Tuesday Tank-Day: J is for Johnny

Last week I mentioned that we have two dragonets, Flappy-the-green-spotted-mandarin and a red and white starry dragonet (aka “Scooter Blenny”) named Johnny.

Short for Johnny Cash.

We brought him home about two weeks ago. I went to the reef store to pick up some corals. Tesla went along to pick out one of his own (and probably to ensure that I didn’t spend the entire afternoon fishgazing … something I might have a proclivity to do) and instantly latched onto a bright red and white spotted fish flitting around one of the coral tanks. I recognized him from the list of creatures that get along well with seahorses, and after confirming the species I agreed we could take him home.

Before we could even get him into the tank, Tesla had a name picked out.

“Let’s call him Johnny Cash.”

I had no objections but wondered why my teenage son settled on that particular choice.

“Well,” he said, “his eyes look like the coral I picked out last week. The ones called ‘Ring of Fire.'”

Difficult to see the colors there, since the polyps are mostly closed, but that’s the coral he means.

Johnny Cash, indeed.

The only lingering question was whether our Johnny would prove to be male or female. Not that it should have worried me. We had only two other fish in the tank, both semi-territorial and both male. Of course Johnny Cash would be male too – Murphy wouldn’t have it any other way.  And he was. Yet by some strange miracle he got along just fine with Flappy the Feebleminded.

Emperor Maximus, our watchman goby (named for his attitude, not his size), didn’t like Johnny much at first. Sadly, his wide-mouthed attempts to scare Johnny away were met with a derisive stare that would have done the real Johnny Cash proud. Max tried his hardest, but Johnny wasn’t having it.

Eventually Max decided to treat Johnny the same way he does Flappy – with a liberal dose of the Angry Eye but no further aggressive acts.

I’ll get photos of Johnny posted as soon as I can, but in the meantime you’ll have to settle for the general link at the top and a gratuitous shot of Max doing his best to convince the world that he’s still the Emperor despite the fact that no one respects his authority.

Good on ya, Max.