Recent content by DesertGeek

Yup, hydroids suck! I had a couple poor snails that came in with some on their shells (put 'em in a hospital tank to keep them out of my system), and I can tell you, they are tough! I tried an "invert friendly" medication, no dice. Tried scrubbing them off, but that only brought them back in...

Keeping in mind that there are "bazillions" of wild morphs of zoas and palys that no one has "named" yet, I have seen Armor of God morphs with those yellwish tentacles and lighter mouth... also, I can't see if the tentacles have "bands" of different colors of gold along their length, but if so...

+1 to Jesuses' comment - virtually always any 2 angels in a tank will fight to the death. The only chance of keeping more than one is with a very large tank (at least 6 feet long is my best guess) and introducing them at exactly the same time. Once one is established in a territory, he will...

Justin is right - under certain conditions. I usually don't lose many snails to the hermits, but if you have very little algae and feed your fish sparingly, they are opportunistic creatures and will turn to other sources of food - snails or even some soft corals, if truly starved. I also keep...

Yes, by the size and pattern the "rock flower" is pretty definitely what it is. They like to be fed more than other anemones, usually, but don't require quite as intense light. Clowns usually don't inhabit them (like condys and other non-Pacific anemones, they may do so if given no other option...

Depends on how much algae is in your tank, what else is there, and what kind of algae you've got, as the critters have somewhat different eating habits. Turbos are great with diatoms, fine hair, some grean algae - but they are big and can "bulldoze" small decor or corals. Also, if the tank is...

Many tangs will eat it, but they can't live in the rather cold water off California. The Caulerpa, unlucky for us and every native critter, can tolerate it. The tarp-covering method used in CA to kill it kills everything else too because they actually have to inject chlorine under the tarps to...

So, to answer some Qs: 1, Name would be nice 2, A location will also help Hi - My name's Karen, and I live up in Lancaster... that's waaaaay out in the desert near Edwards Air Force Base. Toasty warm, except the months that are below freezing of course, and high winds blowing dust all year...

A face-on pic in good focus would help... though the foot is larger than I'd expect and they're usually not white, it looks a lot like a Caribbean "rock flower" (or just "flower") anemone. Most often they have brown or tan in a somewhat striped pattern from the middle of the central disc, but...

Well, those are likely wild, then, at that price - remember, although tank-bred are significantly more expensive, they're worth every extra cent! Captive-bred are far more hardy, will swim in the open and get to cleaning duties much quicker! And, the other comments are right - although my...

Scientific Studies Here's an actual scientific study on types and levels of palytoxins in some colonies of Zoanthus and Palythoa found in aquarium stores, including pictures and "best guess" ID (as exact ID for these species is so difficult) of specimens studied - some found only weakly toxic...

Yeah, I know what you mean. I call myself an almost-marine-biologist... majored in it, until I realized how little work there was - switched in my senior year to Computer Science and went on the 5-year plan. Then, the last semester before graduation, that first big dot-com bubble burst... best...

It's not so much that there's a certain level at which it becomes lethal... in my opinion it's one of those things that is a negative (in terms of fish and coral health and stress) at any significant level, and it's simply that the more you have, the more toxic it becomes. Different creatures...