Sunday 16 March 2008

The next problem

hmmm now this was just my luck another issue! i noticed about 2 white dots on each of my fish known as whitespot (ich) my poor little babies had to go through the stress of me moving my rock around to catch the crab and now that could of been the cause. I spoke to my lfs and the problem was soon sorted out so there strong little ones and now are well and fighting fit!




So i thought as they were well i'd go and treat myself the next weekend to something very wonderful... that was when i purchased my second coral my yellow toadstool i was soooo excited to get this gorgeous coral home. I climitazed it for an hour and low and behold the magic worked later on that afternoon it opened up i was sooo pleased! I noticed over the course of the next day it shed its skin and started settling in one by one more polyps came out every night to feed what a fantastic sight! here is a picture of my toadstool on the day i put it in the tank-



A mission

Now i must say the little adventures and missions that creep up on you whilst fishkeeping keep the excitment going in marine fishkeeping! I saw a crab when i first had my live rock thought nothing of the critter as i thought ah he'd be a good clean up crew member. Hmmm however he shed his skin and the skin looked rather large so as my tank is only 58L i thought it advisable to get rid of my little friend. Now who could i find to help me with this mission? i know my crazy friend lizzy liz. In the meantime i tried explaining to my friends family that there was a crab in my tank that i never knew about an added bonus to the tank however did they believe me no? So was time for some night watching... low and behold we saw the camouflaged being behind a rock and voila it was mission time. Me and my friend liz investigated every hole in every rock then we found the little character! but we found him the problem was how on earth would we get him out? My friends fantastic idea involved of rock in bath cotton wool bud give him a poke up the bum (i laughed at this idea) but infact it worked didn't it! we had captured my little unknown friend and placed him in a container and my lovely boyfriend took him to my lfs whilst i went to work. It must have had some journey in between his legs in the car (haha sounds rude) but whats nice now is that i get to see him every time i go to my lfs (somebody someday may give him a home). My lfs said it was a good thing i got him out as he had hairy legs and would probably be aggressive towards my fish when he got bigger. I did take many pictures but on my phone so i can't show you my little friend ah well ill leave you with the thought that my friend decided to hold it and stroke it... which was slightly weird!

Even more tank mates






Onto the next tank mates, this time i went a little crazy and got 3 things in one visit and oh my was i pleased with my purchases. The purchases consisted of 1 orange tipped starfish, 1 strawberry gramma and 1 star polyp coral. I better tell you the names as you do i decided to call my starfish mr starfish (original i know) my strawberry gramma (flo, love that name!) and it would be pretty sad if i named my coral so that stayed nameless. Here is the pictures...

My next edition


As you can see below my next edition was my cleaner shrimp i must say they are incredible creatures i love the way they find their spot in the tank and come up to the glass when its feeding time. Over the past few days they have really settled in well, i should really introduce them as Jacque and Marie, they are fascinating to watch. I even had the experience of waking up the next morning seeing some interesting skin attached to my powerhead, jacque had shed his skin! success my little babies were settling in. I am amazed at how many interesting things happen in a marine tank i even was lucky to see my crab (colin) change shell into one of the shells i had placed in the tank, i must say that was a sight to see! what interesting bodies they have hehe. I think its time to get more tank mates....

Tuesday 11 March 2008

The next stage



Onto the next stage, sitting waiting and watching. I must say i quite enjoyed watching my tank, seeing the rock get algae on it and algae forming on the live sand. Then came the biggest brake through seeing life in my tank! wow i couldn't believe it all that sitting and waiting and finally a pay off i saw a crab in my live rock. I enjoyed doing the tank tests with the very good API testing kits, i felt like a mini scientist in the making. It was interesting to see over the period of 4 weeks my tank results for nitrite and ammonia stayed at 0ppm i think this was due to the cured live rock that i had in my tank. 4 weeks went by i was ready for my clean up crew! as my tank tests had stayed constant. I did a 20% water change the night before any life went in my tank, i seriously was so excited like a big kid.

The next day I purchased 3 blue legged hermit crabs, 1 turbo snail and 2 clownfish I was so excited to get them all home, I watched the lifestock for hours seeing where they liked to move where they would take up their own home and what they liked eating. I loved the way that the clownfish followed eachother around the tank they were instantly compatable! Here is some pictures of my new editions...


The beginning


Hi everyone,



So the big jump into being a marine fishkeeper, i think i first thought of keeping marines almost more than a year ago. I went into my local fish shop and was absolutely mesmorised by the colours and beauty of marine fish! The variety and different types of fish astonished me, i couldn't believe how many creatures you could keep in a tank. So i started researching and decided to order an orca TL-450 before christmas last year. I was sooo excited to get it 2 weeks went by then 1 month then 2 months, i kept calling and calling the lfs to see when i was going to get my tank. This was the first downer before i even started marine fishkeeping however it didn't deter me i kept being persistant and i must say persistance is the key as i FINALLY got it. I was so excited to get the tank home have a look at the set up... looked in the box no instructions as i am a complete novice i had no clue how or what i had to do. Thats where i came across fishkeeping if i hadn't i don't think i'd know half the stuff i do. After many many questions asked i got my tank set up and ready to go 7kg of live rock, salted RO and i was ready for the fishless cycle. This is one of the first pictures of my tank when it was in its cycle...