Dwarf seahorses (and lots of them!)!

I've had the dwarf seahorses for two weeks now and they are doing well. They had twenty-two babies RIGHT after they were put into their new home and now, there are twenty-nine total (seven adults, twenty-two babies) and more on the way. Soon, I'm going to have to upgrade the tank to a larger one. The seahorses now have their own unique colors (one is green, one is pinkish, and a few are different shades of gray, white, and black). They are eating well and I've even gotten them to eat some frozen food (adult brine shrimp and some smaller mysis shrimp). I think that soon, I may separate the babies from the adults because I think that the adults would eat frozen if I didn't have to feed live to the babies. Pictures are coming soon!

Here comes the "stable"!

As you might have noticed, I haven’t updated my blog in a while but I hope everyone had (and is having) a happy holiday season. I'll start by letting everyone know that all my critters are doing well. Smokey and Sunny (my two crazy tabby cats!) seem to be content (in the mornings and late afternoon in particular) to just lie around and sleep. As usual, Sunny is very cuddly and wants to “snuggle” with me. Fiona has enjoyed running around out of her cage when I let her. The geckos are doing well although my leopard gecko (Seze) doesn’t stay on the warm side of the cage as much as I’d like (she needs to stay warm!). The aquariums are doing well but I witnessed an interesting event with my coral. My frogspawn coral decided to “bail out” of the skeleton. I’ve read that this is usually because either the coral is stressed (not likely with mine because it has been growing and the water is fine) or because they want to reproduce (the more likely with mine). My xenia coral has gone from being one stalk (when I got it) to fifteen stalks (now) in just a few months so it certainly seems “happy” in the tank.

You might be wondering what my title is about. Well... I’ve been reading a lot of information on seahorse keeping for the past few months and finally “took the plunge” with them. I haven’t gotten the seahorses themselves yet but should get them on Tuesday or Wednesday. The species I am getting are called Dwarf Seahorses (Hippocampus Zosterae). They are from the Gulf of Mexico (all over the gulf coast but many are around Florida). The tank is a tiny little two gallon aquarium setup with an air driven filter and a light. It has sand in the bottom, a dead birdsnest coral skeleton, a fake coral, some sort of “macro algae” that is plant like and a piece of “live rock”. I am planning on getting it to look like a seagrass bed (the home of h. zosterae) eventually. I’m getting a mated pair of seahorses so hopefully, I’ll have babies eventually. When I get them and get them established, I’ll post pictures on here so stay tuned!

Mysterious Scratching in a Cat: Not Always What You Think!

Well, my sister’s cat Sox (who has been mentioned in many articles but in particular in my Feb. 4th article) who had the EGC (eosinophilic granuloma complex) issue a while back had still been scratching her neck area and just wouldn’t stop. Now, I knew that a reaction from whatever triggered the EGC could cause this for quite a while but this had been a LONG time since flea/tick topical (the suspected cause of the EGC) had been applied. I was casually talking with my sister about this one day and we both agreed that it couldn’t be a food allergy because we were both under the (wrong) assumption that food allergies made cats sick (vomit, diarrhea, etc) and that they didn’t make cats scratch. Well, later that night, I called my sister back because I had gotten suspicious and had looked some things up and, sure enough, had found that food allergies do in fact make cats scratch and that it is an “intolerance”, not an allergy, if a cat throws up a particular food all the time. She was NOT happy to find this out (although we were both relieved that it was possibly something as simple as this) but asked me what I thought she should do. I told her that while she could take the cat to the vet, they would likely run a blood test and tell her either that it was not a food allergy or that it was indeed a food allergy. If it was a food allergy, I told her, then they would tell her to use a certain diet that contained different ingredients (and simpler ingredients) than the ones she was getting right now and to feed her that for up to six weeks to try and find out what the ingredient causing the allergy was. So, first off, she fed Sox only Friskies canned food (a food that we knew had never caused issues for Sox) for a while but, as you might imagine, that can get really hard when you are not always home to give it to the cat. So, she went to a store and bought a bag of PurinaONE Beyond, which is new and is Purina’s best product (in my opinion). Sox has been on this food for a while now and I am happy to report that she is NOT scratching anymore and hasn’t been for several weeks. She got to have “the sweater of shame” taken off her and is a much happier (and cooler) cat now! So, if your cat is scratching and won’t stop, you might consider the possibility of a food allergy. The food that Sox had been eating was a very high quality food (Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul) but unfortunately, it has “dried skim milk” as one of its ingredients. This is not usually an issue with cats (except for ones that are allergic) because it is a small amount, however, this is the ingredient that was the issue for Sox. Food allergies are more common in cats than many people realize and probably go unnoticed in many cats because their owner attributes the symptoms to something else.
Here are some facts about food allergies. This came from Drs Foster and Smith website.

“Food allergies account for about 10-15% of all allergies in dogs and cats. Food allergies may show up concurrently with allergies to pollen, dust, etc. Symptoms include:
Itching, especially face, feet, trunk, limbs and anal area
Ear problems, often yeast-related
Skin infections that respond to antibiotics, but then recur as soon as the antibiotic therapy ceases
Occasionally, dogs with true food allergies may have increased bowel movements and soft stool. Food allergies should not be confused with food intolerances, which are not true allergies, and generally cause diarrhea and vomiting.”

Blog Update!

Well, it has been a while since my last blog update because I’ve been busy with lots of things. Here is an update on how things are doing and what’s new. First off, Smokey and Sunny have been doing well although I think Sunny has been eating bugs that get inside, or something else that she shouldn’t be eating, because she has gotten sick several times lately. Fiona is doing well and really likes her larger cage (she went from a little over 1 square foot to 7 square feet). She also likes the time she gets to run around my room on the floor! Gex and Seze are doing great and Seze is truly an amazing hunter! She has such accuracy now that she is older and bigger. It is really awesome to watch her stalk a cricket and grab it! My fish tanks are doing pretty well now but instead of three tanks, I have two. My ten-gallon nano-reef had many issues so I moved everything over to my twenty-gallon tank. Things are doing much better now, but my candy cane coral was not doing so well, and it turns out that the hardness of the water was too low so I’ve been adding a product called “Superbuffer dKH” to raise the carbonate hardness. It seems to be working thank goodness! My forty-seven gallon freshwater community tank is doing great and now has a live plant in it (it was supposed to have six but five of them didn’t grow!)! I’ll try to be more regular with my blog updates!

Happy Birthday Sunny!

Two years ago today, my little cat Sunny was born, but I didn't get her until the 12th when she was one-and-a-half weeks old! She is a sweet little kitty and she is very loved! Happy Birthday Sunny!

Spring is Here!

Well, spring is here and I am LOVING the weather (well, at least when it is about 70os and not stormy)! I’ve been to our local wildlife refuge a couple of times and taken some pictures so, here they are!



Smokey and Sunny are doing very well and both have been seeking attention a lot lately. Smokey is so smart that I’ve had some issues keeping her entertained enough. Here are just some things she can do and does that are not all that typical of a cat (some of them are more normal than others)
1. She can unzip stuff (by actually using the zipper pull)!
2. She can open doors by the doorknob if there is something raised for her to stand on that is close to the door and can also use her paws to open them from the floor if they are not totally closed.
3. She will look where you are pointing. Most cats will look at your hand because they don’t understand that you are pointing at something but Smokey actually traces from your hand to what you are pointing at.
4. She can figure out puzzle toys (like “get the food out of this box that only has holes that are here and here” toys) extremely quick (she figured out the most recent one I gave her in like 15 seconds and it was hard for Sunny.
5. She knows how to turn faucets on and knows that water comes out of them and that it tastes better than water that has been sitting in a bowl for a while.

Fiona, Gex, and Seze are all doing very well. Clark died on Friday.
I restarted my 47-gallon freshwater aquarium because it was not doing very well and I am waiting on some bulb plants to sprout before I add the fish back. My 20-gallon saltwater tank is doing pretty well although I have some issues with green hair algae.
I just recently updated the lighting on my nano-reef to a T5HO fixture and the results are awesome! My corals are so much happier with the new light and I have to say that it looks MUCH better. I got some new coral (A hairy mushroom, a monti-cap, and two ricordea mushrooms) and they are doing well. Here are some pictures of my reef tank.

Setting up a Nano-Reef Part 2: Setup

Instructions for a 10-Gallon Nano-Reef
Set the tank on a level surface (when filled with water, the tank will weigh a good 120lbs at least), away from direct sunlight, drafts, and heater/AC vents. Rinse your sand in water (do NOT rinse live sand in freshwater because it will kill the good critters in it) and place on the bottom of your tank to create a surface about 1-2 inches deep. Place your power filter in the tank according to the manufacturers instructions. Do not plug in yet. Place your power head in as well on the opposite side of the tank from the filter. Do not plug in yet. Place your heater in the tank according to the manufacturers instructions and don’t plug it in yet. Place your thermometer opposite of the heater. Fill your 5-gallon bucket with water. Use the de-chlorinator according to the directions on the container. Add salt according to the manufacturers instructions (usually ½ cup per gallon of water) and test your water with the hydrometer. The specific gravity should be between 1.023 and 1.025. Adjust as needed (by adding more salt or more water). Do this (mix water in this way) until your aquarium is full (close to the rim of the tank). Install your protein skimmer (if you are using one) now according to the manufacturers instructions but do not plug in yet. Add your live rock making sure that it is stable and can’t fall. Try to create ledges for corals and leave room on the sand. Place the light bulbs in the hood and place on top of the aquarium. Plug all equipment into a GFCI outlet or power strip. Turn on your lighting. Allow the system to stabilize for 24 hours and then test the ammonia, pH, nitrite, and nitrate. When the test results show 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, pH of 8.0-8.4 and nitrates are detectable (but low), you can add your first creatures (just a few). Once you add creatures, begin testing your tank once a week and whenever the nitrates get to about 30 ppm, change about half the water (Do this anytime you see 30 ppm). The first creatures you should add are some snails and hermit crabs to help with algae that the aquarium is about to get. Let these creatures be in the tank for 2-3 weeks so the system can stabilize again. Once the system is stable, you can start adding a few hardy corals. Add two or three colonies of polyps and/or mushrooms. Once the aquarium has stabilized again (2-3 weeks) you can add some more corals. At this time, you can add some soft tree corals and leather corals. Allow the system to stabilize again (2-3 more weeks) and you can add more soft corals, a few at a time waiting 2-3 weeks between every addition of creatures. Once the aquarium has been set up with creatures in it for 3 months, you can add a fish or two. Some of the best fish to add to a nano-reef are, clownfish, damselfish, and gobies. Let the tank stabilize for at least 2-3 weeks. At this point, you can add some LPS corals to the tank. Some LPS that will do well in this type of tank are open brain coral (Trachyphyllia), candy cane coral, and bubble coral. Only add one or two at a time and let the system stabilize for 2-3 weeks between the additions. Once you get to this point, you will have a thriving reef with some corals, fish, and a few invertebrates for cleaning up. Now, if you want to, you can add some more sensitive invertebrates such as feather dusters, and shrimp. Only add a few at a time and wait 2-3 weeks before adding more. Some shrimp that do well in a nano-reef (not at the same time) are peppermint shrimp, and cleaner shrimp (if you have seen Finding Nemo, you know about cleaner shrimp). Remember to go slow, and enjoy your nano-reef!