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 State
of the Tank 12/03
(cont.) |
| following
week was an all out declaration
of war. It begun on the morning
Dec. 24th (of course) with a house
full of guests, some of whom had
come from as far away as California.
My manners prevented me from spending
too much time observing the tank
for a couple days but things seemed
to be holding tough so I figured
that perhaps I could slip through
the week without any problems.
Uh-uh. About 10 am, I walked by
the tank on some now forgotten
errand, and caught that glimpse
of 'white'; the kind of white would
command a reefers attention if
the tank containing it was located
at Hooters on audition day... I
stopped instantly and noticed that
my gigantic humilis had begun to bleach
significantly from the bottom upwards
 . And although I can't say with
this with certainty, I
could've sworn this piece was fine
when I had fed the fish a couple hours
before.
Now, I’ve had some minor problems with this coral previously. Because of its size, the lack of light and current on its underside has caused a bit of cyano and the whitening of a branch from time to time but these were always easily addressed. THIS was different; the bleaching had already crept upwards amongst the branches and, upon further examination, was fairly widespread throughout the base. It was going to have to be fragged now, on Christmas Eve, and it was not going to be a one-man job.
By
the way, did I mention this was Christmas
Eve? |
|
Upon
receiving my sheepish phone call, I
must say that Ray took it surprisingly
well. A disciple of Moye's Law, he'd been waiting for another shoe to drop and,
of course, at what better time than today! He'd come right over. My wife, however,
was a tad less understanding. I can't say I blame her too much though. Because
of all of the problems of late, I'd been spending much more time in the tank
than either one of us would've liked (not sure she'd believe that however), but
of all days, Christmas Eve was too much. Now I can't recall exactly
what was said but suffice it
to say that HER Holiday wish
involved Santa permanently removing
several items FROM the home,
dumping them back into the ocean
then turning the viewing room
into a shoe closet.. This, quite
naturally, made the work ahead
flow much more smoothly. But
we (Ray and I) got it done and
managed to salvage two decently
sized chunks that were well away
from the necrotic areas. The
remainder of the day was tense
but tolerable and Christmas day
came and went without incident,
thank goodness. Then, a few days
later, one of those 'chunks'
started to decline and had to
be discarded. Fortunately, no
one else was home during this. |
| January
2004.....HAPPY
NEW YEAR. |
|
| Jan '04
I suppose that one of the ironies
here is that the ONLY New Years
resolution I made to myself was
to spend less time noodling inside
the tank and more |
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