Hello :)

My name is Ashley and Im about to start my third year at the Tampa USF campus. My major is "Biology with a Marine Concentration" and Im interested in Marine invertebrates and Coral Reef Ecosystems. I hope to work in the field doing research or something, but as of right now Im just going to school. This summer I've been interning at the Florida Aquarium in Reef Husbandry but sadly that will be ending mid-August

I got into this hobby around the age of 10 when my parents got a 50 gallon saltwater tank. Watching that tank develop and seeing all the inhabitants, I fell in love and declared this my life. Previously, I had wanted to be a veterinarian but soon found out I really just liked to play with kittens and puppies. (PS: if anyone knows of a job where I can sit around all day and play with kittens and puppies, lemme know)

My parents eventually gave the 50 gallon away to a family friend but he returned it two years later after wanting to move to the Carolinas. And by he returned it, I mean he gave us a 14 gallon biocube with 3 of the 5 fish, the anemone about half the size it used to be, and no corals. Oh, and no protein skimmer, UV sterilizer or sump setup at all. I managed to convince my parents to buy me a 40 gallon and moved everyone over.
Then I went to college where I could only have a 10 gallon. I took 2 fish and some live rock, but they died in a tragic "I want to change my gravel into sand" attempt in the last few months of living on campus. The next year I moved off campus and took my parents 40 gallon.
Right now my 40 gallon has 2 damsels (they're jerks, but I love them to death), 2 emerald crabs*, a turbo snail, live rock* and two little corals my friend gave me. Being poor, I really just have a HOB filter and no other UV sterilizers or protein skimmers or anything.

I fell like having aquariums on and off for 10 years means I should know what Im doing, but I often find myself clueless. Im hoping this forum can help with questions and introduce me to knew things. Also, to give me something to procrastinate on homework with... like Im doing now

*I guess I could start a new topic about this somewhere, but the asterisked things are things Im having trouble with. Where's the best place to put it?

Welcome to the site =], You should start a "Tank Showcase" thread with the info and pictures of your tank. I know everyone would love to see it =]

Interesting story.

I have a blue velvet damsel that is like that.


That is a cool intership gig. Are you keeping a log of your activities? I would love to know what goes on behind the scenes over there.

Welcome to the forum, Ashley!!

I'm with Schudini, I want to know more about your internship! That sounds awesome!

As for your asterisked items, can you be more specific? Are you asking where to place your LR and emerald crabs??

Sam_G wrote:

Welcome to the forum, Ashley!!

Are you asking where to place your LR and emerald crabs??

Welcome to the forum Glad to see someone else on here without a skimmer! (though my tank is only 6 gallons lol).

To Samantha, I'm sure shes asking about where to place the emerald crabs, that can be tricky.

Im not really sure how you guys do that yellow-box quote thing....I can only quote once?
So I'll just respond.

Don- I might be able to rummage through and find some pitures of my first few months with it, but I've changed the rockwork since then. I change it every now and then a) to get my fish to be less territorial, and b) because I never LOVE the arrangements I do. Im pretty awful with aquascaping. It always looks like.... well, a pile of rocks So it's a tad messy right now, but when I get it looking decent then I'll post some of the new layout.

Schudini - I do keep a log but it's really a lot of cleaning and feeding. And then more cleaning. You can actually volunteer at the aquarium for husbandry. Most of the volunteers I've met for the Reef team do water testing, clean tanks, feed exibits, prepare diets, and work in Fish Holding. The only difference in what I do is that I did the "Coral Internship" so I work more with the Coral systems: buffering, adding calcium, feeding corals, removing algea, etc. But I also do all the stuff the volunteers do too. I don't get paid, but I do get school credit

Sam - No, I was asking where the best place would be to start a thread about them. One of my emerald crabs (the little one) is now missing one claw and two legs. The other one dug himself a little den and now never comes out of it (because when he does, Scott always has to go over there and pester him ) As for my live rock, it's infested with bristle worms. I was going to ask for suggestions on how to fix that. One fish store suggested a basslet, but another said they don't always help much and that I would be better trying a Blue Banded Coral Shrimp. So if I were to start threads on "My Emerald Crab is a homebody" or "Bristleworm invasions" would they go under Invertebrates or under general aquarium questions New To The Hobby, or since Im looking to know if any fish eat bristleworms well, should it go under Fish?

Nick - Haha, I'll be able to afford one someday!

Awesome =]. And I know what you mean I do re do mine all the time. But I love aquascaping, its one of my favorite parts about owning a big tank with live plants. I am going to be re doing everything again in my tank. So I completely understand the constant changes =]

Iceelover wrote:

Im not really sure how you guys do that yellow-box quote thing....I can only quote once?
So I'll just respond.

Don- I might be able to rummage through and find some pitures of my first few months with it, but I've changed the rockwork since then. I change it every now and then a) to get my fish to be less territorial, and b) because I never LOVE the arrangements I do. Im pretty awful with aquascaping. It always looks like.... well, a pile of rocks So it's a tad messy right now, but when I get it looking decent then I'll post some of the new layout.

Schudini - I do keep a log but it's really a lot of cleaning and feeding. And then more cleaning. You can actually volunteer at the aquarium for husbandry. Most of the volunteers I've met for the Reef team do water testing, clean tanks, feed exibits, prepare diets, and work in Fish Holding. The only difference in what I do is that I did the "Coral Internship" so I work more with the Coral systems: buffering, adding calcium, feeding corals, removing algea, etc. But I also do all the stuff the volunteers do too. I don't get paid, but I do get school credit

Sam - No, I was asking where the best place would be to start a thread about them. One of my emerald crabs (the little one) is now missing one claw and two legs. The other one dug himself a little den and now never comes out of it (because when he does, Scott always has to go over there and pester him ) As for my live rock, it's infested with bristle worms. I was going to ask for suggestions on how to fix that. One fish store suggested a basslet, but another said they don't always help much and that I would be better trying a Blue Banded Coral Shrimp. So if I were to start threads on "My Emerald Crab is a homebody" or "Bristleworm invasions" would they go under Invertebrates or under general aquarium questions New To The Hobby, or since Im looking to know if any fish eat bristleworms well, should it go under Fish?

Nick - Haha, I'll be able to afford one someday!

First, to quote with a yellow box like I just did, you can just hit the "quote" button on the upper right hand side of the person's post that you'd like to quote.

Second, yes, I would start both of those threads in the Invert forum. That will bring some attention to the topics and hopefully get you some help.

As far as the emerald crab goes, who is Scott? Is that one of your damsels? If so, maybe the damsel decided to snack on some crab legs? Also, are you sure that the crab missing legs isn't just a molt? And, about the bristleworms, they really aren't anything to worry about unless you have a bunch of them (or if they are really big, or if they are really fireworms). If you just have a couple, I wouldn't worry about it. However, I believe that either a basslet or coral banded shrimp would eat them. You could also try a sixline wrasse or an arrow crab. I've also read that you can put food (like fish food) in pantyhose and put that in your aquarium to catch them. Supposedly, the bristleworms try to get the food out of the pantyhose, and their bristles snag on the pantyhose trapping them to it. So then all you have to do is pull out the pantyhose and all of the bristleworms will be attached to it.