Our New Aquarium: Post #13

Here's a great shot of the mandarin goby. She's crazy with color! Green swirled with red, and blue on her fins. We haven't come up with a good name for her yet. NO, we will NOT name her Mandy. We're considering getting a male to keep her company. I've heard they'll mate in captivity. At the very least, they'll display toward one another. That could be fun.
I moved the coco worm and it's much happier now. Came right out and posed for this shot. It actually looks like it has two heads...see the two red blooms?

Our New Aquarium: Post #12

Lots of new fish to talk about, and all thanks to having added that eco-system (see my previous post). Here is a power brown tang, named Tango. He's picking on our new coco worm. The coco worm is red, but he's in his tube cuz he doesn't like being picked on.
The tang family of fish is identified by a sharp razor-like bit at the base of the tail. You can see it clearly on Tango, although not so well in this photo. It's surrounded by the yellow splotch just in front of his tail. Tangs will flick this at you if they feel threatened, and those razors can cut you!

Next is a sailfin tang. Due to the color of his "striped pajamas," we named him PJ. In this photo you can get an idea of his size. Tango is about the same size as well. It's nice to have several larger fish now.

We couldn't resist this cute little honey damsel. We named him Pinky cuz he's so tiny. Here's a closeup, then another photo for perspective.

The last of the new fish is a mandarin goby. She's actually quite beautiful, with red, green, and blue all swirled about. It's hard to see since she found this nice hiding place. Yes, I know for sure that she's a female. Mandarin gobies eat only "pods," or copepods, miniscule arachnids that live in the live rock. Just to make sure we had enough of a population of pods, we bought a jar full and dumped them in the eco-system below the tank, where they can live in the cheato and be fruitful and multiply.

In addition to the coco worm, we got these three feather dusters. We got three because they were all stuck together. I like that they're different shades of brown. See Angel and a fire shrimp in the background?

I think we're just about done with new additions. There's just one more fish that we have our eye on--a blue hippo tang. (Remember Dory from "Finding Nemo"?) We'll probably be picking one up at the end of the week.

Our New Aquarium: Post #11

We finally got our eco-system up and running. This is the high-falutin' filtration system, used by serious owners of saltwater tanks. The water flows out of the tank via this black overflow box, then is siphoned to the clear box on the back, and from there flows down a tube.
The tube takes it down to a tank under the aquarium. First it enters the section with the blue bio-balls. Those catch a lot of particles and need to be removed and cleaned on occasion. That might get to be old, so eventually we might replace them with live rock rubble.

The water then moves into the main chamber. This houses "miracle mud," live rock rubble, and an algae called cheato (CHAY-toe). Cheato looks and feels just like Easter grass.

Another cool thing about this system is that we can keep the heater down there, which you can see in the closeup below. It was so unsightly in the main tank.

The water continues into a third chamber, which you can't see--it's behind the center support beam. This section holds plain-old polyester fiberfill (quilt batting) and more bio-balls.
Lastly, the water goes into the fourth chamber, out to a pump, up a tube, and back into the aquarium. In the photo below, in the blurry darkness on the right, you can see a white pipe that comes up and around and connects to that bumpy black piece. Everything looks so calm and peaceful, you'd never know that the water is really rushing out of there.

The really amazing thing about this system is that the water travels at a rate of about 500 gallons PER HOUR! And it's only a 55-gallon tank!

Our New Aquarium: Post #10

We got a couple new critters today. We've had our eye on these fire shrimp, and this weekend Planet Coral had them marked way down. Must have gotten a big shipment of them. So we got two. They're a nice bright red with a few white dots. They're not as gregarious as the cleaner shrimp. They prefer to hide under rocks but will come out during feeding time. This one found a great rock to hide under, and we can still see him!

The aquarium inhabitants are checking out the newcomer.

We also got a red starfish. I guess today was "red" day. This guy will add some nice color to the place.

He didn't waste any time but started climbing around on the rock right off. That's especially good after that long acclimation time he had. The guy at the store warned us that this guy needs a long time to acclimate. He showed us how to set up a drip line and said to let it take a couple hours. So it was good to see him move around so much as soon as he got in the tank.

Intermission

After all the attention I've given to the saltwater fish, I thought I shouldn't leave Mr. Snerdley out. He's my betta fish. He's the last of five that were from my daughter's wedding. She had them inside vases for the centerpieces at the reception tables. Mr. Snerdley has lived almost two years since the wedding day. It's hard to believe that he was mostly white when we first got him.

And, of course, let's not leave out my bestest pets, Shama and Rhema. Here Shama's singing her greeting song. She's always so happy to see me, even if I've only been a few steps away. She lifts her nose and gives a happy little sing-song howl. Rhema will sing too, but not as often. She has a nice alto voice, so the two make good harmony.

Our New Aquarium: Post #9

The mushrooms have really blossomed since we got the new lights. Is it right to use the word blossomed when you're talking about animals? I have to admit, I find it hard to think of these things as animals.

Check this out... a mushroom is growing inside this shell (to the right of the feather-duster worm).

The starfish really gets around. Here he is coming off a rock and heading toward a worm.

Then he crawled right over the worm. The worm didn't care for that too much...he shot up inside his tube.

More worms...

Our New Aquarium: Post #8

Some rare shots of Scooby...although not so rare anymore. He's been coming out of his hole more often. If you look closely, you'll see some crabs in this first photo.

Scooby even ventures higher up and swims around the rocks and ship now and then.

Now here's a face only a mother could love...

Snuggled in his hideaway...