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.

Dory's Loving It!

Dory has been removed from quarantine and placed in the main tank. She's lovin' it! She didn't even lie down and play dead under a rock like blue hippos are known to do. She was shy at first, but in just a few minutes she was out and about, getting to know her new surroundings and her new neighbors. And she started to eat right away, which is a great sign!

Here she is behind the mushroom forest.

The whole gang:

This tree-ish looking thing is a Cauliflower Colt (coral) that we picked up. It's only about 4 inches tall right now, but it's supposed to grow big and eventually take over that entire rock that's behind it.

Couldn't Resist

Well, we did it. We bought a blue hippo tang. After promising we wouldn't get any more tangs. Here she is. And yes, we named her Dory. She's just a little bitty baby.

The last time we bought a couple tangs, they brought ich with them and killed off our entire population. This time is different though. This hippo had been in the store for three weeks undergoing copper treatment. At this store, that's standard procedure for any wild-caught fish. The difference between this time and last time is that last time we bought the tangs just a day or two after they arrived at the store. They didn't have time to undergo the copper treatment and thus kill any ich that was on them.

Just goes to show you that you can't trust everything people tell you. One clerk said it would be good to buy them just as they arrive because then they won't have to undergo two or more acclimation procedures. So that's what we did with our previous tangs. Now we know it's better to wait and let the fish get treated first.

We have a quarantine tank set up now, and Dory is spending some time there. We'll have her under observation for several weeks to make sure no ich is present. She's been there almost two weeks and is doing very well. We'll probably wait two more weeks before introducing her to the main tank.

She loves this empty clam shell. It's where she goes to hide when she's spooked, and she also likes to sleep there at night. When we introduce her to the main tank, we'll put the shell in there too, so she can feel at home.