George Monnat Jr

I finally caught one of the big Pacific Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp! I used the net and got it cornered against the front glass. I almost got a second one. I also pulled out one my Emerald Crabs, because it has grown big enough to where I'm not comfortable with it around my Sexy Shrimp.

Mitch, victoly, or Brian, do any of you wish to come by tomorrow and pick up the shrimp? I have it in a bucket of DT water I just pulled out for a water change.

Look up John Hoover's book and now an App. Everyone in HI knows his publication on identification of fish and inverts. I personally like to flip through the book pages while on the dive boat, great stories in it about certain species he's collected over several decades. The App is very user friendly and is fun to go through w lots of species while on dry land. Happy diving.

Last year while diving there I picked up his Hawaii's Sea Creatures: A Guide to Hawaii's Marine Invertebrates, but the dive shop didn't have the others. A few weeks ago I got in Hawaii's Fishes : A Guide for Snorkelers and Divers and Reef Fish Hawaii: Waterproof Pocket Guide. You're right, they're great references. I hadn't heard about the app, so thanks for that. I wish I could put it on my dive computer.

Sounds like a dream vacation.

It would be if I didn't have to sleep in my mother-in-law's bed...

I was watching Burn Notice with the wife a few days ago and happened to pause it with Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) on the screen. I thought it would be fun to have people caption this. If you're a fan of Burn Notice or Bruce -or not- have a go.

Last December, Mitch gave me a Leather Coral. I think it's a Yellow Fiji Leather Coral (Sarcophyton elegans). He said it wasn't doing well in his clean tank and thought it might do in my dirtier one (I have mostly corallimorphs). It appears to be doing well, now.

New Leather Coral on 18 December 2012 (one day after introduction)

Same Leather Coral on 22 January 2013

My tests and RCA's show zero phosphate, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels, but they can be masked by stuff sucking it up. I tend to feed heavily for all my crustaceans, but they're really a giant CUC. I run a big skimmer and a GFO RX, too.

The cyano and bubble algae are still growing, too, but I'm slowly winning that battle. Just came back after being out-of-state for a full week, and the cyano had exploded. But that's another story.

I couldn't find it locally when I started. I ordered a half dozen bags from here:

Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime

It's about 1.5-2 years worth, and I use it heavily.

Last weekend I took out a LR that had cyano, bubble algae and hair algae on it along with a small patch of GSP and blasted it with H2O2 then scrubbed it with RODI. The GSP stayed closed for 3-4 days, so I was sure I killed it. It just started opening back up! As Bio3 said, lots of people can give you some, including me. But mine isn't the nicer neon green.

In my 6' 125g I have:

1 large (2") Tiger Pistol/Snapping Shrimp (Alpheus bellulus) <from 2011 20gal>

12 small (1/4"-1/2") Sexy Shrimp (Thor amboinensis)

3 huge (2") Pacific Scarlet/Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)

2 medium (1.5") Blood Red Fire Shrimp (Lysmata debelius)

3 large (1.5”-2”) Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni complex) [had 6 of them, but gave 3 away]

2 medium (1.5”) Peacock-Tail/White Spot/White-patched/Glass/Pacific Clown Anemone Shrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis)

1 medium (1”) Spotted Cleaner/Commensal/Anemone Shrimp (Periclimenes yucatanicus) [had 2, one is MIA]

1 medium (1”) Porcelain Rock Crab (Petrolisthes galathinus)

2 medium (1”) Porcelain Anemone Crabs (Neopetrolisthes ohshimai)

1 medium (1”) Porcelain Anemone Crabs (Neopetrolisthes maculatus)

4 small (3/4”) Porcelain Rock Crabs (Petrolisthes sp.)

I've never seen an issue between shrimp or porcelain crabs, except the biggest Porcelain Anemone Crab (Neopetrolisthes ohshimai) was a bully. I removed it and gave it away. The biggest problem becomes keeping them fed so they don't eat whatever is growing nearby without messing up the water. Oh, I strongly recommend you don't get Coral Banded Shrimp or Sally Lightfoot Crabs. Pretty much any of the anemone shrimp or crabs are peaceful (when not fighting over the same host). I've gotten to where I love the ornamental crustaceans more than the fish.

Edit: a wrasse will eat Sexy Shrimp and smaller individuals of any crustacean.

I had some when I first started up my tank. There was a huge head that broke off, so I put it in my 20g. The Peppermint Shrimp in there got hungry and ate the whole thing. It disappeared in my 125g, and I think the Peppermint ate it there, too. They left the Lobophora, but all the Sargassum is gone. I kinda miss it.

Which LFS and how much? I'd like to get some for my tank. Is it growing fast while not being grazed upon?

My wife and I are visiting her family in Honolulu around April 1st, 2013. Our dive buddy is going, too. We plan on doing as much diving as possible. If anyone happens to be on Oahu at the same time, you're more than welcome to dive with us. My buddy will have his dive camera; a real one, not like mine. Anyone have requests for pictures of their favorite species in the wild?

Hi George,

I have my colony mid to upper part of tank under Cree LED. There is a tunze controllable pump blasting right above it too.

Temp has been around 77.2-78.7 but can get up to 81 before. PH swing from 7.9-8.2.

Sorry i haven't tested my water para for awhile to get u numbers. Just incase...pm me if they don't turn happy again

No problem, that's good enough. It seems like you have them under higher light and flow than most suggest, but they're reproducing. I moved them to a nearby spot and they seem happier so far. Thanks.

The ones I got from you were doing great but have been looking less happy lately. I changed my temperature from 80 to 78 and managed to get my pH consistently higher from 8.1 to 8.22. I don't know if those changes or something else upset them. What parameters are yours at and shade and flow, because they seem to be very happy in your tank.

Yea, the big shrimp I have do the same thing, which is why I've been trying to catch and relocate them.

Or paly-toxin.

Before I put together my ATO, I used this with a 5L Tupperware bin I bought at Wal-mart placed above my sump:

A Simple DIY Kalk Dripper

From OB yesterday:

The immediate question after the game centers on the junior tackle duo of Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews. Word on the street is they made a pact to either stay or leave together for the upcoming NFL Draft.

I'm sure I am about to catch some heat for this but I think A&M got lucky drawing Oklahoma for the bowl game. Oklahoma always plays terrible in bowl games.

No grief here, I honestly believe Stoops focuses his entire year planning against UT and getting his players up for the RRS. I think that's why OU whoops UT most years then sucks post-season.

You know who else wasn't a good team? The 2011 longhorns, and they beat a QB that is starting in the NFL, with Von Miller, and both top 10 OTs. I totally agree that the team Texas fielded this year is mediocre, and that Manziel is the best DB texas didn't offer at QB (except for RGIII...)

I have a ton of Aggie co-workers, friends and family (and of course vet). They're good people (almost all) and I'm happy to enjoy their whooping of OU with them for the next year instead of half of us upset at the other half. It's really nice.

I really hope the Ags do well next year, too (but UT does better ). I hope the other SEC teams don't figure out Johnny over the off-season and plan solely to combat that.

I mix 1 cup 5% distilled white vinegar (from HEB) and 15 tsp Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime into a 5g bucket of RO/DI for my ATO. It takes 3-4 days to pump that all in, so it's about 0.5 ml/g/day of vinegar for carbon dosing while working my way up to 0.7 ml/g/day. Lots of people have had good success around 0.7 ml/g/day, but one experiment showed that 2 ml/g/day of vinegar-equivalent carbon dosing can be bad. The vinegar and kalkwasser in my ATO bucket keeps my pH at a steady 8.2, keeps my dKH and Ca high and doses carbon for healthy bacteria levels. I do occasionally check and add Mg, but the SW mixes normally add enough to keep that high, too.

Here's a good article:

http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/breefcase/kalkwasser.html

Edit: forgot to mention that all of the above is very cheap, too.

Not me, still able to say "first, most and last" without facing Johnny Football and the fired up Ags is fine with me. UT still isn't a good team. My wife and I came this >< close to leaving the Alamo Bowl at half time to get some sleep before our nieces baptism the next morning. Luckily we stayed (sleep less important).

The human/media polls have TAMU around 5 and looking forward to the BCS final (not that the BCS is a good system, but football is about to go away for 8+ months).

I'm still sooooooo happy that OU played in the Cotton Bowl instead of UT

To you Aggies (T-sip here, saying congrats and great game), you've got the best o-line in college football. Sherman installed it (he's an o-line first guy). How many of them are leaving, and who's your new o-line coach? It annoyed me last night that Musburger (don't care if that's misspelled) kept slobbering over Bama's o-line saying it was the best.

That is very pricey, especially for the hotel that is included. Unless it includes your dives in the rates. My wife and I went for 5 days to a 4 star all inclusive resort for a total of $1400. I don't think the hotel Cozumel is even all inclusive. If your dates are flexible, definitely check Expedia or Travelocity.

Yes, it includes multiple dives with air and weights.

I think the biggest (worst) surprises for me cost-wise were the live rock (LR) and lights. If you want a reef tank, you need plenty of both. You can try to buy second-hand LR over time as people break down their tanks, and you can build your own LED setups.

That was a total whoopin'.