Snails!

Grandpa's Fish Tank has some new residents!

You can see them much, because they live in the sandbed and help keep it clean.
They're called Nassarius snails. They look kind of interesting with a sort of snout that goes out and eats dirt in the sand.




I put four Nassarius snails in the tank. Right away, one climbed the wall and two went in the sand. saw the third one kind of laying on his side with his door shut and a hermit crab was nearby. Snails shouldn't lay on their backs, so I turned the snail over. The fish store guy said the snails would mostly live in the sand, so I didn't worry too much. I didn't like how the hermit crab was chasing after the snail, though.

I decided to read about the Nassarius snail. I learned about how they clean the sand with their snout, and then I read how hermit crabs will eat the Nassarius snail and steal their shells. I wondered if that's what I saw in the tank, that the crab was trying to take the snail's shell. Uh oh! Not good!

When I got home from work, I checked, and sure enough! Perched on top of a rock was a hermit crab wearing a brand new shell!





So now, the tank had only three Nassarius snails. I think.



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A New Fish!!

Wanna see something cool? This is a new fish for Grandpa's tank. Some friends brought him this fish, called a Banggai Cardinal Fish. Isn't he cool?





His tail fins and lower fins are black with white spots. His lower fins are polka dotted! There is a black stripe running right down his face over his eye. We think he's really neat looking.

His favorite thing to do is just hover in place under a rock ledge. He doesn't swim around fast like the other fish in the tank, at least not very often. We have seen Pepe LeShrimp snap at him! We'll have to watch to be sure they don't fight!!




Since one of the friends who gave him to Grandpa is going to go on a mission, we thought this fish needed a missionary-like name, so we named him Elder Fish! Doesn't he look like he's ready, with his white shirt and black tie?




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Two shrimp in one!!

Hey kids,

I know most of you haven't seen Grandpa's fishtank yet, but this is a kind of fun thing, so I wanted to tell you about it right now.

First, here are the things that live in Grandpa's tank:

• A Yellowtail Damsel fish
• A Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
• 6 Hermit Crabs
• 3 Turbo Snails
• 2 Tiny snails (they live on the rock, and we don't see them very often, so we're not sure what kind they are yet)
• 2 Green Chromis
• 2 Clownfish (Nemo fish)
• And a Flame Angel fish

None of them have names yet, except the Angel fish. I'll tell you more about the others later, but today, I wanted to tell you about the shrimp.

You can tell why he's called a Skunk Shrimp, can't you? He has a big white stripe down his back, just like a skunk.

This morning, when I looked in the tank, I saw TWO shrimp! What happened?

I looked again, and realized that the shrimp had shed his skin, called an exo-skeleton, and was growing a new one. You can see the kind of clear exo-skeleton on the right, and the real shrimp on the left.

When you grow, your skins grows with you. But when a shrimp grows, he sheds his skin and builds a new, bigger one! Cool, huh?

  

So here's my question for you: What do you think we should name the shrimp?
If you click on the pencil below, you can type your answer! :)

Love,
Gramma

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