New addition – Long Nose Hawkfish

Today I took my brother and my sister with me to the fish store to have a look around and maybe purchase a coral frag or 2. The first store we went to did not have as much as I had hoped, so I decided to take them across town to another, much larger store.

When we arrived, I immediately noticed a fish that I had been wanting since I started my tank (actually one of the reasons why I decided to get into the hobby). A Longnose Hawkfish. I had been going to fish stores for almost a year before I actually bought my tank and this was only the second time I had ever even seen one for sale. So naturally, I picked up my phone and did a little research on the guy to make sure he was going to fit in my tank. I read that he is a bit of a menace to small crustaceans and worms if not fed on a regular basis, but should leave shrimp alone. I decided to buy him.

He has been home and in the tank for a little over and hour now and is kind of worrying me. He looks awesome, is swimming around, and seems to be adapting healthily to the tank. The only problem is, the only time he takes his eyes off my cleaner shrimp, is to look at my blood shrimp. I am hoping he will settle down and realize that they are both cleaner species and not a threat or food.

I also bought a small porcelain crab. I couldn’t resist picking him up with the way he was filtering the water. Definitely one of the most interesting crab species I have ever seen.

On another note, I have exceeded my fish stock limit in this size tank and am going to have to monitor my chemical levels very closely for the next couple weeks to make sure the tank can sustain the current bio load. Otherwise I will have to remove a fish, or buy a bigger tank