We had let the marine tank kind of get along in the keeping of the monster hammer coral…euphyllias like it, and they had taken over.
So we fragged the monster (Jane has pix) and rearranged the tank.
To our great disgust, Jane’s brilliant arrangement has a flaw: the keystone for the archwork has caulerpa (a noxious weed: see: the Killer Algae documentary on its invasion of the Med) and aiptasia (rock anemone, a pest species that has no helpful uses nor great beauty.) We got the cursed rabbitfish originally to deal with the stuff, and it’s failed. I’m now taking other means: a sea hare (a brown variety of shell-less snail) is alleged to eat the stuff, and a gfo reactor (granulated ferrous oxide) will deprive it of phosphate. We’ll see. Very little else will eat it. Peppermint shrimp will at least harass the aiptasia and eat its young. But quel pain!
Meanwhile we’ve acquired some little striped highfin gobies and a royal gramma. If you’re curious …you can wander the F&S site.
And we’re going to have a battle on our hands with that weed.