My tank mesmerizes me.

Let me explain. Whenever I go to my friends house I can't help but stare at her tank. Face pressed up to the glass. Watching everything. She gets annoyed that I pay more attention to it that her. In this 29 gallon tank there are a few fish, snails, some hermit crab, a wonderful sea hare, Jaques the cleaner shrimp, a clam?, and a very unique nudibranch. Its hard not to stare. Along with these animals are a wide range of other life. Coraline algae, tube worms, at least 4 different kinds of sea sponge. And many unknown little critters. From tiny zooplankton, copepods, algae, tiny tiny snails, unidentifiable (to us) bivalves etc. The tank is teaming with life and every time I stare at it I find more and more going on. One day I was staring at a Piece of her live rock where 2 hermit crabs were resting and grazing. Suddenly from inside the rock a thick pink crab like claw comes out and tries to grab a hermit. Quickly it retracts. I have never seen this claw since.

The thing is, it's impossible to tell what kind and how much life really lives in the tiny nooks crannies caves and shadows of the rock. I literally see something new every time I stare.

Now that I have a tank of my own to care after; so many years have gone by with me wanting one. I finally get to see the fruits of my labour. At least of my pocket book. My timers turn lights on at 6am, maybe 10 minutes before. My alarm clock for work goes off at 6am as well. In case I haven't mentioned it my tank is also about 2-3 feet from my head as I sleep. Beside the bed. So right when I wake up there the 'reef' is also waking up. It is said that tanks are most active at night when the lights are off. So this must mean that as I wake up the inhabitants are just winding down from a wild night in the water. I roll over and just stare.

Seeing where everything in the tank has relocated. What has changed what is new. It blows me away. I can not help but to stare. And time just flys by. Suddenly I am looking like i will be late for work. Even if I just run in to the house to grab my laptop to make another blog post. The tank grabs me. Suddenly I forget what I was doing, why I am here.

Its funny really. The life I live is pretty interesting, entertaining even. There are not too many dull moments in it. But the underwater world consumes me. I am a registered PADI diver, and whenever I hit the water everything seems alien. But you know what, its not. This air breathing surface existence I am used to is the alien world. The life on earth began underwater, and is primarily underwater. Life on earth, in a non biblical sense starts at microbes and progresses up to phytoplankton and continues on, zooplankton, fish fry, etc, etc. Most of the air we breath comes not from the forests but from the ocean. Hard not to get blown away by the vastness of it all.