[Chasmodes]

I am not sure what to think about the tunicates, because I can't find much info on line about this species (Mogula manhattensis) in captivity, other than for short term lab work. I've been feeding them bottled phytoplankton and oyster eggs. So far, I've been able to keep some of the adults for about 8 months, then they die. I think that their life span is about that, based on what I've read, so maybe that is all that I can expect in my tank. That also explains why the larger tunicates died first. Is my tank the optimal environment for them? Probably not, because the ones that lived haven't grown to the full size of the larger ones that died. They are surviving, but not necessarily thriving, although...

I suspect that my food regimen is working because I've had juvenile tunicates showing up throughout the tank. I've found six juvenile tunicates, and have two adult tunicates left. Some of them juveniles are growing pretty fast. I also found out that the crabs eat them now and then, especially the juveniles. I couldn't figure out why they'd eventually disappear, until I found a mud crab eating one. I've discovered a dozen juveniles, but now can only find 6 of them. I'm researching on how to raise my own plankton, and it seems pretty easy, so that should reduce the cost of feeding the filter feeders.

The worms are similar to a bobbit worm, but most likely, the species is a common clam worm, a.k.a. ragworm, Neanthes succinea. There are 110 species of bristleworms found in the Bay, but this species seems to be the best match (videos, pictures, and also based on them being found in brackish water like my collecting site, at and SG of 1.014). They don't bother anything. They eat leftover food, so I consider them part of my clean up crew. I'm sure that my fish will eat prey on them also. They avoid all of the other critters, preferring to dart back into their burrows rather than prey on them, or defend themselves, except for each other. I've seen two of the worms encounter each other, and one of them attacked the other with a quick nip of it's toothy proboscis. The "teeth" are much smaller than those of the bobbit worms that I see on line. The "Chesapeake Bay Program" puts out a list of species that have been collected, called "A Comprehensive List of Chesapeake Bay Basin Species 2007". The family name "Eunicea" is on the list, but no associated species, which leads me to believe that they might not have collected any Eunice worm species yet, but perhaps they anticipate that they will. Anyway, I searched images for all of the listed worm species and narrowed it down to a couple.

Feeding my fish: During the winter, I've fed them frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis shrimp, frozen clams, frozen bloodworms, and a frozen seafood mix. I rotate foods so they don't get used to any one of them. I've fed them flakes in an auto feeder when I went on vacation a couple times, and started feeding them flakes a few days before (and only flakes) so they'd get used to eating them. But once I return from vacations, I go back to frozen or fresh foods. During the summer last year, I fed them fresh razor clams, fresh clams, fresh oysters (from the store), and keep grass shrimp in the tank (they'd preyed on them now and then, but not as often as I thought), and also fresh mussels. They also ate a tiny mud crab that I had in there, but leave the larger ones alone. I plan to raise amphipods in my holding tank and use them for food as well. They ate all of the ones that I collected. I can't get to the collecting spot as often as I'd like, but my goal is to provide them with the best diet that I can. The bristleworm population has exploded in my tank, so my guess is that they fish will eat them if they can catch them. I know for a fact that my skilletfish will eat them, because I dropped one in my QT tank to see what happened and the skilletfish was the first to get there (ate it whole).

Status of my tanks: Copper treatment is over, and I'm doing 25% water changes and added carbon to my filter to get the levels down. The fish go back to the display tank in 8 days, so I can't wait.