melev

How do you keep your passion for reefkeeping? For me, it's seeing something new. Usually the best way to see something new is to visit a local fish store (LFS if you're new and don't know this acronym). As you wander around from fish tank to fish tank, you'll see all sorts of interesting fish, corals and invertebrates. Not everything you see is a candidate for your aquarium, possibly because of size limitations or maybe because of temperament. So you stare at the subject, looking on in awe of this creature that you can't buy but still kinda want to get. It's exciting, right?

What about when you travel? You can visit other public and private aquariums, including hobbyist friends you've met over the internet and traded messages with for months and years. To see their tank in person is exciting, especially if you know quite a bit about it in the first place. Someone recently stopped by to pick up their order from Melev's Reef and once he realized what house he was in, he breezed past my 400g to get to the Anemone Cube that he has come to love. It was far more interesting to him, and I was happy to give him the full tour and show him how everything works.

But what about me? What do I like? I like to see change. My passion is always for tiny things. When I spot some dot of life and can watch it grow larger over time, that's great. When I encounter pictures of my tank from years ago, I marvel at how it has changed from then until now. But day to day I see the same thing, and my focus is to make sure all the equipment is functional and that all the corals are healthy. Last week I added a large cleanup crew to my tanks, and seeing all those clean white snail shells around the perimeter of every tank is a change of pace, and I like it. I added six Lyretail anthias last week as well, and they are nice and small.

To be honest, I don't know if they Anthias will make it. I had Lyretails before and one by one they vanished. Perhaps the Sebae anemone is eating them, I really don't know. I placed these fish up high in the tank near the Purple Grape Montipora and the Staghorn acropora, hoping they'd live there and stay safe. However, this is where they hang out.

Right over that anemone. During tonight's feeding, I watched closely to see if they were diving downward to eat, or staying up in the safe open waters. So far, so good. Each morning, I see tons of snails. They are cleaning the glass walls and looking for stuff to consume. I'm going to get an article written about clean-up crews soon over on Melev's Reef.

Seeing all those new additions in my aquariums helps keep me from becoming bored or jaded. New frags bursting with color helps as well. What do you like?