I had looked into what kind of anemone would provide the best host for my maroon clownfish for I picked it up this morning, so I knew there was a good chance on it happening. I never thought it would happen so soon though. I put the anemone in this morning and the clown fish started acting funny. It didn't get too close to the anemone, but it swam erratically a safe distance above it. Then when the day lights when out and only the nighttime LEDs were on did he finally approach the bubble tip anemone.

At first it looked like the clownfish was nibbling at the anemone's tentacles. Then it started brushing up along side of it. After about a half hour it looked like it was trying to bury itself in the anemone. The anemone was also reacting to the "dance". It was contracting as if it was trying to enclose the clownfish.

Here's a rare shot of my clownfish. He hardly ever stays in one place long enough to get a clear shot of him. This one's not perfect, but it pretty good.

My fish have been in and surviving pretty well for a couple weeks. It looks like I was able to get rid of the ick that was killing my earlier fish. I have been playing around with some settings on my camera to get better pictures. Here are several.

Got a blue damsel fish as my third fish. He seems to be doing just fine.

Was able to exchange for a smaller angel. This one got along very well with my clownfish.

Got a larger pygmy angel fish. He didn't get along with my clown fish and had to be removed. I was able to exchange at That Fish Place.

After double-dosing the tank with ick meds I think the disease seems to be under control. I thought I'd try a maroon clown.

I added my first fish to my new saltwater aquarium about 4 weeks ago. It was a Domino Damsel. She (I'm not sure if it's male or female, but my daughter named her Dotty) made it thru the first month with only one minor issue. After the first week some tiny white spots started showing up on it and she started scratching herself on the rocks. Having had a few freshwater aquariums I kinda knew what it was so I bought some medicine from the fish store and treated her. She seems to be doing better now.

I had also bought a couple Tricolor hermit crabs for the tank when I bought the damsel. They made short work of the algae starting to grow in the rocks. They are very cool and always seem to be busy doing something.

I figured after a couple weeks I'd get Dotty a friend. The Domino Damsels are a territorial fish and can be aggressive, so I had to find something that would hold its own. My overall plan is to have just 3 (maybe 4) fish in the tank with the final one being a Maroon Clownfish. Then add a sea anemone for the clownfish and fill the rest of the tank up with corals. 

The tank is 30 gallons and has about 45 pounds of live rock. The rocks take up most of the tank, but it creates a great little cave system for the fish to swim through and hide. Given my tank and my plans for its future the guy at the fish store recommended a Diadem Dottyback. That's a picture of it in my tank above. Its been in the tank for a little over a week now and seems to be doing fine. The Domino stays at the top of the tank while the Dottyback stays to the bottom. It does gets chased a little by the Domino, and I'm not sure how that will work out. We'll see.

When I bought the Dottyback, I also bought two more hermit crabs. This time I bought one Tricolor hermit and one Blue Leg hermit. As of today, there are only two alive in the tank. I found only a couple empty shells and some legs from the other two. I think the Dottyback may have gotten them. Not sure if it just ate them after they died or actually killed them.  

One cool thing happened with the one hermit crab. My wife likes to collect neat shells when we go to the beach. I took a few of them and put them in the bottom of the tank to see if any of the hermit crabs would switch to a new shell. This morning I saw one of the crabs actually upgraded to one of the new, white shells. The picture on the left shows him crawling up the rock with his old shell still at the bottom. The picture above shows a close-up of his new home.

It's been six weeks since I cleaned out my little, 30-gallon freshwater tank to convert it to a salt water, reef tank. I have the aquarium loaded with live rocks and they have just been sitting there. My daughter asked me the other day if we were ever going to get fish for it. Last night we visited the popular That Fish Place in Centerville and picked up my first fish (and a couple hermit crabs). I plan to get a few more fish and some coral. I've always wanted to try out a salt water fish tank. I'll have post some more pictures as I start to fill it up.