Improving slowly

5/19/04
Since things were so dismal last time, I thought I’d give you a quick, more cheerful update. The clownfish are improving. They are perkier and have fewer spots than before. I’ve seen one of the cleaner shrimp over on the clown’s side of the tank for two evenings now, which is probably why the spots are fewer. Best of all, they really took to that shell I put in. They are actually resting inside it, not just hiding behind it. So far, the other citizens are surviving the lower salinity. Something laid eggs on the glass (reproduction is often triggered by adverse conditions, in a last-ditch attempt to keep the species going). We don’t know who laid the eggs--there are 3 different shrimp pairs, but their eggs are usually just released into the water, not placed on the glass, so that makes the most likely candidates the snails, which are very sensitive to salinity.

5/23/04
Here's the completed RO/DI system that my husband installed for me. I’m optimistic that soon the RO water will start to control algae, and who knows what else. The clowns are looking very healthy now and all fish seem happy in the low salinity treatment. The worms, however, have shown signs of distress. The hard tube worm hasn’t come out all week, and the soft tube feather duster has come out too much--its feathery head reaching way beyond the tube end, twisting and turning, until ultimately, the head popped off! This can happen and the worm still survive, so I haven’t thrown the tube out. I moved both tube worms to the (slightly higher salinity) quarantine tank in the basement in the hope they might recover if I could gradually get them back to normal salinity.