So, Ethan's saltwater tank has been running for a few months. It survived the 100 degree days in the summer, while I needed to constantly apply ice to the tank; it survived the disaster afternoon after Ethan and Amelia dumped all the fish food in the tank one day and spent a full month in our hospital tank. We care the tank closely, to control the sunlights, temperature, changing water, keeping the water balanced, and feeding the fish and the live rocks regularly. To certain point, the tank was running smoothly by itself. The only challenging thing is a really trivial one. It was about controlling the algae in the mean time making sure the corals receive their best care. It was funny because corals and algae like the basicallly the same things. Having algae means the water is healthy. I would like the coral to live well but hate to see algae growing all over the surface. I decided to solve it by scrubbing the tank regularly. So far, the only regret was that we ;pst one of the most standout creatures of the tank, the anemone.

The water, the sand, those two pecula clownfish, the naughty purple stripe Jennifer (Diadema dottyback), along with the two red skunk shrimps, 10 hermit crabs, 10 sea snails, and our lovely live rocks make this tank the focal points for our visitors when they come here. Watching the kids playing in one side of the room, and the creatures actively moving in tank in this side of the room, becomes one relaxing moment of our lives. The tank is very much alive. Watching the shrimps hopping from rock to rock, fishing swimming in and our the caves, snail and hermit crab climbing up and down, or even the coral expanding to three times its resting size, are just amazing. In the mean time, saltwater tank is a endless investment. You just have so much fun putting things in it.

Tina and I felt we were ready to add some extra colors to the tank and make it more fun to watch. Anemone was the first thing came to mind, you know it if you even saw "Finding Nemo". Anemones come in variety of nice colors, nice shapes, beautiful bubbly tentacles. Plus, Ethan believed Nemo needed a home in anemone. Since it was such a no brainer, an arabic anemone become the official new home of our two clown fish. This anemone had some really rosy and bubbly tentacles. I dripped acclimated for about two hours. Once it was done getting acclimated, I reached in, gabbed onto the bottom and very gently twisted it in the water to help whisk away some of the scummy matter that shipped with the creature. I then moved it into a plastic bag containing tank water and lowered it into my display tank. After half an hour, I set the anemone about the most ideal spot I had in my reef, about 5-6 inches from the surface, great water flow with nothing direct and the best spot for the sunlight. It was a great spot for it to tuck its foot and show off its tentacles. The red-orange anemone, official home of the Nemo fish, became the center of the tank.

Just like most of the pretty creatures, our anemone requires lots of care. It requires pristine water condition. Anemones love the environment that it can obtain most of their nutrition from the sympbiotic algae. Iron supplyment also seems to be important. I tested the water current again to make sure it was still moderate in order to keep it stay put. We knew it also hate the organix wastes, from the coral or feeding, hence cleaning the water regularly became even more important. Lazy me, sometime changed the water every three weeks instead of two weeks. Now, with anemone, I better change the water more frequently. Believe it or not, anemones also love the raw shrimp, silversides, and clams just like the fish as long as they come to the right size. One interesting thing to watch is that anemone love sun, just like corals do. Sunlight is the best friend for the marine invertebrates. First thing in the morning, I would come to open the shutter and let the sun comes in. Anemone looked really healthy as it expanded and looked its best with the sunlight. It is amazing how the size of anemone can be twice the difference during the day. But you don't want to know what happens when the bubble tips shrinks.

The tank became more a beautiful garden than a zoom with anemone in it. We have the bright green, purple, slivery white from the coral, with the white sand, reddish and grey rocks. The two Nemo fish hanged out with the anemone, swimming through the tentacles, just seemed so happily around. Since then, the clownfish were in this anemone full time. For the days without the sun, anemone did not look as good and the Nemo just felt so lost. Best of all, the anemone helped to settle the territory fight between the clownfish and shrimps. Everything grew up well in the tank. The clownfish were about twice the size than when we first got them.

When I came back from my business trip one day, our anemone was not in its original spots. It moved from the center of the tank to the back. That was shocking! Anemone does move around in the tank but they usually move around when they try to find the place they like and stay put. It was supposed to happen months ago, not now. Why? I checked the temperature, I changed one third of the water immeidately. Then I re-adjusted the water to the proper level. , gently put the anemone back to the original spot. It moved again the second morning. I raised the temperature to 79 degree since it was cold that week, tested the PH level of the water, and fed more live food to the tank. I moved the anemone back to the spot. But it moved again.

Now, this was concerning. Moving anemone too many times would hurt it. I consider myself an expert in maintaining the water condition, in the chemical and ecosystem standpoint. Water condition should not go wrong. Also, there should not be too much nitrogenous and proteinaceous waste to interfere with the reef animals, especially all other live rocks still looked great. Could it be parasite? If so, I would have bigger problem for my tank. The anemone were losing tentacles, and looked pale. It stopped to response the way it did to the sunlight. I couldn't sleep that night, even at 5am in the morning, even with my 8am conference call waiting. Because I worry this little thing might be in danger, because I worried maybe other creatures would be in danger. It floated around the tank for the rest of the night. I called Sammual, the shop owner. He came over, he looked at the anemone, he checked my tank logs. Then he looked around the tank. He noticed the sizes of those two clownfish. He immediately removed the anemone from the tank, and brought it back to the shop, hoping his crew could revive it. He told me I could not get the anemone back for this tank. Come over to his shop, and he would give me something else, maybe a soft coral, leathers or sponge.

On the way we drove back to the shop, Sam explained to me that our clownfish were too nippy for that littel anemoe now. Even considered as peaceful fish, pecula fish could be nippy. Plus, our two boby clowns grew up too well and maybe try to mate. The way they treated the anemone now was not helping the anemone to get food, but instead hurting it. They just went ballistic, and very aggressively lunked themselves and wriggled themselves into the anemone from time to time. In that half hour, Sam noticed that even the poor anemone fled to the dark, rear corner, the clowns would have hang vertically to anemone's tentacles. The clownfish just harrassed their home too much. We have to divorce them. The clownfish literally attacked their home to the level it decided to run away from the spot it has been living comfortably for months. Guess our 25 gallons tank is too small for the anemone to co-exist with those two clownfish. Now, the clownfish lost their home. Now, the clowns move to our Clove Polyp. Hope the Polyp is strong enough to survive them.