A comprehensive guide to fish
Marine diary chapter seven
Maldives Clownfish, Amphiprion nigripes
After finally getting
the Grape Caulerpa in the tank, it was time to once
again wait to see what happens in the tank. At this
point the tank has been up and running about 4 to
4.5 months and I was extremely tired of harvesting
the hair algae from the tank. The Green Chromis and
Yellow Tailed damsels were doing well and I was
enjoying watching them swimming around in the tank.
Up until this point everything seemed to be running
smoothly in the tank except hair algae and since I
had dealt with it for so long, it was beginning to
despair that I would never see the end of the
horrible stuff.
Around this time, I began to notice that there were
some really interesting things popping out of my
live rock here and there. Much to my delight I saw a
few small feather dusters with white caps starting
to show up here and there in the tank. I would spend
hours looking around the tank to see how many there
were. I believe I counted close to a dozen on the
rocks and wondered what to do with them. What did
they eat? Are they good or bad for the tank? The
books that I had didn't really have all that much
information on these neat little creatures. The
closest thing I could find was a bit of information
on their larger relatives the Hawaiian feather
duster. I found out they were filter feeders and ate
small particles of food that float around in the
tank.
Fearing that these poor creatures would starve in my
tank, since I couldn't see anything floating around
in the tank, I went to the LFS to see what kind of
food was available for these small creatures. Much
to my delight, I found a Kent product called "Micro-Vert"
This consisted of mostly green water and fine
phytoplankton particles designed for use with filter
feeding inverts. Great! This was just what my
creatures needed.
It was at this point that I began to have this
sneaky suspicion that going to the LFS was starting
to become a bad idea. They had so many animals on
display and such a wonderful variety of Marine fish
that I wanted to take them all home with me! While
browsing the marine section I spotted this
absolutely wonderful, brilliantly coloured pair of
Percula Clownfish. I instantly fell in love with
them and just had to have them. The water parameters
in my tank were within all the tolerable limits,
they had been fairly steady for the past month so I
figured and most importantly, the cycle was
complete. I figured it would be safe to add a couple
more fish to the tank, so I flagged done a member of
the staff to find out if Jake was in, but
unfortunately he was on vacation for the next couple
of weeks. The sent me to the person who was
temporarily in charge of the Marine section and I
asked him for the Clowns. He asked me how long my
tank had been up and running and if I was having any
problems with ammonia or nitrite. I replied that the
tank had been running for over 4 months and that
there haven't been any signs of ammonia or nitrite
for over a month. He was satisfied with the answer,
bagged up my two new charges and off to the cash I
went.
When I got home I slowly acclimatized my new clowns
and while those were being acclimatized, I decided
to feed the feather dusters some of the Micro-Vert I
had just picked up. Now I found the instructions on
the label a little bit vague basically saying feed
as required! Having never feed feather dusters
before, I found it a little difficult to know what
was required in the first place. I decided to play
it safe and only added a few tiny drops to the tank
and see how everything reacted. The feather dusters
had been in the tank over 4 months now and I hadn't
feed them anything until then, so I figured they
didn't really need all that much to go on.
When I added those few drops of the Micro-Vert,
my tank just came alive! I had creatures coming out
of the rocks like I never believed possible and most
of them were worms and small crawling bugs of some
sort. I had no idea what these things were and why
there were so many of them in the tank and if they
should even be there or not! This is definitely not
what I expected! I nearly went into a panic because
suddenly my tank seemed infested with bugs and I had
two brand new fish nearly acclimatized for the tank.
Do I still add the fish? Do I try to get rid of some
of these bugs? Why did they suddenly come out of the
rocks now of all times? Why couldn't they have done
this before I had gone to the LFS?
Ok, time to step back and think calmly for a moment.
I had a cold water tank for a number of years prior
to setting up this tank. I had played in ponds and
gathered numerous bugs to feed to my cold water fish
without any problems. Although I hadn't seen any
bugs like the worms and crawly things that came out
of the rocks, I did know that there were always some
sort of life in lakes and ponds that the fish use as
a food source. So, after thinking things threw a
while, I decided that these bugs could stay in the
tank at least until I knew a little more about them.
In the name of research though (AKA another trip to
the LFS) I figured that I should attempt to collect
a couple of the different types of bugs as samples
for my research efforts. It'll be a lot easier
showing someone one of these creatures then trying
to describe it!
Once I decided to collect a sample of the life that was oozing out of the rock, I quickly got a spare container I had from the kitchen and reached for the net. I quickly found out that thinking about gathering a couple samples was a lot easier said then done! The crawling things disappeared instantly and I quickly gave up on those. However I still had a chance with the worms. They were crawling on the rock and it was nearly impossible to try to catch them with a net, so in my hand went and I grabbed one of the nice big bright red worms!
The best advice I can give is ?Do NOT attempt
this stunt at home!? It felt like my hand and arm
was instantly lit on fire! Those small innocent
looking creatures pack a nasty punch! After hopping
around the apartment for a little while cursing and
trying my hardest not to cry too loudly, I ran to
the medicine cabinet and got out some strong
disinfectant (iodine based) and proceeded to soak my
hand in it for a while. I can't tell you how much
time went by before the pain started to abate, but
it seemed like an eternity! Whatever you do, do NOT
pick up bright red worms! They hurt! I mean a lot!
Needless to say, I abandoned my attempt to gather a
couple of those worms and if they were a bad thing
for the tank, then that was just too darn bad! There
was no way I was going to attempt to remove them
again. I released the clowns into the tank. At this
point my enthusiasm for watching the tank was
forgotten and the clowns had to fend for themselves
for that day. I hoped they would be all right, but
my mind was a little preoccupied with pain. I turned
the lights out on the tank and spent the rest of the
day soaking my hand in iodine.
Later I found out that the worm I had attempted to
pick up was aptly called a Fire worm. They are not
extremely common in a marine tank, but the odd time
you get lucky. There are traps that can be purchased
and I would highly recommend they be used. They are
one of the most potent bristle worms that you can
find and under no circumstances should it ever be
touched. The best treatment for such a sting would
be to us ammonia to kill the bristles and to put
your hand in the hottest water you can stand for as
long as you can stand it. This will kill the
bristles and prevent them from working further into
the skin then they already are.
Since then, I have accidentally touched some other
types of bristle worms in my tank and most of them
don't hurt very much. The most common worms I have
in my tank feel like you have a bur on you skin and
a slight tingling but nothing that can't be dealt
with. Use caution when you touch stuff in your tank!
A lot of marine life contains some sort of toxin and
you never know how you are going to react. In all
honestly I should have went to the doctors for
treatment. There are some lessons you do not want to
learn the hard way! I have no idea what happened to
that worm, as I haven't seen it in the tank since,
nor do I really wish to dig around to find out!