Started to cycle my local marine setup (last weekend, 220 L) and went to see what I could in Kawhia harbor on the way back from the food festival. Stopped at the old bridge 1/2 way up the harbor at about 1/2 to 2/3 full tide and had a quick look on some of the rocks (placed there when building the bridge and new culverts).

In about 10 min and in 5m of shoreline I collected (a few too many?) Blue-banded Periwinkle, Austrolittorina antipodum; two Smooth Shore Crabs,Cyclograpsus lavauxi; three Anemone (Olive Anemone? or White Striped? not sure as they have a striped column); Looks looks one of the rocks I collected must have had a couple of what look like Leathery Sea Slug or is it some sort of Chiton?; most of the rocks I grabbed (about 5 fist sized ones) all have Barnacles, Brown Surf Barnacles? and I caught about a dozen Glass Shrimp...

One of the anemone immediately up and moved under the rock it was on another has moved down about 30mm and has stopped and the last one looks happy where it is.

pic 4 is a chiton, good algae eater and tough as

:spop:

It will be a while untill I add any more inhabitants so you may need a big bag of popcorn there

got one

http://home.inreach.com/burghart/newzea.html

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bio04Tuat01-t1-body-d2.html

both helped me ID a strange one I found

got one

Ira that's you

:smot:

Sure it's a slug of some sort Onchidella spp? O. nigricans?

+1

HD video of Anemone feeding on BBS:

LA got an ID on it? I'm guessing white striped?

yep, apitasisa of the temperate tanks.

that was a cool movie, and the music was a fun choice. :bounce:

yep, apitasisa of the temperate tanks.

I take it that that means they could become a pest then.

Turned on the wave maker to lift some of the crud off the bottom and all the barnacles opened up and feed instead of just a few open.

yes, excuse the spelling :oops:

They can go a bit rampant.

nothing worse than a rampant white stripe :iag:

LA: was that the same type I gave you???, there were some lil guys multiplying like there was no tomorrow

no they were sand anemones

The white striped anemones are trying to take over the rock they came in on, started with 3 now there are at least 3 new small ones as well.

May have miss ID'd the crab - look more like mud crabs :dunno:

Ammonia has fallen to under .25 at a guess and nitrites look to have peeked and there are some nitrates so the cycle is underway, just have to wait for the longest part of the cycle.

Diatoms have started, there is a tiny bit of green algae and it looks like two of the macros are starting to grow. All of the (what looked like) green hair algae got eaten by the shrimp/snails in the first week.

Long time no posts on this tank.

It has finally finished its cycle with nitrates now reading 0 - around 6 months, as I was told by LA :sage:

The diatomes have gone, as have 2 of the shrimp and the mud crab. The snails have grown heaps and so have the whitestripes, one of the macroalgae has has taken over any rock that gets sun or us under the 24w CFL. The other macro has vanished but there looks to be another that looks a little like BBA. There is also a touch of what looks like it could be cyano on the rock that gets the most sun.

brilliant show of patience my man

so when are you coming over to get some fish