Heads Reef

A little change in scenery, is sometimes healthy for the mind.

The movement of color in a live reef is almost hypnotic & usually captures the mind,

freeing it from the binding chains, we live with on a daily basis. That’s why so many people actually have at home aquariums where they can recreate some sort of tranquility. Of course, they’d need to read the coral PAR guide before setting up their tank but once the tank is sorted, a variety of fish can be added.

I hope you enjoy my attempt to distract you.

BLUE TANG

This beauty is one of my fish that knows me quite well.

As you can see, the closest one would normally get to a fish would be a dead one.

This one is very much alive, & I`m only separated from it by glass & less than one inch of water.

Emerald Zooas  

 (3/8`s inch dia.) with surrounding red polychaetes

Calloplesiops altivelis

(Steindachner, 1903)

Commonly called a Comet,or Marine Betta

I`ve had this beauty for many years.

It`s about 6″ longhas a maximum length of 8 ” & is from the Indo Pacific

Emerald Crab

I have three or four in this reef. They are part of the “cleaning crew”,

a critical group of scavengers on a living reef reef.

You can see the scraped areas in white, where the crab has cleaned away algae.

Synchiropus splendidus

(Herre, 1927)

Green Mandarinfish

These fish eat only live organisms on the reef surfaces, & moves about the reef nonstop, pecking away at things mostly too small to see.

It must be introduced only to a well established reef to prevent it from starvation.

A lovely fish, that is not bothered by any others, due to the noxious slime it exudes,

It may very well be eaten by an anemone.

Amphiprion ocellaris

(Cuvier,1830)

Ocellaris , False Percula

This one, familiarizing itself with a Torch Coral, by sucking on it`s elongated body parts, is usually found paired with an anemone.

It will though, choose any number of different coral heads to call home, & will sleep at that location every night.

Istiblennius chrysospilos (Bleeher,1857)

Redspotted Blenny

This one is a little shy in this new reef, but can always be found peeking about to see what is going on.

Purple Snowflake

(Knucklehead 2009)

I obviously just made up the name for this colony.

As you can see in this image, there is a “mouth” in every circular formation.

The little white dots around  the inside of the rims, will extend at night to feed, making the whole coral head look like a dandelion.

Pistol Shrimp

I`ve had this one for years.

It comes out at feeding time & at night, when most of the main reef inhabitants are snoozing.

Homer Simpson Blenny

Ocellaris

This one is the same fish as above, but it is now making friends by sucking on this Leather Toadstool`s polyps.

Tomato Clownfish

This clownfish may belong to a different species but I`ll stick with Tomato.

Here it is in it`s buddy, a Purple Anemone.