Pansy-Paws
Presenting a Chow Chow's perspective
Photo Gallery - Fish Only Aquarium
We started into the marine aquarium hobby with a 72 gallon reef tank in early 2000. In May 2002, we also started up a fish only tank. A few of the occupants came from a previous nasty critter tank we had, a 15 gallon tank reserved for critters that turned out to be too aggressive or destructive for our reef tank. This was either due to their growing size or emerging non-reef-safe status.
Here were some of the occupants in 2003:
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- a Flagfin or Three-spot Angelfish (Apolemichthys trimaculatus), introduced Dec 2002 (our boxing day purchase at J&L - this fish exhibits lots of personality, and accepts fresh shrimp pieces and seaweed by hand. Whenever we enter the room, Flagfin swims to the corner of the tank to check us out, and determine if it's feeding time. As you'll see in the photo, the blue lips add to the expressive nature of the face.
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- a Pacific Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma veliferum), introduced Oct 2002 - this tang is a very relaxed tank occupant, and quite literally swam into the net for several days in a row to receive a fresh water dip, when a black ick outbreak occurred in November 2002. When scared or surprised by some motion, Sailfin extends its fins to maximum spread and usually also darkens its colouration.
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- 2 Caribbean peppermint shrimp - originally purchased to keep aiptasia under control in our quarantine tank which housed some ultra premium live rock as we set up the reef tank. Once that food source was gone, they took a liking to fan worms, a Hawaiian feather duster, and margarita snails -- and were removed from the reef tank (after much effort and trickery to capture them).
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- 2 Neon (Cleaner) Gobies (Gobiosoma evelynae) introduced Dec 2002 - these are fascinating fish to watch, as they wait on rock outcroppings for a fish to swim past. If the fish slows down, they take that as an invitation to jump on and scavenge for parasites and dead tissue as shown in the photo.