Hi everyone!   Marinegeek asked me to write a blog about my new tank.  I’ve been posting on the forums about my adopted tank.  Backstory is that a friend in Manhattan due to personal reasons had to give up her 24 gallon nano.  I volunteered to take over, but I’m a total newbie so I’m learning as I go.  I’m not a blogger and  I wasn’t sure what I was expected to write.  So I’m going with my version of the Gilligans Island Theme.  Please hum along as you read this.

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful tank
That started from this tropic port (o.k. New York City not so tropical in winter)
Aboard this tiny ship. (again a Toyota, tiny car but not a ship)

The mate was a mighty sister mule, (she was along to lug stuff)
The skipper brave and sure. (have you ever driven in midtown Manhattan!)                                                           Three passengers set sail that day (three refugee fish seeking asylum in New Jersey)
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour. (I promised sister it would be less than 3 hours…I lied)

                                                                                                                                                                     The weather started getting rough, (it was snowing big time!)
The tiny ship was tossed, (sliding all over the place, I wished I had 4WD)
If not for the courage of the fearless crew (and prayer, lots of prayer)
The toyota would be lost, the toyota would be lost.               

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle (New Jersey-not an island, go with it)                                                                                                                   
With sister mule (bitching and moaning about the amount of stuff three fish have)                                                                                                                                                      The Tank Virgin too, (ummm me)
The percula clown and goby fish,
The yellowtail blue damsel,
The finger leathers and the snails,
Here on “Tank Virgins” Isle. (my home is an island of calm, just go with it.)     

                                                                                                                                                               So This is the tale of the castaways,
They’re here for a long, long time, (I ain’t moving that tank again)
They’ll have to make the best of things,  (it’s live or die baby)
It’s an uphill climb. (I have no idea what I’m doing!)

The Tank Virgin and her trusty pets too,                                                                                                           Will do their very best,
To make the others comfortable,
In their New Jersey nest.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      No phone, no lights no motor cars, (what would fish do with phones and cars?)                                                                                                                                                    Not a single luxury, (gimme a break they have a nice tank)
Like Robinson Crusoe, (fish don’t read so they don’t get the reference)
As primative as can be. (Hardly!  It’s a nice tank, with a new hood on the way!)                                                                                                           

       So join us here each week my friends,
You’re sure to get a smile,
From three stranded castways,  (the three refugee fish from Manhattan)
Here on “Tank Virgins” Isle.     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  (thank you, thank you, please keep the applause to a minimum)                                     Here is a picture of the tank just before I dismantled it to make the drive to NJ.  LOL at the time I thought all the red coraline algae was nice!  

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So who went out to battle the crowds for BLACK FRIDAY?

Yeah I did go out, but I didn’t participate in the typical Target or Walmart melee.   I figured that I didn’t want to be trampled under the hoards of bargin shoppers looking for the deal of a lifetime on a flat screen tv.  (Which incidentally would be marked down to the black Friday sale price a week after Thanksgiving.)  Nay I wanted a unique experience for my shopping excursion so I went to my LFS.

It was my thought that if I was going to go out on this shopping holiday then I wanted to go to my happy place, the local fish store.  So I got up relatively early, polished off the charge cards and drove off to my aquatic nirvana.  And what did I find…NO SALES!        Well not exactly that they had no sales, they did have the normal everyday run of the mill sales.  But where were the door busters,  the” oh my god it’s such a bargain price I must have it” sales?   Where was the deal on that one item that I had been coveting and must have but didn’t dare look at because of the price before item.  Well nowhere to be seen that’s where it was! 

I expressed my disappointment to the LFS staff and noted “Hey don’t you guys celebrate Black Friday?”  To which I was told “Where do you think you are?  Walmart?” 

So did anyone here get any good deals Friday? 

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Today I was roped into hitting a thrift shop with friends, not my idea of fun.  Would rather have slivers of wood under my nails then browse any store and especially a thrift store at that.  The idea of sifting through all the shelves of stuff to find a gem had no appeal.

Until I scored the perfect goldfish bowl for my niece (she’s 5).  It’s a completely round  thick glass bowl which holds about 3 gallons, very nice.  Better yet it was $.99, yes that’s 99 cents!  I nabbed it off the shelf, confirmed to myself that the glass was thick enough to hold a tank of water and a few goldfish.   After I add a few goldies and gravel, maybe a plastic plant the family princess will be thrilled.

While I rejoiced in my find everyone in our party laughed at me for my prior prejudice against thrift stores.   Then was reminded that shopping for the bargain and re-purposing items was alot like how I take care of my tank.

For myself I have used hand me down tanks and equipment.  In fact I’ve used hand me down fish and corals, but I like to think of this as giving them a new home.  Instead of buying a large coral for an equally large price, I look for frags to nurture.  In a way the frag swap/meet is like the thrift shop for corals.  Now I’ve also discovered buying online at auctions such as AnimalGeeks to get the good deal also.

So do you built your tank brand new or are you willing to also go out on the thrifty fish limb?

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This blog submitted by Fionnait  (MarineGeek loves the newbies)

Recently I made the decision to get my first tank and I’m excited and scared at the same time.  Previously I had a tank in an apartment  I shared.  Well actually the tank belonged to my room-mate not me.  So my total dealing with the tank was looking and not doing.     Eventually I moved onto my first house (yeah me!) and I left behind the room-mate (adios!) and the tank.

Well now I found it’s been a few years, my furniture is in all the right places but something is missing.  And I think what’s missing are my room-mates, the fish not the people!   Every living room should have an aquarium, not only are they beautiful to look at but they enhance ones calm.   We watch the fish and the television and we relax .  The fish watch us and the television , nnot quite sure if they are relaxing.   Also I wonder if they enjoy “Deadliest Catch”? 

In  getting everything set up for this my first tank I’ve run into a learning curve and discovered a few things.  First why is everyone speaking Greek?   Well not real Greek Greek but marine Greek, that unintelligible language that only other marine geeks understand.   

Now I read this on the forums and I’m stealing the line “a chiller chills and a heater heats but what does a refugium do?”  Does it fuge and if so what does that mean?   I know that lights well they light up, but why so many different kinds?  Moon lights, compact lights and what is an atinic light?  At first I thought people were writing arctic lights and wondered what the arctic had to do with reefs.  Why can’t they just say bright light!   

Then we get to the names of the corals and fish?  Again why can’t we just call a fish a fish?   Why does it have to be a latinus unpronouncabilis????    Recently was at an local store and asking the clerk about the clown fish., yes I was talking Nemo here.   Everytime I said clown he would correct me to oscellaris.  Then when I asked what amenome a clown would like he also began with a bajillion latin names for various anemones.   Needless to say I won’t be going back to that store at least not without a translator.

But you see what I mean, even when it’s Latin it’s all Greek to me!

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Sometimes there is an event so tempting that you feel you just have to go even when you know it’s wrong.  That by attending you are going to regret it in the end.  Like Carol Ann in Poltergeist there are times when I need to step away from the light.

Next weekend I’m heading to Atlantic City, NJ to attend a family wedding.  No this is not the event I’m trying to avoid!  Flying in Friday morning with the wedding & reception that evening.   Saturday night going to see Craig Robinson the comedian, then heading out first thing Sunday.  That leaves me free most of Saturday .  Family in the area are having a mini reunion/bbq for all the out of towners.  Normally I would have no problem with this except for the lure of the light across town.  What light you may ask?  Could it be blackjack, roulette or slot machines?  Nope it’s MACNA XXI!

 What is this you may ask?  It’s nothing short of the yearly event for any Marinegeek.    MACNA XXI is  the 21^st Marine & Aquarium Conference of North America.   Exhibitors from the industry come to display their products and discuss them with attendees.  Mind it’s not a trade show for the industry but it’s for the hobbyist.  Combined with this is a conference that’s a veritable who’s who of big kahuna’s in the industry.  This year you could bump into the likes of Julian Sprung of “Corals: A Quick Reference Guide” and sea veggie fame or Chris Brightwell of Brightwell Aquatics.  If there’s a book or reference guide on anything related to aquariums then chances are that the author will be here. 

Now here is my dilemma, how do I stay away?  Everytime I’ve attended a MACNA or similar event I’ve either come home weighted down with product I impulse bought or a wish list that needs a credit line of it’s own to obtain.  It’s a deadly place for a Marinegeek with no self control.   This is the glowing television that Carol Ann was sucked into and I don’t have that creepy little woman to toss in a rope and get me out!

Talk me down people, remind me that Nana’s cheese danish is much more important then the new line from Marineland.  I need the rope!  Or at the least a tennis ball.

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Today I was looking back and remembering my first time.  The anticipation and excitement over doing something new.  How apprehensive I was.  It was the unknown and going there was scary, yet fun.  Now get your minds out of the gutter I’m talking about my first tank.

It seems like yesterday but it was years ago that I started my first tank.  It was one of those starter tank kits that in time leaked like a sieve.  A no-name tank with a basic filter and bright pink gravel included.  Oh and do not forget the plastic plants.  Yeah as tanks go it was cheap and tacky, but I loved it in a way that future tanks could not equal.  It opened the door to a new world for me.

That tank taught me patience in fishkeeping and perserverence.  It would have been so easy to quit and just get a dog.  Wait I did get a dog but I also didn’t quit and  kept the tank.  Thru all the failures and fish deaths I still loved that tank.  Somehow I knew that if I kept at it then somehow one day it would all work out.  Eventually I had a few fish living happily amidst the pink gravel and plastic plants which by now also had a bubbler treasure chest as decor. 

So what happened to this faithful old friend.  After a while it began to leak badly and no amount of sealant would help.  I hated to admit defeat but it was time to move on to bigger and better.  My tank was giving up and I had outgrown it.   So while I moved on to a new tank my old friend remained empty and relegated to a shelf in the basement.  I couldn’t put it out with the trash as that’s not what you do with friends.  Then a nephew spotted it all dusty and asked it he could have it, he was building a terrarium/lizard house.   So old faithful went on to a new home.   Now years later it still lives there today in a new incarnation as a turtle den. 

So while I have had new tanks which are much more sophisticated they will never have the magic that my first tank had.  But I guess that’s just the way it is with first love.

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This was a great forum post from Mrs Geek and it deserves to be a mini blog!  We’ve all been in the LFS and had the staff tell us verbally or by signs to watch out for something.  But this takes the cake….or the hand.

“So there I am… Standing at the fish store admiring a beautiful pond… There was a HUGE sign that said: Oscar not for sale! Since I tend to name my fish, I figured Oscar was maybe the name of the store’s Mascot. Was I wrong! As I waive my hand over the pond, mesmerized by this one fish, who was so interested in me. Everytime I moved my hand, well he followed. Until, he leaped out of the water opened his mouth and swallowed my hand right up to wrist… This fish was fierce! I shook my hand trying to get him off. Finally he let go. I was unharmed but all shooken up! The store owner laughed and later apologzed… See this particular fish is known for jumping out of the tank and scaring customers but never did he ever bite anyone… I left the store with a free fish and learned a new lesson.. Stay away from Oscar.”

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Last week I pondered if our fishy friends missed us when we’re gone.  This led me to the realization that I’m also guilty of a type of anthropomorphism ,  giving other living creatures human emotions or feelings.  In my case it’s more like Cine-morphism, giving animals the characteristics of popular movies.

Does anyone else do this to the degree that I do?  I wonder.   

I have I fallen victim to the Disneyfication and Pixarification of the animal kingdom.  When I enter a fish store I have to resist the tendency to ask for Dory instead of a blue tang.   Yes I can attribute this to being around children but not entirely.

When I now look at blue tangs I find myself looking for signs of anmesia.  When Miss Blue Tang stops to look out at me why do I hear Ellen DeGeneres?   In fact in my mind now all blue tangs sound like her.   Also note that because I hear Ellens voice all blue tangs are now female.

Likewise why do I taunt my linkia with “what can’t hear you!”   Do I believe my linkia is talking to me?  Or weirder yet do I believe my linkia was watching Finding Nemo on dvd while I was out so they would get this line.  Which is patently impossible as I didn’t find the remote in the tank.

While I’m an educated adult and I know that my fish is just a fish I can’t help myself.    Deep down I feel that they should be as wonderful as the movie creatures I like.   In the future I will try to tone down the Nemo-isms in regards to my tank.   But can’t make promises on not talking to the dog like Scooby-Doo.

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This week was a particularly tough one at work.  Had to put in very long hours away from home.

This made me begin to think about our pets missing us when we’re gone.  Now I know that my dog pines away in my absence.  She’s used to me going out for the day but she expects me to return each night before sundown.  As I walk in the door she has her routine of giving me a long look (to make sure I’m following), then she makes a running dive on to the bed and rolls over for a tummy rub.  Until she gets her ”I’m home” moment she will follow me around and keep herding me back toward the bed for her rub time.    But this is only if I make it home within the prescribed time frame.  When I work OT and don’t return when she expects I get the cold paw.   When others pet-sit during vacations  she is visibly lonely.  So I’m pretty sure it would be safe to say the my pooch knows when I’m gone and misses me.

But today I began to wonder if my fish miss me?  Do they notice that I disappear for hours at a time?  Or are they anti-human and could care less that I’m there or not.             

Once I had a yellow tang  that would follow me back and forth as I walked in front of the tank.  If I reversed direction he could also.   I admit at times I would change direction just to see him turn to follow me.  At first I had the thought the I had the most brilliant tang ever to grace a tank.  I thought my tang ”knew” me and followed out of some sense of fishy devotion.  But after I watched my traitorous tang exhibit the same behavior with others I knew it wasn’t me.   Sadly I realized it was probably all about the food.

For the most part I’ve found that fish and other tank residents are cooly indifferent to the humans who tend their tanks.    We slave for endless hours to give them a home worthy of them.  We spend hours placing the live rock just so for the best effect and for the fishes enjoyment.  Each coral is agonized over prior to placement, again it has to be right for the fishes.  But do they appreciate all we do, I think not.

So my question of the day is do you believe that your fish miss you?

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Submitted by Keysfan 

I came home from the LFS today with new residents for my tank.  I have a 54 gallon bow front live reef set-up.  Even after two and a half years, I consider myself a rookie.  We’ve experienced some real ups and downs, my aquarium and I.  A massive outbreak of aiptasia that deep-sixed a bunch of my corals and clams before I knew what was wrong; a chemical catastrophe that gradually killed several fish; my own misunderstanding of the LFS’s instructions that resulted in me overfeeding to the point that my original blue tang and yellow tang could have qualified for “The Biggest Losers”.

I imagine I can hear you more experienced hobbyists and true experts thinking, “She’s not a rookie.  She’s an idiot.”  That’s harsh, but I’ll cop to not learning as much as I should have.  However, I like to think that I’ve learned from every mistake.  I now know how to go in and kill aiptasia if they crop up.  My live rock is covered with beautiful, purple coralline algae and the four surviving corals – a finger leather, a green bubble, a green hammer and some red polyps look positively robust.  The powder blue tang maintains a nice bmi; the pajama cardinal hasn’t increased in heft and the mandarin goby keeps chugging along.Clearly, I’m doing some things right.  Finally, my LFS mentors and I agreed that I was ready to add a few more members to the family.  I have always wanted clowns that were already in a relationship with an anemone and a few more corals to brighten up the place.  So, today the storeowner and I made some careful selections.
It feels kind of like bringing your baby to day care for the first time, or transporting a teenager to college.  I won’t pretend I’m not sort of anxious and intimidated.How can I not worry?  Will the anemone stay out and the clowns find it and be secure that their family unit is intact?  The powder blue tang I’ve had for awhile is a bossy fish.  What if it harasses the clowns?  Will the clam find contentment on the sandy bottom?  Will I place the corals correctly according to their preferences for proximity to light and water current?I carefully followed the instructions for acclimating them to water temperature and the water itself.  After half an hour of floating them in their bags at the top of the tank, I carefully took out the corals and placed them on rocky ledges.  I put the anemone down near the bottom on what looked like a comfortable rock.For another span of time, I gradually introduced tank water to the fish, clam and cortez crabs while my battery-operated bubbler aerated the water.  Finally, I reached the moment of truth.  First I gently grasped the clam in the long-handled “tongs” and carefully placed him-it-whatever on a nice sandy spot.Then, I slowly netted the clownfish and released the pair near their anemone.   I stepped back away from the aquarium and waited.That was 45 minutes ago and I’m still waiting.  At first, the clowns immediately dove down and hid in a small rock cave.  Now one clown continues to conceal itself and the other is swimming at the top of the tank.  The resident cleaner shrimp made its way down and tickled the anemone to the point that it closed up and shimmied under an overhang.  I wonder if it feels abandoned by its percula protectors.  The clam shyly opened up until the mandarin goby drifted over for an introduction, and then it snapped shut, startling the fish.At least the corals appear happy.  The star polyps have opened up, all green and fluttering like a lush lawn in a gentle breeze.  The purple mushrooms and red mushrooms are starting to open up.  The red zooanthids are shyly peeking out.
Nothing appears to bother the crabs.  They’re already crawling around and feeding.One hour has passed.  The anemone is tightly folded into itself, shy as a virginal spinster.  (Sort of resembles a virgin part of the anatomy, come to think of it.)  Still haven’t seen the other clown.  Please don’t let it be dead.  I’ll never be able to face my LFS friends. The clam’s deep purple mantle is unfolding like a blooming rose.  I’m taking that as a good sign.90 minutes.  Oh Joy!  The other clown has reappeared.  Its mate immediately swam down from the tank surface and the two are dancing with each other in a fishy do-si-do!  The tang is pretty much leaving them alone.  In between little forays to investigate the territory, they’re nudging the anemone.  She’s starting to loosen up!  Hopefully they’ll all reconnect.It’s too soon to be certain, but I’m cautiously optimistic and beginning to breathe a little more easily.  Everybody’s alive.  Nobody’s fighting.  For now, life is good in the aquarium neighborhood.

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