Being a blog moderator, you strike up some rather interesting conversations with the people who contribute to your blog. One such nano reef keeper, Josh Day of Josh Day's The Aquatic Hobbyist wrote me an interesting e-mail about what's been going on with his tank and some ideas he had...and I had to post it.
Maybe it will help someone else.
Here's Josh:
My tanks are... eh. Freshwater all is doing okay, including my 180. I think I've finally solved the ammonia problem. New problem cropped up, however: Oscar aggression. I'm waiting on my LFS to get in some good sized silver dollars to use as dithers to hopefully break up the big guy's domination on the other fish.
Unfortunately, I lost my oldest fish, a bala shark. Was in perfect health the night I turned out the light, but in the morning I found him stuck against the filter intake, badly mutilated. I think a fish started him into a sharp object that weakened him and he was unable to swim properly.
Both my saltwater tanks are in not so good shape. I have a slime algae outbreak in the reef tank and the spotted mandarin I bought to replace the seahorse seems to eat capelin roe (the little orange eggs on sushi rolls) but is wasting away.
Anyway, I'd like to write another entry for your blog, if you'd like that.
Some ideas...
I use special silk plants bought from craft stores in place of aquatic plastic plants. You get about three yards of plant and can cut the plastic. It's a pretty neat setup and very few people know about this option. It's also so much cheaper and in my opinion much more natural looking! I could write about this and provide a pictorial, describing the right silk plant without structure wires and how to secure them in your tank.
I have a black ghost knife which is my oldest fish now. These are amazing fish. I could write something up about their proper care, tankmates, etc.
Could also give you a fun little history of nano tanks and a discussion on why the "bigger is better" with salt is a total fallacy.
Also I could write about complacency and the feeling of bleh I think all extreme hobbyists (those of us with 5 or more tanks, including several big tanks) get at some point. For me it's seemed to have kicked in at the 4-5 year mark. Have you ever seen the Nicholas Cage movie adaptation? Chris Cooper's character has a line where he talks about all the tanks and fish he used to have and one morning he wakes up and says, "fuck fish." I'm not there yet -- just have too much invested -- but I can now understand that when before it made zero sense to me.
The movie is "Adaptation." It's written by Charlie Kaufman, who did Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Cage plays Kaufman, who's trying to make a movie adaptation of a pretentious book impossible to adapt to film. It's really funny and clever. Here's the trailer:
Ha, watching that makes me want to see it again!
Josh is a freshwater, sometimes brackish, and marine aquarium hobbyist who's written a book about nano aquariums for saltwater beginners." His siste is: Joshday.com
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