Pepe - the Peppermint Shrimp

It's been a while since the last post. The tank is still going well. Yesterday I picked up a peppermint shrimp (there was supposed to be 2 of them, but the guy who was holding them for me couldn't locate the other one!).
They come from Oceanarium, which is in Western Australia. They breed them over there and I bought these as a group order with other marine aquarists. We ordered 27 of them! They arrive via Australia Air Express, so someone has to pick them up from the airport. The shrimp this time were very small.

We put Pepe into the tank and he basically swam into a corner and stayed there. Peppermint shrimp are great for eating aptaisia, which are ugly weed like growths that can take over a tank. We are not sure if Pepe is still in the tank, as there is evidence of a husk. This could be him, or it could be just that he shed his skin. We shall wait and see.

Here is a photo of him in the plastic bag, before we released him into the tank.


As well as adding Pepe to the tank, last Friday Neil brought in a few more frags from home. Here are a couple of pics. The brown and white one (which has been named the chocolate crackle coral), does not seem to want to stay where it is put. It has now split in half and is in two different spots. All the polyps are out, so it's still ok. We will just leave it alone and see where it ends up!




And a day or so before this, we bought 3 blue chromis. These are the first fish we are adding to the tank. They are quite hardy fish, very skittish and a lovely blue/green colour. It is very hard to get photos of them as they are so quick. The green towel hanging behind the tank was put there temporarily to stop the chromis looking their reflection in the glass. The reflection was making them think there were more fish to school with, so they were staying at the back of the tank. We will get a more permanent piece of something to put there soon.

A couple of new corals

Well it's been over a week since the last post, things have been very busy at work. Pleased to report that the tank is still going well. The water is being tested most days and I am keeping a log. All levels are good, except there is still some ammonia in there (0.5mg/l), which is holding up the introduction of fish. We have been doing twice weekly water changes, and this is keeping the level at bay, but it may just need time to cycle through. Everyone is dying to get some fish in there, as it looks so empty still.

On Thursday May 3rd I picked up a couple of corals from Amazing Amazon in Glen Waverley. One was a pink/purple tipped cataphyllia and the other one a purple fungia. These were put in the tank (with the help of Shannon's long arms!) and they soon started to inflate and look at home. One part of the cataphyllia looks a bit suss, so hoping that will eventually come out too.

Spencer has fondly named the fungia "the doormat" as it just sits there and doesn't do much. It does have little tentacle things that wave around in the water current. I think it's great and every coral has it's own little personality to me!

Here are some pics of the new corals. It is quite difficult to get a sharp photo a lot of the time as the corners of the tank are curved, so these are the best I could manage. Both corals are "out" a lot more now.





This little pic below is a coral that came on the live rock when we installed the tank. It is growing at a rapid rate. We think it is an anenome, but will get that double checked.