Boo's story.

My name is Boo. I was bought by my owners on 3 December 2006. When they bought me I was only about 3 inches long and quite skinny, I haven't half grown since then.

Things seemed to be going really well, I had a best friend called Rabbit who was a foxface rabbitfish. We would swim together , feed together and even share the same cave. One by one more fish were added. Even though things seemed okay it started to go wrong bit by bit.

One day Rabbit started to swim erratically round and round the tank. He seemed to bump into everything and even started to go off his food. He then seemed to be okay after a few days. At the beginning of January our owners decided to put Rabbit into a quarantine tank to see if they could treat him, but unfortunately he died during the night.

This really freaked me out and I went off my food, I had lost my friend and was lonely.

A couple of weeks later my owners introducted a Longnose Butterflyfish into the tank, this fish didn't do at all well from day one. He very soon died and was nicknamed Grim (as in Reaper).

Not so long after this every one of my tanks mates developed severe whitespot, they were covered in it. Constantly bumping off rocks and visiting the cleaner shrimp. Our owners tried everything but to no avail, one by one the fish started to die off. I became really ill also, refusing to eat and sulking in my cave.

On 25th January 2007, my owners decided to do some ringing about to try and find out what the problem was, firstly to where they had purchased my tank and equipment from, A Drop In The Ocean. They were advised that there was nothing wrong with the equipment and this was natural for fish to die off and not survive well in captivity. They rang another shop called The Abyss. They were brilliant and told my owners that the UV Steriliser that they had been sold was nowhere near enough big enough for my tank.

On 27th January 2007, my owners decided to visit The Abyss to purchase another UV Steriliser. Whilst there they discovered that the water test kit they had been supplied was poor and not up to standard, also there wasn't enough water movement in my tank.

They decided to start again with the tank. By this stage I was really ill and nearly dead myself.

Besides myself there were two other fish left, Stan the Pakistani Butterflyfish and B'stard the Blue Cheek Goby. They had been advised that I may have gill flukes by The Abyss. They decided to try and help me by giving me a freshwater dip. They also freshwater dipped the other two fish as well. This involved them catching us from the main tank and placing us in a tupperware container filled with treated tapwater. I was placed into this container for 3 minutes. At first I sunk to the bottom of the container and looked like I had died, but after a minute I came to and started to swim about. Lots of little gill flukes came off me. The other two also had bits coming off them.

All three of us were then placed into the quarantine tank, which is a 6 gallon tank. Not very big but it did the job. For the first few days I turned black with white stress spots all over my body and refused to eat. They kept nudging me to make me swim because I was ready to give up on life. That very same day Stan died and the morning after the Goby died. This really stressed me out and I very nearly called it quits. After a few days they offered me some dried brineshrimp and I ate some. This was the start of my recovery.

Whilst this was going on they had drained my big tank, took all the rockwork out and the sand. They also added another UV steriliser to the system. They basically started again with the tank, this took them 13 hours non-stop from start to finish. It was funny to watch them getting stressed whilst I was in the quarantine tank.

By 10th February, the new tank setup was ready to have fish added. They added a Pyramid Butterflyfish (Isis) and a Racoon Butterflyfish (Stripe).

11th February was a big day for me because I was moved back into the main tank. First of all my owners again freshwater dipped me. I hated this but it was for my own good. They then added me back to the main tank. It felt so good being back in my large tank.

Life was good. I was by this time putting weight on, something which I never seemed to do before. Everything was great. Fish were being added one by one and I was really happy, except I really missed my friend the Rabbitfish.

On 6th April 2007 my owners really made my day by introducing another Rabbitfish to the tank. He was really small and quite shy. I was over the moon and showed it by charging around the tank and posturing with my mohawk up.

We were all doing really well. The tank was running great and my owners fed us really well and made sure we had everything we needed.

There was a Teardrop Butterflyfish introduced which became covered in whitespot. I thought, “here we go again, time for the freshwater dip treatment.” This never happened as my owners removed him to the quarantine tank to treat him, but sadly he died.

Over the next two months more fish were added. The tank was now really active.

Big shock on 12th August. My owners decided to add some Aqua One plants to the tank. These looked like Anemones and Reeds. These really freaked me out and I hid in my cave for a couple of days before I dared to venture out and explore. I soon got used to them though.

A week later my owners decided to change the tank setup yet again my adding a Eheim filter to the tank. They did this because it gave the water an extra filtration system and it was a more economical way of using JBL PhosEx and Carbon instead of adding it to the sump direct.

This meant them turning pumps off to the system and adding some more pipework to the main tank. I did not like this and again went sulking into my cave.

I was getting slightly too big for my cave now and my belly dragged on the floor when I went in and out meaning the sand was disturbed on the bottom of the tank. So yet again my owners have changed the rockwork and created me a new cave which is more than big enough for me.

I am eating well and getting larger by the day. My tail has developed into a crescent shape and with the start of tendrils coming off it. This means I have now been confirmed as a male Tang, I also have scalpels that have developed onto the bottom of my body at the base of my tail. I am about 7 inches in length now and still growing.

I like to show my territory by charging around the tank with the mohawk on my head up and posturing in front of the mirrored glass in the tank. Rabbit and I now get on great since my cave has been made bigger, he tried to share it with me but I was not impressed. One of my more disgusting habbits is eating the poo of the other fish, but never mind I can't be perfect.
©Rachael