Oh Crab!

I had a decorator crab. I bet not many have seen a decorator crab. So where is my picture of this decorator crab? I don't know. A decorator crab is a crab that will pick up objects from its surroundings and place it onto its own body as a form of camouflage. It will pick shells, sand bits, coral fragments, anemones, algae, anything u name it, just to blend in with its surroundings.

This crab i had was too big for the tank. It bit my corals and ripped them off. I got upset and transferred it out to a holding tank and subsequently I sold it. It was only the day that I sold it off I realise what an ass I have been. The crab was truely a cool fella. It was just amazing too watch and just because it tore of some corals, I got upset with it. So upset that I didn't give it a name, I didn't take a picture of it.

Now that it's gone, I feel so rotten. All of us have flaws but beyond that, I'm pretty sure if we look hard enough it is not hard to find some good points. Don't let the flaws overshadow the beauty so easily. Treasure those around you, cos once they're gone, like the crab, you'd say Oh Crab! (literally, metaphorically)

122 Days

Its been 122 Days since the glass tank was first filled with water. And since then the tank has gradually transformed into what i call the deep blue sea in my HDB. It's come a long way I must say, and there were defintely problems, there STILL are problems, and I've lost fishies in the process. I set out for a zero casualty aquarium but failed to maintain that standard. It is sad and often in this hobby we get too caught up with all these problems that we fail to take the time to appreciate the aquarium as a mini ecosystem sustained artificially outside of nature that we've created. That's exactly what I did tonight and behold...

Its quite breath taking I must say. Yes we reefers put in lots of time and money into the aquarium, but let's not forget to appreciate it for its beauty.

I'm glad to report that the brainy guest is doing just fine. Infact I think it got better.

Amatuer Footage: Creatures of the night

If you've gone night diving you'd know that life in the sea takes on a new form when night falls and same goes for the deep blue sea in my HDB.

Resolution is not very clear but if you watch the sand bed closely, you'd realise that it comes alive with bugs scrambling here and there and there's a mysterious slug on the glass wall. Never knew it existed. I've got better footage but youtube wouldn't let me upload it cos its too big. Bister worms and sleeping clown fishes. In the following episode of this nocturnal video series i guess.

Brainy Guest

Got a surprise text msg early in the morning in a half hung over, partially spaced out state that says "My purple tang is pecking on my green brain so its stressed. May need to borrow your tank to shelter it until I trade it. Can?" True to its cause, as long as its within its ability, the Deep Blue Sea in my HDB will never turn its back on any land-stranded coral or fish.
This is the first resident guest at the DBS. A luminous pastel lime green brain coral. It will be here till its nursed back to health or till when it eventually gets traded off.

008

Say hello to 008! having a feast off the nuisance algae thats been growing wild on the tank wall.

Underwater Photography

Underwater photography is pretty expensive. An underwater case for a normal point and shoot digital camera costs as much as the camera itself, and further more there's always the question if the camera performs well in dimmer underwater environments. I've got a solution, take picture of the Deep Blue Sea in my HDB!

Mystery Star

I'm supposed to be studying but why am I uploading fresh pictures on to the blog!? All thanks to AHEM. Look what i've found! A white black-banded zebra brittle starfish! You know its just amazing how much life there's living inside this deep blue sea.

Brittle Stars are a kind of starfish. You don't really see body, just 5 or more very long tentacles joined together at the centre. Lower part of the picture u see 3 tentacles, white with black bands coming out of the rock. The characteristic of such star fish is that they're small enough to actually live inside the holes and cracks in the rocks.

Same piece of rock, but this time there's a single tentacle appearing at the top of the rock. If you do a little mental super positioning of both pictures, you'd realise that the entire starfish is actually living inside that piece of rock with its tentacles stretching out through network of holes in the porous rock.

Amazing stuff eh?

Everybody!

Today everybody is out to play. 6 main characters in the tank. Top right is the doctor shrimp, the you have mr. and ms. Mo. Big fish is a sailfin tang and his name is San Francisco! why? Cos SailFin tang in short is SF and SF = San Francisco! Top of the tank is the red feather starfish. Its not doing to well, quite alot of legs and tentacles fell off since it came into the deep blue sea. One more mysterious character is the sexy shrimp, always too illusive for the camera.

Wonderful bloom with the sun corals. And the tree is really stunning i must say.