I’ve been busy lately working on my “acropora technique” and things are coming along nicely. My chalices have been growing really nicely. In general I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done so far. So I’d like to display some of my recent photos. Feel free to criticize or make helpful comments. Best wishes everyone.
Left rack, mostly zoas and other soft stuff
Another section of the trays
Another section of tank
This is a small frag I got from Saltcreep’s “strawberry planet” so called because we have no clue what it is!
I love this piece, its a beautiful Welso
My amazing Hawkin’s Blue
My Blue Jaw Trigger doin his thing
My Chalice rack (right side)
A couple Jason Fox Stylophora
Frag rack (center) with trigger in the BG
Thanks for checking it out. I’ll get a few tank shots and I’ll try to snap a pic of the Octopus!
Best Regards,
Josh
Loking good Josh!!!
Are you growing the frags out for personal use or are you setting up a table at the swap so the rest of us can try to get a few?
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:2, topic:5180”]
Loking good Josh!!!
Are you growing the frags out for personal use or are you setting up a table at the swap so the rest of us can try to get a few?[/quote]
Most of my frags are a little small to be sold yet, but I do have a couple random pieces I will be showing off in Saltcreeps display. Such as a strawberry fields chalice and a couple smalls. I’m mostly going to meet everyone and possibly buy some frags.
Here is an interesting movie of my Octopus, click to watch!:
WOW! nice vid. What kind is it? and how big does it gets? what do you feed it? last question, does it disrupt the rest of the tank mates?
[quote=“reefman66, post:4, topic:5180”]
WOW! nice vid. What kind is it? and how big does it gets? what do you feed it? last question, does it disrupt the rest of the tank mates?[/quote]
Thanks Reefman, anymore questions I’ll be happy to answer.
#1:Due to the dual blue rings on his “chest”, I believe he’s a Bi-mac. I could be wrong though.
#2: I think it get’s 18"-24" completely stretched out. However he’s usually walking around on his tenticles and rarely ever stretches out fully. Even when playing tug-o-war with him (he can easily pull 8lbs.). Right now his mantle in about 2.5"-3.5". Each tentacle is at least as thick as a Sharpie marker.’
#3: When I first introduced him, he ate an injured firefish, but I quickly got him eating store bought crab and shrimp. His favorite is Mexican Turbo Snails, he loves trying to figure out how to open them. I need to figure out new ways to play with him, he’s way too smart to be sitting around bored.
*Note, all of these fish, coral, inverts and the Octo live in the same tank… if that wasn’t mentioned.
-Josh
Octipi are incredibly smart animals, most hobbyists have trouble keeping them IN the tank (as in not getting out and trying to walk away). I’ve seen videos of octopi opening closed jars w/ screw tops in order to get to food.
Justy out of curiosity - it’s not a true blue-ring octopus is it? I undertsand they are considered the most venomous marine animal on the market and can seriosuly mame or kill humans.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:6, topic:5180”]
Octipi are incredibly smart animals, most hobbyists have trouble keeping them IN the tank (as in not getting out and trying to walk away). I’ve seen videos of octopi opening closed jars w/ screw tops in order to get to food.
Justy out of curiosity - it’s not a true blue-ring octopus is it? I undertsand they are considered the most venomous marine animal on the market and can seriosuly mame or kill humans.[/quote]
Absolutly NOT a blue-ring. These guys come from California not Aussie. This octopus is more interested in my snails and rockwork to worry about escaping. I guess I’m just lucky. It’s SO much cooler in person, though. That video is a very poor representation.
Thanks for the interest guys!
Nice video. I didn’t think a octo could be in there with smaller fish at all. I say that cause it looked like I saw a 1-3" fish in the vid. Maybe it is not that small? What size tank is he in?
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:8, topic:5180”]
Good to know ;D
Where’d ya get him from?[/quote]
We got him from a tonmo.com vendor a few months ago, good price too.
[quote=“JustSumGuy, post:9, topic:5180”]
Nice video. I didn’t think a octo could be in there with smaller fish at all. I say that cause it looked like I saw a 1-3" fish in the vid. Maybe it is not that small? What size tank is he in?[/quote]
He happily coexists with a blue chromis, a pygmy angel, six-line wrasse, red scooter blenny, and a green mandarin without any issue whatsoever (and those are just the small fish). The mandarin even hovers directly over him and cleans his dwelling. The octopus has constructed a mighty tower defense of snail shells where he spends about 80% of his time. He is in a 65 gallon tank and doesn’t even use half of it.
All in all, we feel as though we lucked out with this specimen. He refuses to even try to escape, we don’t even put the lids on the tank, day or night. Our corals highly appreciate that, lol.
Looks like you finally came out of the octopus closet :
:
very cool, does it eat only live food? or will they accept frozen?
Everything is looking really good nice, I’ll have to see it in person again, looks like a lot has changed in a couple months :
:
Whats been growing the best for you?
[quote=“saltcreep, post:12, topic:5180”]
Looks like you finally came out of the octopus closet ::
very cool, does it eat only live food? or will they accept frozen?
Everything is looking really good nice, I’ll have to see it in person again, looks like a lot has changed in a couple months ::
Whats been growing the best for you?[/quote]
LOL, I figured it was about time to drop some cephelopod knowledge on these guys! There seems to be so little info aside from TONMO, so any little tid-bit helped me to get where I am. The octo first was eating “red burrowing crabs” and Emeralds. That became expensive very quickly. Snails were next, he loved them, like I said earlier, its just a big game, a puzzle for him. Now we’re able to feed him frozen Rock Crab and huge Prawns from the grocery.
Wow, it’s hard to say what’s growing best! All coral grow and develop in their own way. My Chalices are putting on eyes everyday. That Strawberry Planet Acro of your’s has based out and turned green from white. Just about every acro has its polyps out. The Acans always look good. That Monti. Undata of yours is growing SO fast and for being brown and purple, it looks badass. My favs are the Stylophora, I have a Milka (fluorescent purple) an a Rainbow, also a HUGE ORA Stylo.
I need more amazing Acros, I’m up for trades if anyone is interested in something they saw here, some are NFS.
Thanks for chiming in John, we miss hearing from ya!
-Josh
Everything looks fantastic Josh. It’s great to see a club members’ tank doing very well.
How about some FTS?
Looks great. YahoO
Somewhere down the road you should be thinking about either a frag tank, or adding more rocks for places to mount your frags. IMO
The rock work looks a little diff, but still looks great… ::
And i’m sure there’s many more tanks in Josh’s future, he’s just limited on space, but in a good way… A 3ft tank is all that would fit in his awesome little “pet shop”.
Snakes, dragons, ferrets, and a 65g tank that is bursting at the seams from his obvious frag addiction ::
John’s right though…I say get rid of the bed, and make more room for frag tanks… who needs sleep when you’ve got so many cool critters to stare at 
[quote=“saltcreep, post:17, topic:5180”]
The rock work looks a little diff, but still looks great… ::
And i’m sure there’s many more tanks in Josh’s future, he’s just limited on space, but in a good way… A 3ft tank is all that would fit in his awesome little “pet shop”.
Snakes, dragons, ferrets, and a 65g tank that is bursting at the seams from his obvious frag addiction ::
John’s right though…I say get rid of the bed, and make more room for frag tanks… who needs sleep when you’ve got so many cool critters to stare at :P[/quote]
Amen brother!! We definitely need more space, and start up a Frags Anon support group… and not at my place.
As for the different rock work, that was the octopus’ idea. He did it all on his own, and overnight to boot! We just let it slide, didn’t want to risk another collapse, and the overall flow through out the tank is still good.
If the octo can move the rocks around with no prob, you may have to give him it’s own tank. Don’t think your corals will like the rearranging of the rocks.
[quote=“houndsbayman, post:19, topic:5180”]
If the octo can move the rocks around with no prob, you may have to give him it’s own tank. Don’t think your corals will like the rearranging of the rocks.[/quote]
This guy scares me whenever he give me a push or a grab. It’s really somethng that this “little” bag of snot can be so strong.
I have expected future problems with collapse and Octo-Decorating. That’s why 90% of my coral are on frag racks. It’ll allows me to systematically breakdown the rock work and epoxy certain clusters together, of course drilling holes for plugs. I figure if I stuck them all together I’d never get the rocks out again.
