Creatures

General

Check the fish for injuries when possible. It doesn't need to be a conscious check every day...just keep eyes peeled for the following:

Ick - tiny white dots that appear on fish body and then proceed to cover eyes and gills after a couple days until fish suffocates.
Torn or bitten fins
Bruising or discoloration on fish bodies
Abnormal fish behavior including swimming sideways or rubbing against rocks or tank walls

Fish

Clownfish

Female

Larger, more agressive
2.5 years old
Boss of the tank
Normal behaviors:
- Sleeping in the anemone, including laying down sideways
- "Protecting" the anemone
- "Cleaning" around the anemone

Male

Smaller, more timid
Normal behaviors:
- Sleeping in the anemone
- Submissive "dance" and shaking around the other clownfish

4 Chromis

Blue green chromis take on a different hue depending on environmental factors

Normal behaviors

"Taunting" the clownfish
Hiding from anything that scares them
Some minimal nipping and chasing because of "pecking order"
Changing to white/dark/patchy at night or when very stressed
Darting and swimming backwards

Coral

Blue mushrooms

Soft coral
Blue/purple coloring
Reproduces by moving around and leaving blobs behind
Very resilient
Any kind of lighting or flow, but they enjoy medium lighting and medium or low flow

Ricordea

Pink or brown bubbly mushroom
Is very similar to blue mushrooms but more rare
Medium light and flow

Cabbage Leather

Pink/purple coloring
Sometimes sheds top layer, during this time it will become hard, shiny, and purple
Fairly resilient
Low lighting, medium flow
Reproduces by growing larger and growing offshoots

Green Spaghetti Leather

Green, light pink coloring
Sucks arms in at night
Low light, medium flow
Reproduces by encrusting nearby surfaces at base

Toadstool Leather

Pink hand appearance
Little polyps open when happy
Low light, medium flow

Pink Finger Leather

Very similar to green spaghetti leather but much more pink and many more polyps

Cactus Coral

Hard, brown SPS coral
High light, any flow
Hasn't done exceptionally well in our tank... More of a gauge for water quality because it will be one of the first affected by poor water quality

Fuzzy Cactus Coral

Pink, hairy appearance
Similar to cactus coral but has done better

Dendrophyllia

Carnivorous coral with large yellow polyps
Needs shade and medium to high flow
Needs to be set back up when knocked over
Reproduces by splitting heads and growing new branches

Bird's Nest

Yellow, green SPS with hard branches
High light and medium to high flow
Needs consistency in placement and clean water quality
Will get stung if placed to close to other corals

Hammer Coral

LPS coral with hard stalks and soft, wavy polyps
Need to be re-glued if knocked off
Reproduces by splitting heads or growing new branches
Will stretch out and sting others!!

Button Polyps

Brown and green discs with tentacles
Aggressive grower
Will sting others

Other

Anemones

Love that the Clownfish host them
Sometimes expel all water and then fill back up
Move if they don't like their lighting or flow
Can split to reproduce
Will sting other coral

Invertebrates

Spike - Tuxedo Sea Urchin

Part of the cleanup crew
Will not tolerate quick fluxes in temperature or salinity
Doesn't need to be fed
Eats algae and coralline off of tank and rocks

Fighting Conch Snail

Part of the cleanup crew
Has a long trunk that sucks up algae
Will occasionally dig down in sand and hide... If he is missing for more than 2 days, I dig him up to make sure he's not dead :)

Hermit Crabs

Eat algae as part of the clean up crew
Sometimes fight each other for shells
Shed their "skin." It breaks down in the tank.
Every once in a great while, a hermit crab will bother and bother an anemone and has to be knocked off the rock.

Fan Worms

Part of the cleanup crew
Usually red but sometimes green or white.
Extremely good for the tank

Sponge

Grows on rocks
Our tank has yellow, purple, and clear sponge

Asterina Starfish

Part of the cleanup crew
If there starts to be too many, you can pick them out.

Pests

Aiptasia

An anemone brown or pink in color with long stringy tentacles
Need to be suffocated with superglue
Don't attempt to pull off. This will cause eggs to spew all over the tank.

Cyanobacteria

Red, purple, brown algae that grows when there is too much nutrients in the tank
Scoop out when seen if possible

Vermetid Snails

A purple mound with a tube sticking out that sends strings out into the tank.
I pick them off with tweezers when/if I can. The whole mound must be removed, not just the tube.

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