Continued from page 1

Part III

OOP was at his rearranging rocks again so I kind of helped him and stacked to rocks in such a way that he can now swim through and around them easily. That seems to suit him much better from what I observe. He has now become more active and is going in and out and around rock most of the time. He does like to hang in one area of the tank though from time to time and does so for 15/20 minutes at a time and then will start his wanderings again.

I also noticed that he avoids currents most of the time although once in a while he likes to go right in the flow of the water return. Most of the time though he appears to enjoy places with lesser current. Doing some research I found that this is not an unusual behavior.

Believe it or not but today I fed him roast beef leftovers! You should have seen OOP! If you ever want a fish that will eat your scraps, this one is it for sure. He just kept eating and eating until the size of his belly told me that I had actually probably fed him too much already.

He took to the hermit crab shells again and now has them stacked up in a pile. Yes a pile. He must have done so during the night as I noticed the pile this morning when I got near the tank around 04:00 this morning (yes I do get up early).

OOP's color has greatly improved from what I subjectively can see and I attribute it to the use of the Vitamin C I add to the tank. Of course shrimp may have helped too, not to speak of the Vital Gold used.

I decided to stick my finger in the tank to see what would happen. OOP tried to bite it but all he really managed to do was kind of hit it with his snout but he did not actually bite, although he could have. Since I heed him by hand he may have thought food was coming.

Is he getting more docile? I would certainly say so as when either myself or my wife comes close to the tank he will come close to the glass rather than scoot away and go hide.

OOP is not too keen on high amounts of light so I reduced it to 60 watts over the 30 gallon tank. He appears to like that better.

As I was adding water for evaporation compensation, I noticed that the pH had crept up and that after the water change and lowering the pH OOP become more active. Could be a coincidence though.

Since he got an early meal today, I am going to try and feed him again later this afternoon. Don't know what exactly yet but I have some left over turkey slices and may try that for a change.

OOP says HI to all of you 

Part IV

After rearranging the tank somewhat to better accommodate OOP's wishes and making more open spaces for him to swim through, OOP decided to leave the rocks alone. Seems like he is now satisfied.

He devoured a whole large shrimp in the afternoon and seemed to want more. OOP is a big boy and needs lots of food it seems! Right now he is about 4.5 inches (without the tail measured).

The tank has some empty hermit crab shells in it that I added from leftovers that were laying around. I cleaned them and then added them to the tank right on the bare bottom.

OOP thinks this is funny and "plays" with them, arranging them one way and then a few minutes later rearranging them all. Interesting to watch how he moves them as he has to grab them and that is not always easy with his small mouth.

If he cannot grab them, he will just push them around until he seems satisfied for a while anyway.

He may do this for half an hour at a time. Funny is the least I can say.

OOP likes to move into the higher currents and then go somewhere else where the current is lower, only to return to the current areas over and over again.

I checked him thoroughly and he is "clean" and, of course, the tank is dosed with vitamin C as I have found that this not only increases color, keeps parasites away but also increases appetite. Not that he needs it increased as he seems to want to eat and eat and get more. I dose at 5 ppm once a day.

OOP sure produces a lot of waste material as the skimmer is really foaming and doing a good job. That Top Fathom is a pretty good skimmer for a smaller tank and I have heard that it is actually rated for larger tanks so you may wish to consider the 110A even if your tank is larger than 30 gallons.

I add the usual supplements for fish-only tanks (in my case Vital Gold mostly).

Somehow a little strip of white plastic got into the tank and he thinks that it may be food so he keeps going after it, especially when it is being moved around by the current, holds it in his mouth and soon spits it out. Then somewhat later the will try the same, over and over again. I finally removed it but it was neat to watch him chase it and then taste it and decide it was not food and spit it out.

Right now there are no other fish in that tank so he is a bit lonely I guess. I will be adding some larger fish in a few days and see what happens. From what I know from previous experience this is not a problem.

In a few days I am going to add some Grunge and live sand. That should be an interesting experience as I have a feeling OOP will be rearranging that too in heaps. I have seen other B. conspicilum do this in different tanks so I kind of know what to expect.

OOP loves crabs. Small ones. If some come out of the live rock, they are history in no time actually. He first crushes them and lets them get away but eventually he just decides that he should have a meal and proceeds to break them bit by bit and eat them. Since I do not find the shells themselves he is obviously crushing those too.

OOP is kind of docile and can be stroked but I do have to watch out as he can turn around real quick and take a nip at my fingers. Eventually he should eat out of my hand. I have seen it done by others so I know it is only a matter of time. Be careful though if you have this fish as their nip can be pretty strong and you could have a fish hanging on the end of your fingers. And with those little teeth, he may be hard to get off.

He does swim through the holes in the rocks but seems to prefer the open space of the tank more. When I put my hand in the tank he does not panic but watches closely what is going on. Surprisingly enough he will not attack. Others I have seen do and make a real fast dash for the hand. Better be fast if yours is a little more aggressive.

Today's food is going to be scallop meat. I feed in the afternoon around 15:00 and feed him only once a day. I do feed a substantial amount though as this kind of fish does need a lot of food indeed.

More to follow. 

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