#kvar's tiny ecosystem

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I T ' S H E R E (Well. The stand is not. But the tank is, and I'm hoping to set it up next week. Ignis can get HELLA more room to explore and grow, plus I'll have tons more space for new coral. Get hype!!! I sure am!!!)

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Facebook informed me that today is Nugget's "birthday", so I thought I'd take a look back at how he's changed over this past year. Left is from the day I got him, right is from today. Not only have his color and body condition improved drastically since I took him home, but it seems like his black patches have changed! I'm inspired to try and look up any info people may have researched about this kind of mutation. Happy birthday, lil' Nug

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I... made a tiny mistake today I've been mourning the loss of my eel Aurin for a long time, but I kept hesitating every time I thought about converting her tank into something else. We had a shipment of golden dwarf eels come in a few days ago, and I fell hard for this little baby still sporting his juvenile colors. I missed having a noodle to nurture. He's probably going to be my biggest fishkeeping challenge yet. Feeding may be difficult, but I've prepared many different options while I work on trying to tong train him. Fingers crossed! He's getting let out of the bag very soon! As per my personal fish philosophy, he will not be named until I get him reliably eating.

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A rare cryptid sighting (And also my hawkfish Ace)

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It's a big day for the bab! He's been out and about exploring during the daytime, being a curious and adventurous noodle. He also has a name now: Ignis! (There's so much damn coralline algae. Ugh. My urchin is not paying its rent)

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Bab update! He's doing fine so far, and definitely having fun exploring all the tunnels in his rock. He's slowly gaining confidence, but he's not quite sure enough of himself for a feeding attempt. Progress nonetheless!

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Bab Update 2: He has eaten! My first feeding attempt on Sunday resulted in his cleaner shrimp buddy stealing his food and freaking him out, but he overcame that fear quickly and is learning how to handle the tongs well. Right now he is on a mysis shrimp diet, enriched with a vitamin soak. I plan to slowly introduce finely chopped squid and fish into his diet; maybe I can find small enough packets of mixed marine proteins somewhere. I may offer him dinner twice a week instead of Aurin's once a week schedule, since he's a growing bab who needs his nutrients. He's much less of a camera hog than Aurin, though. While Aurin was happily diurnal, this bab strongly prefers to be out at night, so much that I usually don't see him at all during the day. Ergo, there will likely not be many good pictures of him for a while, lol. I will begin considering names now, and his name will be finalized upon his second successful feeding!

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(Hey I'm feeling way better and Fiance and I didn't fight so have some fish pics) I got a new son about a month ago (lost my Yasha goby and there was a hole in my heart). He's a geometric pygmy hawkfish and even though he took like two weeks to learn to eat mysis shrimp, he's healthy and well adjusted now. He's a perching species, and there's only so many prime perching spots in the tank, so he and Nugget sometimes aim for the same spots. Both of them love this particular patch of zoas, but since they're both good boys, they never fight and share their space with no issues. Sometimes they sit on each other and it's adorable. I'll get a pic one day! I still haven't found the perfect name for him yet rip

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Ignis has learned that sometimes food happens when his tank lid gets opened, so now he gets real hype whenever I do anything mundane like prune algae or change his water. Silly noodle. Check out his ferocious roar. I love him (Gymnothorax melatremus)

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Eel bab ate his second meal in my care today, so I am now confident in his survival. That means he can get a name now! The current front runners are Ignis, Baaj, Strahl, and Haizhe, but I am open to suggestions. What do you think, tumblr?

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I finally got a good picture of my little cryptid Alea! She's definitely nocturnal and I guess she's foraging on natural microfauna in my tank, because I've never seen her eat anything but my occasional live brine shrimp treats and she's very healthy. I think she may have even grown a little! Fun fact, she might be a species undescribed by science! She was imported as a "circus goby", another name for nocturnus gobies. But while their colors and markings are similar, her fins and facial morphology are totally different! I haven't been able to find a scientific name anywhere, so for now, she'll just be my little mystery cryptid

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Cleaned up the nano-reef yesterday and feeling proud! Most of my kids were being camera hogs today.

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I forgot to introduce Catalina, a pom-pom crab a coworker gave me when he broke down his saltwater tank like a month ago You can tell she's a female because of that orange patch on her abdomen -- that's an egg mass! (She molted today and got really offended when I tried to take a picture)

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Poliwag has ascended to Bitch Queen of My House today because I was 2 seconds late with her evening feeding and she expressed her frustration by chomping on Nugget's pectoral fin and shaking him around a bit Nugget seems completely unbothered and they're only minor rips that should heal quickly (I'm only semi joking about rehoming her now and if she tries to eat Alea or Yasha then she's gon' get the boot)

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I bought a male-female pair of rarely imported midwater signalfish and the male is getting his bearings now but the female didn't really get the chance because fucking Poliwag ATE HER. Like within two minutes. I saw a fin sticking out of her mouth and burst into tears of shock, what the fuck I can't believe this The male is over double the size of the female so he'll be fine but either he's going to deal with being single or I'm going to banish Poliwag to Aurin's tank (she's much too big for him to eat) Brb I'm going to go eat my feelings

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It's my birthday on Saturday and I treated myself to some birthday coral (the big green and orange one) Guys. I can't even process how stupid bright it is under my blue lights. This tank looks so good. Fuck.