Hula ʻauana



They will kill it with FIRE!



Some time back (December 24th of 2010 to be exact) I wrote an open letter to our Hawaiian Lined Fireworm. It turns out we have several of these bristle worms and I have decided they deserve a bit more street cred than they get out there on the Interwebs.

Unlike Aiptasia which you would like to kill with fire but shouldn’t because it will spread the plague through your very reef, the Hawaiian Lined Fireworm shouldn’t be killed with fire because it’s your creepy friend. Yes, I said it, yes I know there are many websites that will tell you differently but they are wrong and these bristle worms are your friend. They’re not your attractive friend you always take clubbing with you to look really slick, they’re your weird friend that lives in the basement and rarely showers but you know always has your back. You also may not want to hug this friend because it stings, but that’s neither here nor there – we all have prickly buddies when we get right down to the nitty-gritty.

Syringes, not just for diabetics and drug addicts!

Doesn’t this look pretty? It’s so gentle and sways so preciously inside of your tank, peeking out like a feather duster, positively radiating elegance. It’s like this delicate creature has popped out of your live rock to wave good morning with glassy tentacles. Then you realize it is infesting your entire reef and hell bent on stinging your precious coral. You come to terms with the fact that it is evil and probably has a criminal record in several countries and Interpol has been hunting it for years. Then what do you do with your Aiptasia?

Kill it with fire!!! Okay, scratch that, killing it with fire would not be the best option in this particular instance. You can kill it with Kalkawasser solution which is pricey, or buy things like Chem Marine, or Stop Aiptasia…but that isn’t fun either. It’s also expensive. Compared to other things you will buy for your tank it isn’t terribly expensive but it isn’t cheap either and if you’re like me you’d rather buy something like coral, or feeder fish, or Jeffery’s, or even…another eel! Not some pricey chemical that could possibly hurt your precious coral, feather dusters, or other interesting creatures – like those Hawaiian Lined Fireworm that patrol your rocks and substrate.

Today, I bring you the rarely referenced solution that will cost you a whole $.25. Gasp, shock, awe, 25 cents!? Impossible!

Coral Pictures

Our new Frogspawn Coral.

!@#$ ROCKS!

So, yesterday morning I looked at the rocks and said to myself "We really need some better real estate for the coral" and thought "Well, we could always get a few more pieces of live rock to rearrange the corner".  This was a very, very, bad idea.  It was bad on an almost atronomical level, it was so bad that I should have been drug into the bedroom by my cats and beaten with the pillows and their fluffy tails until I came to my senses. 

Of course our cats never did this because they don't care about me, and Frank thought it was a great idea.  If he wasn't so sweet and innocent I would be absolutely sure that they were plotting against me.  Even though he is caring, gentle, wonderful, and innocent, I am still suspicious. 

Star Polyps, Frog Spawn, and Mushrooms Oh My!

So, we broke down. It was inevitable that it would happen, that there in the shiny warm confines of our LFS our conviction would falter and we would be overcome by the need to purchase a new coral…or three. So we have added a blue Mushroom, a Frog Spawn (which I have wanted for some time), and a green Star Polyp. I wonder if there is a Coral Addicts Anonymous group that we could join? Although I think that may be counterproductive as we would probably end up going out and buying more coral hearing other addicts talk about their recent acquisitions.

Our ill fated Flowerpot moved on to a new home, and I hope that it is happy and content in that tank (as it clearly hated ours). I have made the executive decision that we will never purchase one again. The guilt would run too deep for me to handle.

We will be ordering a blue tuxedo urchin to rule over the Jeffery in the tank, who have been eating each other quite regularly, and a few more have been reproducing. Perverts the whole lot of them; spawning in our aquarium as if it’s some penny corner brothel.

I am hoping to get a few pictures up soon to show off the growth we have had, and I want to get a page listed with books and other tools that we have acquired and enjoy using for the tank. I am hoping that we will have more growth, seeing that I am an impatient woman, and that soon our rocks will be festooned with coral.

Lights, Camera, Ack!

Last night we brought home three new coral, which finishes off our additions for at least a month if not longer. Hopefully we can see some growth and expansion from our coral, there was much epoxy used, many curse words, and I nearly fell off the stepstool and hit the ground. Thankfully my arm was in the tank which kept me up or I get the feeling I would not be such a happy camper this morning. Granted while I have a large bruise in a perfect line where I fell backward and caught myself on the lip of the tank, I think that’s better than smacking the back of my head into shelves lined with geodes.

State of the Tank

Strange week in the tank.  We have some very small critters called copepods that are in the tank, they're about the size of an ant and were crawling over a coral.  It took a bit of searching to find out what they were, but I haven't seen them since.  That's alright though, because they're there and I'm once again proven sane.

War and Jefferys

It has come to my attention that there are some of you out there, in the magical land of the Internets who are unaware of the very real menace provided by the Jefferys.  You are complacent, content to sit upon your thrones and festoon your ivory towers with pro-Jeffery propaganda.  This is, perhaps, my fault.  It’s not likely that it is my fault that some of your are Jeffery sympathizers, but just in case and to cover all bases I would like to make very clear just what the Jeffery are, why they are possibly demonic in origin, and otherwise illustrate their fleshy but menacing countenances.