A bit of story i have..... yesterday morning i went down to the aquarium to do my usual check on all the fish, only to find that i couldnt see my "gem" tang :eek1: being a large aquarium i didnt panic as it is hard to see some fish but he wasnt begging for food as usual in front of his section - this section is on the right side with many lps corals, clams and xenia in it and 4 other fish a yellow tang,convict tang, lawnmower blenny and mandarin.
I noticed that the trap door which separates the compartment from the rest of the aquarium was ever so slightly moved about 1 cm more than it should have been, i suspect the large collector urchin was the culprit for doing this ,they are actually pretty strong creatures when they wanna pull on rocks etc to see what they can decorate themselves with, and he is big about the size of a tennis ball.:bounce1:
I scanned the main section of the aquarium and my heart immediately sank there was the Gem exploring what i know is a "tough" neighborhood from his civilized uptown section.:uzi:
The gem is one of my smallest fish in the tank a real juvenile and here he was parading around in an area frequented by many Tangs who have never been socially acclimatised to him , and they all have mean teeth and double switch blades.:worried2:
At first he was confident holding his own against the Kole tang, then the yellows and the very large purple tang, the black tang also was showing tail wagging blades at his face.
For the next couple of hours he was dodging and diving through the rock structure being chased mainly by the yellow tangs and the purple tang.:worried:
His bravado now turned to fear and as i approached the glass he swam towards me at lightning speed almost as if he was asking me to rescue him, with the yellow tangs in hot pursuit, he attempted to enter the left side compartment but couldn't and that isn't a bad thing as a nasty brown surgeon is the boss in there. By now the fins were torn and bitten. I knew i couldnt do anything to help him as i cant catch a fish in a reef aquarium with 5000 litres like mine without absolute mayhem and destruction.:eek2:
Suddenly he vanished and i couldn't find him anywhere and i feared the worst until i looked in the old compartment he had inhabited since being introduced , i fortunately had not corrected the space made by the urchin and he was able to find his way back into his "part " of town, with the "civilized" yellow tang and convict tang as his buddies:love1:
His fins have healed super fast and i think he actually learnt about the "bad " side of town now so he may not be so adventurous next time he spy's a gap.:beer:
