Saltwater Tank Update

Some of the best, most entertaining things in life are only fun because of who you are doing them with. I feel so fortunate to have met my boyfriend Blake because anything and everything, we do together immediately becomes the most fun thing to be doing, ever. That is why I think I like working on our saltwater tank. It is something that we both love and have an interest in and that we can do together, and I love that. 

On Monday, Blake and I got a new fish, and a new coral! Since we have such a small tank (29 gallons) deciding on the fish we want is a huge decision. We can only have a certain amount of fish, per gallons in our tank. We were told once that we could have seven smaller fish by someone, and by another person that it is an inch of fish per five gallons. Since there are always a million different rules every other person has we think it will be best to be right around both of those rules. Which means we can only get 4-7 fish, depending on their size.

Our first fish, Andy, is a Clownfish. He is so cool! It is crazy the amount of personality one fish can have. Blake and I are huge fans of Clownfish, and we had been debating wether to get a second Clownfish for a while. When you have two Clownfish they can mate and get along really well. It is kind of weird actually, because a Clownfish, when it is younger is genderless. After it mates, the dominate one, usually the larger one becomes the female, and the smaller the male. They can flip-flop between sexes but generally that is the rule of thumb. I think that it is so interesting so Blake and I decided to get a second Clownfish. 

Our saltwater store was having a sale on their Clownfish at the time so that helped us to make our decision. Some Clownfishes are not compatable if they are different species, but Andy, our first fish is an Ocellaris Clownfish. That means we just had to find another Ocellaris Clownfish that we liked, and we found the perfect one! He is yet to be named but he is a black Clownfish.

When we got home it was a little later in the evening, and at 8 o'clock the bright lights on the aquarium switch off to more of a lunar light, to signal the end of the day. When the lights switch Andy goes directly into his sleeping corner and falls fast asleep. It is so funny because he sleeps vertically, instead of horizontally, and he stays in the same spot in the corner.

Blake got to put the black fish into the tank. I felt kind of bad releasing our new fish into the water while Andy was sleeping because we didn't know what was going to happen. After the black Clownfish had acclimated we put him into the aquarium. He immediately swam over to Andy trying to wake him up to play. 

You could tell Andy was cranky since he was trying to sleep but later that night they were swimming around the tank together like best friends. They even sleep right next to each other vertically in their little corner. Hopefully all the fish we get don't sleep in that corner because things are going to get pretty crowded! 

I got to put the new coral in, once we decided where to place it! The new coral that we got is called Duncan Coral but it is also known as Whisker Coral. It is awesome and looks kind of like a flower. When I first put it into the tank it was closed up and nasty looking but later in the night it opened up and I think it looks really awesome.

Just as a side story, while we are on the subject of our saltwater tank. Blake, my boyfriend is in a band, called The Beautiful People of Belgium. He plays the drums and they all have a bunch of fun. One night while they were practicing in the basement I was upstairs on my computer and looking at the tank. I couldn't help but laugh at how Andy was swimming in the water. It almost looked like he was dancing to the the band's music. I tried to take a video of it but he sort of stopped doing it, so it isn't as good as at first.

I love listening to Blake and the band play. They are all pretty talented and it is just fun! Tonight they have a show but it is pretty lame because you have to be 21 and older, which I am not, to go.  This is definitely one of the cons of dating a guy 10 years older than you! :)