that eunicids are the devil to remove. Since they never completely leave their holes when foraging, conventional worm type traps don't work. Nor would a piano key door trap. Spotting one is difficult, attempting to grab one with forceps if you actually do see it is almost impossible due to how quickly they withdraw into their holes, and worse, their bodies are designed to break off if grabbed with both segments growing back into healthy worms.

I'm going to make an assumption that the eunicid lives in the same rock as his food source. It's got plenty of holes and cavities, and it makes sense for it to live close to it's meals. I'm going to remove what's left of the xenia elongata from that rock, then remove that rock from the tank. Not guaranteed I'll get the worm that way, but it's worth a shot as a first step.

 

[Anonymous]

A quick way to test your hypothesis is to get some plain club soda, enough to cover the rock in a bucket and dunk it (once you take off the xenia). Anything living in the rock will come out in a red hot hurry, I've used this method lots of times and it always works.

If the bugger pops out you can nail him then rinse the rock in SW and put it back in the tank without worries it's got tenants.

Good Luck and Good Hunting 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Well, just came from hunting. Mixed results.

Removed the remaining xenia from the rock and tied it down to some frag discs before anything else. Then I took the rock, put it in a plastic bowl and poured in seltzer. No worm. Couple of bugs, nothing very large at all. After letting the rock sit in the bowl of seltzer for a few seconds something unexpected worked it's way out of one of the smaller holes in the rock, though....

The head of xenia that went missing yesterday.

The seltzer bubbles forced it out, it had been wedged into a hole so deep it wasn't visible at all til it worked it's way out. I left the rock in the seltzer for a few minutes afterwards hoping the worm would flush itself out, too, but nothing further emerged. Still, I'm hoping that the recently cut-and-made-off-with head of xenia being inside the rock means whatever was responsible - be it worm or anything else - was in there too. I've disposed of the rock itself. Truth be told it was always my least favorite rock in the aquascape anyways.

The remaining xenia elongata is in the tank, tied down to discs. If it's all still there in two weeks I'll call this a success and get a replacement rock.... phishy business sells some great, cured, 90% coralline encrusted nano rock for $12 a pound, and I can snag a small piece from them. If the xenia elongata that remains goes poof before then, then I'll know I wasn't successfull and will have to try something else.

Everyone cross your fingers for me. I really, really would have preferred to have a confirmed kill but I'm trying to stay hopeful.

 

[Anonymous]

hope it worked. You'll know if the other stalks get munched tonight I'd think...

 

[Anonymous]

It's not usually an every night muncher. Usually every week, maybe a little less often. So I figure if the tank gets through two weeks without any signs, that'll do.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear that your varmit problem continues. Were you not tempted to break the rock apart to confirm either way whether there was something inside the rock? I ended up half destroying one of my pieces of live rock a couple of weekends ago to really confirm that the coral eating worm inside my Lobo frag really had been the one I found when I took the rock it had been sitting on apart.

I now have a lot of LR fragments in my fuge...

 

[Anonymous]

Well, all the xenia elongata is still there this morning so so far, so good

Didn't even cross my mind Tom, to be honest. Probably should have but it just didn't even occur to me.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe it's the part of me that wants to poke at an open wound with my finger, but despite myself I can't rest until I've seen my foul adversary! :lol:

BTW, I'm really liking the look of the tank. 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks - this is still just the embryo stage though, really. The end goal is to have not a single bit of bare rock showing. With the blue snowflakes, that's not an unreasonable goal

 

[Anonymous]

Just remember to keep the front glass clear so that you can see in. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

It's not usually an every night muncher. Usually every week, maybe a little less often. So I figure if the tank gets through two weeks without any signs, that'll do.

Knock on wood, but.... one week down and no more missing xenia. I'm genuinely hopeful at this point that removing that one rock removed whatever my problem child was. If another week passes without incident, I'll order a replacement rock.

In other news, I'm not sure if I've previously mentioned my hifin goby now occasionally occupies the burrow my pistol shrimp lives in. He seems to be only a part time resident, spending abou half his time elsewhere in the tank and usually sleeping on the open sandbed. Either way though it means he's spending a lot more time out in full view now, which is also a blessing in terms of keeping him fed. His being there has definitely emboldened the pistol shrimp who now occasionally is willing to come completely out of his burrow if it means there's food for him.

Not one of the more colorful pistol shrimps. He's a bout 1.5" long, predominantly brown shading to green with some yellowish markings.

 

[Anonymous]

Two weeks since I removed that one rock and nothing has been eaten or gone missing since. I think whatever my problem hitchhiker was, removing that rock took care of it. The xenia elongata that I saved from that rock has gone absolutely gangbusters, more than doubling in size in that time.

I'm hitting that tank 'sweet spot' right about on schedule... five months in. Nuisance algaes have disappeared, skimmer is producing a consistant and small amount of skimmate weekly, corals are growing and spreading. Once I pick up the new rock to replace the one I removed I can settle in to the long-term enjoyment phase

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent news! I'm hitting a bit of a nasty spot, with my Dictyota and some other problem algae. I need to get back to where you are.

 

[Anonymous]

Dictyota can be a pain. Foxface, rabbitfish, sea hares... about the only things I know of that eat it. And it's tendency for pieces to break off, float around, then start growing wherever they settle is no fun. Honestly, if it's confined to just one or two rocks I recommend taking them out of the display, keep'em in the dark in the sump for a couple weeks. Simplest way to deal with it.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, but I think I've gone beyond that stage now unfortunately, as there are little bits of it all over the place. After exhaustive research, the best bet seems to be a program of dosing Algaefix, which has done the job for a fellow reefer over here and, dosed properly, seems to have few negative side effects. Will be ordering some tonight, along with a couple of GAC/GFO reactors to limit problem algae growth in the future.

 

[Anonymous]

Still haven't picked up the new rock, but wanted to mention that two of the redspot cardinals have paired up and started breeding. The male had a mouthful of eggs for a few days, but as of yesterday he's no longer holding. Haven't seen any fry, so I'm assuming he swallowed the eggs. Not uncommon with other mouthbrooders their first time out, so hopefully he'll get the hang of it next time.

If memory serves Kevin Kohen bred these guys a couple years ago and raised the fry. I'll have to track down his posts on the topic and see what his experience was.

The bad news is that the normally mild-mannered redspots start displaying aggression towards the other members of their school when they start breeding. I've lost one of the odd men out, and a second is starting to look seriously worse for wear. In a larger tank it might not be such a large factor, but the elos mini is tight on space and it's tough for them to get away from each other.

 

[Anonymous]

Eeek. Randy Red Spots are clearly a different proposition. Down to three now? I might have to rethink my stocking plans (still yet to buy some of these myself).

 

[Anonymous]

Yup, three. I wasn't expecting the aggression between them when breeding but in retrospect I probably should have. It's certainly common enough amongst other species of cardinals.

Honestly, in a tank your size I wouldn't think it would be a problem. Even less of one if you have a larger grouping of them to spread the aggression between multiple targets. I've got both those factors working against me; smaller tank and small group.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I have a lot to think about with my next stocking move, but a group of free swimming cardinals might be just the ticket. Do they retreat to the rockwork at night or stay in the open?