Skippy's Fishies

ocillaris hosting in mushroom

2010-02-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

My ocillaris have decided to host in a mushroom. They are spawning every two weeks now in a large piece of a whelk shell next to their mushrooms. Very industrious little fishes.

my tank after cleaning

2008-08-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

The corals are doing well with lots of light.

new corals

2008-08-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering what the white coral is. I just noticed it on the underside of a newly added live rock. Interesting.

The red and green hard coral is Pocillapora - green birds nest coral that I just added way up at the top in the bright light.

clown fish

2008-08-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

One of my clown fish jumped :( This new one is very photogenic! Luckily he/she gets along well with the other clown fish.

new additions

2008-02-12T14:48:00.000-08:00

There were lots of nice invertebrates in the tanks at Tropic Isle this afternoon. I had their coupons for free fish with me, so I got several things. A couple scallops, a feather duster, a little algae blenny, three tiny hermits and a big photogenic blue hermit crab.

starfish attack

2008-01-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

Someone attacked and ate my nice red starfish! I suspect it may have been the rusty angel, who is looking very plump. The red legs are scattered and a couple are gone. I suppose it may have died before being dismembered. Hard to know. I thought starfish were usually the predator, not the meal. But I suppose that's the way it goes in an ecosystem - even though its a small one.

new freshwater fishes

2008-01-02T06:24:00.000-08:00

In addition to my marine tank, I also keep a 90 gallon fresh water system. This week I added many fresh plants and 3 new fishes: two altum angels (Pterophyllum altum) and a baby severum.

The angels took two days to acclimate to my busy tank and start eating, but are quite happy now. It seems that I got lucky, as they are getting along very well together. Maybe a male-female pair. They are very beautiful fish.

clowns and anemone

2007-12-16T11:40:00.000-08:00

In the center of my tank is a very large bubble tip anemone. My plan was that it would host my two 6 month old, tank raised clown fish (Amphiprion ocellaris). The clowns seem to have other plans. To try to get them into the anemone I tried herding them in. No luck. I tried luring them in by suspending a clip with food above the anemone. Again, no luck.

Since these guys are tank raised and have never seen an anemone before, I have now taped photos of clown fish and anemones on outside the tank. I hope they are taking note. But I don't think this is working either.

The last resort would be to return these two to the store and purchase a wild caught pair. I think I'll just wait and see if anything changes as they grow up.

mandarin fish

2007-12-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago we added a Mandarin fish to the tank. After a couple days of hiding and causing us some concern that he was not going to eat in his new home, he started munching on copepods. He's looking good now, but is pretty camera shy.

starfish

2007-09-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

I have two starfish in my marine tank. They do a great job of cleaning up. The sand sifter (Astropecten polycanthus) is the pale one and is usually hidden under the sand. The bright red one (Fromia milleporella) crawls all over the rock and glass.

snail babies

2007-09-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

I believe these are Astrea snail babies hanging out with Mom (or Dad?). A few weeks ago, I noticed many (50-100?) on two of my large snails. These elongated little snails are gradually growing larger. There are still several on the big snails, but now I'm finding them in others places in the tank and in the refugium. This is good news. I could use more snails and would rather get them for free.

something red

2007-09-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

This is some nice red thing growing in my tank. Colorful and interesting. I'll have to ask JD what it is. Maybe a sponge? I see a small aptasia in the middle of it and a big one on the side. I'm going through a lot of Joe's Juice on these guys, but gradually am finding fewer on them in the tank.

Note added Nov 7: JD says this is a red coralline algae. A nice thing to have in the tank. Here's some info from the Monterey Bay Aquarium on coralline algae.

collected seaweed

2007-07-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

This week I collected some seaweed floating in the waters off Cape Cod. I brought it home to my marine tank. In the past I have added collected seaweed and the fish enjoy eating it. I was amazed at the number of different types of macro algae that one small clump of flotsam included. I imagine it will not survive my tank temperature of about 78-80F, as the Cape water is much cooler, about 65F.

(Yes, that is me with the camera in the reflection!)

Nemo

2007-07-14T20:26:00.001-07:00

Almost in focus!

aquarium in action

2007-07-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is a 3 minute video of the fishes swimming around in my aquarium. I have two clown anemone fish a.k.a. Nemo fish (Amphiprion ocellaris), a yellow tang, a rusty angel, and a yellow and purple dottyback (who is shy around the camera). The fishes nibble on some newly collected seaweed I have added.

daisy polyps

2007-07-11T11:09:00.001-07:00

My first video! I'm experimenting with posting video. This is a couple second clip of my daisy polyps waving in the current. I think the video conveys a better sense of my aquarium than a still photo, though the pictures lack resolution.

tank occupants

2007-05-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

I added some new occupants. A little blue and orange striped wrasse, a bright red starfish, 3 peppermint shrimp (these are supposed to eat all my small aptasia), 6 little blue hermit crabs, 6 snails and a nice rock with daisy polyps and small white sponge. The daisy rock is the lower two photos. I am pleased to see some of my old polyps have opened up again with the cleaner water.

Skippy and the fishies

2007-05-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Skippy was a good guy and posed for a picture. (I wish the fish would do that!)

new desk

2007-05-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

I am enjoying a new office today. I have a new glass desk next to my marine tank and the front window. Very cool.

JD cleaned the tanks again yesterday. A 3 week interval from the last cleaning to try to improve the water quality more quickly. He fed the aptasia more Joe's Juice and scraped down the algea, which he says is cyanoalgea that I should treat to get rid off.

cleaning help

2007-05-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Today JD from Tropic Isle cleaned my tanks for me. I just haven't been keeping up with them. Nitrate was at 20 - a bit too high. Also the lights were old, aptasia and cyanoalgea out of control. JD scraped the tanks well, changed 30 gallons using his deionized water, got rid of many aptasia using Joe's Juice and changed the light bulbs. He recommended getting the refugium lights onto a timer and adding more caulerpa and other types of seaweed to the refugium. He suggested adding snails to the tank to work on the algea on the glass, treating the cyanoalgea soon if it doesn't go away as the tank gets cleaner, and adding some shrimp to control the small aptasia.

double clean

2007-04-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

I do a pretty bad job of finding time to clean my marine tank. So, finally today I changed the water twice. Its a 92 gallon tank and I changed about 30 gallons two times. The fish are (and were) very happy. Its just the corals that would prefer cleaner water.

2007-03-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

Update: I have a new sand-sifter starfish that is doing a great job of cleaning up the sand and keeping it loose and white. My bubble tip anemone divided into two little anemones. The mushroom corals are growing well. I have a new pair of clown anemone fish that I am hopping will take up residence in the anemones. The old pair jumped out of the tank due to commotion when I added a new angelfish. I now have a lid! The coralline algae and other life on the rocks is thriving and adding lots of color to the tank.

July 30, 2006

2006-07-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

A small picture of the whole tank. (Click on it to see it bigger.) I like to open the blind next to the tank on sunny days - the sunlight sparkles on the sand and on our freshly painted red walls.

Just cleaned

2006-07-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

I cleaned the tank yesterday so I thought I'd add some new pictures. Sometimes the water looks blue, sometimes its clear and sparkles. My anemone has climbed up on a rock and seems to like it there. I have been feeding him probably too often (every 2-3 days), and he seems to be growing fast. I have to cut back to about once a week. I hand him a dried shrimp soaked in vitamins and he grabs it and pulls it into his mouth. The next day he spits out the shell. Its fun to watch. The clownfish still haven't found the anemone, but they're very young and tank raised, so I keep hoping they'll figure it out soon. My brain coral and acropora (hard corals up on top of the rocks) are probably a bit sun-burned as I have not been consistent in when I use the metal halide light - its not on a timer. But everything is looking pretty healthy so far.

Refugium

2006-07-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

This is my new refugium. Its a separate tank underneath my main tank. The water is pumped through it and the types of things in it help to purify the water. I run its light at night, which helps to keep the oxygen level consistant while the light is off in the main tank. In the refugium, I have seaweed (caulerpa), rocks with little creatures growing on them, and a layer of sand.

Dotty

2006-07-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Another new addition. This is "Dotty" - a Diadema Pseudo-
chromis. Pseudo-
chromis are also known by the common name Dottyback.

Bubble-tip anemone

2006-07-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

I also added an anemone for the clownfish. I am hoping they will find it.

Clownfish

2006-07-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

We added a few more fishes to the tank. Now the tang now has some company. These are 2 common Nemo clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris). They are very young fish that were tank breed.

Hermit crab

2006-07-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

This guy came out front and let me take his picture! There are 3 or 4 hermit crabs in my tank.

Mushrooms

2006-07-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

Another type of soft coral. These are called mushrooms.

Zenia

2006-07-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

This is called pumping zenia. Its a soft coral that moves (pumps) its fronds.

Mussel

2006-07-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

A little mussel is growing on one of the rocks.

Polyps

2006-07-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

The tank has several types of small soft coral polyps that grow in colonies. Little glass shrimp run around underneath these.

July 8, 2006

2006-07-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a view of the rocks with a feather duster and several soft corals. They seem to like their new tank.

4th of July

2006-07-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

July 3, 2006

2006-07-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

The water is clear now. Wow, alot more room in this tank! It will take me a while to arrange all the occupants and fill this up. The corals, crabs, snails are all very happy with the new tank. So is my tang (the only fish right now). He even came out and posed for me! The sump is running very fast. Lots of water flow. It ebbs and crashes like a wave-maker. The reservoir is filled with live rock and some bio-balls from my old system. I have a little bit of seaweed in the refugium section and am looking forward to adding more (some caulerpa) soon.

July 2, 2006

2006-07-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

It took a whole day of walking up and down the stairs to transfer all of the inhabitants, rocks and stuff. Then the water needed to settle and clear a few hours so I could pile up the rocks to make a reef. The system seems to be working well. There's alot of water flow and it sounds like sitting near the ocean and listening to the waves break. (Yes, I did remember to add salt.)

The new tank

2006-07-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here's the new set-up. I wanted a refugium with sand, rocks, seaweed and its own lighting underneath. The resident handyman built a nice one. The stand is a basic black-painted, pine, store-bought stand. Looks nice, but it seemed a bit flimsy to us. The handyman reinforced it at the three corners with 1x2's, which he painted black.

Tank occupants

2006-07-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

I found that if I put my camera right in the water it takes great pictures. (The camera is waterproof.) Unfortunately, the yellow tang wouldn't stay still enough for a photo.

July 1, 2006

2006-07-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the old tank. I haven't cleaned the glass in a long time - I guess that's obvious. (Check out the cute duck on the floor.)