Back in August/October I won a R2R Supporting Member raffle and scored a $100 LiveAquaria gift certificate. I used it this past Sunday night and the new tank occupants arrived today!
We ended up getting:
- Convict Tang (Sri Lanka) - Medium
- Longnose Hawkfish (Sri Lanka/Sumatra) - Medium
- Foxface Lo (Indonesia) - Small/Medium
I've wanted to get another Tang for some time now, but wasn't sure what would work with our Yellow Tang (who thinks it is the boss of the tank, but the Pygmy Angel gives him a good fight). I was worried about the Convict Tang because I'd read they were more timid.
I looked around for an acclimation box to order and wasn't impressed. After seeing the Octo Aquatics "The SHU" on here and their website I think I'm spoiled.
Not being able to find a cheap/temporary/quick alternative I bought a Critter Cage from Petco for $7 and drilled a bunch of holes in it. I had an extra set of suction cups from heaters in my "box of junk" so I drilled a couple of bigger holes and glued them in. On the opposite side I put in some zip-ties in case I needed upper support (turns out I didn't).
The home-made, cheapo, acclimation box worked well. If I were to do one thing over I wouldn't have run it under water so quickly. The super-glue wasn't cured enough and ended up splashing across making it look messy.
After acclimating the new arrivals I turned off the lights and transferred the Convict into its cell, errr... acclimation box. The Foxface and Hawkfish went right into the display.
The Hawkfish perched on a rock near where it went in. The Foxface popped into a cave but was quickly, and literally, pushed out by the Pygmy Angel. The Foxface raised its spines a little but I don't think it really did much in response.
I left the Convict in the "box" for 5-6 hours. I was hoping this would let the other Tangs check it out and maybe be a little more relaxed. I can't say I even saw them go near the box.
After this "waiting" time I took the lid off the box and just let the Convict figure out it was free. After 3-4 minutes it swam up and out, and immediately into the Yellow Tang's cave. OH NOOOOO!!!!!!!
My son and I sat there waiting to see the Yellow beat the crap out of the Convict. Nope. A little bit of "chest puffing" but that was it. We were extremely surprised.
The Convict has been swimming around, it's very active, and checking out its new boundaries. The Hawkfish and Foxface were both out and about as well; right now the two of them have hunkered down seemingly for the night.
Oh yeah... when I first un-bagged the Foxface it was a really strange mottled/splotchy coloration. It was pretty ugly. After being in the tank for a bit it went back to its "normal" coloration. I knew they could change/darken at night, but I wasn't expecting it to be so dramatic.