|
|
|
|
 State
of the Tank
(cont.) |
|
 Seemed
to start out normally enough.
I did bring home a couple of
unusual things from an LFS early
in the month
and,
with my mind still focused on
pumping up my fish community,
I added a small school of Olive
Anthias .
The plan, however, was not to 'play
around' in the tank too
much this month. The reasons
were that it was going to be
a busy one, even for December,
as we were hosting several relatives
(in-laws) and friends who had
traveled a long way to spend
the Holidays with us. Also quite
simply, because the tank was
now pretty full! A marvelous 'problem' to
have to be sure,
but I was truly looking forward to
just sitting just watching
things grow for a change and getting
back to doing more normal things,
like trying to find a set of 'Bratz' dolls
for my daughter for Christmas.So
in the beginning, at least, everything
was going as well as I could've
hoped…considering the in-laws
were coming and I was
now purchasing my kid the kind of
dolls that would spend their lives
on punishment if THEY were my kids.
The
first sign of trouble seemed innocuous:
About the second week of the month,
I lost one of my little 'free
frags', Acro #32
There was, of course, no warning. I
just walked in on this particular morning
to notice it had begun to bleach from
the top down. Although there wasn't
much to frag, I really liked this piece
so I removed the affected branch and
set the
|
|
remainder in my refugium so
I could watch it more closely. As it
turned out, there was no need. It did
nothing for approximately 24 hours,
then bleached rapidly and completely.
Upon throwing it away, I recall an
unusually strong (to me) 'acro' smell,
though the relevance of this observation
remains unconfirmed. The next coral
affected was Acro #5,
a few days later. This one began to
bleach from the bottom upwards. I can't
say this was much of a surprise however,
as it's pretty common for these
tightly branched 'sps' species
to suffer due to lack of light and
water flow. As you know, my tank does
not have to
greatest amount of movement (though
I'm working on it) and as this
piece had gotten pretty large,
I knew it was only a matter of
time before I had to frag it
anyway... I just hadn't planned
to do it two weeks before Christmas!!!
Now,
whether this next event had anything
to do with the beginnings of this
'rtn/SDS (Shut-Down-Syndrome)'
problem, I don't know. But since
this was about the time it happened,
I must tell you about it. Without
a doubt, it was one of the strangest
things I'd ever seen and I probably
would not have believed it had
it not happened to me. On or about
the weekend of the 13th, while
I was doing my usual morning 'look-see',
it suddenly dawned on me that just
about all of the Majano anemonies
that were plaguing me had vanished!
I'm not kidding. Along the bottom
one-third of the tank, particularly
underneath the... |
|
|
|
|
|
