~Flighty~
Now with more baby
I know I should have waited, but I got a CBB last week. I'm stuck in the house for 4+ months with two and a half kids (pregnant + dizzy spells = can't drive -> crazy mommy) and decided it was a good time to babysit a delicate fish. There isn't a lot of good info about these guys out there, so I thought I'd post my progress.
I ordred two from Jeff's exotic fish, and told them to only ship them if they were looking good and eating something. The guy on the phone went to the tanks and picked two out for me. I know that only around 1 or 2 out of 10 of these guys make it (most starve) so I got two and figured if they both survived and didn't get along it would be easy to sell one.
So the package gets here next morning at 9:00. Fed ex drops it on the front porch with no knock or anything. I get the tracking number when Jeff's opens (pacific time) and find out the fish have been at my doorstep for a few hours
.
They are well packaged and still at a good temp, salinity in the bag exactly matched my qt tank, but Ph was way low (I guess that happens in shipping). So I do a 4 hour acclimation. When I finally get them out of the bags one looks bad, starved thin, some beak damage, red streeks under the scales, cloudy eyes, panting. Deffinately not just shipping stress. The smaller one is markedly fatter bright eyed and alert. Call Jeff's and the phone guy says that the two he picked out were exactly the same size and the packer must have caught the wrong one. So after the night I'm down to one fish and have a refund on the big one from Jeff's.
My canister filter couldn't handle the load of the two, now one fish and amonia looked like it was going to be a big problem, so I decided to put him in the big tank (I know, maybe not the brightest move). He loved the tank and perked right up. The most agressive fish in there is a tiny four line damsel who is hiding from the big new guy.
The CBB went to town on anything wormish, especially the spaghetti worms. I put an opened littleneck clam in each morning and each night, keeping them in the tank for a few hours. He didn't seem to touch them for the first few days , but quickly learned that the worms come out when I feed and would come to that side of the tank and wait for them.
One morning I looked in the tank and the giant Aiptaisa hitchhiker anemone that I was feeding every day was almost gone. Yes, I was feeding it, it was about 7 inches across now and my daughter loved to see it eat . The CBB (now named Freddie) Was positively fat.
Yesterday I noticed him flashing against the rocks and then sitting in front of a peppermint shrimp waiting patiently to be groomed. The pepermint just starred stupidly at him and continued picking his nose. So, out to the store with the family to get a cleaner shrimp. After his acclimation, he's not in the tank 20 seconds when Freddie rushes over and sticks his body in the cleaner's tenticles. The cleaner, still pretty disoriented, jumps right onto freddie and starts cleaning him. This freeked The CBB out a little, but I think they'll work it out.
Today he was waiting for me where I put the clams and got very excited when I came in. Sure enough, he started eating the clam before I could get my hand out of the tank. Yay.
Looking good so far with this guy. Absolutely one of the most beautiful fish out there.
I ordred two from Jeff's exotic fish, and told them to only ship them if they were looking good and eating something. The guy on the phone went to the tanks and picked two out for me. I know that only around 1 or 2 out of 10 of these guys make it (most starve) so I got two and figured if they both survived and didn't get along it would be easy to sell one.
So the package gets here next morning at 9:00. Fed ex drops it on the front porch with no knock or anything. I get the tracking number when Jeff's opens (pacific time) and find out the fish have been at my doorstep for a few hours
.They are well packaged and still at a good temp, salinity in the bag exactly matched my qt tank, but Ph was way low (I guess that happens in shipping). So I do a 4 hour acclimation. When I finally get them out of the bags one looks bad, starved thin, some beak damage, red streeks under the scales, cloudy eyes, panting. Deffinately not just shipping stress. The smaller one is markedly fatter bright eyed and alert. Call Jeff's and the phone guy says that the two he picked out were exactly the same size and the packer must have caught the wrong one. So after the night I'm down to one fish and have a refund on the big one from Jeff's.
My canister filter couldn't handle the load of the two, now one fish and amonia looked like it was going to be a big problem, so I decided to put him in the big tank (I know, maybe not the brightest move). He loved the tank and perked right up. The most agressive fish in there is a tiny four line damsel who is hiding from the big new guy.
The CBB went to town on anything wormish, especially the spaghetti worms. I put an opened littleneck clam in each morning and each night, keeping them in the tank for a few hours. He didn't seem to touch them for the first few days , but quickly learned that the worms come out when I feed and would come to that side of the tank and wait for them.
One morning I looked in the tank and the giant Aiptaisa hitchhiker anemone that I was feeding every day was almost gone. Yes, I was feeding it, it was about 7 inches across now and my daughter loved to see it eat
. The CBB (now named Freddie) Was positively fat. Yesterday I noticed him flashing against the rocks and then sitting in front of a peppermint shrimp waiting patiently to be groomed. The pepermint just starred stupidly at him and continued picking his nose. So, out to the store with the family to get a cleaner shrimp. After his acclimation, he's not in the tank 20 seconds when Freddie rushes over and sticks his body in the cleaner's tenticles. The cleaner, still pretty disoriented, jumps right onto freddie and starts cleaning him. This freeked The CBB out a little, but I think they'll work it out.
Today he was waiting for me where I put the clams and got very excited when I came in. Sure enough, he started eating the clam before I could get my hand out of the tank. Yay.
Looking good so far with this guy. Absolutely one of the most beautiful fish out there.
