Steel stand has been constructed, the doors on it are temporary for now (new ones being made will match the kitchen).

More images here.

Cry baby.

Toilet trained!

Soon after my last post I saw something out of the corner of my eye which looked a lot like a cat outside. I then thought it must have been a bird (I often have Indian Miners outside my office). A few minutes later I saw a small cream coloured cat sprint for it’s life across the backyard. It was really windy out (looked like a storm was about to hit) I got some shoes on and went out to see if I could find him/her but I couldn’t see it anywhere. I sat inside looking out for a while then spotted him climbing over the next door neighbours fence back into my backyard. I went out and tried calling the cat over but it refused to move. I ran back inside to grab a jacket at the weather was getting worse out and after some time I managed to get pretty close to him. He sniffed my hand and cried a little then he bolted again. I went back in and came out with a bowl of kitten food (pretty smelly stuff I thought). This time I managed to get him to play with a twig and soon after he spotted the food and started chowing down. He let me pat his head and I grabbed him by the neck and got him inside.

Christina got home just as I got him inside and we set up the laundry with a bed, some food, water and a litter tray which he went straight for. Perfectly toilet trained little guy! He ate the rest of his food too. He looks like a pure-bred burmese and he was super affectionate (but a bit smelly).

The next morning I took him to the local vet and sure enough he was micro-chipped and de-sexed. His name is Ringo. I’m sure his owners are going to be really happy when they get the call from the vet :)

Suga and I gave Mia a bath the other day (using some special cat shampoo of-course!). Initially Mia freaked out but after a while she decided she loved it (she was licking Christina’s hands which were holding her still). She dried real quick as it was a hot day and her coat has never been sooooooooo yummy!

I looked all over the house for Mia later that day and started to panic when I couldn’t find her (had she somehow run out the door?!). I finally found her sleeping under the bed. Usually she sleeps on top of the wardrobe in the guest room (up very high so she feels safe) but I’ve recently found her in deep sleep in other places. The bathroom (!), under the bed sheets and now under the bed!

Nyaw the little mau mau.

Dallas frag from Matt. My fave SPS coral so I’m hoping this little guy is gonna grow!

One of the near dead SPS corals from the interstate shipment. You can see the completely bleached base. The only way to save it from here is to ‘frag’ it. Fragging is where you snip off the tips that are still good.

One of two big pink birds nest corals in the interstate shipment. It’s beaten up and some parts look pretty pale but I think they’ll both pull through AOK.

Another one from interstate. Blue tips but the rest of it is brown. A brown acro is an unhappy acro.

Tank hit 29degrees lasst week so I’ve been running this fan and so far the temp has stayed below 28.

Full Tanks Shot.

I took delivery of a few more corals this week both from a local buyer (Matt from AMDbulbs who delivered the corals for me) and also from my Uncle John’s interstate collector.

I tried my hand at SPS corals a few years ago and only managed to keep them alive for a few weeks and I never tried keeping them again. They’re harder to keep than most other corals which explains why they’re considered the jewels of the reef (also generally commanding higher prices and much more aquarium gear and husbandry to keep). With my current system I’ve been able to not only keep them but to watch them grow so I put an order in with my Uncle John for a box of SPS corals sight unseen (kinda exciting as you don’t know what you’re going to get).

Unfortunately it all went wrong.

The plane was delayed overnight and something also went wrong at the airport. Instead of the box coming in first thing in the morning it was delayed until late that afternoon. On opening the box there was a pretty bad smell. Two bags were filled with black (rotten) water and inside them were completely bleached acros. In other bags were more bleached acros, dead crabs and even a dead little green goby which must have been living in the coral (so sad!). I paid $270 for a box of 8 large colonies, 2 were completely gone, another is pretty much gone (I’ve fragged it but it’s not looking promising) and the others look pretty bashed up. :(

It’s the last time I’ll be ordering a box of acros unseen. I thought I was going to get a lot for very little money but instead I got a lot of death. I feel guilty about it and I would have been better off buying quality live stock from someone close by.

Christina’s Dad is selling off his entire set-up (minus C02 gear). That’s the tank, stand, hood, lights, filter, UV sterilizer, all plants, fish, heaps of shrimp too. There’s over $1k’s worth in plants, fish and shrimp alone but it’s not so much about the cash, it’s more about getting it out of the way to make way for his new (bigger) tank so you’ll have to tear it down and transport it all by yourself (bring a mate!).

EDIT: SOLD!!! (funnily to the guy who bought my ED Civic!).