The first tang I've bought. It was a tiny baby at the time and spent a few months in my first tank.

Number 2 soon joined in the new tank - again another juvenile. This new one was small but smart and it quickly found a gap in the rock works to escape the first few days of harashments.

Both get on well with the rest of the tangs now - schooling together grazing about the rocks most of the day.

My first tang! My previous set up was only 2.5' long, all 75gallon of it, and the only tang that can live happily in such limited space was a Kole.

Unlike the others, this fish doesn't seem to go for the odd burst of speed and sprint about, but contently graze the glass & rock all day.

A beautiful fish but so expensive! Around when I was looking for one most of them were priced twice or three times more expensive than others.

Finally managed to exchange a bucket load of coral frags for this little beauty. Hard to tell exactly but I believe it has now developed into a fully grown male.

Inquisitive and can be a bit loony sometimes, chasing it's neighbours for no real reasons, including those several times it's size.

Ocellaris Clown
Amphiprion ocellaris

I started out with 2 captive-bred specimens which paired up. Sweet fish, striking in colours and seemed happy enough to spawn on a fairly regular basis.

Oddly, I found the female one sad day, having jumped out of the tank?! No idea what could have spooked it so bad it left the safety of the protective anemone to go surfing concrete.

Took this opportunity to try and recreate the scene in the wild of lots of clowns in an anemone, so I introduced 3 juveniles at the same time.

They formed two groups instead, the main group of three is made up of the original male which has now turned female, it's mate being the primary male and another male taking secondary position.

The remaining two are also forming a lose pair residing in an another bubble tip anemone.

Absolutely the sweetest pair of fish I have. After much trial & errors, losses and heart-aches along the way, I've finally paired up a male and female.

If you ever want to see a fish in love, just watch this pair, they are so close they sleep everynight in the same hole, touching each other.

I'm lucky enough to have plenty of rocks and a large refugium providing the tank with a natural population of pods, their favourite food, to allow the keeping of two large specimens.

All the effort is worthwhile when I watch this pair in many evenings performing a dance as they mate and spawn, swimming up to the surface. A sequence of photos showing some of this dance of love can be viewed in the album accessible from clicking on the picture on the left.

First fish into the system!

Every non-fish keeper exclaimed - "what an ugly fish!". Ha! It is one of the most interesting fish to watch for me. It also happens to be the greediest fish in the tank. In such short time it has transformed from a fast swimming fish darting about to a fat belly fish waddling slower than the clowns. Sometimes I fear it would not know when to stop eating and explode.

8th March 2003

Hopefully this alert and active fish will form a harem of many, part of my army of natural predators of flat worms!

8th March 2003
Added four to start off a shoal - eventually building up to lots and lots.

For such a 'cheap' fish they are beautiful in a group - keeping together in a tight formation.

10th March 2003
A stunning fish close-up. Spends most of its time shifting the fine sand, also nips at hair algae as well. It stays close to the sand when shifting and so do not dump payloads of sand onto the corals at all.

Three have been added together. However, as luck would have it, all three are probably males and have stayed away from each other. When they meet there's no real violence just a little bit of chasing for territory.

10th March 2003
Stunningly coloured juvenile purple tang looked at me with those eyes, pacing up and down its small confines in the shop, so I had to have it! Added to the new tank before the rest of the tangs from the old setup to give it time to settle in and establish territory.

3rd May 2003
Mercy buy! This large tang has been in the shop's display tank ( 2' x 2' ) for months. I've watched it developed HLLE and lose its beautiful colour. Today the shop owner practically gave it to me as he knows it will be going to a good home. It is a bit risky as I already have a smaller Emperor already. Still - at least it has a fighting chance!

Ladyluck was smiling on me! On introduction, this little fellow went straight to the front of the tank and made a burrow 3" away from the glass! It could not have chosen a better spot for perfect viewing.

My continous supply of coral rubble has helped it built a nice burrow, with the door made from a piece of shell. It seems to have settled in very well and getting more confident each day. At first it was very shy and extra care was taken not to spook it - fearing that it would jump into orbit. Now it comes out and fight for food amongst all the other hungry mouths. It even takes flake food too - a very comforting fact as I know my autofeeder can keep the whole population well fed.

Saifin Tang
Zebrasoma desjardini
3rd May 2003

Red sea variety, with well extended vertical fins. Only a small specimin. Hopefully adding two tangs together will ease the attacks on just one victim.

Red Flame Hawk
Neocirrhitus armatus
20th November 2003

"Robbie" was a trade with Jas&Jules. Named after Robbie Williams aparently - by Sue at the LFS where it was purchased.

I took the opportunity whilst there to pick up another one to see if they will pair up. So far so good - think it may well end up being called "Kylie" at this rate.