A Fishy Update

Well the whole "moving out" thing seems to be proceeding very much on schedule, with a Feruary 1st move-in date currently on the cards.  As long as my credit checks turn out fine then I should have nothing to worry about, and there's no reason that they should come back as anything less than stellar.

So I have been turning my attention to my future living companions; a tank full of marine fish.  Well okay, I have also done some sensible things such as buying new bedding and towels to take with me (the place is fully furnished, so on that front I'm all set), but with that sorted I spend an hour or so at Planters in Tamworth today to get some ideas about marine fishkeeping and just which species I'd actually like to keep.

I picked out a tank today, but haven't bought it yet.  First of all I don't have the money at present, secondly I have nowhere to store it for the next month, and thirdly I know that would completely jinx my credit check!  But I've at least picked it out, and it's a complete started setup, a decent sized tank, and isn't heinously expensive.  The assistant in the shop talked me through it and said that a tank of that size would be suitable for 4-5 fish, not including invertebrates.  By that point I'd already decided on the aquatic lineup from looking through their livestock, so I told him what I was after and said that the tank would be fine :)  So hopefully I'll be the proud keeer of a little marine community in a few weeks' time!  I shall, of course, be posting photos of my little fishy friends once they're alll settled in.

So, my intended lineup.  First up, a pair of Common Clownfish.  Yes, Finding Nemo has made them the bog-standard marine fish, but they are incredibly beautiful and I'd love to own a couple.  And with the Clownfish of course comes the anemone, in this case a Malu Anemone.  They'll be all the more fascinating to watch with an Anemone as part of the community.

Then the other two regular fish will be a pair of Humbugs, so-called for their black and white stripes.  I was torn between these and a pair of Yellow Tail Damsens, but the Humbugs won me over when I saw them in a tank with the Clownfish and the contrast in colours looked marvellous.

Invertebrate-wise I'm after a Cleaner Shrimp, as these guys just look really cool, and I can imagine myself spending ages just sat by the tank watching them at work.  And finally a pair of Hermit Crabs, which again will be fascinating to watch and nice to have to round off the community.

Being a marine setup as well I plan to get some coral (as yet undecided), and then I just need some scenery with lots of little spaces for the fish to swim/crawl through and explore.

Once I'm settled into the new place, I can picture this as being a very happy place to live :)