I just wanted to share what was probably the most amazing day of my reefkeeping life. This all happened on tuesday, and began with a trip to the lFS to pick up a pair of Dwarf Seahorses and inquire about "Sea Hare's". He told me that he can't get any seahares, and added me to the waiting list of THIRTY people. I got my pair of seahorses (the male so fat that the girl joked that he could have the babies on the way home) and was looking in the main display tank. I noticed two small green slug looking things and asked about them (as often I can get babies and "Accidental" frags for cheap). To his (and my) surprise, they were sea hares! The last batch he had must have bred in the tank, and they actualy survived! So I left with my seahorses and a $10 sea hare baby. Now, the amazing part started. I was floating everything and was kind of busy, so I was not with the tanks, but when I went back down after about 20 minutes, I had about 20 seahorses! The male (very quickly) gave birth in the bag! WOW! I don't know if you have ever seen baby dwarf's before, but they are tiny and neat! So, I panicked and dumped them in their tank (water and all, which I NEVER do, but 15 writhing seahorses in a bag corner was a little distressing, looked like they were getting crushed) Everyone lived and still lives, the male seems fine and I am thrilled. Now, for the sea hare... I waited untill lights out so the sinking green critter would not be eaten by a confused tang. I dropped him on a peice of hair algae and watched with my red light. He crawled around a bit, and then BAM!, an *&^#$@ aptaisia grabbed him, he tried to fight out but it was apparent that it was a losing battle, I quickly grabbed a turky baster and blast the Aptaisia, causing it to drop him. The hare then started crawling again, this time giving the aptaisia a wide berth (good). After a couple more minutes, I lost it behind a rock, then...uh oh! here comes my Banded Coral Shrimp... I kind of forgot about him in my worries over the Tang and Aptaisia's. The BCS walked over to where the "wascawy wabbit" was, and pop, I saw a green squishy looking thing vanish into the maw of death. I was sooooo ticked off. That was a bummer, but then after a little while looking at my dark tanks with my trusty red light (which is a very addictive thing to do), I noticed my red porclain crab (whom I've only seen once since adding him to the tank). I decided to watch him for a little bit. I then noticed that his shell seemed to be folding open, HE"S GONNA MOLT! I was determined to witness this little miracle of nature and prepared to sit there all night if need be. His shell opened a little bit more and he sat still for about a minute... I then noticed what looked like red jello coming out of the back of the shell. Within 1 minute, a translucent gelatinous-looking red jello crab popped out of the shell, and promptly crawled under a rock! Has anyone ever witnessed this? It was amazing! The look of the jello crab reminded me of a jellyfish or something, really wierd, and way faster than I thought! Anyways, that was my amazing fish day... and it actually got even better when yeterday I saw something yellowish/green crawling on my hair algae... THE SEA HARE! I quess I was mistaken about the coral shrimp.... but I'm still going to call the shrimp Fudd, though (you know, after the wabbit chasing Elmer).
Sorry if this was long winded and dull, but I had to tall someone who might share my fascination! Happy Reefing!
Sorry if this was long winded and dull, but I had to tall someone who might share my fascination! Happy Reefing!
