Cold can be beautiful.....

[Midnight Reefer]

An assortment of some of our coldwater displays, the temperature is not kept with a chiller, just NSW from the harbour.

The large sea fan tank was set up last week, the one with the fanworms was just fed nannochloropsis, the one with the 'clam' is only around 150L, the clam is in fact a type of mussel.

All animals are collected locally and sustainably, they act as ambassadors of their species. They are overfed and kept in an open system 24/4, i.e clean NSW flowing in and overflowing waste discarded, daily temp, ph and salinity is logged daily with D.O read on every exhibit.

 

[Midnight Reefer]

please note, tank with sand shrimp and fan worms was fed phyto 1 hour before pic, its not dirty, just being overfed, like most animals kept

 

[Midnight Reefer]

oh and the moons are kept at 24 degrees but can be kept cold

 

[LCornelius]

What happened to the other jellies?

Thanks for the pics!

 

[Henkie]

I need to take a trip down to the cape again! The first tank is stunning!

 

[Nemos Janitor]

Ditto from my other post. Awesome.

 

[Midnight Reefer]

What happened to the other jellies?

Thanks for the pics!

lol, I have a lab full of moon jellies and polyps, who have just bloomed so have 300+ ephyrae.

Compass jellies are collected when I say go but they are difficult to put on exhibit, alot of parasites and strange feeding needs. Coupled with a kreisel big enough to stand in for an exhibit, they have to be in pretty good shape for the public.

Any jelly found in SA is fair game to me, but jellyfish are are easy to keep in captivity, cold water ones aswell sometimes. But people love them.

Box jelly cylinder is in for a overhaul so don't look yet.....its gonna be empty soon

 

[Nemos Janitor]

As aquariust, and some of us professionals. It is easy to understand the effort and care that go's on to both. 1 provide a display and 2, keep the animals alive. To others however, to get that understanding over, is challenging.
I suport your initiative and the power of sharing knowledge openly can only benefit all.

Keep up the good work, sure you peers will take a leaf out of you vision.

I think a huge percentage go the MASA members will agree.

 

[shan]

Love your toys

 

[Wesd]

please note, tank with sand shrimp and fan worms was fed phyto 1 hour before pic, its not dirty, just being overfed, like most animals kept

I have to ask, why overfeed, its unhealthy for the animals. Why not create a dietary plan around the biomass of each exhibit and feed according to that, the exhibits and animals would be a lot better off just a suggestion

 

[Midnight Reefer]

@Wesd good question but simple answers,

1)dive in our sea, the visibility is 10m on a good day so crap, full of....i dunno, dust and phyto soup.

2) very few, if any of the animals are photosynthetic, even most of the nennies arent, they just chow stuff like pilchard, donated by I&J.

3) so where we get them in nature, they are constantly in a soup of food, they are kept in open systems so no nitrate issues etc.



I am constantly finding these extreme changes in feeding and requirements daily still.

I cannot state how different these animals survive compared to 'tropical coral reef animals', excluding the vertebrates. Cannot show biodiversity in a better example.

 

[SteveZi]

Liking the sunburst and cauliflower corals. @Midnight Reefer are you guys allowed to collect Noble coral?

 

[Haaibek]

Good question West.

 

[Haaibek]

Answer post before my question. Doing good..

 

[Wesd]

@Wesd good question but simple answers,

1)dive in our sea, the visibility is 10m on a good day so crap, full of....i dunno, dust and phyto soup.

2) very few, if any of the animals are photosynthetic, even most of the nennies arent, they just chow stuff like pilchard, donated by I&J.

3) so where we get them in nature, they are constantly in a soup of food, they are kept in open systems so no nitrate issues etc.



I am constantly finding these extreme changes in feeding and requirements daily still.

I cannot state how different these animals survive compared to 'tropical coral reef animals', excluding the vertebrates. Cannot show biodiversity in a better example.

Ok i can understand keeping levels of phyto ect up due to the high nutrient qualities of cold current upwellings which is the norm for the Cape. I thought you meant you overfeed your fish and thats where my concern lay, we have a few cold water systems at ushaka (i volunteer there) and the main cold water display has some of those nonphotosyntheic nennies, but they are not target fed, they collect particulates from the fish being messy eaters. Its quite cool to see them 'puff up' after a feed

 

[MistaOrange]

Ok I'm sold we need a day trip at TOA...

 

[Lord_Blackadder]

Gorgonian tank looks pretty awesome.

Are you only feeding Nannochloropsis or other phyto too?
What are you feeding the larger polyp stuff?
Have you tried sponges and tunicates (besides redbait)?

 

[459b]

Looking good

Definitely need to take a trip there soon

 

[Midnight Reefer]

Hey and thanks for the interest.

Feeding is usually nannochloropsis, rotifer and decapped brine. The other foods are endless, from squid to prawns.

The aquarium is constantly changing place, we are incorporating new foods now and we respect the animals we keep to the highest degree. Any change for their benefit is done without question.

I myself will move continents to keep my corals happy, probably most reefkeepers willl understand!

 

[CheriS]

@nim