The chemistry is holding firm, the other live rock, from the breakdown of a tank in the midwest, arrived today, and we made the decision, once we had the rock arranged to our satisfaction, to put the rest of the corals over, and the four fish we have.
The last in was the yellow watchman male, who was just more elusive than the others, and some crud got kicked up in the old tank: when we finally did get him, he’d inhaled entirely too much crud, and the poor fellow fainted, quite unresponsive when we put him in—we’d been talking about a celebratory dinner, but we stayed and ate a frozen one, because we were worried about him: he was mostly unresponsive and breathing like a bellows. Eventually he began to cough (yes, fish can, a sort of a wheeze that blows the gills clear) and twitch his fins, and then began really to come to, about the time his mate discovered him, and he waked up and did a little ‘hi there’ dance with her: they dived deep within the rocks, and hopefully he didn’t take any serious damage now that he’s cleared his system of the nastiness…the old tank had just had too much disturbance of the sandbed, which in a marine tank you don’t disturb. Usually that crud gets processed, instead of being kicked up like that.
The other fish, after initial confusion, are dashing about in all this doubled space and new currents, just enjoying it.
We’re settling the disturbed old tank down again just as a backup in case the chemistry of this tank goes south, but it’s very unlikely it will. The sump sandbed’s been feeding this tank for a week, and if anything were out of kilter, the microlife wouldn’t be multiplying and filling this tank—I saw a mysis shrimp dart for cover in the new tank: they breed in the sump.
The conch and crabs and shrimp are all doing their thing…and I’m pretty confident this tank is now rolling. The four fish we have, each one about 2″ long, and skinny, are not going to stress the sandbed, and we’re not going to be feeding big dinners for a while yet—let the fishes forage for starters.
http://www.janefancher.com/HarmoniesOfTheNet/ will get you to the tank pix.
Did the nice crocea clam get moved over, or is he staying in the old tank for the time being? I like the new tank better with the non-blue lighting; it’s like trying to figure out real colors under those orange sodium vapor lights.
Yep: the actinic is on for an hour before and after the ‘day’ lights, to give the critters fair warning, and a twilight. It’s like my ships, that manage an hour of dimmed lights between shifts (mainday/alterday) to let bodies catch up and calm down…simultaneously.
The clam is in the new digs and behaving, for a change. Usually if you put him somewhere, he decides to be somewhere else, and goes there, no matter what’s in the way. He weighs maybe over a pound, but that clam can swim.
Funny, I haven’t seen those orange sodium lights in a long while. They were nicely “alien,” somehow.
Aw…but what constitutes “real” color? ;D
Unfortunately, the actinic lights drive the digital cameras crazy. I don’t know if the camera is trying to compensate or what, but the tanks under actinic are gorgeous. My camera is being just plain goofy, too. I have to set the exposure compensation all the way down to get pix that aren’t overexposed. The pix I’ve posted so far were also taken when the tank was cloudy with sand. I had to do a lot of post processing to get the detail, so that’s scewing the color sense as well. I’m going now to get you some daylight pix up. Bye
GreatTransfer-3 reminds me of M16’s “Pillars of Creation”, as NASA calls ’em. I suppose that’s mostly coincidence. 😉
Not entirely…:D
More pix are now up…with the lights on.
I particularly wanted the pillars to define territory: fish recognize this sort of landmark: this is mine, this is my border, that sort of thing, and they also force deviations in a straight chase, which, with damsels, is also good. Since most damsels have a 2-3 foot territory (except the big garibaldis, which are the size of a tuna [not quite]) you can make them very happy with some boundaries inside a tank.
The reasons are entirely different but the results are the same. And in that way, the mass distribution is not entirely coincidence. 😉
I’m from LA. Garabaldi’s, goldfish of the sea, are common around Sta Catalina Is.
Congratulations on the beautiful new habitat.
I’m going to be passing through Spokane on Amtrak 1:30am Sunday. Are you north or south of the tracks? I’llwave 🙂
I’ll look for a plush humuhumunukunukuapua’a for ya! 😉
Lol!
So much for growing corals in aquariums…
http://www.npr.org/2013/06/08/189800028/aquarium-sculptors-create-coral-for-conservation-awareness?ft=1&f=1007