Fishy Tank

So a while back I did a post about a 14 gallon salt water fish tank that I bought for Alex's room. A lot has happened since then in our house with the fish! Turns out, I am pretty good at the saltwater thing, excluding a few very small (we'll call them) starter fish.  I did a ton of learning with the 14 gallon tank and pretty soon had it filled up with corals and fish.  With saltwater tanks, space and size and gallons are very important. Overcrowding in a tank can lead it south very quickly. So it wasn't long before I was sad that I couldn't do anymore with it.

So around Christmas time, Allen started poking around the Internet for a larger tank. Saltwater reef tanks are what we call "a rich man's hobby", so we weren't looking to buy one brand new. We started looking at Craigslist and had a few potential candidates. Allen wanted to go REALLY big.  He was looking at 160 gallon tanks and 190..........I have seen owners clean those tanks and sometimes it entails them actually getting INTO the tank. I was not so keen on that. We settled on a 90 gallon tank that actually matched our kitchen cabinetry fairly well! It's funny, Allen and I thought we would be all big and bad with a 90 gallon. In the saltwater tank world, that is NOTHING and Allen and I still find ourselves restricted in what we can put in there. There are some fish that require a minimum of 120 gallons and above!

As far as fish tanks go, I love fish. I love corals. I HATE the way fish tanks look. Nothing screams '90s decor more than a huge fish tank to me so I really was picky when it came to what the tank was on and under.

Below are a few pictures of the tanks.  It is constantly changing and evolving and these pictures don't show even half of what's in there, but I will work on getting some more. I am still maintaining Alex's tiny tank as well, which is a lot to deal with. I am slowly transitioning pieces from his tank over to the 90 gallon tank and letting Alex get used to the idea that we might just end p with one tank, although I currently don't have the heart to shut his down. I love the fishies in there as well.



This is called a Hammer Coral. Love the purple and green.



This is a Gobie. We call him Gobie Wan Kanobie.  His job is to keep my sand at the bottom of the tank from settling too much. He scoops sand up in his mouth and filters it all out of his gills. He is very moody and will typically come try to bite me when I have to reach in the tank for some reason.



This is called a Carpet Mushroom.  It has a very cool texture and gets fairly large and covers everything around it like a carpet.



This is a Naso Tang. He is our "Big Boy"



He is the biggest fish in the tank but also the most shy.



We call him Wrasse. He acts very strange and will literally go take naps in between rocks and sand. I always think he is dead!



This is another coral called a Frogspawn.  It is named that because it looks like lots of tiny frog eggs. See my shy Big Boy peeking out from the back.  

 

A sponge coral. I love the color of this one. It is an interesting one: if any part of it touches oxygen, that particular part dies and will soon kill the entire thing. It soaks up oxygen like a sponge and can't let go of it. Also you can see Tang.  We call him that because he is a Mimic Tang, not actually a tang. Real tangs can be very aggressive if you put too many of them together in a tank. We bought him because he looks like a tang but is very peaceful.  

 

We have two clownfish (a mated pair). It is possible but unlikely that they would have babies in the tank.  They are so goofy it is easy to see how they get their name. They play and are always excited to see people near the tank. People think that Clownfish are peaceful and sweet because they always come towards people. That is actually aggression. If they could bite you they would. This particular breed has a tiny mouth with no teeth. There are clownfish that can bite and draw blood.



The other clown fish and some polyps. Polyps are one of my favorite corals because they come in so many different colors.  The multiply and form what looks like a soft carpet over the rocks. These are called Eagle Eye Polyps.

 

Lastly, this is Sailor. He is a Sailfin Tang. He is black and yellow now but will change greatly over the course of his life.  These can get to be 12" long. He is probably only 1.5" now.

 The tank is not really hard to maintain, but it certainly requires a lot of time and diligence. I have had both and I think saltwater tanks are easier to take care of IF you know how.

Thanks for checking in!

So, long time no post

It's been a while sine I last posted. Don't blame me. Blame Google. Apparently they were going through some changes, and by changes I mean something that disables me from uploading anything to the blog!

The only reason I can post this is because I thought I would sit down and give it one more shot before I gave up on it entirely. 

SO this post will be short and sweet because quite frankly, I did not expect this to actually work and didn't make the time to really put a good post together. AND I'm hungry. 

There are quite a few events I suppose I could/should post about, but Christmas is probably the most significant, so I will start with that.  We had a big Christmas this year. It was the first year that Alex really believed in Santa so you bet Allen and I used that to our advantage with the discipline. It goes a little something like this,

"Oh, Alex.  I guess I better get on the phone and call Santa. I know he would want to know that you aren't being a good boy so close to Christmas..."

I even went so far as to actually make a phone call in front of him a couple of times. Now that is good acting because not laughing while you are fake talking to fake Santa and watching your poor son's little heart fall out on the floor while you are doing it is quite something. 

Graham's first Christmas!!!!!

Dad dressed up as Santa and came through the front door. BLEW. THEIR. MINDS.  Although just after Santa left Alex turned to me and said, "Santa sure sounds a lot like Pop"  

In awe of the fat man in red

Ruby looks so pretty in her Christmas dress. Boys are so much harder to make look nice.  A collared short is about as nice as Alex gets.   :(