125 build on a long and bumpy road

[Squeaky McMurdo]

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I made some temporary doors. They may end up being permanent for as long as it takes my hubby to do the stuff on my Honey-Do list. The side ones are finished and on hinges.

I had a helper steal and chew up some of the pieces I cut for the middle.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I haven’t posted in a while. My pump stopped working while I was away for a weekend about a month ago. I lost all fish but the damsel

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

Feeling nostalgic today. Take a look at the first saltwater tank I had. It’s my sump now.

I have a new pair of banggai cardinals and The Indestructible Dory the Damsel in my tank now. I tried to add a coral beauty and a foxface over Thanksgiving but the bags the fish store put them in didn’t have enough water in them to lay on their sides, so they arrived home struggling to swim. The cardinals made it through quarantine fine though.

Next time I’m in Utah I’ll be taking two coolers I made into a live-well and picking up a large healthy foxface from another hobbiest. And a gallon of water from my tank so I can shop the fish stores and not have to worry if I end up with another large fish.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

This is my tank today. I like the scape but I’m not in love with the coral placement so I’m open to suggestions. The only thing that can’t be moved is the riccordia on the rock under the purple trumpets. Most of my corals are artificial so no worries about things touching. There is a frag plug of palys and a pink hairy mushroom on the rock on the top left. I might add some more real coral now that I’m healed up a bit more and can take better care of everything.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I made my quarantine pretty. The rock is plastic.

I was prompted to do this because one of my kids somehow added a snowflake eel to my repeat delivery of salt with Petco and I haven’t heard back whether or not they can cancel it. So I might end up with a small eel if it survives traveling during this insane time to be shipping anything, much less live things. Also it’s hecka cold. My driveway

 

[NY_Caveman]

Beautiful. Always wanted to ski in Wyoming, but have not made it yet.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

Photo dump time. These are my Christmas presents. The long tentacle anemone was hosting the clarkii clownfish pair. I had already committed to the baby maroons so I have both for the time being. The maroons will be enjoyed short term until they outgrow my 20 gallon. Right now they’re in a critter keeper in my main tank. The rest are in my quarantine. I’m curious to see if the Clarkii will take offense to them so that’s why they will stay in the box. They are fun to watch tail slapping the fake anemones.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I moved the clowns, puffer, and coral beauty to the display tank. Monday was our 14th anniversary so my husband drove with me to Utah to pick up a Foxface a lady needed to rehome. He was in a 60 gallon. He’s going to be so happy to have more room to swim. He’s hanging out in my quarantine for a week in Prazipro. He’s at least 10 in, probably bigger so I have to short track him. I’m fairly confident that will be ok. His name is Spike. The lady obviously loved him a lot. She printed out his biography for me.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

It’s been a while. Spike the Foxface settled well into his bigger tank. He likes to race my kids back and forth. The anemone crawled under my rockwork and wasted away.

I got 2 Columbian Sharks back in January. One of them showed up with a bloated belly but it resolved and I figured he had just eaten a very big meal before I picked him up. I kept them in quarantine with meds and he seemed to be fine so I introduced them to the display tank. My puffer and clownfish immediately took offense and plucked out his eye! I got them back in quarantine but the one guy didn’t make it. I kept the survivor in quarantine for several months before moving him to the acclimation box the baby clowns were in (the 2 left are now in my sump) I released him last week without a hitch. He mostly stays in the top left corner. I think this will change as he gets bigger.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

In non-fishy news. Here’s why I’ve been missing. I’m inundated with babies!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Very cute!

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I’ve been bad about updating.

I think both my Banggai cardinals were males. I say “were” because one of them disappeared without a trace a while back and the survivor is a BIG bruiser now. My Clarkii clownfish have terrorized everything I put in the tank and earned the names Bonnie and Clyde. They have recently been apprehended. I had to tear my rock work apart to catch them but it was needed, I upgraded my lights and had a big hair algae outbreak that needed a thorough scrubbing. Bonnie and Clyde have their own 50 gallon tank in my bedroom.

I also have 3 new pajama cardinals that Bruiser isn’t impressed with but is tolerating. I think I’ll look for a girlfriend for him this week while I’m in Utah. I have a large pink pincushion urchin that might be a good foster host for banggai babies.

My Columbian Shark still likes that left corner, but is now using the whole tank occasionally since I removed the clowns 2 weeks ago. He’s probably twice as long as when I got him and when I feed you can really see why they are called sharks. He absolutely swims and searches through the sand and rock just like a real shark.

I have a big male Melanarus wrasse and a bristletooth tang. She’s supposed to be a whitetail but I’m 90% certain she’s an Indian Gold Ring Due to the body spots. I got her for free and just wanted a bristletooth of some sort so it doesn’t matter to me what she is. She sure is pretty and pictures don’t do her justice. Speaking of which, I’ll add pictures shortly. I took some a few minutes ago but my phone was almost dead and has trouble charging if I let it completely die.

 

[count krunk]

if you want to add more corals you will need some more powerful lights.

Have you put any thought into which way you would go with that yet? We can help!

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

Here’s my tank with the new lights. Almost all my fish are in the picture out of sheer dumb luck. They must be hungry.

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

Here’s the jailhouse tank. The light is a blue Cree meant for emergency vehicles. I didn’t even do that irony on purpose.

 

[Mical]

Incredible journey and tank looks awesome. Did you do any fresh to saltwater acclimation for your shark or did you just place it in saltwater & go from there?

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I acclimated them to salt pretty quickly. I started with the 5 gallons or so that was in the cooler they came in and added a gallon of saltwater every 15 minutes. The salinity was around 1.020 when my tank was full so I just topped off with saltwater while they were in quarantine. I wasn’t afraid of parasites surviving the change but I wanted to make sure they were eating and one of them wasn’t in good shape.

 

[Mical]

Thank you

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

Hunting for pellets