So, I just wrapped up the drip acclimation…bucket water was at 1.024/25, close enough.  Hand moved the fish into the breeder net and watched it for a minute or two.  The fish is PRISTINE, not a mark on it.  It brushed up against the smaller BTAs (Bubble Tip Anemones) and showed no signs of getting stung (i.e. no sticky tentacles observed).  No heavy breating, in every aspect acting like a healthy clownfish.  I want to say that the entire acclimation process took around 2.5 to 3 hours to go from 1.012 to 1.025 on a drip.  Water in the bucket was significantly cooler by a couple degrees, even after placing the drip bucket on a styrofoam box lid to insulate it from the ground.  I have kept the room lights on to allow the fish a little while to adjust to its new surroundings.
So as promised in my prior post, here’s some pictures relevant to this evening’s events.

Now, I know some folks see that picture and are taken aback.  Really?  Isn’t such a small confined space cruel?  Well, ask my other clowns…



So yeah, those Pink Skunks.  Birthday present from my inlaws from the Diver’s Den on LiveAquaria.com.  I had sold the Ocellaris pair that lived in this reef prior, so I knew I had a spot for clowns and they wanted to get me some “nice” clownfish.  Long story short, the reef also houses a pair of Starkii Damselfish (Chysiptera starkii) and I wasn’t sure how these new additions would be treated.  I also wanted to give them an anemone, but was concerned about the Dragonette Pairs in this tank becoming “lunch” for the anemone.  So I threw them in the breeder net with a Red Bubble Tip Anemone Clone.  Eventually, one got out more than once and honestly the seemed OK.  So I pushed the net down so that the edge sits maybe 0.5 to 0.75 inches below the surface.  Well, turns out the clowns (as well as the Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidatus) and Harlequin Filefish (Oxymonacanthus longirostris)) have figured out that they can come and go from the basket as they please.  By night, the anemone and the clowns reside in the basket, and during they day they basically “overflow” into the tank at large.  It honestly works so well for them that I hate to make changes to it.
And thus, because it’s worked well before, I hope / assume it can work well again, even if only an interim measure (I have NO desire to keep the Lightning Maroon alone in a breeder basket for any longer than I have to!).  So, I’ll end this evening with 2 shots of the Lightning Maroon in acclimation and an interesting observation.  When this fish stresses out, the white lightning stripes become tinged gray.  You can kinda see it even in these pictures.


Tomorrow I’ll figure out what the heck I’m doing with the female PNG Maroon.  Admittedly, I have an idea…