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.

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.

5/6 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.