Aquarium update.

Not many major events or catastrophes (!) happened in the past couple of months. I have been changing 30-40lt of seawater every 2-3 weeks and other than a monthly partial filter cleanup, sand vacuum and protein skimmer wash, nothing else was needed and everything's been doing fine...
I have been feeding only frozen food (very slow sinking) in this time and have noticed that this way the bottom gravel has been kept much cleaner even though quite a few of my cleaners have perished due to predation.
Almost all species seem to have grown, except the flounder which seems to be the same size as when it went in.  I have never seen the flounder eat the chopped food while I'm feeding, plus it is nocturnal and I think it mainly feeds by praying on the hermit crabs and shrimp. Lately, as their numbers have been reduced, it has become more active though still not actively feeding when I'm dropping food.
Thus we've been on a 'foraging' trip and have added some more cleaners in the tank. Unfortunately not many survived the sea-scorpions!

Two pals...

Butterfish faces are so expressive.

Survivor prawn.

Mini halibut!

Big Daddy...

Another great survivor from day 1...

Almost doubled in size.

Lately, the fish are generally getting more active (feeling its Spring?). They feed and move about more in the tank. Moreover, one of the rock gobies and a butterfish have had engorged bellies and I think they might have shed eggs, but its highly unlikely that anything will survive in my crowded tank!

I think its time for the pollock to go soon as he's just too big! I might release a couple more fish just to make space for some different species... Cant wait for warmer weather and the mini species it brings!

The Spring feel.

We 've been having fairly warm weather recently, brought by strong Southerlies and even the water temperature rose to 8C+... Due to various issues, I haven't been out fishing that much but hoping to change that pretty soon! Plus, trout season is just around the corner too!
My brother visited us last week and we had a quick outing on the boat. He doesn't like fishing but enjoyed his duty as a 'manual trolling motor/ Spotlock' as the current was running and didn't want to faff with the anchor.
We were just off a rocky point I've been wanting to try for a while, and the sounder screen was filled with markings. Got the lures down and started getting bites from the off. There were loads of fish but very picky and this makes me wonder if they've started spawning already.
I caught some fish on the usual MH setup but after changing to the LRF setup, things got really fired up! We're definitely in the finnesse time of year now...

Looking lively down there.

A wee vid of the session.

 

As you can see, the waves started getting bigger and we had to turn back...
I've also done a catch and cook video of pollock, cooked in my favourite way for this fish, blackened (Cajun style).

Hopefully the warm weather continues and can't wait to hit some freshwater for wee brownies!

Tight Lines!