These pictures reminded me of my reef tank that I had for over 5 years. At one point, this particular fish (copper banded butterfly)lived in it with bluefish (aka blue damsal) & misc others.
Copper banded butterfly are very difficult to care for and unfortunately he did not survive. However, Bluefish lived for almost 5 years. The interesting story surrounding bluefish is that he was on the verge of death because this yellow tang kept picking on him so much, but once I removed the tang from the tank, Bluefish recovered and returned to his old self.
I learned so much about creating an ecosystem for marine life in that time. Everything was alive inside the tank and dependant on each other for their survival. Right down to the tiny organisms you could only see floating around in the water at night using a flashlight. I really enjoyed that aspect of the entire experience of the tank. I had polyps, mushrooms, corals, anemones, snails, shrimp and various other organisms that assisted in some way of maintaining the tank. Live rock was essential to the system.
I find so many parallels between what I learned about reef tanks and personal responsibility. Everything that existed inside it, needed each other. It became very clear to me how each of us are connected to each other and that when we believe our actions or choices will not affect another person, we are lying to ourselves. That may appear to be a leap to some, but I honestly believe that nature is a model for us to learn from when we are uncertain how to make decisions in life. The answers to life are simple, but are difficult to face because we have so much that we do not wish to let go. Maybe in time we as a species will open our eyes and take care and value what we are fortunate to have.
