While we were gone most of last week, my fish tank suffered quite a disaster. I bought an automatic feeder the day before we left, and hoped that I could get the kinks worked out before we were on our way. Well I guess that didn’t really happen as I had planned. When we got back into town all three of my fish were missing! The fish feeder appeared to be clogged after some moisture got into it and clumped the food together. I’m sure the little guys must have tried to hang on but ended up dieing from lack of food. Stupid technology, it shouldn’t be trusted! After mourning the loss for a few days, I went out and bought a fish to add back to the tank today. It’s a six line wrasse and I’m hoping that he adjusts well. He’s very fast and I can’t wait to see him in the tank zipping around. So at least my story ends on a positive note. And all five of my crabs are still alive. They must have found something to feed on.

Two weeks ago I added a couple of clownfish to my saltwater tank. Well I have good news, they are both still alive and both doing really well. These guys are pigs and eat most of the food before anything else can get to it. They are very active and swim all over the tank. They like playing tag, or establishing dominance, depending on what way you look at it. I think this is all a part of growing up, and I’m still hoping that I’ll end up with a mating pair when it’s all said and done. I finally took the camera out and spent a few minutes taking some pictures. They really seemed to like posing for me, so I’ll be sure to take more as they grow older. All of the pictures can be found in this photo album.

I just bought a couple more nemo’s to add to my tank. If you recall, the previous one didn’t last too long, but I’m already predicting much better luck this time around. Unlike the first, these guys are tank raised clownfish, which means that they should be much hardier than wild caught and disease free. The store I went to, Aquamart, had tons of these little guys in a tank of their own. They were all really active and healthy. I thought they were so perfect, and at a great price, that I couldn’t buy just one. So I bought two and with luck I could end up with a mated pair after they mature. I can’t wait to watch these guys grow!

Well, crap! My clownfish died over the weekend, lasting only a few days in my tank. He was pretty small and wild caught, which I guess means more prone to and often already having diseases. I’m betting that the store I got him from didn’t quarantine him in their store for very long, and he would have died regardless of what tank he was in, mine or theirs. I checked all of my water parameters and everything seems be be perfectly fine, so this is my only explanation. I guess that’s what I get for trying to save a few bucks on the fish. There are other stores in the area that have higher prices for the same thing, but I know that they are quarantining their fish. The exact date the fish entered the store is often displayed, and they will not sell them for at least a couple of weeks. You get what you pay for, right? I just hope the rest of my tank is okay and that I won’t have any other problems. I’ll probably give it a week or two before I add anything else back into the tank.

I added another fish to my tank today, a clownfish. I always have wanted one of these fish, and now I finally have one. The Clownfish was the winner of the poll from a couple of weeks ago, so it was an easy decision at the store. It looks like some people liked the Royal Gramma as well, so maybe I’ll get one of those sometime. I still have room for at least one more fish, but I’m taking my time adding to the tank.

The Cardinalfish from before is still doing well in the tank. He’s a little shy, but is slowly coming out from his hiding spot more and more. I also have five of the original six hermit crabs roaming around the tank. One of them disappeared early on, and I’m still not sure what happened to him. These little guys took out my snails that I initially bought with them. They are quite feisty and have big appetites. So I added another snail last week. This one is bigger than the others were and it seems to be able to escape from the crabs, at least so far. I’ll try to get some updated pictures soon.

After days and even weeks of searching, I’ve finally purchased a fish and added it to my saltwater tank. The fish is called Sphaeramia nematoptera, or more commonly known as the Spotted Cardinalfish or Pajama Cardinalfish. The selection process of what stores to buy from and what fish to get has been very hard, so I’ve setup this poll to at least help me in the fish to get decision. You can click on each name to see a picture of the fish.

I’m finally adding some life to my new fish tank project. I just went down to a local store that specializes in saltwater and picked up a half dozen hermit crabs and a few snails. I should have written down exactly what I got, but I think the hermit crabs are called dwarf red tip hermit crabs. They are pretty small, all occupying shells that are around half an inch. I believe the snails are orange turbo snails. I thought they were another variety other than turbo, but I cannot find anything other than turbo snails while searching online. Either way, I don’t think it will matter too much. Currently, I am acclimating them from the water at the store to the water that is in my tank. I’ll be sure to take some photos once they are in the tank.

Edit: As promised, here are a few photos of the critters.

Two weeks ago I started my very first salt water fish aquarium. Since then I have added some live rocks that I bought from a guy on craigslist. In local stores, these rocks sell for around five or six dollars a pound. Fortunately, this guy was moving soon and needed to clear out his stuff. He offered to sell for two dollars a pound. Perfect, I thought, I could get twenty-five pounds for fifty bucks.

But the deal ended up being even better, when he gave me around forty pounds for fifty bucks. I added all of this rock to the tank two Saturdays ago, and I’ve left the tank running since then. Now I am just waiting for the water to cycle, at which point it will be safe to add additional creatures into the tank. It’s hard to let it sit without fish, but it is necessary if I want this project to be a success.

PS Let me know what you think of the new functionality when clicking on the above pictures. You can view the rest of them here.

My lonely 20 gallon tank has sat empty since we moved into our house in Kansas City. But that will change soon! I’ve decided to delve into the world of saltwater fish keeping. Just a couple of days ago, I filled the tank up with saltwater, leaving the sand that I had in there from before. I added the rest of the equipment and have let it settle over the last couple of days. Now I am on a mission to acquire some live rock. This will help cycle the tank and get it ready for adding some critters into the mix. I’m not exactly sure what I will put in it in the end, perhaps some clownfish (think Nemo). I’ll be sure to post updates on the status of the tank.

After work on Friday Kim and I headed to dinner at Brio. The food was wonderful and mostly free since we had some gift cards to use. From there we headed back to the apartment and put together the new office desk that I bought from a guy on craigslist for $30. It is big enough for both sets of monitors, keyboards and mice. I’ll have to take some pictures of the new setup, it looks really nice.

Kim left early on Saturday morning for San Antonio, the location of Great American’s annual conference. After sleeping in for a few more hours, I put together a new filter for the turtle tank. I hope that the tank will require much less maintenance than before. From there I sat at the computers and made some progress in getting them all working as I want them to. I’m to the point where I am ready to install Windows XP on Ringo, the old dell machine. From there it should be easy to get the webserver setup and hopefully run some tests on it. Soon enough it was time for the guys’ weekend to start. Todd, Mike, and I first went up to Harling’s to watch the one and only Mama Ray. From there we headed to Kelly’s for a few rounds and some pizza. Finally we ended up at the Levee to listen to Groove Agency once again. It was a nice night out.

Sunday I had lunch at The Mixx, a rather new restaurant next to Chipotle. The food was good, but it’s a little pricey. From there I picked up a few things at the grocery and headed home to make some Skyline dip. Mike and I walked over to Todd’s a couple of hours before the big game, to start tasting some of the leftover bourbon from the New Year’s tasting. The party was a nice way to round out the weekend, even though the Steelers won. :)