Getting the space ready early

This week has been a productive one, I have moved a very large movie collection from the spot where y new aquarium is to go. I have built 3 shelving units to house the collection and painted the area is preparation for for the big day. This is still a while away, I'm half way to my budget so far but there's a few things I didn't take into account which I will now need to look into.

So the first issue is the floor, the house sits on a slope and when they built the house the floor isn't completely level. This is a pretty minor issue I can shim the stand to level it not a problem I just need to add this to the check list when I start setting it up.

The second issue is a bit more pressing its the amount of electrical output sockets in the room. I can run an extension lead from a near by but I want to keep the area tidy with as few cables as possible. so the plan will been to get an electrician to install a new socket (preferably one with a waterproof cover) this will have its own fuse on the breaker box. This will leave the aquarium on its own circuit in the event something else in the house trips the sockets out.

Parrot fish (Pretty sure you can't teach these to speak)

So it's time for another fish profile again, this is a fish I won't be adding to my tank this beautiful fish gets a bit too big for my tank and they also are know to eat hard corals.

Type:

Fish

Diet:

Omnivore

Average life span in the wild:

Up to 7 years

Size:

1 to 4 ft (30 to 120 cm)

Group name:

School

Did you know?

Some male parrot fish maintain harems of females. If the dominant male dies, one of the females will change gender and color and become the dominant male a process called sequential hermaphroditism.

Size relative to a tea cup:

Its diet which consists primarily of algae extracted from chunks of coral ripped from a reef. The coral is pulverized with grinding teeth in the fishes’ throats in order to get to the algae-filled polyps inside. 

The parrot fish can’t metabolise this coral so it ‘throws it overboard’ in the form of grains.  The existence of this species of fish is essential to the survival of the coral as it acts as a ‘natural cleaner’ of parasites, etc. that grow on it, so without the help of the parrot fish the coral would die. If you find yourself near one of these fish you will find them munching and making crunching sounds with every bite.

Another reason is that they need to do this constantly in order to keep their beaks clean and that they (the beaks) don’t grow too much.  We’re talking about an insatiable fish that spends the whole day eating and ‘discharging’ without a break and that’s why just one parrot fish can produce 100 kg of white sand every year!!  Thinking about this then, to those of us who adore paradisiacal beaches, it’s obviously important that there is an abundance of the parrot fish.

So next time time your laying on a white sand beach just think that sand came from a fish's bum haha only kidding only a small amount is produced this way.

Do fish have personalities

This is debated subject, I mean how can something that spends it time swimming around have a personality? Cat's, Dog's Parrots do that makes sense right? well I use to sit in this camp until I got my first fish. My change in though was very slow, this little bug eyed orange thing I brought home from the fair grew on me and showed fish don't just swim around.

It all started just over a year a go, won a fish at the fun fair and brought this little character home and put him in a fish bowl by the tv. At first i just dumped food in the bowl changed the water took not much notice of what my fish was up too. But that soon changed one evening, I was sat next to the tank and I noticed Rasputin spent more time the tv side of the bowel when the cricket was on. I thought this was very odd not something had even noticed before. I changed channels found something else and he swam off, Did my fish just swim off because I stopped watching the cricket? Its quite possible, I know he doesn't under stand what he is watching but like to think he became a bit of a telly addict in the months he bowl was close to the tv. What else does he like to watch? not just the cricket, He loves Tanked and DR who.

I later saw that his TV viewing wasn't the only little quirk he had, after a few weeks of living in the bowl I upgraded his home to a 30litre tank. This meant his new home was big enough for a new ornament so I treated the tank to a Cyberman head. Now Rasputin wasn't to happy about the new addition for two weeks he sat at the back of the tank never swimming in front the the face of the Cyberman head, I had to feed the grumpy so and so at the back of the tank. after a few weeks he got use to the Cyberman head and took to sleeping inside.

So why do I see my fish having personalities? It's not just the tv' watching the sulking at the back of the tank its the little things. The way they great me and no one else with a little excited swim dance when I get home, it's the moving the gravel from from one end of the tank to the other to make a pile in one corner no matter how many time's I level it out.

I know this could just be behaviour brought on by the fact I'm the primary feeder but I like to think these little fish have their own little personalities and I hope my move from fresh water to marine brings me a new set of characters traits.

The missing post

So I had planned to make this a weekly post on a Friday however the last couple of weeks have got away from, Work and family commitments have made finding time for the blog a little difficult but I didn't want to leave my readers with out a post for too long.

Although I haven't made a post here I have still been working on my ultimate goal to have a marine fish tank. The more I research the more I get doubts on some of my idea's of the set up I'm looking for. Should I slow down the cycle process by using dry rock to avoid pests? Which live sand do I go for? These are a few dilemmas I have encountered but as I reach the point of resolving these I will share with you my conclusions.

My next step is to put down the books and step away from the web for a few days let the information sink in. Chances are my idea's are correct, the pro's out way the con's and I'm just over thinking things.

In the mean time I'll focus on my fresh water tank's there is a lot of little jobs I need to do on these before I set up the marine tank.  Next week I'll give an over view of my current maintenance program and once the marine tank is set up the new process.

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Pufferfish an odd ball with spikes

To break my blog up a bit and so you don't have get lots of boring budgets, cleaning adverts for shops I've visited I thought I add a little fishy profile. I start of with the fish I'm not going to keep in my tank these will be the fish seen as non reef friendly or will get to big for my aquarium, I'll then add profiles for the fish I have purchased.

So here's the first one.
  

Common Name:	Puffer Fish
Scientific Name:	Tetraodontidae
Origin:	Equator
Diet:	Omnivore
Size (L):	17cm - 60cm (7in - 24in)
Water Type:	Fresh, Brackish, Salt
Optimum pH Level:	5.7 - 6.4
Life Span:	4 - 8 years
Conservation Status:	Least Concern

There are around 120 known species of puffer fish, the second most poisonous creature on the planet after the Golden Poison Frog. The puffer fish is found in tropical waters worldwide, but they rarely go into the cooler waters.

Biologists think puffer fish, also known as blow fish, developed their famous “inflatability” because their slow, somewhat clumsy swimming style makes them vulnerable to predators. In lieu of escape, puffer fish use their highly elastic stomachs and the ability to quickly ingest huge amounts of water (and even air when necessary) to turn themselves into a virtually inedible ball several times their normal size. Some species also have spines on their skin to make them even less palatable.

If a fisherman catches a puffer fish, they will never touch the spikes as they are highly toxic to humans and animals.

Although there are a number of animals that prey on the puffer fish, these predators often meet with a nasty end. When the puffer fish is threatened it inflates it's body with air exposing the long, sharp, toxic spikes which normally intimidates the predator into retreating. If however, an animal does manage to eat the puffer fish, it will often be poisoned by the toxins in the spikes or the toxin that is released from the organs of the puffer fish when it dies.

Despite the toxins in the puffer fish, some animals such as sharks are able to eat the puffer fish without becoming harmed. It is important also to know that not all species of puffer fish are actually poisonous and these species are preyed upon by larger fish, sharks and also humans.

Despite the puffer fish having such a deadly toxin, there are some species of puffer fish whose meat is eaten in Japan and Korea as a local delicacy. Special chefs are trained to cut the fish so that the fish does not poison the consumer. Other species of puffer fish produce and release a toxin into their organs when they die to harm the thing that ate them.

Emmy award-winning filmmaker John Downer was filming the upcoming two-part miniseries Dolphins: Spy in the Pod when he noticed that bottle nose dolphins would gently chew on a puffer fish and then pass it to another dolphin in the pod. He noticed that after chewing on the puffer fish, the dolphins would look very tranquil and dazed. Then it hit him: these dolphins were getting high on the nerve toxin released by the puffer fish.

If his prior knowledge of puffer fish toxin wasn’t an indication of what these dolphins were doing, their subsequent behaviour was a dead giveaway. They spent a great deal of time observing their own reflection on the water’s surface and acting very strange in general.

Downer’s crew was able to get this inside look through creative spy cameras, similar to what has been used for many of his other documentary miniseries. Underwater shots were taken with fish-shaped cameras while above water shots were taken with a camera that looks like a inconspicuous sea turtle. With the dolphins surrounded by cameras that looked like normal, everyday sea creatures, they were more relaxed and exhibited behaviour that may not have been captured with traditional filming techniques.

The smallest species of puffer fish in the world is the dwarf puffer fish (also known as the pea puffer fish and the pygmy puffer fish). The dwarf puffer fish is tiny growing to just an inch in length, which is a few centimetres. Despite the fact that the dwarf puffer fish is related to larger species of puffer fish, the dwarf puffer fish is not found in the sea but in just one river in India.

One amazing little puffer fish has been found to be capable of creating elaborately designed 'crop circles' at the bottom of the ocean as part of an elaborate mating ritual. The behaviour was first documented by a photographer named Yoji Ookata who later returned with a film crew from the Japanese nature show NHK which later aired an episode about the fish.

Even as articles bounced around the web it was still difficult to imagine how a tiny fish could create such a large design in the sand, even when staring directly at photographic evidence. Finally, video has emerged that shows just how the little guy delicately traverses the sand in a rotating criss-cross pattern to create a sort of sub aquatic Spirograph. The textured sand sculpture not only attracts mates but also serves as protection when the fish pair and lays eggs.

Reef Farming

Our reefs are some of the most amazingly beautiful places and also one of our most sensitive ecosystems as well. Changes in temperature, fishing, pollution, our own interest in have reefs in our homes and public spaces have all taken its toll on the reefs of the world.

Recently while searching for corals I found a company in the Uk called Reef Works who work on an one what I would call ethical reef keeping policy by farming corals to reduce our impact on our existing reefs. They have a very interesting process on farming corals which if you want to read more on this can be found here.

"At Reefworks, if a species of coral cannot be grown in a sustainable and viable manner it will not be used. It is for this reason that you will not find certain genera at Reefworks. We do not buy in corals, frag them up and sell them and then buy in another colony to produce more frags. The key for us is to be self sustainable and to produce healthy vibrant coloured corals that have had no negative impact on natural reefs."   

They are also involved in Mariculture more information on this can be found here.

So when your in your LFS then next time ask them about how they source their corals.

change of plans

So earlier in my blog I mentioned a trip to a not so local fish shop to me called Reef Dreams although I though at the time this was only going to be the place where I went to pick out the coral's for my aquarium well this has sort of changed.

Originally my plan was to purchase a Fluval m90 sea a couple of upgraded parts as it slotted nicely into the spot currently taken up by my gold fish tank but while looking around the shop the shop keeper showed me the Clearseal 900. Initially when looked I though great perfect size got home measured it up and the spot was too small I sat down a little dejected. The weeks have passed, I look at the spot the leaflet detailing the the package taunting me.  I scratched my head trying to work out a way I can get the bigger tank and then it hit me with a small change to the room and some new furniture to house the DVD collection.

Here's the new kit list:

Clearseal 900 (180 litres) + sump (75 litres) total of 255 litres which is just short of double the volume of the fluvial.
Ocean Life Over flow System
Jebao 3000 return pump
200w heater although Im tempeted to have 2 100w's incase one fails not so drastic drop in temp
bubble magnus c3.5 skimmer
tmc v2 illumenair 900 this the only thing from my original plan still left
d-d media reactor
v2 power pump for media reactor
tmc v2 auto top up
2 Jebao  wp25 powerbeads with twin controller