ufcrusher

I think I mentioned that I bought a new "used" reef setup a little over a month ago. If not, you can form a line to sue me to the right of the people in the line where they are chanting, "You want us to do WHAT!?!" and to the left of Nija and his suitcase full of KY. Back on topic -- (Yes, I am that flustered right now!)

I bought this new setup with the thought that I was going to transfer 2 of my fish over to it, my Naso tang and my Panther grouper. The only problem with that is the Panther grouper, as those of you who know what groupers are might guess, are voracious predators that will eat anything and everything smaller than them. When I bought my panther he was a little 3" guy...nice and friendly. Panthers have this odd way of swimming which is more like a doggy paddle than other fish. This fish is so well trained that he eats out of my hand...jumps out of the water to get food...and follows both me and my wife around our place whenever he can see us. That little 3" guy has nearly doubled in size since I brought him home...he is nearly 6" in length now and quite large.

As you might expect, with a fish with this much personality, you tend to overlook the fact that it is SUPPOSEDLY a top reef predator. All of the literature on them states to keep them with like sized fish, no shrimp/lobster, and they will grow to 18" or more.

I go through a mental check list here...the Naso is about 4.5"-5" in lenght and way too big for the panther to eat. Unfortunately, my Coral Beauty was only 4" in length...probably too big, but getting iffy. My Golden Striped maroon which came with the new tank was just over 3" in length and definitely on the menu. I know this because I had originally tried to house the GSM with grouper, only to have to put the GSM into protective custody. The damsel could take care of itself. The mental scale is telling me that it SHOULD be ok given the tank size, fish size, and amount of hiding spaces....but I was still worried that I would come home to a very fat and happy grouper with a $120+ bill for that meal.

I decide that I will introduce the Panther dead last and carefully monitor his behavior in an isolation chamber before letting him out into the main tank. This way, if he tries to chase something its back to the other tank...but if he just stays put, then he will be ready to join the real world. Simple enough, right?

It takes me all of 2 minutes to capture the panther and put him into the isolation chamber. About 2 seconds after he is caught, he must have thought I needed a bath because he drenched me. Lovely. Annoying, but nothing that hasnt happened before when dealing with a powerful fish in a confined space. I try to do my standard float/slow acclimation but the Panther has another idea. He keeps splashing me, the lights, the walls, the mail, the leather carpet, the couch, everything. His movements keep knocking the isolation chamber from how I had it carefully balanced and into the main tank. I finally cover the top of the chamber with a towel and suction it into the tank. A bit fast, but then again my tanks are all within a degree of each other and the water quality should be similar.

So I sit there watching him for a few hours. Every once in a while he seems intent on breaking out of his cell, but for the most part he just sits and watches the party. Even when I decide to tempt fate by dumping food into the main tank to lure the other fish right next to him. Other than chasing a large flake, nothing. After 2 hours of this, I figure that my concern was misplaced...sort of like the bottle of KY after Nija leaves.

At this point, I started to feel bad because the panther only had an extra 2 inches of room in the isolation chamber (lenght wise). I decide that rather than keep him penned up overnight where he might somehow knock it down or get out, I should let him out into the tank. I figue if anything goes wrong, it would be better for me to be up and ready to fix it.

I let him out and he immediately heads behind a piece of coral....out of sight, but near a place where the damsel is sleeping. Great. Then he just sits there doing nothing. I begin to closely watch my other fish who are suddenly acting very odd. One has decided to hide under the filter lip, the other two are carefully darting in and out of the corals, coming within a few inches of the grouper but always veering off at the last minute. Then I notice that the panther has decided to start following the coral beauty. This isnt good as groupers are ambush predators....from still to lunch in 2 shakes of a fin.

Suddenly I notice the Naso and the Coral beauty both make a VERY quick dash from behind a rock. Sure enough, the grouper has appeared there. It follows the Coral Beauty behind the rocks for several minutes, always staying out of sight of me while he is stalking. (Smart fish) 15 minutes after putting him in, I decide that my worst fears are true.....he is about to kill and eat at least 2 or 3 of the fish in the tank. The only one he is somewhat ignoring is the Naso.

Now I have to catch a fish that is mad at me for catching him earlier tonight. I end up having to rip apart the tank and take out 5 gallons of water before he swims into a net to get away from me. (Ok, so maybe he isnt as smart as I thought) I pick him up and put him back in his private tank.

Now I have to decide what to do.....I either have to transplant 5 fish from another tank and move him into that one OR catch the Coral Beauty, GSM, and damsel from the main tank and put them into the tank wtih the others. Either way, I would probably need to sell 1 or 2 fish which I dont want to do.

I know that he didnt eat the coral beauty, GSM, or Naso as I have accounted for those 3. However, the damsel is still MIA but I am sure he will show up in the light.

On top of which, my Father-in-law is coming down next week (Gobble-Gobble) and staying with us. Unfortunately, the new tank displaced the old tank which displaced a filing cabinet which displaced and guitar and files and the list continues. Mrs. UFC told me that I needed to have 1 tank gone before her father gets here and everything back where it was before we picked up the new tank. (In fairness, the tank came with a TON of stuff which is spread all over the condo as we have no where to put it.) Moving the panther is the main thing that I need to get done prior to him arriving. I honestly hate this deadline.

__________________
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine...Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been....