We left the aquarium alone for two weeks, only some small maintenance was done by my mother, but nothing serious. When we got back we noticed many of the corals and inverts had grown. Actually in the period we had the aquarium, little over a year now, many things have changed. The fish never gave much problems, but the corals always where hard, didn’t grow very fast till now. Let’s see how things evolved in our two weeks vacation, and in the previous year since the first life were introduced to the aquarium. A look in the history of all our still living creatures in the aquarium.

The blenny is our very first fish to ever see the inside of our aquarium. He has been with us for more then a year now. It has always been a calm fish that doesn’t show very often, at least not when we are watching. He made it through both rebuilds but was stressed out when we bought the foxface some time ago. Also with the first rebuild he hide himself behind the pump cabinet in the backup aquarium, completely out of reach for us.


Both clownfish have been here for over a year now. We got them together with a small anemone but they never cared much for it. The anemone disappeared after a while and was never seen again. 4 months ago we bought a new anemone, much bigger, and they love it. They are in it all the time.
They make cleaning a living hell but luckily the male is easy to catch, he doesn’t bother to hide between rocks or anything. They managed both rebuilds with ease.
Left is the male, right is the female.


Our Foxface is here for 10 months now. Gave us a scare after the first rebuild when he jumped out of the small aquarium, but didn’t seem to be bothered by it. He is still swimming around happily


The Cleaner shrimp is our first shrimp and our oldest living Invertebrate. In the first setting he wasn’t visible a lot but after the rebuild he took refuge in a cave that was open to see. Unfortunately the catching of the angel fish destroyed that cave and he now moved to the bottom caves where you can hardly see him. Sometimes he shows himself but most of those times are during the night. That is also the reason I didn’t get a picture of him. But he already made it for 10 months in our aquarium

The Blue Tang is with us 9 months now, and has become little bigger in that period. She made it through two rebuilds without much trouble.


Our Kenya tree is the oldest coral in the aquarium, it has been with us for 9 months now and been through so much already. We bought it on a small rock but after some time it attached itself to the big rock behind him as well. Back then it wasn’t a problem yet, but when we started to rebuild after our first Bacterial plague it became difficult to have two rocks attached to one coral. Also the coral had a big blow from the rebuilding and didn’t look very well when we put it back in. After a while we decided to cut off the small rock, which is now a fragment (see later on).
After we caught the Angelfish and had to rebuild a bit the Coral started to grow quickly, guess he liked his new location better. It looks great and healthy again and we are glad he recovered so nicely.
Pictures show when we just got him, after the first rebuild, after the second rebuild and how it looks now.


The red mushroom is the oldest mushroom in the aquarium, it has been in the aquarium for 9 months and was the start of the first mushroom rock. It was 3 months later the second mushroom, a green one, was added to the rock. Then couple of months later the big rebuild started, mushrooms got a new location and a third mushroom was added to the rock (more details on him later). And now, all the mushrooms on the rock have split at least once and when we got back from vacation I spotted a purple mushroom on the rock as well (the backside of the rock). It has become one of my prides in the aquarium.
The pictures show the evolution of the mushroom rock, from the start with just the Red one, the addition of the Green Mushroom, the addition of the Blue Mushroom and finally how it looks now.


The rock with 3 kinds of buttons which we bought 9 months ago is growing like crazy. In the beginning we had the idea sometimes it was growing a little, but then with the plague we had it seemed some died again. After we finally controlled the plague they really started growing, which resulted in a little problem when we rebuild due to catching the Angelfish. The buttons had attached themselves to the rock below. And from that point they grew more and more till the point now where they almost filled up the entire rock they came on.


Our first Hermit Crab has been with us for 7 months now. He moved 2 times to bigger shells already and is still growing it seems. He made it through the first big rebuild without much trouble, except for the fact that we thought he died in the backup aquarium. Last few weeks he is trying to find a bigger shell it seems, so yesterday we added a few bigger ones. But we reached the limit, so we need to find some new ones in the store.
The pictures below show him from his very first shell until his last shell.


The green star polyps have been in the aquarium for 6 months now. We bought it when we got the big plague, which killed most of the polyps. Shortly after the rebuild it started to recover slowly and more polyps appeared. Now after the Angelfish was caught the rock with polyps moved a bit, but the expansion is still ongoing.
The first picture below is shortly after we rebuild the aquarium, second is after the Angelfish was caught and last is how it is now.


6 months ago I got a Tube Worm for my birthday, and it has gone through a lot already. First he dropped his crown, putting us in worries that it might have died. Luckily someone suggested to just leave it and wait and see what happens. And indeed, after some time the Tube worm showed itself again with a brand new crown. Then came the rebuild, everything needed to be removed from the aquarium and stored somewhere. I was afraid this might be too much for the tube worm, since it just spawned a new crown and might be weak. But without much problems it survived. And now, 6 months later it is still there and enjoying his new spot close to the window. He doesn’t show all the time, so I didn’t get a recent picture, but not much has changed since the last time.

Our latest toadstool mushroom, have it here for 4 months now and not much changed in that time. We hope that he will become as big as his predecessor, which we unfortunately lost after the first Bacterial outbreak.


Xenia doesn’t seem to work very well for us for some reason. The new rock with Xenia we got died out within 4 months. However, a small part seems to stand it’s ground, so we do have hope that from there out the Xenia recovers again. If that is the case then the Angelfish where the problem both times. It is still a pity if you see how beautiful it was when we got it and how it looks now, but let’s hope for the best from now on.
The first picture is when we just got it, second was after the angelfish was caught and last is how it is now.


The soft coral has been in the aquarium for almost 4 months now and is the biggest coral currently there. He didn’t experience much since we bought him after the big rebuild. He only shifted a bit due to the capture of the Angelfish. He doesn’t seem to have grown a lot, but we got him pretty big already.


Also 4 months ago we bought a new anemone. The first one died long time ago and we ran into this one, which was much bigger then the previous one. It seems to enjoy itself very much because it has become a lot bigger since we got him. Maybe even too big, so I’m kind of hoping it will split some day so we can have one smaller anemone again. The clownfish like it a lot, they are in it all the time.
Below you can see how it looked when we bought it and how it looks now.


The Encrusting Gorgonian is also one that we have for 4 months. It first started taking over the small rock we got it on but now after we got back from vacation we noticed it also grew onto the rock behind it. It is doing very well and we are glad it does
The picture shows when we first got it and how it looks now.


The Frogspawn coral is with us 4 months, and is the first LPS we got. It seems to be growing nicely in his new location. He also moved after we caught the Angelfish.
The pictures below show him when we got him, first shot after we moved him and how it looks now.


The Blue Mushroom is now 4 months in our aquarium. He was the last addition to the first mushroom rock which contains 3 different mushrooms. He never seemed to be doing very well, and even now there are many brown spots on it which I don’t know what they are, but we did notice that in our vacation it split (2 times?).


The Starburst polyps are doing great, they are really growing rapidly. Especially the centre one is doing very well, the other had some start up trouble because the Soft Coral was bothering it, but after the Angelfish was removed we switched sides and made more space between them and other corals. Within 4 months they got from being small loose fragments to solid parts of the life rock they are on.
The pictures below show the growth in one month time. First two are both one month ago and the second two are how they look now.


The new Mushroom rock is doing fine. When we got the first ones (two green and one striped) 3 months ago they where very small but they quickly expended. After the striped mushroom disappeared we got a Red one about one month after the green ones where placed. This one started out just like the green ones but expended very quick.


Our second hermit crab joined us three months ago. During our vacation he moved into a bigger shell so he seems to be growing bigger. Last few days he shows himself more often too, in the beginning he hide himself under the rocks often.
Below pictures of him when we got him and with his new shell now.


Since 3 months we have a new Heart Sea Urchin, our first one died probably because of the bacterial infection, so after the rebuild and controlling the second plague we decided to get a new one. He didn’t show himself during the photo session, but we have seen him against the window underneath the sand couple of times already, so he is still alive.

Also since 3 months we have a new Sand Sifting Sea Star, our first one died probably because of the bacterial infection so after the rebuild and after controlling the second plague we decided to get a new one, and he is still with us and doing great.


Our very first own fragment has been separated since the first rebuild about three months ago. It has been pushed around many times since then, the biggest move was after we caught the Angelfish. It moved back to the sand where the mother coral once was. There the fish and/or hermits have tossed it over from time to time. But it’s still growing and still looking good.
Below the evolution from when we first noticed it was still alive, followed by the first picture after catching the Angelfish and how it looks now.


Been in the aquarium for 2 months is the Yellow Wrasse. We got him together with the Angelfish, but since he wasn’t a success we sold him shortly after. The Yellow Wrasse is doing fine, but is very jumpy and is scared quickly.


The rock full of purple mushrooms we got 2 months ago doesn’t seem to have changed much. It has moved around a couple of times, because it was hard to place. But all the mushrooms are still there and everything looks fine.


2 months ago we bought several small rocks with buttons and mushrooms. This rock also came with a bunch of buttons and one purple mushroom. In the two months the buttons expended rapidly, especially in the last 2 weeks. The mushroom seems to have given up, can’t be found underneath the buttons anymore. Maybe he detached and moved or something, who knows…time will tell. The whole rock moved a bit after we caught the Angelfish, the picture below shows when we got it, after the move and how it looks now.


This Latest Red Mushroom came with a rock filled with buttons 2 months ago. When we needed to get some rocks out to catch the Angelfish the rock with buttons detached from the Mushroom, which had attached to the rock below it. So now since a month or so they live separated from each other.


Our last addition where these buttons, only here for 2 months and already expending and changing. The rock came with the Red Mushroom mentioned above on it, but after we needed to catch the Angelfish the mushroom broke off the rock, still attached to another rock. So now the rock only has buttons on it, and they are expending territory. They do have some problems with a Sea Anemone bugging them now, but we tried to kill it already.
Below is a picture after the buttons moved to their new location, which was 1 month ago, and following is how they look now.


The aquarium also begins to fill up with Fan Worms again, more seems to show them selves every day. Since the first rebuild we lost many of them, then we had another outbreak of algae killing any of them that came up but now everything is steady again.


The aiptasia plague is becoming worse, several are showing now, and injecting them doesn’t seem to work very well. Of course we aren’t giving up that easy, but we (at least I am) considering peppermint shrimps again, and maybe try the Nudibranches that many people these days seem to praise.


The Halimeda algae are coming back more and more. Also between the Mushrooms on our first Mushroom rock they are appearing between the mushrooms again. And two other places now also begin to grow.


A new anemone like creature appeared on the rocks. No idea yet what it is, looks like a bubble anemone. Going to check on the forums what they think it is, or if anyone reading this has any idea…


And last, but not least, an overview of how the aquarium changed over time. The first picture is the very first one ever taken. Second one is after adding our very first coral, the toadstool. Third is the last picture before our big rebuild. Fourth picture is the first one after the rebuild, clearly visible with the lack of algae. Fifth picture is one month ago after catching the Angelfish and having to rebuild. And the last one is our most recent picture.