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Paul B

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When I started with salt tanks there was just one type of tank, fish only.
Now they even have manta rays in tanks, but not mine, I wish. We can have a Fish only, or invertabrates only, crustaceans only, corals only, carnivores only LPS, only, SPS only, leathers or any combination of each. Most of us have a combination of a little of everything from every ocean which may not be normal, but we like it.
I think many people start with things like triggerfish, eels, puffers, lionfish and then progress to smaller more interesting creatures, at least I did.
We can have a tank that is a thing of absolute beauty as many of the people's tanks on here are and I am jealous of some of them, or we can have a few rocks haphazardly thrown in there with some large fish.
I think the thing of absolute beauty is what most people go for and as I said, some people get it right. I don't know what to consider my own tank as it was never supposed to be the best looking tank there is (and it certainly is not) it is more of an experiment and has always evolved depending on my whims, or dreams, and if you look closely at things in my tank some of those dreams were nightmares but it is what I want it to be as I am sure everybody's tank is what they want.
I know most people like angelfish and tangs as they are colorful and active, but I tend to go for smaller more interesting fish. Just today I bought a possum wrasse which is a secretive creature but interestingly colored even though it is a fish that hides most of the time.
If you look quickly into my tank you may not see any fish even though there are about 25 fish in there. There are five threadfish cardinals, 4 of which are spawning. Spawning fish tend to stay out of sight so they can deposit their eggs away from predators and my camera. There is another pair of some type of striped cardinals that have the same problem as they are spawning also.
Bluestriped pipefish are active, but they are active under and behind the rocks so even though they are constantly on the move, (and spawning)I rarely see them.:shhh:
Of course the pair of gobies living with the shrimp are under ground half the time and the pair of fireclowns spawn in a bottle but at least that bottle is in the front so I can see them. I think the clowngobies will spawn any time now but they stay in the branches of the acropora and stick their eggs underneith it.
Many times people seeing the tank for the first time will say, it is such a big tank but there are no fish in it. So I have to have them bend down and look between the rocks, then they may see the watchman gobies, one of which is about 4" and the numerous hermit crabs or arrow crab.
Smaller fish also have a more interesting pool to choose from. Everyone has seen tangs and angelfish but there are so many interesting gobies and bleenies that even though I have been in this for decades I still sometimes see something I never saw before.
Just today I went to a store and seen the mose unusual, beautiful gobies I have ever seen and I never saw anything like them before. I could not get them because they were tiny, like less than a half an inch and very skinny. I can't even describe them. I still may go back and set up a small tank just so I could grow them to put in my tank, but I am not even sure if they do grow as I don't know what they are.
So what is the point of this thread, like many things I post, I have no idea. :biggrinpa
 
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Paul B

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The most interesting tank I ever saw was before there were salt water tanks. It was I think a 300 gallon freshwater tank in the largest LFS in New York right near the Trade Center. Besides the fish that were (I think) silver dollars and similar fish, it was decorated like a flooded basement in Manhattan. The main theme was an old broken toilet bowl with all the associated plumbing pipes that looked like they were in a bombed out building. It was not tha nicest tank, but the most unusual.
If I ever started another salt tank (which is not likely to happen) I would like to put a real anchor in there from my boat which is a few feet long. The flukes of the anchor would be cut off so they appear to go deep in the substrait and the chain would rise out of the water. This would be an abandoned anchor like I see all over the sea bottom from my dives. Of course coral would be growing all over it so you would hardly see it.
Kind of like all the semi hidden bottles and chains I have in my tank now as this old picture shows.
I don't like things out of proportion like ship wrecks but I have no problem putting in a real boat propellor or even engine.
 

thirty6

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the anchor idea sounds interesting, i think you should set up a tank just for it. i know you like smaller/interesting fish but i could envision a bunch of lionsfish hovering near the anchor.
as always, i enjoy the threads you put up like this one
 

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