New Guests at Casa DeMatt

As you know, Pinnochio and Arnold made their way upstairs last week. So, over the weekend, I went and picked up two new guests for the quarantine hotel. After much debate, some dead specimens under warranty, and several trips back and forth to the LFS, I finally got a flame angelfish and a royal gramma. I've already settled on names - the flame angel is going to be Tony. When you look at the new photos down below, you will see that it has stripes like a tiger. The Royal Gramma is going to be Elizabeth (get it? Royal Gramma? Royal Grandma? Queen Mother? Elizabeth? Come on! It's creative!).

OK, fine... enough with the corny jokes... onto the pictures:

The Condylactic Anemone has moved up from the back of the tank. I like to think it's because it stopped being shy, but in reality it's probably because it's easier to find food up there.

Pinnochio seems to find the weirdest spots to perch. He's in a small grass thing that's about half his size. I don't know how it stays balanced, because it has no roots or anything.

Arnold is chillin'. He typically takes refuge on the right side, back corner of the tank, but today he was swimming around with the others.

A full tank shot just for good measure. And now, onto the new guys:

Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (aka Royal Gramma)

Tony. Just think They're GR-R-R-R-EAT!

Movin' On Up!

To the east side... in that DEluxe apartment in the sky-y-y-y.

Yes, that's right, Pinnochio and Arnold have moved up to the display tank. I'll take photos this weekend, and post soon. Now, I just need to clean out the QT and get it ready for the next fish. What should I get? Post in the comments or write on my facebook wall...

Be back soon with photos....

Visit to Aquarium and Great Photo Opportunities

I had the opportunity to rent a really great lens for my camera - the Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 ED VR Macro lens. Let me just say, it is amazing. One day, it shall be mine... until then, I'll have to rent it for special occasions. In any case, I took a trip to the Atlantis Marine World (home of Larry, the Mantis Shrimp) Aquarium. Here are a few of the highlights of the afternoon:

Clam for sale at NERAC IV Sponsor Tank

Corals for sale - same tank

Sea Lion Show - got pretty lucky with the timing here

Yes, they also have lizards at the aquarium

Smile! You're on lizard-candid camera!

African Snow Monkeys - no idea what this has to do with an aquarium, but they were there!

I think this was my greatest shot of the day. African Snow Monkey.

Really big turtle.

Penguins.

Freshwater fish.

Freshwater fish.

Coral? Anemone? Not sure, but it looks cool.

One of the most beautiful fish in the coral reef tank - a Moorish Idol.

Feeding time in the coral reef tank.

Coral in the reef tank.

Coral in the reef tank.

Rosy bubble-tip anemone. In the full-res shot, you can see every detail of every wrinkle in the tentacles. It's amazing.

It looks like this anemone is reaching for the urchin.

I have one of these at home - condylactid anemone.

Blue lobster hiding out.

This is the largest lobster I've ever seen - must be 15 lbs or more!

Trouble in Paradise

Well, it has been an exhausting week. I apologize to those of you who have been checking in regularly for not posting sooner, but I've been quite busy with getting the tank settled. On Saturday, I had a tragedy.

6pm - fed the fish as I normally do. Nothing new to report. Everybody eats and seems healthy.

7pm - some friends come by, and we make our way out to dinner.

11:30pm - my friends and I come back to the house to suddenly see the Auriga Butterfly stuck to the inlet side of the powerhead. It was completely reactionary, but I immediately stuck my hand in the tank and swatted it away from the powerhead. Shortly thereafter, I question if I should have done that, hoping I didn't hurt it. The poor thing couldn't control itself in any way. It kind of looked like it was drunk. No, I have not been dosing vodka into the tank! J/K...

Anyway, I left the powerheads off overnight, and it settled into one of the top corners, probably because that's likely the spot with the least flow in the tank. Cut to Sunday...

9am - I look all over the tank - I mean everywhere - short of taking the rock out of the tank, there is no place that this fish is hiding. I am assuming the worst. Start my post on http://www.reefcentral.com to ask for some advice.

Spent the afternoon helping Meri pick out paint colors for her new place... cut to

5pm - I decide it would be prudent to do a water change. I replace around 25% (13ish gallons). While working on the tank, I notice that the flame scallop is dead, too. What the heck is going on? I took it out, and the body was all broken down inside the shell - it must have been dead for a while, and I didn't notice. After testing the parameters, I see a small spike in ammonia, but nothing to be too concerned about.

Right now, it's Tuesday at 8:30pm, and I still have not found the fish. Basically, the folks on RC are assuming it's not only dead, but also already cleaned up by my CuC. They work fast, evidently. I would rather have had seen the dead body. It's the not knowing that's killing me. It also makes me think about Bubba - the Yellow Watchman Goby. It disappeared after the first day I had it in the tank. I always assumed it was hiding, because people on RC told me that's what YWGs do. Now, I have to assume it's dead.

So, what now? Well, I'm slowing down considerably for now. The Banggai Cardinal (Arnold, Tommy Lee?) and the Longnose Hawkfish (Pinnochio) are going to stay in the QT as long as I can stand to keep them down there. For one, this will give me time to figure out what's going on in the display tank. I also ordered a bulk supply of granular ferric oxide (GFO), which removes phosphates from the water, and granular activated carbon (GAC) which removes impurities from the water just like in Brita filters.

Some of the folks on RC recommended removing the media from my cannister filter, and replacing it with the GFO and GAC. Right now, the filter has some media, some GAC and some GFO. Evidently, the media is making the nitrates jump up by providing a refuge for bacteria such as nitrosomonas which convert nitrite to nitrate. However, there's nowhere for the nitrate to go, so the concentration is jumping. Normal levels of nitrate are around 20ppm or less. Right now, I've got it down to around 25ish from maybe around 50ish. As soon as I get the GFO and GAC in, I'm going to take care of this. Regular maintenance on the filter is going to become part of my weekly routine.

Well, needless to say, I'm a little dissappointed that when I thought I had five healthy fish in the tank, in reality I now only have three. It's emotional to lose a pet, and it's depressing when you realize that you are throwing money down the drain.

Thanks for listening, and I will post more pictures as soon as I figure out exactly what caused the Auriga to die, and how to fix it. I'm hoping it was just some bad water chemistry. I'll be in touch... until then...

It's getting crowded in here!

The display tank (DT) now has a total of five fish in it. :) The Auriga Butterfly and the Blue Hippo Tang have made their way into the DT. I haven't seen Bubba since it was introduced into the DT over a week ago. I consulted with the crowd at Reef Central (http://www.reefcentral.com), and they have assured me that some gobies hide for weeks at a time. So, I'm not going to worry just yet. For now, I will just hope that he's not dead, and wish for the best (to see him soon). In any case, the naming has continued...

As you may remember, the Yellow Watchman Goby is Bubba. The two clownfish are Nemo and Marlin. In keeping with the Finding Nemo theme, I have decided to name the Blue Hippo "Dory". I'm tossing around two names for the Butterfly right now: Monarch (because it's a butterfly) and Budda - as per Nora's suggestion. Think "it's smoothe like Budda".

The quarantine tank (QT) now has two new inhabitants, as well. They are a Longnose Hawkfish and a Banggai Cardinalfish. I have already started thinking about names for them, as well. The Longnose will likely become Pinnochio (due to it's long nose and penchant for lying to me). The Banggai is a little more difficult to come up with a name. I was thinking... Banggai... Bang... Bang on a drum... drummers... Tommy Lee! What do you think? Too weird? Just weird enough? Post a comment or message me on Facebook with your opinions or any other suggestions for the fish names. Pictures to follow...

"I want to be a real boy", said the Longnose Hawkfish.

The dorsal fins are spikey, so I was also thinking maybe "Spike". Is Spike or Pinnochio better?

He's the party animal of the tank... and his girlfriend's name is "Pam". Perfect for Tommy Lee, right?

I was also thinking Arnold, because this picture just screams "whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?" (search for Diff'rent Strokes on IMDB for more on that).

Dory has made her home comfortably in the DT.

Dory swimming about in the DT.

Monarch? Budda? Either way, it's getting comfortable in it's new home.

Maybe I could name it Riga (as in, Au_riga)? Or Rita? Or Princess Consuela Banana Hammock... just making sure you're still reading :)

That's it for now... see you soon...

Slug? Nudibranch?

Not sure what this is... anybody know?

Fishy Fishy Fishy

The display tank now has three new inhabitants - the ocellaris clownfish pair, and the yellow watchman goby (recently named "Bubba"). Unfortunately, Bubba went into hiding before I could get a snap shot of him in his new home. My young little cousin asked me to name one of the clowns Nemo. So I have decided to be a little corny, and go with the Finding Nemo theme and name them Nemo and Marlin (that's Nemo's dad in the movie). The way the two clowns are distinguished is that Nemo has a black line on the top of his dorsal fin, whereas Marlin's dorsal fin does not. So, for now, we've got Bubba, Nemo, and Marlin.

Hotel de Scheiner Basement has two new inhabitants, as well. I was having a little bit of an algae problem, and when I went to the LFS, my LFS guy told me to get some fish that are natural vegetation/algae eaters. I picked up two little babies - a Blue Hippo Tang and an Auriga Butterflyfish. They will be staying downstairs for two weeks, at which time they will join Nemo, Marlin, and Bubba in the display tank upstairs. Start thinking of fish names for these two (I'm already thinking Dory for the Hippo, for obvious reasons), and post your suggestions in the comments here or write on my wall on Facebook. Pictures are below:

FTS - you may notice the large white objects in the upper left-hand corner. That's my new auto-topoff. Basically, when water evaporates, and the level in the tank drops, these float switches turn on a pump which adds freshwater from a 5-gal bucket located below the tank. When the tank fills back to the desired level, the float switches turn off the pump, so as not to flood the place.

Nemo and Marlin in their new home. Unfortunately, Bubba went into hiding before I could snap a shot of him.

My new Auriga Butterflyfish (with the Blue Hippo Tang in the background).

My new Blue Hippo Tang. In the Finding Nemo theme, I'm thinking maybe "Dory" as a name.

The two new inhabitants of the quarantine tank are enjoying their new home, swimming around and exploring.