Category: fishtank

Fishtank photo session a bust

I haven’t posted about the tank in ages. In January, Kevin upped the Kalkwasser (a calcium hydroxide slurry) dosing to daily from a few times a week/when he thought of it, and now the tank (fish, corals and rocks) really looks amazing. We were so happy when Sanna noticed without prompting at Easter how “clean” the tank looked. She last saw it when it was still a bit turbulent from the move, so there was bound to be some improvement regardless, but we were all sorts of gratified.

Anyway, I went to take pictures, and first I had the wrong setting on the camera (Kevin had been out in the yard taking photos of the plants with his macro lens) and by the time I figured that out, the tang was so agitated that the clowns were riled up and half of the corals were retreating. Bummer. So here he is, fully flared, eyeing the camera through the clowns’ rock.

Tangs are extremely expressive fish. They have a top and bottom fin which they use for speed and steering. When they are wary or alarmed, you see them zoom from hiding spot to hiding spot, and stop (very suddenly) with the two fins totally extended to examine the threat. It changes the shape of the fish from essentially a triangle to a vertical oval, and is very distinctive. Here’s a good look of that pause, which lasts all of a second before he dispatches for safer ground.

And here in front of the rocks:

I really wish he didn’t find us so alarming. And it’s not just photos — feeding, cleaning, water changes: all cause for panic. I wish I could explain that they’re in his best interest. Fish-brained tang.

Peer Pressure

I didn’t make a note of it here, but the tang has finally graduated from the quarantine tank! We put him in the main tank last Saturday, and although the transition really stressed him out, he seems great now. When we went to move him, it took me an extra try to net him (he half evaded the net and caught his tang), and then when we got him in the main tank, he caught his other tang and struggled for a few heart wrenching seconds before struggling free. He quickly darted down behind the torch coral’s rock, and actually lay on the bottom, breathing heavily. Not what you want your fish to look like. We didn’t think engaging with him would help, but we were so worried. I finally reached over and tapped on the glass by that corner, which seemed to startle him into action – he looked like he was just going to dart to a new hiding spot, but then he saw the clowns, his fins flared in interest, and he made a beeline across the tank for his new friends. Clack and (especially) Click took quite a bit longer to remember their manners and be sociable (Click was still trying to nip him away from all spots in the tank, especially the clown’s rock), but he’s really settled in, and the three of them now seem to be getting along nicely.

I had to get a picture of Kevin feeding them. The clowns generally swim up to the surface any time we come into view, just in case it might be time for them to eat. The tang, you can tell, really wants to be part of the party, but he just can’t bear to go anywhere near the surface or the front of the tank when we’re in range. He rockets around in panicky circles behind the rocks at the back, sticking close to the bottom, and you can practically hear a little fish voice shrieking, “Danger! Danger!” while the clowns bob and weave up at the surface. It’s very funny. And every now and then he pauses long enough to notice them up there, and you can tell he really wants to go see what they’re doing, because he thinks they’re interesting (especially after 6 weeks cooped up by himself) but he just can’t bear it.

I was so glad I got the picture when I did, though, because about a minute later you could see something click in his little yellow brain and all of a sudden he realized that the clowns were up at the surface gobbling FOOD. At which point he gave up his objections and joined the party.

Tang!

I’ve been waiting to post a photo of our new little dude due to superstition. I wanted to give him a few days to make sure he was healthy and coping with the transition to his new home before sharing the photos.

He’s easier to catch on film than our last yellow tang, but still does his fair share of darting away, resulting in photos like the one above. He really doesn’t trust us, but he spends a lot of time, fins flared, dead still despite the current, just watching when we come into view.

I’m totally enamoured with him.

We took my parents to the fish store, and came home with a new xenia and the tang. He didn’t eat for the first two days until we moved the nori clip to the bottom third and back of the tank, at which point he tucked in with enthusiasm. Over the last week, we’ve moved it to the bottom half of the front of the tank, and he’s still eating which is obviously making us cheerful.

We have him on the kitchen counter in the 10 gallon quarantine tank. Some pvc elbows for cover, a 600 maxijet for circulation, a filter with carbon, and a CPR Backpack II skimmer. We’ll keep him there for a month, barring any signs of illness. On day four we started noticing black ich (little pin-points of black – it’s a tubeworm that tangs are very prone to) and some sort of unidentifiable fuzzy, white, fibrous growth by his right tang. We did a pH-adjusted freshwater dip, which seemed to take care of the black ich, and the next morning the white fuzz seemed quite diminished. We’re keeping an eye on him, and he might get another dip soon if the fuzz doesn’t completely disappear. He’s been very active and eating, dealt well with the dip, and doesn’t seem stressed (knock on wood). Here he is careening around the tank while we did a water change after the dip:

Photos

Kevin and I lack photos of us together. Other than the wedding, I only have a handful of us over the last few years, and most of those are special occasions (our first new years in Seattle, the day we got the deed to our house) when we gave up and set up the camera timer. My mom did a good job rectifying that problem while they were here visiting.

The two of us in the kitchen with the pretty tulips (flowers have been SO cheap recently! A great pick-me-up!)

And sitting on the new couch, waiting for Ratatouille to begin…

And in the backyard under the tree…

And finally, sitting in the folding chairs, watching the new little tang acclimate:

Welcome, I suppose…

Well, we have a new dude in the tank. We took Kevin’s family to the fish store on their last day here. (To be fair, we merely suggested it as an activity and then they asked – we didn’t drag them.) Along with the typical late December purchases of new lights, more sand, and the hermit crab and snail cleaner crew, we brought home an emerald crab.

The upside to emerald crabs is that some people claim that they eat bubble algae (a constant nuisance, and we have plenty). On the other hand, many people say that they also eat corals, other crabs, and any rock-dwelling fish (like the gramma) that they can corner. I don’t doubt it – those claws are pretty big. But Kevin’s family was here, he loves them, and he promised to trap it and bring it back to the store at the first sign of problems, and so we came home with one.

Once in the tank, he promptly acted like a crab (ie, dissapeared into the rocks and became nocturnal). We’ve seen him a handful of times since.

See him? His green forearms and pinchers are hugging the top of the acro. (There’s also a brown shell of a hermit crab on the acro just under the tips of the crab’s claws, and the pointy purple shell of a medium-sized snail to the left.)

I’m still deeply distrustful, and Kevin’s disappointed that he isn’t more visible. New name: Green Monster? He’s certainly big enough…

Temp housing for the dudes

The move on Saturday went extremely quickly, thanks in no small part to help from our Boston friends Shawn and Sanna, and their puppy William Wallace. 🙂

I was so grateful not to be the one trying to heft mattresses and couches and the TV. Not only is it so nice to have all of the furniture moved (the house has finally stopped echoing!), but they were such great company. In all, we only spent about two trips and 4 hours of loading, driving and unloading the UHaul. The boys stopped in the middle to go play football, and then we all went out to watch game three of the series in the evening.

Even the weather cooperated.

Blue skies and perfect temps after a week of drizzly cold.

I’ll post house-with-furniture pictures once we’re a little bit more organized. 🙂

The fishtank move on Sunday was a bit more of a challenge. By mid-afternoon, we’d moved all of the dudes into temporary homes, with lights, current, heat, filtration and circulation. We brought about 60 gallons of water over from the apartment to lessen the transition. (Between our wonderful friends, we were able to borrow 7 carbuoys — the huge glass jugs used for brewing beer — which made the water transport in the car MUCH easier, if still pretty heavy.)

Here are the clowns hanging out in a tupperware on the counter:

And reunited with the PVC in their new temporary digs:

The clowns *really* didn’t like my attempts to catch them with the net for transport, but once they were both together in the quarantine tank and were able to hide in the PVC for a breather, they calmed down quite quickly, and even ate dinner.

Here’s our green tub of rocks and corals, all lit up:

It looks quite sensational with the blue lights in that green tub. Here’s a slightly less glowing photo, taken before we put the skimmer in. (You can use the futon for scale — it’s a pretty big tub.)

The corals are out and look pretty happy, which is a relief.

We’ve now moved just about all of the equipment. I hit the point of total exhaustion around 8:30 pm, when the water was out of both tanks, but we still have about 40 pounds of sand. I’ll finish getting that out tonight, and then we can wash the tanks, and transport them and the stand tomorrow. So, we aren’t done, but it’s progress!

Moving the tank…

I haven’t posted a tank photo in ages. Here are the dudes, happy and oblivious to all of the coming changes.

The fish tank will be the last thing that we move. There are a lot of pieces. We have a 55 gallon display tank, a 40 gallon refugium, a +/-5 gallon sump, a 10-gallon quarantine tank, a stand, a cabinet (that the sump sits on), plus lights, plumbing, about 80lbs of rocks, about 80 lbs of sand, nearly 100 gallons of water, plus corals, fish, invertebrates, and zillions of worms, critters, and creatures that we didn’t put in the tank but that we want to preserve.

The rough plan is to set up the quarantine tank (with its lights, CPR Backpack II skimmer, pumps and heater) on the counter of the new house a few days ahead of time, with water from the main tank. Then we can bring the clowns, shrimp, snails, hermit crabs, and smaller corals and keep them there until the main tank normalizes.
One of my coworkers has offered to lend me four of his (sterilized/sterilizable) 6.5 gallon jugs for beer brewing to transport all of the water. So, then, the plan will be to:

1. Transport water from the tank to the quarantine tank two days ahead of time. Also transport all of the ready-water buckets and their water.
2. Transport fish, crabs, snails, and small corals in bags to the quarantine tank.
3. Scoop out sand to container.
4. Siphon as much tank water to jugs as possible.
5. Move coral-encrusted rocks to containers, with water and, if possible, heaters and current?
6. Transport 55 gallon tank and stand to new house, along with water, sand, rocks, equipment. Also transport 40 gallon tank, sump, and cabinet.
7. Reassemble stand, tanks, rocks. Add water. Heat and circulate. Add lights.
8. Connect full plumbing loop between 55 gallon display tank, sump, and refugium.
9. Continue to bring water from the old apartment for water changes (to reduce stress on the creatures) for the quarantine tank and the main setup for the next three days.
10. Once the tank seems in the clear and the water is testing normal, reintroduce the fish, etc from the quarantine tank.

I have a nice chart in progress for the four car trips that I think this will take.

I’m daunted.

Fish tank fun

The “Gramma Rock”, so named because the gramma used to live inside it, has always been a bit of our nemesis. In addition to housing our first zoos and lots of coralline algae, it’s also been host to the annoying green fan algae and the alarming red algae. not to mention bubble algae and aiptasia. When both the green and red algae started reproducing on the same day, it seemed time for drastic measures.

We’d talked about pulling it out a year ago, but decided that the gramma would never forgive us. And then we stalled a bit, in his memory. But, with the red algae making a nasty comeback, and the ongoing dominance of the green, when I raised the subject a week ago Kevin was very enthusiastic about pulling the rock out.

Here’s the tank before it went:

(The gramma rock is the huge lump in the right third of the tank.)

Kevin documented the removal. Here’s the tank with the lights off, and me with a towel prepping to remove the huge rock. (Like the Seafair tan?? :-))

Here is the tank under the blue lights, all murky from the sediment raised from under the rock:

The rock removal left a big sand bed, and let us move the unhappy torch coral out of the corner and into the current and light. The torch coral looks so happy. And a bonus: the clowns are venturing further right in the tank. Nice!

We’ve put the rock in fresh water in the quarantine tank in the bathroom to re-cure (i.e. lose all of the negative life-forms). I had a momentary lapse, since that also meant losing the zoos (purple and orange), and about a zillion starfish and snails, but Kevin was adamant (and correct) that it was for the greater good of the tank.
We were intrigued to find a crab about 2″ across after the second day. We’d spied him a handful of times, when we watched the tank by flashlight well after midnight, but it’s good that he’s now away from the coral. As for the experience of letting rock rot, I wish that there was a way of blogging smells, but for all of your sakes, it’s probably just as well that there isn’t. Picture every bit of loveliness that the phrase “low tide” dredges up. Luckily, it isn’t our turn for a Brown Dinner anytime soon. Here’s the sanitized version of the rock, pre-water and pumps:

We have no idea whether the rock will become part of a new, better system (contingent on buying a house), or just be an exercise in letting go. I think it’s quite pretty and hope to keep it. We’ll see!

Clownfish in the mist

I love this photo.

One of the tank care items that we do every other day or so is to blast the rocks and sand with a turkey baster, to stir up debris and detritus. Then it can be filtered out of the water, and the tank looks all glittery and clear a few hours later. I’ve always felt terrible for the fish, though, since it would be like breathing smoke, until we went to Hawaii and saw how murky with sand the water there gets every afternoon when the wind picks up. Since then, I’ve been basting with renewed vigour.

This picture was of Clack from the back of the tank, through the swirling murk. In the tank, you can see the pink mushrooms, yellow and orange zoos,
and the cursed shiny green bubble algae. You can also see through the tank into the living room: the red couch with its white pillows, the kayaks in their stand… Still life of living room through a fishtank. 🙂