Patrick Patoray's Blog...

The %$*@# Purple Pseudochromis is Eating My Peppermint Shrimp!

Posted Jan 12, 2009
to: Aquarium

I came downstairs today to find the purple pesudochromis eating a peppermint shrimp. I hope that this isn't a sign of things to come, but I have a bad feeling. He's going to be a goner as soon as I can figure out a way to catch him!

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Honestly Honey, I Need To Go To the Fish Store!

Posted Jan 10, 2009
to: Aquarium

I made another trip down to Soutas today. My main reason for this trip was to get some Emerald Crabs and some Peppermint Shrimp. I've started to notice some bubble algae sprouting up in different areas, and just a few of the dreaded aptasia anemones on one rock. The Emerald Crabs will eat the bubble algae, and the Peppermint Shrimp will take care of the aptasia. I started with three of each, and we'll see how they do and adjust from there.

While I was there, I decided to pick up a few little frags. Ricky broke off two great pieces for me. One is Stylophora Pistillata, and has a nice bright pink color, and the other is Seriatopora Hystrix, also called Birdsnest Coral. It's mostly pink, with a bit of a rainbow coloring. It's really declicate and breaks very easily, it took Ricky a few attempts to get a nice frag broken off in one piece, but he did a great job. The photo doesn't really quite do it justice. When I showed Rachael she said that it is one of her favorite corals.

I also picked up a little rock with Yellow Colonial Polyps, and a tiny little rock with two red mushrooms. The colonial polyps will go nicely under an overhang at the bottom of the tank for now. One of the mushrooms came lose, so I've got it netted down for a few days until it reattaches itself.

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New Year, New Fish!

Posted Jan 01, 2009
to: Aquarium

Rachael and I were over by Wilsonville on New Years Day, so we decided to stop in at Upscales. We ended up finding a clownfish to replace the one that had jumped out. We also got two other fish, a flame hawk and a purple pesudochromis. Oh yeah, and an orange starfish which has been cruising all over the tank.

I haven't been able to get any good photos of the two clownfish playing together yet, but they seem to be getting along so far, we'll see how they do after a few days...

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Some More New Corals

Posted Dec 29, 2008
to: Aquarium

I made another trip down to Soutas Saltwater this weekend. I picked up a frag of Montipora Capricornis that is green with a purple edge, a frag of Hydnophora, some neon green star polyp, a little rock with two different types of green polyps, and a few little pieces of live rock to use to glue down some frags.

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Our First Casualty

Posted Dec 15, 2008
to: Aquarium

We had our first casualty today. Our glass cover has two little holes in the front corners. One of our little clownfish jumped out through one of the holes. I found him lying on the floor all dried up and covered with lint and fuzz. :-(

When Rachael saw the one lonely fish left in the aquarium, she said that we need to get him a friend, so I guess we'll be making a trip down to the fish store sometime soon...

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Another trip to the fish shop!

Posted Dec 12, 2008
to: Aquarium

I stopped in at the fish store for a few dry goods. I ended up leaving with a bunch of new livestock as well. I got a Crocea Clam (Tridacna Crocea), one frag of Acropora Pulchra, one frag of Acropora Tizardi, and a fire shrimp (which has been hiding under the rocks since he was added to the tank, so there is no photo of him).

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Adding the First Corals

Posted Dec 08, 2008
to: Aquarium

I added my first few pieces of coral this weekend. I got a little frag of Green Tip Birdsnest (Seriatopora Guttatus), two little starter pieces of pulsating Xenia, one from Jakarta, a tiny little starter piece of Neon Green Sinularia (Sinularia Flexibilis), and a little polyp rock with bright green moon polyps.

Almost everything from the first batch survived the first week. I lost two of the snails that I had originally added, and I added 4 more this weekend.

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Welcome back to an old hobby!

Posted Dec 01, 2008
to: Aquarium

Considering that it's been over two years since I've posted to my blog, you might think that that is what the title of this post is about. Actually it's about an even older hobby. It's been almost 10 years since I sold my last saltwater aquarium and hung up the towel. As of this weekend, I have finally started a new reef tank! Here's a photo taken just after I added my first rocks and fish from my local pet store.

My current setup contains the following:

• 36 gallon tank, a 20 inch cube, with a built in wet/dry filter and protein skimmer in the back.
• 1 hanging pendant halide bulb, 150 watt, 20k
• a Reverse Osmosis filter for filtering our tap water
• about 10 snails of various types
• about 5 teeny tiny little starfish

The current occupants are:

• 24 Pounds of live rock
• 2 Clownfish (hopefully a male and a female). Rachael has decided that their names are going to be Ricky and Lucy!
• 6 little hermit crabs of various types (neon blue legged, red legged)
• about 10 snails of various types
• about 5 little starfish

It's very exciting to be starting an old hobby again. I'll keep you updated as to my progress...

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