Updates on the tank situation!

Most of you guys know that I bought a saltwater aquarium this past weekend (after braving the cold weather for Katie's yard sale). My first two creature purchases were a cleaner shrimp and a SEAHORSE! I have always wanted a saltwater tank and a seahorse so I was so excited!

Katie got a Seahorse, Horseshoe crab (named Hercules) and an Arrow crab (that we call long legs because he looks like a grandaddy long leg in water).

As you all know from a previous post Katie's first Seahorse was attacked by long legs and he did not survive so I am housing him in my tank. I have watched him interact with my shrimp and I told Eric that he would have a free ride down the water slide (toilet bowl) the first time he tried to eat my shrimp. So then Katie called the store that we got our creatures from and they said that they would GIVE her another Seahorse since they were wrong about long legs being OK with him. So she went and picked it up Monday. I would love to say that our seahorse drama ended here but it doesn't. At night Katie's urchin likes to get near the water filter to eat and the Seahorse uses the running water as an amusement park. The Seahorse will get near the entering water and wait for it to push him along and then he whirles around the tank until he can catch something to hold on to..... (this is fun to watch). Well, Tuesday something caught him. Katie came in to find that the Seahorse had whirled right into her urchin! AAAAHHHHHH..... not again! She pulled them apart and the seahorse is still alive but even a day later I think he is stunned. Katie and I went to a different creature place yesterday and we hung out with the owner for about 3 hours. We learned so much about saltwater tanks and the animals..... even our little seahorses! We learned that they are a BIG undertaking for armatures like us! We found out what it really takes for us to keep these little boogers alive and we realized that we did not want to chance it with their survival at hand. We called the store (that we got them from) and explained that the new seahorse had gotten stuck and that we did not think that our tanks were the best place for them (we read that they should be in a tank with nothing but seahorses and be hand feed and we confirmed this with the new creature store). They have decided to let us bring them back along with long legs for an in-store credit. So Katie is taking them back today and she is going to get more live rock for her tank and I need a heater and a chocolate chip starfish for me! YAY! So as of this afternoon I will have a Cleaner Shrimp, an Urchin (that I bought last night), feather dusters, chocolate chip starfish, and of course live sand and rock!