I can't think of a good subject for this post

It's been a while since I've updated, so here's what's happened since then.

The yellow tang has been doing very well. I learned that if I feed him less brine shrimp, that he will eat his vegetables. He's halfway through the hyposalinity treatment, so in two weeks I'll bring the salinity back up to normal, then after that it will be a couple of weeks before he goes in the main tank.

Butch was getting a little mean in his quarantine tank, and the other guys (Lemmy, Magnum, and Ruckus) are a lot smaller than the tang, so it made sense to add those guys to the display tank. They are very happy in there, and Ruckus has even started to turn purple instead of his usual black color. We used to think he got that way when he was stressed, but he's clearly not stressed. Here's a picture:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/ruckus02.jpg

Dusty got really agitated, and he sort of buried the hole where Flash liked to hang out. I saw him once after that but I haven't seen him in a couple of days, so I hope he's OK.

I got a new light for the freshwater tank. It will hopefully allow me to keep some more plants and will help with the java fern that's still in there. I'm going to order some more plants this weekend, and hopefully the combination of more plants to compete with the algae and actually getting the right nutrients in there for the plants will make for less algae, and that tank should end up being really awesome. I also managed to get a couple of pictures of the freshwater guys while experimenting with the new camera.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/ctanley02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/herbert04.jpg

So, there should be another update soon about the plants in the freshwater tank. That update will probably be next weekend at the latest.

Tang update, and freshwater tank update

After spending the week looking for another suitable tang to go along with the yellow tang, nothing turned up. I didn't want to wait any longer starting preventative hyposalinity treatment on the yellow tang, so I think at this point, I'm finally ready to bring the initial stocking to a close. The yellow tang will finish his hypo treatment, and at that point, everybody except Sarge will go into the main. Within a week, Sarge will go in, and I'll deal with any stocking issues then.

Of course there will be more fish I want to get, but I don't want to prolong this process any more than I already have for a convenience issue. The benefits of adding the damsels last aren't worth the risk to all of the fish in quarantine right now. I'm pretty sure I want another tang, though I'm not sure what kind. Maybe certain types of butterfly fish or cardinals would also work. Once the tank is stocked and a new quarantine filter is ready to go, I can start looking locally for additional fish.

Anyways, things are going pretty well, and I want to focus on keeping them that way. The yellow tang has become sort of a picky eater, he eats the brine shrimp but he doesn't eat much algae anymore, so I'm going to try and get him to eat a more balanced diet with lots of vegetables. If Sarge can eat them, he can too.

Speaking of Sarge and his vegetables, sometimes he gets a little excited, and he's kind of a messy eater...

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

The freshwater tank finally looks good enough that I'm not embarrassed to take a picture of it! I recently did some cleaning, and everybody (plant and animal) in the tank seems happy, especially Herbert. I'm probably going to order some more shrimp and some more plants and hopefully they'll do well with the proper food.


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

A quick update...

Some good news and some bad news. The good news, is that I've finally figured out how to make Blogger send E-mail notifications to people when I update the blog, so hopefully that will work this time. The bad news is that the powder blue tang got sick and died Monday night, it happened so quickly that I didn't even have time to really get hyposalinity treatment started. This weekend we'll probably get another tang and start with a whole bunch of preventative measures, so if that happens, there will be pictures this weekend.

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

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.

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.

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.