Whoever put up the "reef cam" stickie

It's BEAUTIFUL!

Very, very cool! :D

Sounds cool!

PB

PB

ont he left.

Cool!

:B

it IS an urchin, right? Wow! I love aquariums!

Never mind, it's working now.

And yes, the big spiny critter is a diadema sp. urchin.

How many fishes reside here? How big is your aquarium? How many other types of sealife besides corals and urchins? What type of lighting are you using? Filter set up?

I've just a regular tropical set up. 125g with the usual suspects; angels, severums and a small group of cherry barbs and a couple giant danios.

Always fantasized about a salt water set up but know they're a very expensive pet and can be difficult to maintain so just stuck with the trops.

Very nice though, wonderful landscaping.

ETA: thought of a couple more ?'s.

It's a 175g tank, with seven green chromis, one foxface, one damsel, two ocellaris clowns, one kole tang, and one regal tang.

Two diadema urchins, and one short spine urchin. Five brittle stars, numerous hermit crabs and snails for clean-up.

It's a bit overgrown at the moment..

Once you're set up and in a pattern, maintenance isn't really that bad with a marine aquarium. The key is to go slow with set-up. You'd never come home with a tank and fish in the same day with a marine tank.

eta: Oh great, I just looked at the camera, you get to see the urchin pooping.. at the camera.. *sigh* Some kids, you can't take them out in public..

eta2: re addtl questions.. I use 3 x metal halide lights for the main light, as well as power compact for dawn/dusk, and some blue LED spots for moonlight.

Filtration is a foam fractionator / protein skimmer, plus a 55g refugium where I grow macroalgae to harvest (which removes nitrates). I also do about a 30g water change every two weeks- the solution to pollution is dilution.

It never occurred to me that they do poo but they eat so............:rofl:

It's hilarious to see the look on their face when you tell them it's actually an anus..

Here's that same urchin when he was a wee tiny thing..

Here's lookin' at you kiddo :rofl: psych wrong end :rofl:

Best looking butt hole I've ever seen - orange and blue, great contrast hehe :)

Nature rocks!

Here's another favorite pic.. a brittle star's mouth, up close..

I'm going to have to look this one up. Those tiny clam shell looking things are suckers?

Beautiful creature.

Love the photos!

Those orange structures are the tube feet that are more like suckers- they move food toward the mouth.

Here's a good read on their anatomy- http://webs.lander.edu/rsfox/invertebrates/ophioderma.html

:thumbsup:

this is the next best thing. Beautiful set up and thank you.

so I can come back and watch it later.