tracymace1229
Member
Hello,
Last month while on vacation I harvested some tidal oysters from Georgia. I did this after consulting with the folks at the GA Marine Extension. I also purchased some bleached and very inexpensive sea fans from a shop.
I ended with about 4 handfuls. The little buggers have a few dozen oysters, untold amount of bivalves,hundreds of roly polys isopods, miniature anemomes and all sorts of worms and stuff.
They lived in my quarantine tank for 2 weeks. There was die off, but it was the 'sea fans' that I was curing that spiked the ammonia. Despite massive daily water changes the Ammonia went from 1ppm to 4 ppm and by a week into it was over 8 ppm. Thought I was having die off from the oysters. As mentioned before...once I took the sea fans out and rinsed them...the amonia levels eventually went back to zil.
By the way all the little anemone things survived through the amonia spikes!! They are not any type of aiptaisa that Ive ever seen!! So what are these little tuff buggers??
That was over a month ago. I introduced 3 of the handfuls to my main sump and left one in the quarantine tank. I was very concerned about the couple dozen isopods that went into my main system. They ended up being harmless and most have been consumed by the fish!
Some of the small bivalves well for a while. They buried themselves into the remote DSB until I think my bristle worms ate them.
On the other hand the 3 oyster clumps are doing wonderfully!! Last week for the first time ever my nitrates read 0!! But my calcium levels dropped from 350 to 280 in less than 2 weeks. I assume since I have no corals yet that the oysters must be using the calcium???
Do reef/shell bivalves use calcium that quickly? Other than water changes, what is the best way to keep calcium levels up?
Oh and since these are tidal oysters, will they eventually die off from being submerged continuously? Any other insights about oysters?
I am wondering if a small handful of these creatures act as much a a fair sized piece of live rock for my system?!?
thanks
Last month while on vacation I harvested some tidal oysters from Georgia. I did this after consulting with the folks at the GA Marine Extension. I also purchased some bleached and very inexpensive sea fans from a shop.
I ended with about 4 handfuls. The little buggers have a few dozen oysters, untold amount of bivalves,hundreds of roly polys isopods, miniature anemomes and all sorts of worms and stuff.
They lived in my quarantine tank for 2 weeks. There was die off, but it was the 'sea fans' that I was curing that spiked the ammonia. Despite massive daily water changes the Ammonia went from 1ppm to 4 ppm and by a week into it was over 8 ppm. Thought I was having die off from the oysters. As mentioned before...once I took the sea fans out and rinsed them...the amonia levels eventually went back to zil.
By the way all the little anemone things survived through the amonia spikes!! They are not any type of aiptaisa that Ive ever seen!! So what are these little tuff buggers??
That was over a month ago. I introduced 3 of the handfuls to my main sump and left one in the quarantine tank. I was very concerned about the couple dozen isopods that went into my main system. They ended up being harmless and most have been consumed by the fish!
Some of the small bivalves well for a while. They buried themselves into the remote DSB until I think my bristle worms ate them.
On the other hand the 3 oyster clumps are doing wonderfully!! Last week for the first time ever my nitrates read 0!! But my calcium levels dropped from 350 to 280 in less than 2 weeks. I assume since I have no corals yet that the oysters must be using the calcium???
Do reef/shell bivalves use calcium that quickly? Other than water changes, what is the best way to keep calcium levels up?
Oh and since these are tidal oysters, will they eventually die off from being submerged continuously? Any other insights about oysters?
I am wondering if a small handful of these creatures act as much a a fair sized piece of live rock for my system?!?
thanks
