5/26/07 Saturday

Quarantine Tank, AM:
SG 1.010
Feeding: Fortified brine shrimp

Mid-day feeding: Reconstituted freeze dried krill.
Bertie eats about 4, others eat her "crumbs", not whole ones.

Quarantine Tank, PM:
SG 1.011 (added 4 cups FW)
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 15 ppm

The new quarantine tank had sides and back painted black. My guess is that this was creating more reflections than the fish had been used to in the previous tank; the female clown seemed quite agitated and kept attacking the front glass. Bertie no longer reacted with me (I'm not sure she could see through the tank any longer, and she quite often seemed interested in looking at things outside her tank), and she ultimately stared at the glass of the tank in the front left corner and, quickly enough that I first thought I'd imagined it, she puffed and unpuffed. After a bit of thought, we decided that the painted tank was causing the reflective problems and, rather than try and scrape the tank with the fish in it, I cleaned and prepped a second 15 gallon tank to transfer the fish to. (This tank also had to be scraped, but only on the rear side.)

As I was getting ready to siphon water into the new tank, I noticed Bertie puff at her reflection once again (I guess this puts paid to the idea that she might be willing to share her tank with another Toby...). We then siphoned 10 gallons into a bucket, placed the new tank on the stand and poured fish and water in, then added the remaining water back in. The transfer was unremarkable and the fish seemed to calm down quite rapidly in the new tank. Panda is no longer preoccupied with the reflection in the glass and Bertie seems once more interested in motion outside her tank. I have not noticed her puff since.

5/22/07 Tuesday

7:45 AM
SG 1.011
Bertie plastered (velcroed?) on tube, sleeping.

8:30 PM
SG 1.012
Ammonia 0 ppm
PM Feeding: Mami's Frozen batch.

5/21 PM - QT

Note: Hyposalinity officially begins today. Dosing Mg and Iodine on Mondays.
SG: 1.013; added 8 cups fresh.
AM feeding: Enriched brine shrimp.
PM feeding: Ray's Mix and Pellets.
Bertie measures 6 cm

Notes: Misc. Val

From Puffer Forum:

• Bonnie's Val sleeps wedged into veggie clip every night -- likened to looking like a shark with opened mouth, coloring wise..
• JPSmith's sleeps wedged between rocks and fades to blend.
• Bertie just sleeps on the floor and fades -- wasn't too extreme with the rocks about, but she becomes quite "washed out" looking by morning with the mirrored bottom. Normal color returns pretty quickly once she's "up and about".

Various ("cleaning aids"):

• Decoy shells (empty) help with longevity of snails / hermit crabs.
• Micro brittle stars may be too small to find among the live rock.

5/15 Bertie Pictures

5/13 Stats Plus

Quarantine Tank:
pH 8.0
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Sallinity: 126 (added 2 cups fresh water)

Evening Feeding: Enriched frozen brine shrimp cube (gleefully accepted).

As of today, Bertie measures 5.5 cm (5 cm without tail -- should I be measuring total length or length less tail?)

5/9 Beginning of the Updates

Warning: Much of this blogbook is going to be comprised of numbers and notes such as one would find in one's usual marine journal -- all the measurements I'll want to have handy will be noted here for the sake of convenience. Just a quick head's up -- so when you get to the "Why on earth am I reading all these numbers about a tank that isn't even mine?!!", remember that you've been warned, no whining! ;*)

Gritty Knitty:

• Ammonia = less than 0.25
• Nitrites = 0.25
• Nitrates = 20
• Temperature = 78 degF
• Tank size = 10 gallon (isolation tank -- we are aware that this tank is too small for all of the inhabitants and will correct the situation as soon as it can happen)

Tank Inhabitants:

• Mated pair of false percula clownfish, plus their bubble tip anemone (anemone is too small for both to nuzzle simultaneously -- it is noted that when the female is stressed, she chases the male away and will not "share"...), aka Panda (female) and Joney (male);
• One Pyjama Cardinal, aka JudyPJ;
• One Valentini Sharpnose Puffer, aka Bertie, measured tonight at approximately 6 cm long (it is *really* hard to get an accurate measurement -- she was right up against the glass when I took the number, but still... How do other folks manage?);
• Either one or two snails, Astria but individually unnamed, that Bertie has let be so far;
• One mini hermit crab that has thus far managed to escape Bertie (possibly the reason the extra "snail shell" had gone missing was that the sensible hermit crab was hiding);
• One ghost shrimp that has also thus far proved faster and more agile than its flatmates.

Feedings:

• Morning: 1/4 "chunk" frozen mysis shrimp combined with 1/4 "chunk" frozen brine shrimp, defrosted in tank water. I was at work for this feeding. I'm told that the brine shrimp were accepted by all the tanks' denizens quite happily but the mysis, when selected, were promptly spit back out.
• Afternoon: "Some" live brine shrimp, which I'm told were gleefully accepted by all. An algae block was also left in the tank for several hours... Only the female clown seemed to pick at it at all and it was removed at the time of the evening feeding.
• Evening: 1/4 frozen mysis shrimp and 1/4 frozen brine shrimp, again defrosted in tank water. And again, the brine shrimp were avidly hunted, but the mysis shrimp were refused and spit back out again.

Lights out followed the evening feeding, and a short "settle down" period before a 1/3 tank water change. Replacement water was measured at 73 degF and salinity of approximately 1.023. Only the female clownfish seemed concerned, picking on the male clown for a short period following the water change.

5/7 Stats AM and PM

AM:
Light still off, puffer sleeping under grate supporting corals; pyjama cardinal hiding, both clownfish sleeping next to anemone.

Just before leaving for work, puffer awoke, "cruised" the tank and returned to underneath the coral stand.

Did not feed in AM, no pictures taken.

CS's morning feeding: Mysis/brine shrimp combo (from frozen cubes).
CS's afternoon feeding: Brine shrimp from live solution.

PM:
Ammonia: Less than 0.25 ppm
Nitrites: Less than 0.25 ppm
Nitrates: 15 ppm

Evening feeding: 3 small ghost shrimp introduced to tank; pellets to clowns. I believe that Bertie at one of the shrimp, but difficult to say for certain.

5/6 New Baby!

Purchased Valentini Puffer (Canthigaster valentini) at SeaWorld Pets, cost $25.00. (Also purchased Flicka's Pyjama Cardinal at the same time.)

Size: approximately 1 inch long
Active, alert to surroundings
Nameed: Bertie (though unsure of gender)

Acclimated to isolation tank via 1/4 cup added tank water to transport bags every 10 minutes over a 2-1/2 hour period.

Upon introduction to tank, Bertie remained alert and active, did not hide. Bertie did not seem either aggressive or passive.

Other tank inhabitants: Mated pair of orange clownfish (female tends to be a bit aggressive) and their anemone; several snails; pajama cardinal (introduced to tank at same time as puffer); rocks; several species of coral (also introduced concurrently).

After a brief settle-in period, fish were fed a course of brine shrimp in solution. Bertie was quite interested in food and ate with "gusto". Cardinal ate a bit, but mostly kept to itself for the evening. Clownfish ate well.

Once light was turned off for the evening, Bertie settled to the floor of the tank and appeared to sleep.