Maroon Clowns & Long Tentacle Anemone

Introducing Kate & Leopold, the maroon clownfish! :) The pet store had a good deal on two large maroon clown fish and a long tentacle anemone they were VERY attached to. When we first brought them home, they looked like this:












The next day, after they got comfortable, the anemone swelled up and turned out to be HUGE!












The clown fish hardly ever leave the anemone, they LOVE it! It's so interesting to watch the symbiotic relationship there. However, the male clown (the smaller of the two) has also tried hosting with the Condy Anemone, which we've read is almost unheard of. Most clown fish don't host with that type of Anemone.

Here's a current picture of the tank:

Coco worm, Brain Coral, & Acropora

We added a few more new things to the tank this weekend:

A brain coral:











Acropora & A coco worm:















And a few more candy cane corals to make a little "colony" with:



The tank as of 11/1/10:

Galaxia & Feather Dusters

We made another trip to the pet store last night and came home with a new coral and two feather dusters.

First, here is an updated picture of how the tank is looking now-a-days:

I think it's amazing how much things have changed and grown with the work we've done (all though, Josh has done most of the "work" on it) and the "collection" of corals and a few fish that we've been amassing in just 7 months!  From left to right in the picture above we have the following corals and invertebrates: galaxia, hammer coral, frogspawn, candy cane, condy anemone, toadstool leather, flower anemone, feather dusters, mushroom coral, pulsing xenias, zoanthids, and kenya trees.  Fish and other animal life include: snails, hermit crabs, emerald mithrax crabs, diamond goby, sea urchin, starfish, bi-color angel, ocellaris clowns, neon velvet damsel, and a yellow-tail damsel.  Wow - that's a lot of life to watch!  :)

Galaxia or Galaxy Coral:

The two feather dusters:











I also, finally, remembered to take a picture of the sump we set up a while back:

It works something like this... the water is removed from the display tank by the overflow box and sent down into the right side of the sump, where it is filtered through the protein skimmer.  The water flows through the baffles on the right side of the sump into the refugium in the center, where the live sand & rock and the chaeto help with natural filtration.  Then the water spills over into the left side of the sump where it is filtered through some commercial media (biological, mechanical, and chemical) and finally through the GFO reactor before being pumped back into the display tank.

The protein skimmer (left) removes organic compounds from the water before they break down into nitrogenous waste.  The GFO reactor (right) removes phosphates from the water and helps to reduce algae.

Zoanthids, Hammer & Candy Cane Coral

Sunday, we made a trip to the pet store for some more hermit crabs and snails and while we were there we picked up a few new corals:

My favorite is the Hammer Coral:

 

And, Josh likes the Candy Cane Coral:

But, the "zoa's" or "zoos" or zoanthids are Josh's favorite:

We also had them check the water while we were there and they told us it was perfect!  >.<   Even after the A/C in the house being out for a week and having some temporary troubles with some of the alkalinity, calcium and PH levels in the water.  We've learned quickly how to remedy those.  I have to give Josh all the credit.  He's doing a great job; with everything else going on I just don't have the time or patience for it!  LOL

Josh is on a new project of growing our own phytoplankton to feed the corals and he's having plenty of success with it.  In fact, we're probably growing it faster than we can empty 2 liter pop bottles to keep the stuff in!  LOL  I'd include a picture, but it literally just looks like a bottle full of green water - not much interesting to look at.

Our tank is now 6 months old and at this stage it is considered to be an "established" marine environment.  Albeit a newly established one, but we've made it that far and that's a huge accomplishment!  It certainly hasn't been without effort, but I think it's been worth it!  :)

Starfish, Maroon Clown, & a Gargonian

This weekend we added, Patrick, the starfish:

Elizabeth, the maroon clown fish:

Who, unfortunately, didn't reappear the next day after we added her to the tank :(

And, a gargonian, filter-feeding invertebrate:

These are a couple pictures of the tank with the new additions:

There have only been a couple of other developments since our last post.  The second bubble-tip anemone ended up committing (what Josh calls) anemocide.  In other words, it crawled onto the koralia (creates the current in the tank) and was shred to bits!  *sigh*  I think we'll have to give up on those type of anemones.  Our condy anemone also decided to move; if you look close in the picture above you'll see him in the bottom right corner of the tank with the kenya trees.  We have since moved him to a huge crack in a rock on the top left of the tank.  This seems to be a favorite spot for all the marine life in the tank, so we're hoping he'll be satisfied there.  We also had our water tested at the pet store when we went to pick up the new tank mates and were informed that our alkalinity was rather low, so we bought some supplements for the tank.  This can be a cause for the anemones moving around.  We'll see how that helps!

Angela the Angelfish

Meet, Angela - the bi-color angelfish:















We just added her to the tank last night.  My family has suddenly become enamored with the idea of having marine life named after them.  So, this one was named after my mother.

Other fish that have been named after my family include, Bo (my sister's boyfriend) - the sea urchin (left) and, Danny (my step-father) - the blue velvet damsel (right):












My sister, Elizabeth still needs to pick out her fish.  I suppose we should name some of them after Josh, the kids, and I.  Guess we'll see...

Our new anemone hasn't found his/her home yet. It's been moving all over the tank. We were hopeful that he would remain in this excellent spot:



Unfortunately, last night he was getting VERY close to the overflow box and we had to turn it off to prevent the disaster we had with the last anemone splitting himself up. Then, this morning, he had moved down to the cavern below these rocks. At first, Josh thought maybe he liked the light and had crawled up there to get closer to it. Now we're beginning to wonder if it isn't the flow of the water he likes and that's why they keep getting to close to the overflow. I personally think they are depressed - either they're hiding under a rock or trying to commit suicide! LOL Ah well, maybe he'll find a "safe" home soon enough. We'll just have to keep a close eye on him.

Toadstool Leather and Bubble Tip Anemone

Last night we added another bubble tip anemone (hopefully, this one will stay put!) and a large toadstool leather:















This is what the anemone and the toadstool look like in their "resting" state:
















Another picture of the tank as it looks now, during the day:



We have also added some "moon lights" to the tank.  Several things in the tank react to these lights like a black light and they glow in "psychedelic" colors:














Here is a full view of the tank's moonlight: