Jeff and Jeanne

I came home for lunch today to find Spot laying sideways on the bottom of the tank. I guess saltwater fish don’t float when they cork. It had been acting strange the last day or so, rubbing on the rock and such.

We had a burial at sea.

I hope Dynamite will be ok.

Today is Jeanne’s Mom’s birthday!

For our first (of many) official Proefrock Family Fun Day, we went to the Van Andel Museum. It was a lot of fun. We saw the special Maps exhibit as well as two different planetarium shows. It was quite a day. They actually let 9 of us in the same building at the same time. Jeanne and I, Jason and Debra, Josh and Julie, Mom and Dad, and Granny. Crazy hu? I haven’t got my pictures up, but I will soon. You can see and read more about the day if you check out Jason and Debra’s site.

Future thoughts on locations for the Proefrock Family Fun Day include the Meijer Gardens, the Gerald R. Ford Museum, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and Craig’s Cruisers (I may have added the last one without anyone else’s input )

Happy Birthday Jeanne!

And a couple of fish!

Ok, before you start making any comments, you should know that they all came from the local pet store, and that the crabs are Blue Legged Hermit Crabs. We’ve got three of them now. Along with a Royal Gramma and a Percula Clown.

For those of you that have been by the house in the last couple of months, I’m sure you noticed the 20 gallon fish tank in the eating area all set up with water and no fish. Well no more. Last weekend (January 26th) we made a trip to Rochester’s Reef in Grand Haven and came home with Spot, Dynamite, Larry, Moe and Curly.

Spot is the Royal Gramma. We named it spot because of the little black dot on front of it’s dorsal fin. We started with Dot, but Spot came out accidentally a couple times, so we switched to Spot. It seemed more natural. This is one quick fish too. Spot can shoot across the tank in the blink of an eye. And you wouldn’t believe the size of the mouth on this thing. When the crab gets into the lower hole in the rock, Spot gets a bit defensive and lets the crab know by biting the shell. No harm comes to either of them. But it’s fun to watch.

Dynamite is the Clown. I came of with the name in honor of Rudy Grahek, aka Dynamite the Clown. Dynamite the Clown was a local clown while I was growing up, famous throughout Northern Michigan. He lives near Reed City. In fact, we would pass his house every day on the way to school. It seemed like a fitting name. He’s fun to watch. He likes to get up behind the overflow of the filter, laying sideways, play peek-a-boo? The first time he did this, Jeanne thought he was sick. Turns out he’s just playing.

The hermit crabs are named after the Three Stooges. If you watch them for a few minutes, you’d know why. They do some strange things! Physical comedy is definitely their thing. They have been seen climbing (and falling off of) the large rock in the aquarium. Occasionally they fight. One night the largest of the three (Curly) was running laps around the rock. He would climb up through the lower hole in the rock to the back, come around the right side, then back through the hole. He must have done that a dozen or more times. He finally stopped when the light turned off for the night. These guys aren’t very big either. Shell and all, they are maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long. They are in a constant search for food and new homes. Every conical shell that was in the tank (the bottom of the tank is covered in crushed sea shells) has been picked over and moved a bunch of times. In fact the smallest crab (Larry) has switched shells at least twice. We’ll need to get some new ones soon as they will shortly outgrow the shells they have.

They’ve all made it a week, so no more warranty! Not that I expected them to kick off. I feed them twice a day. Usually at lunch time and again in the evening. They get a mixture of a flake food and frozen brine shrimp. They really like the brine shrimp. They don’t actually get them frozen. I take a small chunk of the frozen shrimp and thaw them in a dish of water out of the tank. Then I dribble them in over a couple minute period. The fish love them. I’m sure the crabs get some too since the fish don’t always eat the partial pieces. The crabs seem to like the flake food too. They catch the left overs and greedily munch them down. I guess it’s mostly meat products anyway, so why not!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll keep updating on any new additions. I’ve taken a few pictures, if you want to see them all, check here. I just noticed I have no pictures of the tank as a whole. I’ll get some and put them up later.