Micro Brittle Stars

[Snail Freak]

As soon as i get the message on DIBS that my form to be a breeder was checked, i will put a journel on DIBS also.

This journel is going to be for a 10 gallon tank. It's going to be a tank to breed and study micro brittle stars, or Ophia #3.

I have live rock and live sand already in there. I'm gonna get a small video of the tank soon.

I will be getting a small heater in there. I still need to read a bit and see if i need to get a small filter or not.

...quick question, are ghost shrimp salt tolerant? like can i put some shrimp from my 'community' tank into the new tank or will they die from the salt? the reason i said community with the ' around it is because it's just guppies, but there with kind of a community of inverts.

For a couple reasons, i may not be able to get the stars for a bit.
I know some of you are thinking i need to let the tank cycle, but i used live
Sand, and live rock, and half, to two thirds, of the water in the tank
Has been setting in the tub with live rock and lighting and stuff

i will be testing the water and all but the cycling shouldn't take as long as it would if i had a 20 gallon tank with live sand and live rock with fresh water and i just added salt.

So should i get a small filter, or will they be fine without it? I will do alot of water changes to keep the bio-load down. I'm rambling on too much about some things now.

If anyone has some things for sale i'm looking for...
macro algae
live rock with some tubeworms or polyps on them
a bottle of phytoplankton
a bottle of copepods


....i'll stop talking now and go get that video of the tank. please note when whatching the video, that my hand shakes alot, and i've ever really made a live rock pile thing before so it kinda looks crappy.

[Seahorsedreams]

Originally Posted by Snail Freak

...quick question, are ghost shrimp salt tolerant? like can i put some shrimp from my 'community' tank into the new tank or will they die from the salt? the reason i said community with the ' around it is because it's just guppies, but there with kind of a community of inverts.

Ghost shrimp is a loose common name for both the marine and fresh variety. I see you are talking about fresh. Some live if they are just snatched from the FW and thrown into the SW. Some can be converted to salt using a long drip acclimation. Some never convert and die within hours to days. No way to tell which way yours will go.

[CarmieJo]

You will want to monitor the water parameters carefully as even when using LR, LS and water from an established tank you may have a cycle. I think that the cycle takes about the same amount of time no matter the size of the tank. If you have sufficient LR & LS you will not need another filter.

[Snail Freak]

glad to heart the no filter thing. and i will be whatching the water stats carefully.

i won't move the ghost shrimp, don't really want to risk it. it took me a whie to finally get my shrimpp to breed and i don't wanna risk any of them dying.

are the little stars big enough to eat baby white shrimp? wasn't sure if they were big enoug to kill one or not. if so i may go ahead and get some instead of waiting until i get the horse tank.

[wwest]

baby white shrimp?....Brine shrimp?

[8251Reefer]

I have a ton of micro stars in my refugium. If you are close to FL you are welcome to some for your project.

[Snail Freak]

I'm gonna be getting the heater soon, and hopefully some sort of hood+light. I put a piece of shrimp (from a store, not m aquarium) in the new tank, i heard that on the cycling podcast.

and sorry but i'm in indiana, thanks for the offer though reefer.

i think i found some for the project already from another member.

i'll get an update if anything new happens or i add anything.

[CarmieJo]

Keep us posted Snail Freak.

[Snail Freak]

Sorry i havent been on here for a few days. GOOD NEWS!

well first off the new petco in a nearby town has well over 300-500+ gallosn worth of tanks with fresh and saltwater fish. there filled with SW stuff and lots of goodies. The tank is gonna be also the beginning of my clam research. By that i mean i'm gonna save up money after i finish prepping the tank and buy the new petco's little 'giant' clam. He is about a couple quarters big. not sure what to compare it to. I will study the brittle stars but i think getting this little clam will help me learn and prepare for my later plans of clam research.

Yeah, your all thinking "oh god, this kid hasn't probably read up on these things. someone will have to right a 3 page novel about there lighting, dear god."
well don't worry, i've read up alot of thigns lately and in the past. and currently working on a good website i found with good clam info.

i have a small 10-15 gallon filter in the tank, just to help out a lil'bit. nothing fancy, just got it at walmart. and god knows it will break with my luck, haha. ok, here is the stuff curently in the tank...

heater (with a guard and safety thing)
filter (powerfilter, the movement of the falling water keeps the current strong)
real strong air pump (to keep water circulating with the new filter cleaning and gathering media)
live rock
live sand (about 1-2 inches in different areas)
dead coral stick thing (i'll get a pick some time, it's in there for decoration really)
some fossil type rock i got on a beach (i'll get a pic sometime)

so all i can think of i'm missing is a light hood, and really expensive lighting. i need to check prices of metal halide or however you spell it. has anyone ever used these lights? and do you think they are the best for clams or what is your best opinion?

please tell me if i'm missing something, i'll try to get pics soon.

[Snail Freak]

forgot to mention that i will be adding calcium supplements to the tank once the clam is moved in. but also note that this couple be many days, or even many weeks.

i'm working on the temperature. my new thermometer said it was around 80* or so (farenhight <-- spelled wrong)

i turned the heater down a couple notches. i'm gonna go write down the suggested temp for clams and try to get it at that temp.

i'll update tomorrow probably.

[Snail Freak]

UPDATE

Ok, i went up there this morning, and iw as glad to see that the salt didn't effect anythign in the filter. Water is very clear and i think the filter medie thing has caught alot of the 'dust' in the water. I re-designed it a bit and added a bit piece of rock that had some algae and dead plant on it.

Great news!

Me and my dad are going to Marco Island in Florida to snorkel and go to tide pools to collect different critters. I'm hoping to find a few small clams, but if not i'll still get alot of good stuff. I may bring back extra stuff or stuff i don't nessacarily need and i may sell some stuff cheap to this forum's members, and DIBS forum members. DIBS will have a day before i post it here, mainly because the stuff will probably be inverts that they can use.

if anyone is looking for something, like aq certain starfish or something let me know and i'll keep an eye out for it. I hope to find some type of small goby while were there. So i'll ost likely find the following for the new tank...

snails (hopefully)
conch
starfish (for DIBS and Talkingreef)
eggs of some sort if i find some (i'll only take a few unless there some type of invert egg sack, mainly cause i'd be curious of what hatches)
sea water
fresh live sand right from the ocean
maby dead coral

if i find anything i can get safly without hurting it i may get some corals or something.

anyway i'm really excited about this trip.

If anyone (like i said) is looking for something that could be found in shallow water or tide pools let me know and i'll keep an eye out for it.

so excited....


later plans for the tank is to....

add stuff from the trip
get (i think) metal halide lighting for it
maby save up for sme small coral

is a filter and strong air pump enough to keep a good current for a small clam and a coral? the water seems to be moving alot...

i don't know if i mentioned this or not but i'm gonna add some young brine shrimp to it (because the strong current) to see how big they get, and maby they can contribute something to maturing the tank and stuff.

[Bleuday]

Watch out on the collecting in Florida idea. Unless you have special permits, collecting from the coastline is illegal. Not to mention, the issues of transporting the little buggers.

[Snail Freak]

Plans have changed. i've talked to alot of people on DIBS lately about it. new plans now.

No clam, for now.

I am gonna be getting some beginner corals, small ones, easy to keep ones, ones that will do good in a 10g. a small goby of some sort may go in there, havent decided yet. there is this adorable white hermit crab at petco with a couple coral things growing on it's shell, he is awesome. he may be going in there first.

anyway, thats the new plans, i'll post more alter.

[Snail Freak]

WHOO-HOO! I'm finally able to buy stuff fish related again! (living that is)

I am gonna be getting the starfish very soon. Then after the starfish, will come that little hermit crab. Then i'm gonna hold off on adding more and make sure the stats are still stable and all. I'll be picking up some tests when i get the hermit crab.

If anyone here has freshwater tanks, i could trade the following...

ramhorn snails (not giant species)
periwinkle snails (trumpet snails that are black and bumpy shelled)
MABY trapdoor snails in the near future
pond snails
small freshwater mussels
medium sized freshwater flat clams

i could trade any of the above for...

Mushrooms
Zoanthids
Ricordia
Palythoa
Green tree coral/Sinularia
Toadstool/Sarcophyton
phytoplankton (just a small bottle of it)
copepods (small bottle)

if anyone has freshwater tanks/pond and want any of the things i listed, i would gladly trade some of that stuff for any of the above listed items i still need.

All credit for getting the micro stars soon go to phurst. THANKS!!!

[Snail Freak]

Another update.

I have a turbo snail and a hermit crab in the tank now. The snail was weary the first couple days, but he has been crawlin all over the rock. I took some rock out and rearanged the tank a bit so there is more room on the ground for the hermit crab. The snail has not came ont the sand or walls, he has been staying on the live rock this whole time. I have had them for 4-5-6 days, i'm not good with time. The hermit crab has 2 polyp things. If someone can identify what they are from the following videso tthat would be great. Todays video, the last one, i tried to get a good picture of the polyp things, but my camera and the lighting aren't on my side, so it's not the clearest of videos.

The hermit crab has eaten on some frozen shrimp and seems to like the algae disks i crushed up. I'd like to get the nice stuff made specificaly for the crab as soon as i can.

Here is the videos.

Hermit Crab day 1

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

Day 3-4

Day 3-4

Day 4-5

Day 4-5




This video is me TRYING to get a good picture of the turbo snail. But the camera and junk on his shell made it a bit hard to tell exactly what he looks like. He is on a piece of coral rubble in the video. (the video is in a bucket, not where he lives)

Snail

Hope now that things are getting moving that more people will start checking out the thread and posting.

There was a slight delay (due to a typo on my address) but the micro stars will HOPEFULLY be here tomorrow early, if not then either monday, or they wil be shipped again monday. Long story. Anyway, they will be here sometime....and they got some good brown junk on some of the rock, and old food i put in there for them. Enough decay there to keep them happy, WITHOUT being dangerous to the water or being dangerous to the hermit crab.



Everyone keep your fingers crossed that the snail gets on the walls, i got some brown algae he would like.