Love thy neighbor

[Sherita]

Or at least stop trying to sting him to death

My chalices have been squabbling lately over territory, and just generally being ill behaved. I got off work a little early today, so I threw together three do it yourself chalice condos. They are six inches tall and have a one inch "curb" around them to hold substrate for the chalices to sit on. See for yourself:

Here's the front of the chalice tank. You can see the elevated stands on the left and right side, and across the back of the tank.



Here's a top view, to give you a better idea


And a left and right view. Sorry, no pic of the back condo, my camera freaked out about the reflection on the water.



I tried to segregate the chalices with the longest sweepers to the bottom of the tank, where I can move the buggers further apart. The ones on the condos either have short sweepers, or are far enough apart that they can't touch each other (they are like kids "HE'S TOUCHING ME!!!"). It's like a very damp kindergarten around here, with lots of spoiled, very wet kids. At least now I don't have to deal with them trying their darnedest to sting each other for a while. By the time they get bigger, my new build will be in place, and they still won't be able to touch each other. Sigh, why can't they all just get along??

[Sherita]

Oh, and please excuse the snail butts all over the glass. I didn't have the heart to make them get down since they were eating their dinner.

[SoLiD]

Nice setup Sherita! The sweepers are why I don't do chalices. All my Acans, Scolys, Dendros, Ricordia, and Duncans play well with each other. No Fatalities.... so far.

[Sherita]

Thanks!

Yeah, chalices don't play well with others, that's for sure. But then again, I have a favia that would like to kill everything in my tank. It puts out these crazy long sweepers, way worse than the chalices. I make sure it has a wide berth around it. Nasty little creature.

[allan]

I like the elevated sand beds for the chalices.

[350gt]

Nice, what tank is this? Is it one from your sig?

[Sherita]

Thanks Tony. That tank is my 40 breeder. It's part of a three tank + sump frag system that I have running.

The one in my sig is my 72g custom reef that's in my bedroom.

[350gt]

What lighting are they under and what have you learned about them? Do they like flow? Lots of light? I Got the bug awhile back and invision a chalice sand bed. Some ppl like sps, I like chalices.....

[BBQHILLBILLY]

When can I order a condo?

[Sherita]

What lighting are they under and what have you learned about them? Do they like flow? Lots of light? I Got the bug awhile back and invision a chalice sand bed. Some ppl like sps, I like chalices.....

Tony, my experience has been that they like medium/low flow and lower light. Too much light and they either bleach their colors out, or just die, and too much flow discourages the extension of feeding tentacles and flesh expansion. My chalice tank is under a 3' T5 fixture, with the daylight bulbs only running about 7 hours a day. It's a six bulb fixture, suspended 30" above the sandbed. My other chalices are in the 72 reef in my bedroom, they are also on the sandbed, about 28" under my mh/t5 combo, and they are placed around the edge of the liverock, so they get more indirect light than direct light.

I can't offer any advice on raising them under leds, since I have never seen one come out of an led tank that didn't look crummy (or at least really color up fantastically after getting away from the leds).

Just remember, even tho they are all chalices, most of them do NOT like their own kind, and will resort to warfare if they can reach each other with their sweepers. The absolute worst one I have hands down is my Teebs chalice. He has 3-4" sweepers, and will wipe out anything he can reach. My Christmas chalice is badly behaved as well.