More New Citizens

04/30/04
This new coral is called an "open brain"! This one has a mouth (actually, several mouths) and I’m supposed to squirt food in the direction of the aperture once a day. Feeding time is getting complicated, trying to make sure everyone has his due. The tiny watchman goby/shrimp pair that lives in a hole in the sand has to be fed near the hole because they won’t wander far from safety. I’d aim a squirt of food at them, which was working great until one of the fire shrimp (about 100 times bigger than the shrimp that lives with the goby) figured out what was happening. Now he hovers around the hole waiting for the squirt. His presence keeps the goby/shrimp from coming out. I tried luring the fire shrimp away by feeding some elsewhere first, but that only worked once--that is one smart shrimp.

Despite all my elaborate preparations for a good quarantine tank, the filter still isn’t mature enough to take new fish. With saltwater fish, you have to wait for zero nitrites, and I’m not there yet. The fish I was waiting for didn’t make it anyway (dealer had shipping problems). Still, I felt compelled to purchase a tang that had arrived in last week’s shipment. This particular type (a Kole tang) is billed as the best type for consuming algae (not that I’m obsessed with algae or anything). Of course, the fact the fish has been alive and ich free for a week is not any guarantee he is ok, so I did take the precaution of releasing him in the refugium, so if he does get sick, at least I’ll be able to catch him. (I won’t think about the fact that if I need to treat him for anything, I don’t have a tank to put him in.) As a further precaution, I bought two more cleaner shrimp to put in there with him. Yes, I should have been patient and waited another week, but I’m not good at patience. Also bought a Scooter blenny today. He runs along the bottom on his fins, really cute. Plus a Firefish goby.

This picture is of an Abalone I’ve had for weeks but seldom see. Today it was clinging to rocks in just the right place. His body is oriented vertically in the picture. Look for the row of vent holes in the shell. To the left of that, you’ll see the feelers that come off the fleshy part. It is amazingly strong. Several times I’ve tried to move him to a different rock so he’d eat the algae on the other side of the tank. I grab him when he looks precarious, and that muscle instantly grips so hard!

I did a heavy cleaning today in preparation for family coming to see the tank tomorrow. I hand gathered lots of slime algae from the sand, then when all the debris settled, siphoned off some more. Monday I’m supposed to get a reverse osmosis unit (on loan from another aquarist) that will give me a chance to see if using RO water makes a dent in the algae. And, whether running an RO unit will waste more water than our well can spare. These units are notorious for throwing away 4-5 times as much water as they purify.