Aquarium update

This week, we added about 68 new creatures to the tank. I ordered them by mail, and they were shipped overnight. I used my lunch to come home and get them set-up. Hanneke and I both got strange looks when we told our respective colleagues "I have to go home briefly now; Fedex just delivered a box of crabs to my door." Here's a picture of their shipping box and some of them in the bags within:



(hermit crabs)

Here's one of them in particular that I'll talk about more later:

(coral banded shrimp)

The creatures were all snails of different kinds (30 total snails), hermit crabs of 2 kinds (32 total), 2 emerald crabs, 3 peppermint shrimp, and 1 coral banded shrimp. We added them as a cleaner crew for the tank, to keep algae growth and detritus under control. Before adding them, I set up a tubing loop that dripped water into a container from our main tank so that they could acclimate to the specific water parameters of our tank. The water dripped into their little box for about 2 hours, then we added them each into the tank (Hanneke added them, I had to go back to work).

I guess it worked out, because most of them are still alive. In the days since Tuesday, some have been eaten; in fact, the day after we added them, one of the Damsel fish went missing. We still don't know what happened to her. I think that 1 of the peppermint shrimp and 1-2 of the scarlet hermit crabs are also no longer with us. In putting the coral banded shrimp in, it also got an arm caught in the net and it was removed from its body. Fortunately, it will grow back in future moltings. 68 cleaners for a 24 gallon tank is too many; We should have more like 30. But they all came in a pre-made pack online and I didn't know if some would die (this is, after all, mail-order living stuff), so I bought too many. More on this in a moment.

The tank has done well this week. Most of the water parameters I test are looking good. A lot of the bad algae has been eaten, so the janitor crew is doing a good job. Encouraged by this success, Hanneke and I began talking during the week about buying a second, smaller tank. We wanted it so that we'd have somewhere to put any fish or critters that were sick or getting bullied. Plus, it'd be fun. Coincidentally, when we were out to deliver some of the extra hermit crabs/snails/etc. to a local fish store (as I mentioned above, we have too many), they had a nice all-in-one system for sale used (3 weeks old). The price was right, so we bought it on the spot. Here it is:



This new system is 12 gallons and uses a completely different kind of light fixture. My current one, the 24 gallon, uses compact fluorescents in 2 colors (a high-spectrum "white" bulb and an actinic blue bulb). This new one, the 12 gallon, uses an HQI, which is a more expensive kind but ultimately more efficient. The bulb is fascinating and changes color visibly as it heats up. I had not planned to buy an HQI all-in-one system because they usually cost twice as much. But, it was on sale used for $150 and I had planned to spend $140 for a new, less-good version. So we went ahead and bought the HQI. In the picture above, its 6 LEDs (3 blue, 3 white) are the lighting, since it is nighttime.

Sure enough, we have a use for the new tank already: one of the 2 remaining damsel fish is being bullied pretty bad. So he was transfered into the tank today. Let me tell you, that was a very frustrating process. Try and imagine spending 4 hours catching a 1 inch fish using a 3 inch-across net. Now try to imagine doing that in a tank full of rocks and caves where it can hide. Now add to all of that the prospect that, as you pick up pieces of rock to move them, you have to avoid the pinching-crabs (which are hiding somewhere on the rocks that you are holding). Here's what those buddies look like:

(Emerald Mytrhax Crab,internet picture, not my actual crab)

(Coral Banded Shrimp, internet picture)

Fun times.

The final development over the weekend is that after we had finished the transportation of the Damsel, I saw a floating set of whiskers on the top of the tank. I opened it and floating in the dim light was the coral banded shrimp, ripped open and very dead. Hanneke and I threw him away, saddened that we'd probably conributed to his death somewhere in the moving-rocks/transporting-Damsel, despite our best efforts not to hurt anything. Or so we thought. About 10 minutes later, when checking to see if anything else was missing, I saw the distinctive long whiskers of the coral banded shrimp coming around a rock---he was very much alive. What we found must have been his molted exoskelton. Very tricky. He appears to be alive and well, though he hasn't regrown his second pincher-arm yet.

So, that accounts for most of the developments this week with the tank. In about 2 weeks, we will add some of the other cleaning crew to the smaller tank, and then we will begin adding coral to the larger tank. In other news, Hanneke and I played tennis with a friend on Saturday and then went frisbee golfing Saturday afternoon. Next week, we plan to head to Disney for the final weekend that our passes work.