New fish in the tank: Most of the others returned to the wild

in #animals4 years ago

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Left: 75 Gallon Wild Caught Ocean Tank
Right: 25 Gallon Fresh Water Store Bought Fish

The big tank has the rocks moved over to the right so there are room for the fish to swim, or to hide in the rocks if they wish. They horseshoe crab in my other post also needed the extra open space to bury and to swim.

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I think it is some sort of Tang in focus, it has a broken point on the other side similar to other tangs, I think it will be just fine and it seems to love the free roam of the tank as it doesn't have anything big enough to bother it. I also feed it shrimp and fish food flakes that it darts around the tank eating which tells me it likes them. It's eye has a yellow ring with a black center and it changes colors depending on stress levels. The darker it gets the more stress it has so this color shown is minimal stress levels. Although I have seen it a vibrate blue which makes me think it was happy, I see it more of this color around feeding time. I will try and capture a picture tomorrow when I feed the tank.

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Another shot of the tang, you can see the black spec on its tail with a tiny little white piece hanging out, it looks a lot better in this picture than when I first brought it home (6 days ago).

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Sargent Major: Aggresive, quick, with beautiful black and yellow strips. They are usually bullies in the wild but in the tank without a group to mingle with he seems friendly with the other fish and I have yet to see him pick on anyone else in the tank. I don't see them this big very often and hardly ever this big caught in a net as they are extremely fast. I took the opportunity to put it in the tank and observe it. I will say, I am not disappointed as it is one of my favorites to watch.

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Bad eye of the puffer fish. He is about the size of a US half dollar coin. When puffed up he was about the size of a small child's fist.

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Good Eye of the Puffer, and the fish in the Middle are French Grunts. They are used as bait most of the time they are caught but these will make it back to the ocean unharmed but this time they will be in a place that they won't be caught again and used as bait.


Full Frontal view of the tank. I am sitting in a chair that I keep here to watch the fish while I read, or check e-mails and other things on my phone. Kinda my little quiet space where I get to enjoy creatures from the wild and observe their behavior, their stress levels, the well being, and make sure they are eating and not picking on each other.


Side view of the tank: The fish seem to become really playful when ever I am standing next to the tank. They probably have already figured out that I am the reason food suddenly appears.

Rock Crab: I usually don't put these guys in the tank as they are pretty aggressive and will eat anything they can get their claws on... but... this one is about the size of a US half dollar and was a hitchhiker on some rocks I picked up so I didn't know he was in the tank until it was to late.

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My 2 year old loves this little guy and will point at him when ever he sees him. The crab will also follow his finger along the side of the tank and I have never seen this behavior in a crab before. Maybe he just wants to taste the finger. Ha!

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Plant growth on some of the rocks, I took the rock from a pretty gunky and funky marina area where there wasn't much life at all. I figured letting it grow in the tank and be nibbled on by fish would be better than letting it die to pollution from all the boats. It has grown about double in size since I put it in the tank about a month ago.

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This big ole guy is about the size of your hand, most days he hides in the sand like this. Although you can still see his antennas and eyes sticking out just a little bit. He has a gimpy claw but other than that seems to manage pretty well. He spent the first day in the tank trying to get out. I was worried about his stress levels until I saw him bury himself under the sand. He did it in less than a second and I was very impressed. Since then, I have only seen him out from beneath the sand 2 or 3 times.

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Hermit Crab, just chillin. He helps keep the bottom of the tank, the sand, and the rocks clean.