iflytoohigh

nope. no extreme cases of released toxins that i know of. i dont even keep zoos. well, just a small patch. i'm starting to think that i have a cursed tank with an awesome clean up crew.

i thought about the mantis thing, but i've never heard any popping noises and if it was a spearer, i probably would have seen him as i look at my tank a lot.

i used to keep dwarf lionfish in my tank. i absolutely love them, but i was scared to stick my hand in the tank to move or feed the corals. so no more venomous fish with pokey spines for me. never got stuck, but i never want to either.

so..i've decided that I'm not going to have fish any more. just corals. i have the absolute worst luck with fish. on top of not being able to properly care for the fish, they just disappear. my parameters check out ok. my corals are doing just fine, but when ever i put a fish in my tank, it either dies, or disappears.

the dead fish i can deal with, but the ones that disappear have me very puzzled. i have a hang on the back refugium. nope, not in there. not in the sump. if it did die, where is the corpse? if it did die, why is there no ammonia spike a few days later? if i move the live rock around, no fishy bodies. i have a cover on the tank, so if they jumped out, they would land in the refugium or possibly get behind the tank. no fish behind the tank. no decomposing fish smell ever either. maybe my dog found them on the floor and ate them? possible, as he will eat anything. is there something in my tank eating my fish?! that is what scares me the most. what if there really is a monster in my tank eating my fish?

could a monster infestation of bristle worms kill a fish and eat it all before an ammonia spike? i did have a problem with bristle worms before i got an arrow crab. now the worms are too scared to come out.

i dont think there is a mantis in my tank as i've never ever ever heard any smashing sounds or seen anything that might look like a mantis and i spend a lot of time looking at the tank.

at any rate, i'm tired of my fish disappearing. anyone have any ideas of what might be happening?

welcome to club A.J. !!

he changes this site layout more often than i do water changes on my fresh water tank.

1. When I was a teenager, I spent a summer working as a carnie and traveled around to different fairs and carnivals , sleeping in an airstream

2. I've been a state champion in wrestling

3. When I first met my wife, this was my pickup line , " I forgot how to tie my shoelaces, so....can i have your phone number?" ( we're married now, so it totally worked )

4. I have a french bulldog named Pudge, but answers to Bubba

5. My first car was an orange 1980 Triumph TR7 convertible

xenia is such a weed. i left a stalk in a 3gal pico with no light and no water changes for 3 months and it was still alive.

sponge

i have a wicked infestation of bristleworms. it is all my fault though. i have no natural predators in my tank and I feed my lps liberally twice a week. those crazy worms have been living the high life until 2 days ago. i got an arrow crab. i did a slow acclimation over a few hours. and within another few hours he had a bristleworm in his claw. now that crab is demolishing any worm he sees. he battled with a particularly big worm for 6 hours yesterday. i saw him when he first yanked it out of the rock and was astounded that such a scrawny looking crab could manhandle a wriggly, fat, pokey worm. it took him a while, but he finally shoved the whole thing in his mouth. all the while that worm was wriggling away getting eaten alive. i almost felt bad for that worm. but not quite

i have no idea what made it crash. from all the people i talked to, they all attributed it to New Tank Syndrome. apparently a tank can go belly up for no apparent reason. well, i fell prey to that. i do know that my calcium level had dipped extremely low and the alkalinity was a little high. i adjusted for the calcium / alk levels, but still a decline in health for my corals. no parasites to be found. i tried running carbon. i tried running rowa-phos. all to no avail. so after losing some corals, i asked BigClay to hold my left overs and just let the tank crash. it went through a cycle again and is just now getting out of the 2nd/3rd algae bloom phase. i kept a piece of cabage coral and dome digitata in the tank for the entire time so i could gauge what was going on in the tank. the cabbage coral is polyping out again and is taking on color and is looking like it used to. the digitata is still hanging in there. it has completely bleached but still polyps out. so, i think it is ready for my old corals again. i'm currently testing it with another coral for a week or so to see if it will be ok. so far so good.

so, where has iflytoohigh been?? did he disappear? no, i didn't disappear but i've been taking a hiatus from the saltwater tanks. i've been letting my tanks cycle for the last few months. my 20 gallon crashed and the same with my 3gal. i was so sad because i lost about half my corals. luckily , BigClay was able to save my favorites (acan lords) by housing them in his 58gal for me. well, it has been about 2-3 months since then and i've done a lots of water changes and my parameters have checked out for the past month. and now it is time to start testing the waters with corals again. oh geez, i can't wait to see my tank with corals in it again. wish me luck!

i will be there. possibly my wife too.

they have a walk up counter. it looks like a wholesaler only, but they also sell to the public. if you buy enough, they will cut it for you. you can also get scrap from them too. you can also get vinyl there. so if you have a vinyl plotter and want to cut out car graphics, you can get good deals there for some vinyl.

well for 1, if you bought it online, there is a 2-4 week wait to get it shipped.

for 2, who wants to wait a year for a super duper gadget!!!?!?!?!

and, at the end of the day, you have a cell phone, a web browser, an ipod , and a super duper gadget that makes your techy geeky friends drool!!

ok. well, the wifey is very interested in having some seahorses. so, i'm in need of some good information. is there a website dedicated to seahorses and pipefish?

ok, i'm off to search the web to find the information i need. just thought i would ask on the boards in case i dont find exactly what i'm looking for.

will a 25gallon tall be adequte for most species?

what about the dwar kind? do they fare better in a smaller tank? like a 3gallon?

all product development is done in cupertino , ca. i am just a lowly computer tech in the education division. but still an apple employee, so free iphone for me!! woohoo!!

if someone is willing to host it, i'm willing to show up with some frags and cash. in fact, i might rename my dogs, Frags and Cash. oh ya! lets try and get a time setup for next month. some time in August? or maybe mid july?

i'll nominate Big Clay's 58 gallon tank. you can see it in his blog?.

hehe. i'm excited about iphone. i work for apple. so, instead of giving out stock at the end of the fiscal quarter. we get iphones this time around. i am quite excited about getting my iphone. WOOHOO!!

how much for the pumps and the brain coral?

I would like to learn more about coral fragging, propagation, cultivation.

how to frag:

softies

LPS

SPS

you know? like acan, favites, acros, dendros, duncans, shrooms, rics, candy canes, etc..etc..

then after you frag em, what do you? how do you treat them? how do you adhere to a rock/frag plug?

what works best? egg crate, sand bed?

what kind of tank? lighting? you know? the works.

oh really?! that would be sweet.

ya. selling/ buying is always an option. just bring some cash. that is what i'm thinking. anyone else up for a frag swap next month or august?

so.....when is the next frag swap? i think we should try and get one planned with the guys from MAAST. maybe we can get a LFS to host it? hey Kingfish? wanna host a frag swap?

ya, bulldogs are definitely inside dogs. luckily my wife and i have opposing schedules. she leaves early to work, and gets home early. i leave late, and get home late. and we have shifting weekends. so the dogs are only alone for around 5 hours a day. and get 3 / 7 days week with one of us home all day. plus they are really lazy, so all they do is sleep anyway.

maybe at the next meeting i can bring them along for everyone to cuddle. did i mention they are both huge cuddle monsters?!