Fish Museum

Our aquarium has nine fish. They are presented in the order that we purchased them.

Each entry lists the fish's common name in boldface, followed by its genus and species, followed by its family in parentheses.
 

Green Chromis Damselfish - Chromis caerulea (Pomacentridae)

We purchased three Green Chromis Damselfish (along with Blue Devil Damselfish) to cycle our tank in April 1998. All three are stlil alive today, making them by far the hardiest fish we've seen. This is parially because they are docile towards each other, unlike the Blue Devils (see below). They are also fairly uninteresting. One is large, one is a little smaller, and one is quite dinky, so we think of them as the Papa, Mama, and Baby Chromises.
 

Blue Devil Damselfish - Abudefduf cyaneus (Pomacentridae)

So far the Blue Devil has moved too fast for my camera. Click on the picture above to see an larger picture of the blur that is our Blue Devil, in front of a bridge decoration.

We purchaed four Blue Devil Damselfish originally to cycle our tank. One of them died in the first week. Within a few weeks, one of the reminaing Blue Devils had become the master of the tank. He would chase all of the other fish (including the Green Chromis Damselfish) to the top of the tank. The coral and toys on the aquarium floor were his territory, and his alone. We came to refer to him with the nickname Los Bastardos. We tried to discipline him by keeping him in a net for a day at a time, but he would go right back to his wicked ways.

He eventually chased the other Blue Devils over the grate at the back of the tank. This led to a rescue operation which killed one of the fish. This escalated Los Bastardos' crime from harassment to voluntary fishslaughter. The cold justice of our apartment gave him the death penalty. The rescue operation failed to save the last fish, who we assumed starved back in the filter area of the tank. Then three weeks later I noticed his little blue face peeking through a water level window at the back of the tank. He somehow managed to stay alive, so we mounted an all-out rescue operation which returned him safely to the front of the aquarium where he remains today. Since then he has demonstrated rare feats of geology like picking up bits of crushed coral and swimming them away to dig a hole, or wiggling his tail to blow many pieces away at once. Thus we call him the Engineer Fish.
 

Domino Damselfish - Dascyllus trimaculatus (Pomacentridae)

Five, deceased. See the Mortuary.
 

Naso Tang (Lipstick Tang, Japanese Tang) - Naso literatus (Acanthuridae)

We wanted a Naso Tang since we first started our aquarium and were very excited to finally have a fairly big fish. We were surprised that this supposed vegetarian preferred brine shrimp to anything else we offered. We still have yet to see him nibble at lettuce or peas, although he does voraciously eat green algae from time to time. When he gets scared most of his skin turns dark grayish brown, but maybe a dozen spots on each side remain the normal light gray color.
 

Atlantic Blue Angelfish - Unknown (Pomacanthidae)

Deceased. See the Mortuary.
 

Flame Angelfish - Centropyge loriculus (Pomacanthidae)

Deceased. See the Mortuary.

These deaths occurred so close together that Wes and I were inspired to write poetry, captured here.
 

Picasso Triggerfish - Rhinecanthus aculeatus (Balistidae)

We bought our Picasso Triggerfish on July 24th, 1998. He was very young, probably an inch long at the most. He has bulked up quite a bit since then. In the picture at the left, you can see his trigger raised somewhat. He uses this to wedge himself into places so it's hard to drag him out for lunch. He really likes swimming sideways into a particular spot in the coral. Click the first image to see a larger picture of his favorite aquarium territory.
 

Spotted Boxfish (Cubicus) - Ostracion tuberculatum (Ostraciontidae)

The Spotted Boxfish is the cutest little fish we have. When we first got him, he was smaller than a die and very much shaped like one. Now he is a bit more elongated. His fins are hard to see, even in person, but you can see below his in the second picture a brighter yellow line (between two spots). This is where one little fin is attached. He has a rectangular caudal fin (tail) which he folds to one side or the other when he is not using it to steer (in the second picture it is folded away from the camera). He hovers a lot and rotates himself around without moving forward. This is very different from say, the Damselfish we have, which pretty much propel themselves forward all the time.
 

Bicolor Cherubfish (Angelfish) - Centropyge bicolor (Pomacanthidae)

The Bicolor Cherubfish is our first attempt at keeping an angelfish since our traumatic experiences in the summer (see above). So far it has been going well. We got this fish and the Royal Gramma (below) just before Christmas in 1998.
 

Royal Gramma - Gramma loreto (Serranidae)

The Royal Gramma has added more striking color to our aquarium.