Changes

A lot has happened since my last blog entry. Our 3rd peppermint shrimp died on us, and we decided to forgo any more peppermint shrimp purchases since we are unable to determine why they keep dying off on us! We also added a second emerald crab shortly after the first was re-introduced into the tank. Unfortunately, we haven't seen the new crab since we added it to the tank. The next morning, we found a emerald molt which means that the crab was likely highly stressed when we added it. We fear the worse, but it wouldn't be the first emerald crab to hide for 6+ weeks without our knowledge!

Four additional hermit crabs were added to the tank in an attempt to combat the hair algae that keeps cropping up on our rocks. These new hermits are much more like the originals that we had in the tank. Much more active than the scarlet hermits that we added and in an out of new shells like they were teenagers. They also seemed to have spurred something on in the scarlet hermits which are also more active now (but still not like these new hermits). They are constantly scurrying around and tidying things up.

About 4-5 weeks ago, we added a Lawnmower blenny to the tank to again try to address the hair algae blooms. This blenny apparently didn't read this contract before I purchased it though. It has basically ignored all of the hair algae in the tank! It is staying fat, so it is eating something in the tank...I am just not sure what that is.

Shortly after I added the blenny, the firefish started jumping into the back chambers again. I moved it back into the main tank a couple of times only to have it in the back chambers again by the next day. It was too stressed to stay in the main display. I decided to pull it out and put it into my small 5 gallon hex cube until I could think of something better to do with it. I decided to pull out the bunch of chaeto and toss it in the hex at the same time since it was putting out runners and starting to spread in the main tank. The firefish seemed much more relaxed in the hex tank. It could be seen swimming around the tank and would eat hardily when fed. I decided to leave him there for the time being.

Over the next 3-4 weeks, the small hex cube began to develop an ugly skin on the surface of the water. It was likely protein by-products from the fish waste and food. The small tank didn't have a very efficient export system and the water was slowly building waste. I couldn't keep the firefish in that tank for long. I spoke with Ben about the problem, and explained that I couldn't keep his fish in the small tank for much longer because it would get poisoned by the waste products. We toyed with trying to re-introduce the firefish back into the main display and again rigging up something to keep it from jumping into the back chambers. In the end, we decided that we should return the fish to the fish store to allow it another chance with some other aquarist. It just didn't seem to enjoy what we had to offer it here.

During the same time period that I had the firefish in the small hex tank, our Xenia decided to propagate. It began splitting off into two distinct stalks. Over about a 2 week time period the stalks moved away from each other and a thin ribbon of material stretched out between them into finally they had totally separated themselves! We now had two individual Xenia. We decided that we should sell one of the Xenia back to the fish store since it grows so fast and we know had ~10X the amount of Xenia that we started with.

Yesterday, Ben and I bagged up the firefish, one of the Xenia stalks, and the chaeto and headed out to our favorite fish store (River City Aquatics). They agreed to purchase the items for store credit. Ben and I went back to look for a Neon Goby, which Ben has been excited to purchase for some time now. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in today and neither did Horizon or Gallery of Pets. Ben was bummed. We will keep looking and researching. We might find something else that interests him even more. That will be for next time...

I did a 20% water change-out on the main tank last night. I pulled out as much red slime algae and hair algae as I could. I will measure water parameters in the next day or two and try to stay more on top of the tank. I decided to go ahead and decommission the hex cube last night while I was doing the water change out. The tank didn't seem fit for housing livestock and there wasn't much point in just cycling water through it.