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 State of the Tank: (cont.) |
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Just like the six year old who, a few hours ago, had his nose pressed against the glass at about the very spot theirs were pressed now. I thought that was a very cool thing to see.
What were also cool were not just the number of fish in this tank, but the size and the girth of many of them! The Vlamingi Tangs (they have several), for example, literally look like footballs as they swim directly toward you. Even the Chromis' and Damsels were huge...and I'm talking pretty close to freshwater Bluegill huge as they darted back and forth! Other treats included watching Joe feed the tank (I'll certainly never complain about the machinations I have to go through in that department again) watching spawning activity amongst the Anthias and flasher Wrasses as the lights were going out. The grace and beauty all that movement brought to the tank was absolutely hypnotic. And just when I was thinking that I could get myself a bedroll and camp out here all night, one of Joe's assistants came in and announced the a group of children and teachers were there...with bedrolls, to camp out there all night.
So I'm guessing the place never really does close.
Look, I could
go on all day but instead I...well, Marc the webguy, really...put together a little slideshow that'll give you a |
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better idea of what I've been talking about. Not being a webguy myself, I sometimes forget about all its capabilities, even it's fairly basic ones.
But before we get to that, I just wanted to quickly mention how things wrapped up because it involved my receiving a few frags and I absolutely remember my 'no more frags' rant from last month. Okay, so dinner, photography, and conversation is about over and a slew of overnight 'campers' are on their way. I thought Joe had left to do some business when I look over at the tank one more time (though I can't recall which 'one more time') and saw a heavy duty, very long claw-like device reach in and literally knock a frag from a colony. I'd never seen it done quite like that before. Then again, given the size of this tank, how else would you do it? Anyway I'm still assuming Joe had some prior business arrangement in regards to this but once we returned to the back, I found out the piece was a gift to all of us...along with anything else we took a shine to from his 4 huge (and packed) frag grow-out tanks! I learned that much of the reeftank's coral comes from local reefers just like you and me and handing out pieces like this is as commonplace as handing out beer at a tailgate party. Besides, there's hardly any more room in the tank for coral as it is! Yep, 20,000 gallons. No more room.
Then once we started milling about the frag tanks, I did my meekly best to explain that I was in the very same position as Joe, meaning full. |
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