Today is my birthday and as promised in the previous post, here are some pics of the sun coral my husband got me as a present. It—along with the two new snails and new macroalgae sprig– is residing in the picoreef right now. Which, as I discovered this morning, turned out to be a wise choice. Why? I have finally acquired Aiptasia hitchhikers. I’ve been dreading this moment for years. The good news is that it appears that they are only on this small piece of rock which was attached to the rock the sun coral is on. I can’t be absolutely certain because when retracted they are bumps smaller than the head of a pin, more like the point of a pin! I detached the tiny bit of rock rubble from the base rock of the sun coral and placed it near the glass so I could get a good shot of them when they expanded again. Pics blown up, they sure look like Aiptasia to me. Not being sure, and not wanting to kill anything that might be good, I’ve now placed the rock chip (the whole thing is less than an inch long) in a Spice Islands jar for further observation (though I can’t get good pics through that glass). Now without further ado…the pics of Sun Coral, friends & enemies!

Sun Coral, shortly after being acclimated and put into the tank.

Sun Coral, opens up a bit the first night in the tank. I encouraged it with a bit of microvert. ;-)

Sun Coral, the morning after putting it into the tank.

Sun Coral, morning after being put into the tank. Aiptasia evident on the rock chip to the right of it.

Sun Coral, today, Aiptasia rock removed, coral frag settled more upright and into the substrate.

Sun Coral this morning, other side of colony.

One of two new snails, tiny, smaller than my pinky fingernail.

Picoreef with new Caulerpa sprig and quarantined Sun Coral.

Close up of Aiptasia on rock frag. When withdrawn the dots are smaller than a pinhead.

Aiptasia Island. Rock chip isolated in a Spice Island spice jar.

Something I do which is advised against for both freshwater and marine aquariums is to feed newcomers shortly after releasing them into the tank. I want them to know that they’ve come to a land of plenty, that there’s food in this new environment, so they don’t have to worry about it: they’ll know right off they’re going to be OK and can relax. I know I’m anthropomorphizing. Last night when the polyps had started opening just a bit, I added a bit of microvert, “smoked it” and it opened up a bit more. It seems to like the picoreef OK: it isn’t as tightly closed as it was at the store. I’m hoping to give it a proper feeding tonight. If I counted correctly the colony has 19 polyps.

During acclimation I had to remove some water, both to float the bags and to acclimate, so the water level was low last night.  I laid the filter sideways to keep the flow going last night, then this morning I began adding more salt water a little at a time to bring the level up to normal (and set the filter upright again).

I’m having a very good birthday.!