Unhappy Cucumber

Well, the cucumber has not been too happy for the past couple of days. Bought him on Thurs the 17th, so he's still new. He has been doing fine. But on Saturday, he looked like this pic below. That weird cornsilk-looking stuff is called his viscera, which is toxic stuff they use as a defense mechanism. He kept it hanging out there all day long.



Sunday, he clearly meant business because he ejected the viscera. I'm glad I was home to siphon it out. I touched a couple strands of it and it seemed to sting my thumb! It turned red and hurt. I poured vinegar on it (having heard to do this just that morning on Nat.Geo TV! when getting stung by a box jellyfish to prevent any more stingers from firing their venom.)

I wrote to the helpful staff of Wet Web Media and Bob promptly answered to confirm some questions I had. I feel better getting knowledge from someone who truly knows answers. I tried a couple of forums (my own just doesn't have much saltwater following, having stemmed from a betta community) and have met so far only with nothing, or criticism (nothing at *all* wrong with constructive criticism but minus the constructive part is flat out useless).

All of that to say.... that now I am officially ready (and properly motivated) to take the 20-gallon fresh water tank now and convert it into a saltwater. The Convict cichlid who was occupying it will just have to move back to a 10 because I'm not giving up a 20-long from another pet for him, nor would I have a place to put it when water-filled anyway. Plus the 20-tall tank has its own sturdy stand. If I want, I could even move it into my bedroom.

The tank is yay!

The light bulb in my tank went out a couple days ago so I was running on an old backup bulb. But we've been talking about the need for increased lighting in the tank already. So instead of just replacing the bulb, David helped out my tank by upgrading my lighting fixture! :D Now it holds 2 bulbs instead of one. So one's a white light 32 watt, and one's a blue light 40 watt. This really ought to help things out!



Not only will the surviving plants and corals now be able to thrive, now I will be able to add new ones to the tank without hesitation. Though they were getting by, they require the additional wattage in lighting to propel forward any. Also, now the polyps that were just hanging in there ought to begin to look healthy again. The mushrooms were doing pretty good but the plants were not, except for some small clumps that hung in there. Those ought to really take off now.

Also bought at the LFS yesterday while we were getting the bulbs - a beautiful Pentaca anceps pink and yellow sea cucumber,


and an Arrow Crab.

New Saltwater Friends

The saltwater tank has been nice and stable, the phosphates are in check now, and it was looking a tad empty, so yesterday it was time for - guess what..... a trip to the fishstore!

The existing residents:

Four 4- line Damselfish


Sea urchin


an emerald crab


couple of Mushroom corals that came in on some frags


It has grown!


Another one


several anemones


some Zoa polyps that aren't doing too good now; need to upgrade lighting. :(


Several of these. What the heck are these things!





It has a shell. And antennae.
Here are the new residents:

Sand sifting starfish


2 snails for the sand.
That's his antenna. He's buried under there. hehe


2 snails for the glass (turbo)


hermit crabs


bonus: emerald crab!

Bi-color Blenny


4 Chromis


Tank is looking much healthier and alive now!


Greatly in part to this new sump David put together for me, to help out with filteration

Goodbye, Demon Fish!

The evil yellow damselfish is finally gone from my saltwater tank. It took David's help to get him out, but we took him to a LFS who would at least take him off my hands.



Now maybe I'll stop losing stuff! He killed off several of the new damsels I was trying to keep. Once I'm sure the tank is happy again (by the phosphates staying down (which they are after we installed the awesome turbo filter box in the sump), as this will help keep the nitrates processing out by the macro algae), maybe I will get a maroon clown back in, and some other things. I miss my maroon clown that I used to have before I moved the tank a few years ago and upset everything and lost him.

While there I also picked up an urchin, an anemone, and a bit of rock with some zoa polyps.

Farewell, Ratchet-Coon!

Ratchet the Raccoon, rescued in July 2008 from a missing mother, then raised from a bottle-feeding baby to a young, healthy juvenile now, was released back into the wild yesterday. As you can see in the video, he instantly fell in love with the wonders of the outdoors. He will be safe and happy now out in the national forest.

Farewell, Ratchet! You will be missed by your keeper and all your friends.




Same lil' guy who gave me a HICKEY last August. Yes, a chin hickey. From a raccoon. Sheesh, talk about feeling redneck. LOL




My co-worker HAD to snag a pic of that. I can't blame her. I had to get a copy of that too.

More photos of Ratchet available in my pets' Myspace photo album.

Snake found. Again!

Well, I found the blasted lost snake. I really hope he doesn't find some new way to escape again. I may call him "stupid" but he's really quite clever. However, unfortunately, twice now he has landed his destination at the mouse tanks where I found him and recovered him.


The 2nd time he was recovered with the help of David's clever duct-tape traps! He was totally unharmed but totally immobile. I found him right after he hit the tape.


I tried it this time but me and the cats kept getting stuck LOL, and I was afraid the cat would tape herself up again and I wouldn't be home to free her, so I took it down and that's probably about when he escaped to the downstairs room. He remembered exactly where to go, obviously!

The first time he was lost I'm not sure if he got in the mouse tank while it was upstairs, then I moved it/him downstairs, or if he actually found his way to it by himself the first time.

Oh well. At any rate, I am NOT going to remove him from the sand to feed him again, after he broke out of the feeder box. He'll just have to risk the ingestion!

Stupid Snake is lost again

Arrrrrrrgggghhhh! The stupid corn snake is loose again. Yesterday I took him out of his cage to feed him in the critter-keeper box, which I haven't been doing, and he was pretty ticked about it. He thrashed the lid right open and escaped. Feeding him in the tank was a great idea, but he is usually in his rock, and the feed usually isn't live, so I though I might move him. So much for that. Trying the duct tape trick again to see if he gets himself stuck while trying to escape. Seems like it took a couple days last time.

The Saltwater tank is happy again!