Tank Updates
Amazing how so much has happened since Edna Mata and company walked into our house to setup the sea water aquarium. This is how it looks like now. A huge difference, you will agree, to the unfinished setup in front of which you can see Sam having coffee in the previous post below.
What contributed to the dramatic change? Additional lighting, for one. In the earlier pictures we had just the blue flourescent light, which accounts for (along with the blue backdrop) the predominantly blue look of the tank. Tonight Edna and Ondo came with the additional pink fluorescent light, which now enhanced the colors of the fish and rocks. For example, the tomato clown yesterday looked more orange, but tonight under the combined blue and pink lights the tomato clown looked as red as—well—a tomato. The green sagittaria provide refreshing color breaks against the rather dull (but very healthy) live rock.
They told us not to be dismayed by the high mortality rate. It is to be expected with a new tank, and as long as we are not letting any detergents, cigarette ash, and insecticide anywhere near the aquarium we can assure ourselves we are innocent of their deaths. We started at around 30 or more fish of different kinds. Now we’re down to twenty. As of this post they all look healthy and active, as opposed to the ones who have expired (including two moorish idols, sayang) over the past two nights.
I think a huge part of that is because we’ve exiled the bamboo shark to the subtank. He doesn’t like it there, but then we didn’t want him to keep wreaking havoc in the main tank. If there is anyone out there who keeps a saltwater tank and would like a 16-inch banded bamboo shark, you are welcome to this one gratis, just leave a comment on this post.
For more samples of Edna’s work, go see the aquarium at the back part of Market!Market! and at the second-level lobby of the Pan-Pacific Hotel in Manila.
And for a closer look at the tank, click on the tank picture at the beginning of this post to see a 1024*405 pixel image of what Sam calls the Himaya Reef.
The Sea in Our Home
It started with a foray into Cartimar searching for the ideal Christmas project, which Sam wrote about in his blog. What started as a dream just last weekend is now a reality. We now have a miniature coral reef and its inhabitants right in our living room.
Coffee on the reef
An investigative walk twice around the aquarium fish section of Cartimar led us to Edna’s Pet Shop on the far edge, where the displays aren’t as flashy as the ones in the middle lanes, and where the owners themselves man the stores (as opposed to the middle lane shops with watchers who don’t know the difference between a 10-gallon tank and a 20 gallon tank). This is where we met Lonie, who gave us our first lesson in putting up a sea water aquarium.
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