Mol_PMB's Maldivian Biotope

[Ruth]

Lovely pics and terribly interesting! Love your pond

[Mol_PMB]

Nice to see some gobies and blennies in the wild.

Thanks Ian. Here are a couple more:

Red-spotted Blenny (Blenniella chrysospilos) in a hole in a large coral boulder:

This would be a great algae-eater for my proposed tank. I'll need to drill some holes for it to live in.

Here's a smaller fish with stubble on its chin, also in a hole. Is it another type of blenny or perhaps a goby?

[Mol_PMB]

So here's the story of David and Goliath. First, to introduce the cast.

Here is a Titan triggerfish, he's a big chunky beast (more than 2 feet long). He dwarfs the adjacent Oriental sweetlips, itself one of the largest reef fish.

I'm going to cast him as David. Wait, have I got that wrong? David's supposed to be the underdog?


Well here is Goliath, an adult nurse shark about 15 feet long:


Goliath swam into David's territory, and rather than letting him get away with it, David went after him.




And repeatedly bit Goliath on the tail, chasing him away.




A couple of minutes later, Goliath came back and David attacked again! Fortunately he was so busy chasing sharks that he didn't come after me.
Both species can inflict serious injuries on humans when they're in a bad mood.

[Mol_PMB]

On the subject of nurse sharks and smaller fish, several of the ones I saw had yellow 'pilot fish' in attendance, like this:


These fish are young Golden Trevally (Gnathanodon speciosus) and are a striking yellow/black colour when small. I went to the LFS this afternoon and was amazed to see a group of them for sale, about 3" long the same size as the ones I saw with the nurse sharks:



Why was this so amazing? Well full-size golden travally grow to 4 feet long! I doubt many people have a salty tank big enough for a shoal of 4-foot long fish...

[Mol_PMB]

P.S. While I was at the LFS I succumbed to some Black Sunday discounts and spent a lot of money on two large things...

[Ruth]

Love the David and Goliath reference!

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!” Philippians 4 v 13... ( I think)

[Ruth]

P.S. While I was at the LFS I succumbed to some Black Sunday discounts and spent a lot of money on two large things...

Spill!!!!

[Mol_PMB]

P.S. While I was at the LFS I succumbed to some Black Sunday discounts and spent a lot of money on two large things...

Spill!!!!

Well the cheaper one (only £39) was a large piece of bogwood intended for my 450L tank (it won’t fit in any of the others)

[Mol_PMB]

The more expensive one was a new salty tank...

[fr499y]

Haha! Noiicee