Awww.....

Ever since Spike II died, we've been holding out for a baby Foxface to arrive at the fish store. Today they had three babies! We selected the smallest of the bunch...he's barely over an inch long. What a cutie! (He's the yellow one in the photo. To the left you can see our orange Aussie Dendrophilia. The colors are much brighter...the camera flash doesn't do it justice.)

Spike III didn't take long to acclimate, and he seems happy, although Dory (the blue hippo tang) is picking on him a bit. For some reason he doesn't seem to mind. He's managed to find a hiding place if he needs to get away. One of the clowns also tried picking on him, but Spike III showed his spikes! Such a baby and yet he knows how to defend himself.
　
Oh, guess I didn't mention...we put Dory in the main tank a week ago. At the same time, we took the bully Flame Angel out and quarantined him. That was so Dory would have a chance to feel comfortable in the main tank without being picked on.
　
We're a little glad that Dory feels assertive enough to pick on someone. Perhaps she's ready for Flame to return to the main tank. We'll put Flame in a little later today. His presence might give Dory something else to think about besides picking on little Spike.

Another look at Spike III, along with Rebo and Zootie, the two clowns.

Here he is, schooling with the chromies (aka The Three Stooges) and showing his spikes.
OK, the right term is "shoaling." Here he is, shoaling with Larry, Mo, and Curly.

New Guy

Just picked up this pseudochromis porphyreus (the purple one in the photo). He's listed as "semi-aggressive," which is good for being such a little guy. Already he's held his own against the bully Flame Angel, so now Flame is leaving him alone.

Oh, and we named him Inigo. ("Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.") We chose that name cuz it sounds like indigo, which is kind of the color he is.

New Stuff!

The newest addition to our tank is this Aussie dendrophyllia. This was a gift from our daughter and son-in-law. Very pretty! These photos are from the Internet. Our new arrivals have just been acclimated, so they've closed up for now. These photos show how they'll look when they feel comfortable and open up. Here's a close-up shot.

We also picked up a star polyp, shown below. Ours isn't quite as big as this one in the photo, but it'll grow. I'll add photos of ours at a later date.

What the Heck?

More misery in the fish tank. Spike II died. For no apparent reason. Yesterday he was fine, behaving normally, showing good color, and eating well. This morning he was dead. We just had our water tested at the fish store, and it showed we had excellent quality. The only change was the addition of this powerhead to create more current.

Fish are supposed to love this. Our clowns and chromies have been riding the wave from the beginning. They seem to enjoy it. Maybe Spike didn't.

Oh well, now we can hold out for a cute little baby Foxface, when the store gets one in.

Meanwhile, the rest of the fish are doing well, as you can see from these photos. We had to remove Dory from the main tank due to a bout with ich, but she recovered very nicely in the QT and seems to be enjoying herself. When we think she's ready to go back to the main tank, we're going to remove the Flame Angel for a time. He's the reason she got ich...he picked on her terribly.