Non diving project for once

I felt like doing a "non-diving" project for a change. Blasphemy! But we needed an aquarium stand, and our old tank seems to be of a size that is out of style at the moment. So . . .

It's not as hard as it looks. There is a company called King Archetectural Metals that carries thousands of bent scrolls, legs, etc. Once you have a mental picture of what you want, you just thumb through their immense catalog and look for pieces that fit your vision.

At the moment, we have a decidely unsophisticated approach to our aquarium. Whatever we can catch or net at the pond down the street goes in. Little bass, catfish, bluegills, turtles, crawfish, whatever. My kids think it's a lot more fun than the same old flashy fish that you usually see. My wife says feeding time (which again consists of whatever worms, crickets, or minnows we can catch) is more like a National Geographic special.

We used to take the same approach with a semi-saltwater aquarium, when I lived near Pensacola Bay and was out most weekends. Damselfish and blennies are colorful, and entertainingly territorial. But the coolest thing we ever had was a 6" flounder. I once put a dozen minnows in at bedtime, thinking that would last him a few days. Next morning, every one was gone. Very cool to watch hime change colors and wiggle under the sand. Shrimp and crabs are fun to watch too.

It's low budget, to be sure, but at least you aren't out $100 when you wake up to find half as many fish as there were the day before!

One of the things that I was surprised to learn early on is how aggressive blue crabs and stone crabs are. They are not just scavengers, but are quite able to catch and kill healthy, free swimming fish. Crawfish are the same way in a freshwater tank.

At one time, I had a juvenile redfish about 6" long in the tank, along with a blue crab that was about the size of a silver dollar. Redfish love to eat crabs, but this one was too big, so I thought they would be ok. Over the space of a couple weeks, the crab tormented the redfish, constantly snipping at him until his tail and fins were cut to pieces.

I had made up my mind to remove the crab, but when I got home, the tables had turned. The crab had to shed his shell as part of their normal growth, and that leaves them soft for a while until their new shell hardens. During that few hours, the redfish took him apart. When I got home the redfish was fat with all the crab that he could eat, and the rest of the crab's legs and claws were strewn about the tank.

Probably a moral in there somewhere . . .