Developments in my coldwater marine aquarium.

 A lot has happened to my fish tank since the last post I did about it. Back in Summer, the few unusually hot weeks, unfortunately caused some significant losses. My beloved scorpions, lemon sole and the rockling perished... Because of this, I'm planning on getting a water chiller in Spring to prevent this from happening again. 

I also had to remove a blenny and a big ballan wrasse that were too boisterous towards the other inhabitants of the tank. Lastly, Papi the goby and the veteran of the tank, died a few weeks ago, probably from old age!

It's not been all doom and gloom though. Current Inhabitants are: 1 lobster, 1 goldsinny wrasse, 1 pollock, 1 velvet crab, 1 baby blenny and a gurnard! Along with plenty of prawns and winkles for forage and tank cleaning.

Plenty of cover and structure. 

Queen of the tank. 

It's a very harmonious environment, although only after I taped up the lobster's claws as he was picking fish off while they were sleeping. Lobster's got very territorial and also is a landscape artist(!). It was very surprising seeing it move rocks and plants around just to create the lair it prefers! 

The gurnard is the latest addition and seems very chilled out in the tank. I was also given a tiny boarfish that seemed to be suitable for the fish tank but unfortunately it's tiny size and preference for open swimming to hiding, made it an easy snack. I hope I find a larger one of them as it was so cool!

Only the left one survives now.

Tiny boarfish. Acclimatised but eaten...

Them claws are secure with tape now...

I'm hoping to incorporate a couple more little fish now that the lobster has been "pacified". Think the gurnard needs a shoalmate as the lobster ate his brothers and would also love another sea scorpion. 

I still keep the same regime of adding some water once a month along with some sand vacuum and filter cleaning. Still feeding chopped frozen prawns with some whitefish and pellets for some variety. The pellets are lumpsucker feed and most fish along with the lobster love them.

All in all I still love messing around with the fish tank and see it evolve. With the horrible weather we've been having, it helps me feel better for not being able to go fish.

RIP Papi...

Fish tank upgrade!

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a new tank for a while now and last week, my wife found a used 240lt Jewel for a really good price. We just went for it and the next morning we spent the best part of the day, getting the old one cleaned out and filling the new one. The fish were obviously not impressed staying in buckets for a while but it would all be worth it in the end...
We took our time thinking out the layout ahead and had collected some suitable rocks as well as some black sand. We were going to use some of the old gravel for half the bottom of the tank and the black sand for the other half.
While taking the stones and gravel out of the old tank, we were amazed at the amount of 'life' we found. We had a few anemones in the old tank but hadn't seen them for months, I thought they didn't survive but we found them (much larger now) under one of the big rocks!
Moreover, the gravel was absolutely teeming with minute creepy-crawlies and I tried to get as much of it as possible in the new tank...

Out with the old...

Here comes the new!

Definitely more space now!

Thought they were gone!

He needs the space.

 Goes to show what a stable ecosystem the tank had become.
We arranged the rocks overlapping each other, roughly in a pyramid shape, with plenty of nooks and crannies for the fish to hide, yet facing outwards so that you could still see part of the fish.
Also, I introduced a floating Ivy-looking plastic plant that offers great cover for the prawns and even the crab moved there now.

The new tank is practically double the size of the old one with fish having much more space now, even though it's still taken them a few days to sort out who goes where and settle down.
The wrasse and blenny seem the most settled, followed by the scorpions, lemon sole and goby. The rockling has gone back to being a bit shy and mostly comes at night to feed again.
I'm really enjoying the bigger tank but I have to say that I cant wait to add a new fish or two..! Something like a mid-level swimmer... Might even try and get a couple tiny coalfish again. They didn't establish in the old tank but I think they might in this one.

Boss.

 Hopefully, this tank will be just as successful as the old one and my fish definitely seem to like it more. Those prawns especially, as now they have somewhere to hide from the predators that lurk beneath...!