Adam's FLog

Monday, February 8, 2010

It was bound to happen...

Well, I was warned to be cautious with the tangs, and last night I'm glad I was. The powder blue tang appears to be sick. I've separated the two tangs in their quarantine by putting an eggcrate barrier in between them, hopefully this will keep the yellow tang from picking on the powder blue too much, and it will make it easier for the powder blue to eat. They're both still eating, but it's pretty clear by now that the powder blue isn't doing too well. Here are some recent pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue03.jpg

...and some more from last night, when it was a little worse.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue05.jpg

I've asked around online and I'm going to start hyposalinity treatment tonight, along with some de-worming medication (even if that's just preventative). Once the powder blue is better, it will probably be at least a month before they get to go into the main tank at this point. I'm contemplating putting some of the smaller damsels into the main tank before this happens, but Sarge is finally starting to settle in to his new home and I would hate to take him from there if he didn't want to leave... I'll post updates as they happen.

On a lighter note, I saw something kind of cool in the display tank -- I thought one of the hermit crabs was going to change shells, but he eventually decided against it. Here's a picture of that:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish11.jpg

Also, the freshwater tank is starting to recover from the algae attack. Dosing the tank with nitrates seems to be helping, and I trimmed down the parts of the java fern that were covered in algae. It's not picture-worthy yet, but I put a piece of cucumber in the tank for Herbert, and even though Herbert didn't appear interested, guess who did?

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish12.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish13.jpg

Ctanley just wouldn't leave that thing alone... Also, one of the black neon tetras has taken to sticking his tail into the bubbles coming out of the pink coral. He's starting to get one of the other black neons to do it as well. I got a couple of pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish14.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish15.jpg

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Tang update

It's been a little over a week and the tangs are doing very well. Here are some more pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish07.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish08.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish09.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish10.jpg

They're both eating very well, and there hasn't been too much aggression, but it is there. We haven't seen one of them emerge as the dominant one, though my guess on the situation is that the powder blue tang is in charge and that the yellow doesn't like it. We have names for them, but they depend on which one ends up being boss. Once that happens, I'll reveal the names of all of the fish.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

An update...

First, the freshwater tank: things aren't going so well here. The fish are OK but the plants aren't doing so hot and algae is starting to take over. I've started dosing the tank with some extra nutrients, seeing as how the nitrate level was at zero, which is bad for plants. I'll update on how that's going as things happen, hopefully it won't get any worse.

The puffer we got last week didn't last too long. He never looked all that great and I wasn't surprised about it. Maybe some day we'll keep a puffer alive for a while, but it's kind of difficult to find good ones.

Now for the good stuff: last night we got two tangs. They need to be quarantined before they go into the main tank, so they're occupying the 20G quarantine that the damsels had and the damsels got split up into two 10G tanks. Sarge has his own tank and everybody else is in the tank that had the puffer in it, I just switched out the filter and the water. I have pictures of them in their new setups: Sarge looks thrilled.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish02.jpg

Now for the new guys: we ended up with a yellow tang and a powder blue tang. Both looked really good and have been doing very well so far. They're both eating and they seem to be getting along. Here are some pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish05.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish06.jpg

Once they've made friends and are completely healthy, they'll go into the display tank, and around that time, the damsels will go in as well. That should happen in roughly 3 weeks if everything goes OK.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Update and a couple more pictures

First, an update on the saltwater tank: the hermit crabs have successfully killed pretty much all of the snails, which is wonderful. All of the fish are doing very well, though. Dusty is sort of aggressive, so I can't wait until he meets Sarge. The firefish goby has a name: Flash. Next weekend, I plan to get a couple of tangs to add to the tank, which will be really exciting. I know I want a yellow tang, and from looking around, I think I'm between a powder blue tang and a really nice looking powder brown tang I saw today at the fish store. Unless something else comes along, it will probably be the yellow and one of the powders.

Next, we're trying to branch out with the veggies we give Herbert. Here's a picture of him with some lettuce, and we'll see how much he goes for the cauliflower leaves I just put in there.

Finally, after several months of searching, we managed to find a Figure-8 Puffer. It was at a place that wasn't so good, but that's the only place we could find it. Hopefully he pulls through, but he was eating there before we got him, so things are looking OK. here's a picture.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A couple of new pictures

Just a couple more pictures. If a few more come up I might just add them to this post.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/peppermintshrimp01.jpg

The two-spot goby has decided that under this rock is his home now.
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/twospotgoby03.jpg

Monday, December 28, 2009

Cardinals

Today we went to the fish store and came back with a few much anticipated fish. We got four Bangai Cardinals and another green clown goby. The goby is still hiding in the crevices between the rocks; hopefully he will come out at some point again. The cardinals are schooling and they look like they're playing nice, of course there's nobody in the tank to really bother them. Here are some pictures.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals02.jpg

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/clowngoby01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/clowngoby02.jpg

Now it's time to start looking at tangs. There are several types of tangs out there but we need to find two or three that are compatible, that we like, and that we can actually find. That process should take until the cardinals are happy with their new home, then once the tangs are here, Sarge will finally be able to get rid of the cramped quarters he's been staying in for so long. I'll post pictures of tangs we're considering as they come up.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

New camera!!