Eight Weeks Later

To make up for the long inactivity these past few weeks, I decided to pick up a couple more corals, I stopped by a LFS I had previously visited before while my tank was cycling to "browse around." Instead I walked out with an orange ricordea and another zoanthid rock.

I was planning on trying my hand at some pulsing xenias and was thinking of getting some this time around. The store had quite a few of them around and in several sizes so at least I know that they have some readily available. What caught my eye was a rock with a pretty good sized orange ricordea. This is another specimen that I had plan on eventually putting in my tank so this was definitely a good find though a little pricier than I'd like ($65). To top it off, it's attached to a fairly small rock so I knew I wouldn't have a problem finding room for it in the tank. As my luck would have it, there's actually another smaller piece on the same rock. Also attached to this rock is a nice feather duster worm so that's another plus.

Another one I couldn't resist was a colony of green/orange zoanthids on a small piece of branching coral. Although I already have a colony in my tank, this one came on a small attractive piece of coral that I can easily tuck into a crevice. Also a bit more pricier than I'd pay for zoanthids ($40) but I found the colors too amazing to resist!

Acclimating the orange ricordea. Notice the feather duster worm poking underneath.

Green/orange zoanthids. Some of the polyps had already opened up even while still in the bag.

I acclimated them both for an hour, changing out the water every ten minutes. I decided to place them on the right side of the tank to balance things out.

The diva purple mushroom taking center stage, not to be outdone by the newcomers.

Mystery Hydroids

While acclimating the new corals I made an interesting discovery. I typically turn off the filter and the powerhead while acclimating to prevent unwanted turbulence in the water. With the water completely still, I noticed little movements in the water. Upon close inspection I realized that I was looking at some type of jellyfish or hydroid-like creatures. I found about four of them, pulsating vertically to the top and then drifting back down. Not sure what they are, how they got there and whether they're good or bad. But they're pretty nifty.

Here's a little footage I caught on camera:

Night Shots

The corals in my tank have adapted pretty well to the daily lighting schedule. Around 9:30 at night, thirty minutes before lights out, the blue zoanthids will start tucking its polyps away. The purple mushrooms begin to shrivel up at this time as well.

The orange ricordea has an odd way of closing up at night.