Bowfront seam failure?

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Beverly

How are things going since the crash?

Hi Bev,

The mandarin who I've moved into my other tank is doing fine, although I'm concerned about his long-term prospects in there with the exceptionally hungry 5 other fish in there to compete with (doesn't matter how much I feed them ...). I shoot mysis at the mandarin when I see him and he'll take one or two, but it's a far cry from the 12 of so mysids he'd get per day when he was in the other tank (because the other fish are like lightning on the mysis, whereas with his former tankmates, nobody would let me get close to them with the turkey baster {except him} so it was a breeze to target feed him). I'll have to see how it goes, right now I'm not worried since he seems to be fat and not terribly hungry, but if that changes I might have to try to catch him and put him back in the other tank.

The other tank, other than being mostly empty now, seems to be doing OK now. The perc (probably ocellaris but it doesn't really matter to me) has the 90g to himself and I think he (she by now) is probably a little dotty without some company, so I am considering picking up a small percularis or two to see how that goes.

The anemone has had a few off days since the move but is overall doing OK.

Snails, hermits, conch, other corals (mostly softies), and the perc, all were unaffected by whatever it was that killed the fish.

I had contemplated getting rid of the ritteri but I don't think I'm ready to do that anymore. It's a very large animal and as such there are not too many tanks out there that could do well for it. And since now there is a risk to fishmates if something sets it off, I don't know if I could consciousably (sp? is that even a word??) pass it off to someone else if they didn't know what they were getting themselves into.

My thinking now is that if I ever do get other fish for this tank, and if I ever have to move them again, the fish have to be done in a separate move -- different initial tank, different timing, etc.

Before I had the tank setup I had briefly flirted with the idea of a common sump between my two tanks. I can only thank my lucky stars now that I had decided against that idea, I don't want to even think about what bullet I dodged there.

... I haven't quite decided if I want to sell the bowfront or keep it and maybe turn it into a vivarium. When I have some time I was going to tackle the issue of resealing it. Interamerican would charge $100 to reseal the tank, or I could try it myself (espescially if it's going to be mostly a terrarium or vivarium anyhow, no big deal if my silicone work looks sloppy, so as long as the leak is actually fixed). But to be honest I don't think the size/shape lends itself real well to any vivarium sp I'm not sure ... I'll have to sleep on that question some more.