Last night, my daughter announced she had seen something move in the new tank. I immediately jumped up and spent the next few minutes staring at the spot she described. Just as I was about to give up and tell her she had imagined it, a small piece of rock (well that’s what it looked like) started to move. Slowly and with no obvious legs, it slid up the lump of rock it was on and headed for some shadow. It’s about the size of a dried pea, though flatter. It is coloured exactly like the rock – probably covered in tiny algae (I’m guessing here). For the purposes of this blog, until I know better, I will call them tiny rock creatures. They remind me of tiny versions of the creature the original Star Trek crew found in a mine. It was made of silicon or rock or something and the good old doctor had to repair it with, what looked like, Polyfilla.
Of course, I spent the next hour sat staring at every inch of the tank in the hope of finding more life and I was well rewarded. Not only did I find another of the tiny rock (coloured differently from the first but still very like the rock it was on) I also found the most amazing hair/fan structure which I first took to be algae until it vanished suddenly. As I watched it slowly re-appeared and then after a minute or two, vanished again. It was snapping back into something (it’s in an area that’s difficult to see clearly). I don’t have any idea what it is but I have a feeling I’ve seen something similar somewhere in all the books and websites I’ve been looking through so I’m going to try and identify it. My next task is to decide whether I want to move the rock so it’s more visible – probably not (yet). It’s very fine in structure, about the size of a 50p piece when fully extended, white with brown tips to the fans. I am struggling to get a photograph of it but if I manage, I’ll post it.
I’ve also found something which might be (depending on how good my Google searching is) a Serpulid feather duster or perhaps a Vermetid. It’s a red tube which at some point in the past has curled around. It now looks like a letter “d”, the vertical has a mass of tiny “hairs” inside the opening of the tube which occasionally come out for a feel around (waving around) and then snap back inside the tube.
A mass of miniscule hair like fans (which I am assuming is some form of algae is sprouting up all over the rock. I hope they continue to do so, without taking over the place.
Some good advice from my new-found friends at fishkeeping.co.uk about my skimmer. Seems my initial fears may be correct. It should be producing a froth of bubbles and isn’t. Tonight’s job is to take it apart (hopefully) and try to see what is wrong with it.
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