Hide and seek, anyone..?!

We have two new playful fish in the Nano. I say playful but maybe scardy-cat fish would be a better description! They both like to hide away either in the rocks or under the sand and are easily scared. Fortunately we get to see them everyday when they come out for tea!

Harvey is our Pacific Blue Tang, or Palatte Surgeonfish, Paracanthurus hepatus. He is tiny at the moment, about the size of a 50p piece and is very cute! He has shown us lots of his tricks already - he can wedge himself into tiny holes in the rocks and disappear and play dead by lying down on the rock or sand and lying very very still! He also sleeps like this! Its very entertaining to see and if I can get a photo I will definitely post it for you to see. He is known to be a very friendly fish once he has settled in. Blue tangs are prone to getting white spot and are easily stressed. Harvey has some white spot at the join of his body and his yellow tail. It doesn't seem to be bothering him so we're not treating it. He is a beautiful bright blue colour and will be a lovely friendly addition to our gang.

We also got a Golden Wrasse, also know as Canary Wrasse or Yellow "Coris", Halichoeres chrysus. His name is Goldfinger,  Goldie for short. The main reason we got Goldie is because he was in the same tank as Harvey in the fish shop meaning we can quarantine them together. Goldie is very shy at the moment and spends a lot of time buried under the sand. He will be very helpful as he is a cleaner fish and is knows to eat flatworms (which we have in the Nano tank) and also pick parasites off of other fish in the tank. That should help out Harvey and keep him well. Goldie is a brilliant almost luminous yellow fish with a pointy nose and three back 'eyes' on his dorsal fin.

 

Bring on the Clowns!

It was very exciting transferring Boomerang, Comet and Darty into the main tank. Not surprisingly I caught Boomerang first. She is definitly the tamest fish at the moment and will happily come up and nibble your fingers at feeding time. Comet was a bit more troublesome to catch as he is so quick. He was like that when we got him in the fish shop too! I left Darty for Stu to catch. We couldn't even find him at first, so removed all the rocks after realising he was wedged into a cave in the rock! He lived up to his name and darted about like mad before Stu finally caught him!

They have now settled nicely into the main tank and seem to be loving it. Interestingly Comet has always has one white spot on the tip of his dorsal fin and since moving him it has cleared up. I was going by the theory that white spot/ ick is ok as long as the fish is behaving normally and eating well. Comet's white spot never bothered him but I am pleased that it seems to have gone.

The clowns have made friends with Eddie (who seems to think he is a clownfish!). He always comes up to the corner with the clowns at 6pm for tea. Poor Freddie is getting bullied by Eddie tea time and always gets chased away. He looks good, a bit more see-through that Eddie, and seems to get plenty to eat by hanging out at the far end of the tank with Darty. Interestingly Eddie and Freddie sleep almost next to each other, so they do love each other really!

This photo is from tea time yesterday, just before I fed them!

Moving on

The plan this weekend is to move the the fish in the Nano tank; Boomerang, Comet and Darty, into the main tank. We've had the coral babies, Eddie and Freddie, in there for four weeks now and they are both lively and feeding so I don't think further quarantine time is necessary. I've just been to the fish shop to get a big barrel of water so will do a water change in the main tank tomorrow morning and then move the fish over. That will definitely be the fun bit as Boomerang and Comet are now quite territorial of their Nano tank and are not keen on us poking about in it. Darty will also be a challenge as he loves his cave. We may have to move the rocks to get him I think.

I've also reset the light sequence so that the blue lights come on for one hour before the white ones and go off one hour after the white lights. That way there is a more gradual light on and off sequence which should be better for the fish and the corals. We got some free Zoanthids with our live rock. They are small corals. Ours are purple and green and look pretty cool.

 

The coral babies will soon have to share their huge home with bossy Boomerang! That'll be a shock for them! I'll give both tanks some garlic tonight to try keep them calm for the big move tomorrow.