Hurt Clown Fish

Alright,
     So today my male Clown Fish, Marlin, was acting weird all day long and I couldn't see anything wrong with him. Later into the day I started to get worried about him so I did a 5 gallon water change to bring dissolved chemical levels down. It helped a little, but then he went back to the same way he was before. Just kinda hovering under an arch in the aquarium.
     At a closer look, his right gill was swollen! How could this happen!?!?! I and my partner came to the conclusion that he had been chasing the black and white damsels around the rocks and hurt himself. We removed the damsels, and believe me that was a good chase around the tank lol. Now the damsels are all alone in the 80g aquarium and we are going to use them to cycle the new 80g aquarium and then we are giving them back to the pet store. They are too aggressive and now the male clown fish, from a mated pair from the wild, it hurt and is on the verge of dying.
     It is now 11:35pm and all the lights are out and he seems to be resting up fine, but we should know by the morning if he is going to make it or not. His gill is pretty swollen, but seems to be breathing fine, but who knows. This is a learning experience and we are still learning as we go.
ONE THING FOR SURE, WE WILL NOT BE PURCHASING DAMSELS AGAIN!

NEW PIXS!

I finally found out how my camera works so here are some better pixs of my livestock

NEW 80 gallon tank

I recently got an 80 gallon tank to start building a reef in. I got it about a week ago and only have live sand in it and water. My emerald crab gave birth last night to emerald crab larva, and aside from the feeding frenzy in my 30 gallon aquarium, I was able to save about 20 larva. Now they are in my 80 gallon to grow up. I ordered live rock for the 80g tank and I am waiting on it to be shipped to the airport for me to pick up. If your wondering I got 125lbs for it for a cool 650.00 bucks. Expensive yes, but also worth the money to keep these expensive fish and corals I plan to have alive. More will be in store for you next week! Thanks for watching my reef and hobby grow!

Cleaner Shrimp

Now these little guys are amazing. They clean everything in the tank and everything that is introduced into the tank. When you put your hand down into it, they will swim to it and clean your fingers. It kinda cool to tell you the truth.

FISH!

Once that rock got all good and cycled, I decided it was time to start adding fish to the mix. I started off with yellow tail damsels, sadly the decided to beat each other up and I was left with only one out of 3. After that I added 3 three striped damsels. Needless to say, the bullied my last yellow tail to the point of death. After his death, I bought a mated pair of clown fish from my local fish store (LFS). Again meedless to say the killed off one of my three striped damsels. Now I am left with ony my mated pair of clown fish and 2 three striped damsels. It has been an all out war in my aquarium, but now everyone is comfortable with each other.

Added more live Rock

As you can see from the pictrs I did not have near enough live rock, so I decided it was time to add some more. I went to my LFS and purchased some more at 5.99lb. Expensive yes, but just look at the aquarium now.

Critter time

Once you tank has cycled it is time to start adding a cleaning crew. Snails, hermit crabs, slugs, crabs, and shrimp. Once my tank was cycled I added 12 snails and 12 hermit crabs. Not enough for my 30 gallon tank though. I recommend 1.5 janitor per gallon of water. I also added 5 peppermint shrimp to the aquarium as well because they are great scavengers, but only come out from hiding at night.

LIVE ROCK

As you heard me mention earlier about live rock, if you dont have enough you will need machinical filtration. I go by the rule of 2lbs of live rock per gallon of water. Live rock will cost you a pretty pretty penny as sometimes it sells for 6 dollars a pound. What is live rock? Live rock is a natural biological filtration system. When you go swimmin the the ocean and see rocks covered in stuff, that is what you want in your aquarium. Algea grows on the rocks, but not the ugly algea, that keeps your aquarium having to many bad chemicals in your water. These algea usually will eat nitrates and nitrites and phosphates and keep your water nice and clean. Live rock is important in a reef aquarium and should not be taken lightly due to the impact of adding it will keep you water quality in check.

Starting things off

     Ok so here is how my Salt Water Aquarium experience began.
On one day about a month ago, I decided that I wanted to start a new hobby. Since I consider myself a trader and do not have a job, I needed something I could do here at my house. After a long deliberation, I decided I wanted to do something that I would have to take care of not for just a couple months, but for a long time. That is when I got the idea for something exotic, a salt water aquarium! Not only do salt water aquariums add live to any room in the house, they are also a great hobby to get into. You have to care for them just like they were new born childern.
To get myself started off, I decided I should do A LOT of research on them first, you must know water chemistry, lighting, heating and cooling, filtration, and a slew of other stuff before you spend hundreds of dollars setting one up. After all my research was complete I decided to buy an aquarium off craigslist with all the fixin's I would need. If you do research properly, you learn that the bigger the aquarium, the easier it is to take care of in terms of water management.
The aquarium I bought off craigslist was a 30 gallon aquarium with about 10lbs of live rock already set up in it. All I did was sphyen out enough water so that I could carry it, got it home, and added more water back to it. Now this is very vague and I will discuss more in detail what I have done in later posts.

Thanks for Reading!