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Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
This last March my tank was 40 years old. Thats not why I started this thread but I figured I would mention it because I know that somewhere on here there was a thread about it.
I can't find it so I am putting this here.
A few weeks ago I added one of those silly gobi/shrimp pairs. As soon as the pair hit the water, the shrimp lost the gobi and found a burrow of his own. I didn't see the shrimp for a while and figured he croaked but now I see him hanging out with this old guy pictured below.
He lost his mate of 12 years a few months ago and I guess got bored. Now I see both of them digging tunnels. The shrimp starts digging and the gobi who is about 5" backs in and with a few swipes of his tail, cleans out a nice hole. I am glad they found each other and seem happy. Of course the original gobi that I bought with the shrimp is carrying a torch and is all alone.
Poor little guy.
This is the original gobi I got with the shrimp
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This one is about 12 or 13 and is the new buddy of the shrimp. He is about 5"
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redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Paul B said:
This last March my tank was 40 years old. Thats not why I started this thread but..............
Click to expand...

Well if you didn’t start this thread because of your tank’s birthday, then we need to resort to the second part of the post title. So I understand you’ve finally accepted the fact that you’re a geezer! I’m still in denial. :grin:



Has “new” gobi found a nice hiding hole? And if so, how far from the “old” gobi’s hangout?
 
Brando457

Brando457

What kind of goby is the silly one from the pair that is lonely now? Beautiful fish.

And congrats on the 40 years of success, I'm sure it was lots of ups and downs, but you have a beautiful tank.

P.S. I'm only 24 and feel like I'm getting old lol
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
He is a watchman gobi, when he was young he was bright yellow, then changed to this color
 
howze01

howze01

NJRC Member
Really nice Watchman Paul! I think he was referring to the now-lonely goby that you just got.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
That gobi above is doing fine and I like gobies so
This week I added this guy. I was afraid my larger, old male watchman would kill it and at first he chased it all over the place but after a few hours he tired of that and now they just ignore each other and get on with their lives.
I am amazed at my algae trough and it is filled with all sorts of thick algaes of diferent colors. The water is having a hard time getting through but there is none of it in my tank. This thing has really stopped the algae cycles I used to get in this tank where it would cover everything.
Also for some reason a 3" montapora bleached a few weeks ago, I am not sure why, but I left it in the tank and didn't niotice it any more as it fell behind the rocks. Today my urchin carried it to the front like he does with everything that is not nailed down and the thing is growing back. There are 4 dime size patches of life on it and it was completely bare. I am happy about it but it is wierd. Another montipora is also growing faster than I have ever seen these things grow. This is just one of those strange things that we can't explain. I am leaning towards coral wars as nothing I can see happened and the rest of the corals are fine. The same thing happened to my Birds nest and now it is growing relatively fast.
In this hobby many of us go crazy when a coral dies but most of the time if it is only one or two specimins and everything else is OK there is nothing you could do. When we mix all of these complex creatures, sometimes from different oceans in a closed system, they, like us, don't always get along. They all exude chemicals and those chemicals degrade but sometimes not fast enough. These chemicals were designed to keep corals from growing too close in the vast sea, in a confined tank it is a wonder anything survives
Gobi005-1.jpg
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
Today I think I will go to a new LFS that opened up near here. I have a choice of about 6 LFSs with in a few miles of my house but most of them always get the same old boreing, common things. How many yellow tangs, angelfish and triggers do we need?
I want to get a male mandarin to date my female now that she became an adult and wears eye make up. I also need a male blue stripped pipefish before the female gets too old. She is already on social security and past what their lifespan usually is but I think she is a cougar and a male would do her good. Her last boyfriend died after a lifetime of, well, you know. :eek:
I would also like to get a female watchman gobi but they are very hard to tell the sexes, unless you can see her eyelashes. The female died after 10 years of egg laying and the male looks bored.
You rarely see anything new and exciting any more, but I guess if you do this long enough, you have had everything there is a number of times. :strange:
I have this grape coral that I got for almost free when a LFS went out of business. It was just about dead with only a sliver of tissue left. Now it is almost completely re grown and is my largest coral. It gets oil soaked pellets every day. I am still experimenting with this gel food and I am still not crazy about it. Clams are still my favorite food next to worms. Clams are also my favorite food and I have them every week. For the tank I buy a live chowder clam for about fifty cents and freeze it. Then I slice off thin pieces to feed the corals and fish. Clams are great because it is one food where you can feed the entire animal. Shrimp, scallop, squid and octopus are not as good because we are only feeding the mussle tissue where the least amount of nutrition is. That is the parts we eat, but we are not fish. Most of us anyway. :confused: :fish2:
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
I took some pictures. I can't get a full tank shot because the tank is so long and shallow.
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I love this algae although most people would not
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Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
My 5' algae trough just about fell into the tank. It was so full of hair and other algae's that it filled up with water and became too heavy for the flimsy acrylic angles that I had holding one side of it to the side of the top rim. I remove the entire thing to make new (flimsy) angles. I don't have time right now to re design the thing.
I cleaned out the algae and it was very thick and heavy. I also rescued uncountable brittle stars and amphipods but I also lost plenty of them.
It is back together and working like a charm. My skimmer is going crazy now from all the "gook" that came off the trough when I removed it.
 
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