Homestead update 11/25/07

Nothing done on actually looking at land today, but we have put into motion a few projects to get things headed towards the future move.

We finally broke down the 10 gallon saltwater quarantine tank that's been "temporarily" on the kitchen counter for a year or so. There was only one fish still in there - a lawnmower blenny (named Homer because he looks eerily like Homer Simpson in the face) and two hermit crabs. Homer went in the frag growout side of the 2x100g stock tank system in the garage, to be that tank's lawnmower for awhile. The two hermit crabs are going to a fish store for store credit tomorrow.

We also broke down the 5 gallon Eclipse hex tank that was on the same kitchen counter, that had nothing but black sand and saltwater in it. It has been cycling and getting ready for dwarf seahorses (H. zosterae species) for six months or more but I still haven't found a source for captive-bred ones so, until we've built and moved into a new place, that's on hold.

I posted a "for sale or trade" ad on a local fish forum for the gold-striped maroon clownfish bought back in August, that I'd hoped to pair up with the female gold-striped maroon clown we already had. That didn't work out and I need the 30 gallon tank the new clownfish has been living in, so it's for sale/trade. Besides, I bought a mated pair of captive-bred 4 year old maroon gold-striped clownfish last week so now this fish is redundant. We are going to break down the 75g freshwater planted tank in our living room, sell as many of the plants as we can, and turn the 30g tank the clownfish is in now into a FW tank to hold the fish and a few plants until we move. There's also a sailfin tang in with the clownfish but it can go in the other side of the 2x100g stock tanks, with the majority of the bubbletip anemones.

After that we'll be taking down the 75g saltwater reef tank in the living room, which we don't want to do, but it just makes too much sense not to do so. The fish from there will also go in the 100g tank with the bubbletips. There are four fish in the 75g ref - a 3.5 year old mated pair of orange false percula clownfish - Amphiprion ocellaris (yes, like Nemo), a royal blue tang - Paracanthurus hepatus (yes, like Dory) and one blue-green chromis damselfish - Chromis caerulea (not any "Findng Nemo" counterpart that I know of). Catching and moving them is going to be... interesting. There are also several soft corals and one long-polyped stony coral in there, that will go to either the 300g stock tank or one of the 100g stock tanks.

Once both tanks are out of the living room, we will replace the floor in there. Whether we put new hardwood floors in to replace the old ones, or just put carpet in, remains to be seen. It depends on how much time and energy we have for such things since all the remodelling around here is DIY.

Tomorrow's agenda - take hermit crabs and freshwater plants to local fish store (LFS) for store credit, call the real estate broker, start moving coral frags out of the 300g into the 100g and taking pictures of them to list for sale, and probably a dozen or more things my brain's not able to dredge out to the light at the moment.