Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
I don't know about many of you guys but I have been watching fish for well over half a century and today as I was sitting close to my tank watching every move of every tentacle I started thinking. Wow, I must really be a fish Geek.
After all these years and countless hours peering at fish in my tank, in other tanks, in LFSs and while diving, everything about them still facinate me and I never get bored.
I mean, I still like looking at girls, scenery, my boat, my Grand daughter and other things, fish are such a large part of my life and always have. It is in my genes as my family has been in the fish business as far back as history goes but that is a different sort of fish, that is just dinner.
As I was looking at the tank just now I turned off the pumps after I filled the baby brine shrimp feeder with new born shrimp. In a minute or two, the two mandarins stopped their eternal hunt for pods and made a Bee line to the feeder.
Did the shrimp text them that it was dinner time? Do mandarins smell pods? Do they hear them? I don't see ears on my mandarins and I can't hear baby brine shrimp, well maybe when they bump into each other but that rarely happens.
The copperband butterfly also knows exactly when baby brine shrimp are served and he just finished eating a large portion of fresh clams and live worms so I am surprised he can still eat.
I turn on the pumps just for a minute to scatter some shrimp through out the tank, then again turn off the pumps. Now the fun starts because the zinia start pulsing as they sense the shrimp hitting their tentacles and thin tentacles pop out from every crevace. Tiny hermit crabs that I didn't even realize were in there set out looking for food that they smell.
The clams I fed are their favorite food and they literally run in every direction until they find a piece, often crashing into each other. I wonder if they recognize each other, give a high five, remark on the new shell they may be sporting or just ignore anything that is not edible.
The sheer number of tentacles emerging from every place is also a wonder. How do all these things ever get enough to eat?
It is not like I dump in a Happy Meal from Burger King, food by necessity is kind of scarce except at feeding time and then it all is devoured as soon as it hits the water.
If I look even closer, I can just see the tiny faces of amphipods trying to determine if it is safe to venture out for a bite of something. I collect them in the summer and dump them in but they seem to like the tropical temperatures of the tank and even re produce. I find them in the skimmer bathing in the ozone infused water. So much for ozone killing everything and being so dangerous.
The large volume of bristle worms remain hiding but if I look under the rocks or in the dark recesses in the back of the tank, I can see them just chilling with each other. They know, that I know they come out at night hunting for prey and that prey could be anything on the gravel from a clam to a freshly shed crustacean. I can easily trap them with my bristle worm trap but that is an ongoing task as these things have been in the tank from the beginning and the gene pool goes back to when Nixon was President. (He was after Lincoln)
Of course while I am checking out the tiny stuff the fish keep blocking my view, they have no respect. I have these two fireclowns that are very old and they spawn but even when the female has no eggs, the male keeps trying to push her into his pad (broken bottle) where he has been cleaning a nest since before Paris Hilton was born. Way before. I can't blame him though, I would do the same thing, she is cute. I had hermit crabs that also did that but I am not sure if the larger one wanted to mate or just steal her shell. I lost them a year ago when they were about 13 years old. I am not sure if that is old for a crab as Social Security doesn't keep records on them. But the male (I think) would chase the female, (not very fast) and he would push her into a coral then jump into her shell. I always stopped looking at that point because I am not A perv, but I think they spawned many times. It is hard to tell with hermit crabs but that is what I think because I would then see him standing on one claw, leaning against a rock smoking a cigarette.
Being a fish Geek isn't to bad unless you are in mixed company with a bunch of people you just met. Like last night, my Son N law opened a new restaurant and it was just for friends and family but there were quite a few people there that I just met. When they ask me what I do, I am not going to say I am a fish Geek and I put on magnifying goggles, kneel in front of my tank in the dark with a flashlight looking for amphipods and worms. Of course not, I say I am a Martial Arts instructor, test pilot, Double for George Cluney, secret service agent, Navy Seal or all of the above. I will be married 40 years this year and to this day my wife thinks I am Sylvestor Stallone's personal body guard and I haven't even told her yet, that we have fish. :angel:
After all these years and countless hours peering at fish in my tank, in other tanks, in LFSs and while diving, everything about them still facinate me and I never get bored.
I mean, I still like looking at girls, scenery, my boat, my Grand daughter and other things, fish are such a large part of my life and always have. It is in my genes as my family has been in the fish business as far back as history goes but that is a different sort of fish, that is just dinner.
As I was looking at the tank just now I turned off the pumps after I filled the baby brine shrimp feeder with new born shrimp. In a minute or two, the two mandarins stopped their eternal hunt for pods and made a Bee line to the feeder.
Did the shrimp text them that it was dinner time? Do mandarins smell pods? Do they hear them? I don't see ears on my mandarins and I can't hear baby brine shrimp, well maybe when they bump into each other but that rarely happens.
The copperband butterfly also knows exactly when baby brine shrimp are served and he just finished eating a large portion of fresh clams and live worms so I am surprised he can still eat.
I turn on the pumps just for a minute to scatter some shrimp through out the tank, then again turn off the pumps. Now the fun starts because the zinia start pulsing as they sense the shrimp hitting their tentacles and thin tentacles pop out from every crevace. Tiny hermit crabs that I didn't even realize were in there set out looking for food that they smell.
The clams I fed are their favorite food and they literally run in every direction until they find a piece, often crashing into each other. I wonder if they recognize each other, give a high five, remark on the new shell they may be sporting or just ignore anything that is not edible.
The sheer number of tentacles emerging from every place is also a wonder. How do all these things ever get enough to eat?
It is not like I dump in a Happy Meal from Burger King, food by necessity is kind of scarce except at feeding time and then it all is devoured as soon as it hits the water.
If I look even closer, I can just see the tiny faces of amphipods trying to determine if it is safe to venture out for a bite of something. I collect them in the summer and dump them in but they seem to like the tropical temperatures of the tank and even re produce. I find them in the skimmer bathing in the ozone infused water. So much for ozone killing everything and being so dangerous.
The large volume of bristle worms remain hiding but if I look under the rocks or in the dark recesses in the back of the tank, I can see them just chilling with each other. They know, that I know they come out at night hunting for prey and that prey could be anything on the gravel from a clam to a freshly shed crustacean. I can easily trap them with my bristle worm trap but that is an ongoing task as these things have been in the tank from the beginning and the gene pool goes back to when Nixon was President. (He was after Lincoln)
Of course while I am checking out the tiny stuff the fish keep blocking my view, they have no respect. I have these two fireclowns that are very old and they spawn but even when the female has no eggs, the male keeps trying to push her into his pad (broken bottle) where he has been cleaning a nest since before Paris Hilton was born. Way before. I can't blame him though, I would do the same thing, she is cute. I had hermit crabs that also did that but I am not sure if the larger one wanted to mate or just steal her shell. I lost them a year ago when they were about 13 years old. I am not sure if that is old for a crab as Social Security doesn't keep records on them. But the male (I think) would chase the female, (not very fast) and he would push her into a coral then jump into her shell. I always stopped looking at that point because I am not A perv, but I think they spawned many times. It is hard to tell with hermit crabs but that is what I think because I would then see him standing on one claw, leaning against a rock smoking a cigarette.
Being a fish Geek isn't to bad unless you are in mixed company with a bunch of people you just met. Like last night, my Son N law opened a new restaurant and it was just for friends and family but there were quite a few people there that I just met. When they ask me what I do, I am not going to say I am a fish Geek and I put on magnifying goggles, kneel in front of my tank in the dark with a flashlight looking for amphipods and worms. Of course not, I say I am a Martial Arts instructor, test pilot, Double for George Cluney, secret service agent, Navy Seal or all of the above. I will be married 40 years this year and to this day my wife thinks I am Sylvestor Stallone's personal body guard and I haven't even told her yet, that we have fish. :angel:
