Aquarium & Fish
I've been involved in the aquarium hobby since
1975. (Well, I actually had goldfish as a kid but, if I recall
correctly, my father did the tank cleaning so that doesn't
really count.) I re-started with an early obsession (over 20
tanks at one
point) that mellowed after marriage and children. When we
moved (1992) I shut down the saltwater tanks and kept pretty calm
for 11 years doing only a
few freshwater tanks.
On the freshwater front, I currently have:
- a 55 gal with a 10" clown knife, a
couple of silver dollars, a single (lonely) 6" bala shark, a 7"
tiretrack eel, a
rainbow
shark, a large pleco and some very old (12+ years!) kuhli loaches
- a 29 gal planted tank with about 15 large
cardinal tetras, a few clown and yoyo loaches, a bushynose pleco and
several siamensis. I was using a DIY CO2 system which
I've let fall aside. I've just bought proper pH controller, CO2
regulator, etc. and hope to get the plants back into prime condition in
the upcoming months.
- a 50 gal
with six clown loaches, three siamensis,
four gold veil angels, a single opaline gourami and a couple
of red velvet swords.
- a 29 gal tank for isolation of new fish before
moving them into one of the three main tanks.
- a simple 10 gal tank for storing feeder goldfish
At the end of 2003, I fell back into
the marine aquarium trap, acquiring two new Oceanic tanks:
- a 140 gal reef-ready tank. The original
plan for this tank was to keep a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) tank
with all natives from the Hawaiian islands. I quickly had second
thoughts, though, and decided to set this up as a reef tank with few
fish and mostly corals and other invertebrates. Current
invertebrate inhabitants include:
- Several Euphillia specimins (hammer, torch,
frogspawn)
- Bubble, pearl, open brain, moon corals
- Several varieties of Montipora and a couple of
Hydnophora
- Many "softies" including mushrooms, toadstools,
Ricordia, zoanthids, etc.
- 1 Coral banded shrimp along with several
peppermint shrimp
- a variety of hermit crabs, snails, micro stars
and a large sand-sifting star
The current fish include:
- 2 "false perc" clowns
- Yellow watchman goby
- Yellow tang
- Scissortail goby
- Banggai cardinal
- a 37 gal tank. The original plan was to
make this an isolation tank for new fish bound for the 140. But
with the 140 going reef, there will be several favorite fish (triggers,
eels, angels) that would like to eat the reef inverts...so the 37 has
had
to become a species tank for everyone who can't go into the reef.
The 37 now has:
- Snowflake moray eel
- Coral Beauty angel
- Gold Strip Maroon clown
- Yellow brittle star
- Green mushroom colony
- Yellow button polyp colony
- Several thriving species of macro algae
(feather
Caulerpa (that I'm constantly trying to remove) and Halimeda discoidea)
- I recycled an old
29 for the isolation tank instead of using the beautiful new 37...only
had to buy a cannister filter
and replace the heater...cheap insurance policy!
- In the spring of 2005 I acquired a 180 gallon
acrylic tank to eventually become a FOWLR habitat whenever I get some
time.
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