Gallery

This page is where I'll add pictures that I find especially interesting or beautiful. Check back once in a while as this page will probably grow quickly once I start getting more live stock in the tank.

I just happened to look over at the tank while working and caught two of my Freds (Stomatella varia snails) mating. If you look at the top of the picture you'll see eggs/sperm being launched into the water column by the Stomatella on the right. I've caught them shooting eggs into the water before by themselves, but never together like this. I was lucky to get a picture before they stopped.		One of my Ricordea floridas expelling what I assume is waste shortly after being added to the tank. The majority of the waste broke off and floated around the tank, which may have damaged other corals if it landed on them. Everything in the tank seemed fine afterwards though.
I received this colony from a member of a forum I frequent. It was supposed to be a colony of blue zoanthids with blue skirts, but when they arrived they were an odd looking cream color. Over time they have slowly regained some of their former color, making them an interesting mix of cream and blue.		This is a picture of my Ricordea florida garden. I hope to propagate these Rics and trade them for other Rics of rarer color morphs. The garden is currently located in the center of my tank, which just happens to be the brightest part of the tank.
This red discosoma mushroom was my first corallimorph in the hobby, and it quickly sprouted three baby mushrooms. As you can see in the pic, it was, at the time, extending a foot out to create a fourth baby mushroom.		An up close and personal picture of my deep water zoanthids that I purchased from Sea Life Florida. These zoanthids are especially beautiful up close, as their skirts have faint markings of blue and yellow.
Once a week my mushroom corals are fed mysis shrimp that has been fermented in Selcon and Cyclop-eeze zooplankton to promote growth.		As you can see from the pictures they are more than happy to accept the food and slowly move it towards their oral disk and into their mouth.
Some Rics are hungrier than others. I watched in amazement as this guy stuffed four or five mysis shrimp in his mouth, which had expanded to at least three times its regular size. What a pig!		This little guy got his shell hijacked and crawled on top of this astraea snail in an attempt to hide from the bully that stole it.
Sometimes this one snail in particular climbs out of the tank and cruises around the rim of it. This time I was armed with my camera and caught him in the act though. He looks kind of embarrassed to me! If you look closely there is an amazing amount of life on this guys shell, including a vermatid gastropod -- a snail on a snail... weird.		These beautiful orange zoos were purchased from Walt at my first Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society (CMAS) meeting. They opened very quickly in my tank and have a beautiful, almost metallic orange sheen to them.
These pink zoos, also received at my first CMAS meeting, were a gift from Walt, who gave away up to thirty of these frags to members for free. Hopefully they'll grow and spread as quickly for me as they did for him. Thanks again, Walt!		This beautiful purple Ricordea yuma was purchased from Tony (Biggs) for an amazingly low price of $10. It is already one of my favorite ricordeas and will likely become increasingly beautiful as it grows larger.