October...the strangest month!

In early October A and I rode our bicycles to Richmond Park on the loveliest day of the whole year! We lay on the grass in the sun near the herd of deer and listened to them rut their stuff (it's mating season :). Then I got a cold (and so did A) and then it was my birthday :) And then we had snow!!! All in one month!

There was hail the night before and we woke up to this:



When I rode to work it was one of the lovliest (but cold :) rides to work I have had all year...there have been some good ones, so it wasn't THE loveliest, of course :) The sky was that lovely blue, the sun was peaking through the trees and there was snow on the ground. Ah! I LOVE it when it's like that.



A is freezing her butt off, of course - her body is wishing it was in lovely, warm India :)

Tank update...meet Mint Sauce (or Minty, as we are calling him :).


He(she?) is a Peppermint shrimp and he is in the tank to eat the aiptasia (weeds!). He already ate the biggest and nastiest one, so he is doing his job! He is new, so he is shy, but I am sure that he will come out and eat the ones that are not hidden in his hidey holes (and my rock has some great hidey holes for the guys that need it :). I will get a better photo of him when he decides it's safe to have a look around.

Penelope and Otello are doing well - Penelope was nipping my hand when I was cleaning the glass the other day. They are like a couple of puppies - they wiggle their little butts like they are wagging their tails and they are always starving! :)

Later!

And a big welcome to Otello and Penelope!!!!

These are the new residents in my reef tank - a pair of ocellaris clownfish, one black and one orange. Aren't they cute? :):):) They are nearly as silly as I am.



Everyone else it doing well, too!

-K

New additions!

It is slowly developing and that is good for developing my patience :)

Jesús disappeared for awhile and I only ever saw one nassarius snail at a time, so I thought I had lost one...I was not hopeful. It's all good though, I am seeing everyone and I discovered this morning that Jesús has molted his exoskeleton...he might be looking for a new shell soon :)

I have also got a couple more coral frags, you can see Xenia here and there is the new Star Polyp behind her:


This is the Star Polyp, I think it looks a bit like heather:


I also got some leather coral:


And this is the new mushroom - I like the stripey ones, but I think the other ones are a bit boring. This frag also came with some feather dusters (I think) and 2 Aiptasia, one of which is inhibiting the mushroom (you can see it in the photo).


The diatoms have receded and the Trochus snail is now eating again (he just sat there for days!). It looks great! I am mixing up my own seawater now and testing nearly every day. The new tank certainly keeps me out of trouble! But don't worry, I'm not neglecting my fish - they are very happy and I wish Anabel could do something about keeping the flat clean - she does a stellar job on the fish tank. It's never been that clean and I think Mr. Yamato has to work more to find something to eat :)

More later!!!!

-K

More reef!

This is a video of my Xenia coral Xena :) She is a grabby girl...but it means she is happy and that makes me happy :)

New tank reidents!

Over the weekend I got some new tenants for the reef. Some drama...the tank heater was too powerful for the tank and it was yo-yoing the temp from 24 overnight to 29 in the midday. Poor guys, it almost killed the new coral.

This is Xena the xenia coral:


This is José the scarlet legged hermit crab (I have 2, the other one is Jesús and he has pink algae on his shell - he was hiding when I took the photos)


This is what I think is a Trochus snail. This guy is great (I really like snails) - he can bridge across the rocks and he is all over the place. At night he gets on the back wall of the tank where he is safe, but in the light he is slurping stuff off the rock.


This is a bristle worm. He came free with the live rock (and there is a second one and something this looks like sea slug)


This is another hitchhiker...I don't know if it came with the live rock or on the small fragment that the coral is on (I found it on the coral rock). It's a cool little starfish. There are 2 of these, this is the big one, the other one is tiny, about 4 mmm across!

Welsh Walking!

These are pics that my friend Mark took (he takes the best photos :)

We had a great time, even though there was never a dry minute! The beer was superb and the food was fabulous and filling (the puddings to die for :)

The walk was fabulous, even if we didn't get to the top of the mountain (we couldn't *see* the top of the mountain!)









We saw lots of sheep...


and it was wet wet wet!

Lots of new developments....

We lost Leroy - he threw himself out of the tank :( I think they only want 10 fish in there and all otehrs are killed or expelled.... :)

I have a new tank resident, her name is Anabel, she is an Apple snail. She is AWESOME. She is like something out of Star Wars with all her feelers :) I wanted her to clean my windows, bt she has not gotten around to it...but she certainly gets around!



I also took the plunge and got a reef tank...it is cycling at the moment (no, not that kind!!!! :). I have big plans for it...lots of snails, crabs, shrimp and soft coral and a few fish. I know I have one critter in there as I saw it this morning, it must have come with the live rock. I am very excited about it...and it's helping me practice patience as it really can't be rushed.



Catch you all later!!!!

-K