ok first off....ive got to clean ma sand bed......its digusting..like. all a sudden theres these red and green spots on it..seems to be like..coraline growth..but ive never heard of growth on sand..wat can i do? i dont have a cleaning crew yet..but im ready to do some major ordering...so wat kind of critters are safe in a reef but will keep my sand bed spotless? help.
2. is that i just bought a mandarin goby i guess ud call it. dragonett wateva..well the lil fellow is beautiful. but...wat do i feed him? guy said nah dont worry hell live off ur live rock..but yea thats wat they said bout my scooter and he woke up starved to death one day. so wat can i feed him?
Some Mandarins will eat live Brine shrimp and that will sometimes but rarely get them to take frozen food like Cyclops, Brine or Mysis.
Their primary diets consists of copepods that live in and on the live rock and sandbed.
Did the person at the store ask you the size tank you have, how much rock, if you had a refugium and how long the tank has been set up?
Any Dragonette like a Mandarin or Scooter really needs a tank with at least 100-200lbs of live rock and a refugium as well and be established for 9-12 months before attempting to keep a fish like this that 99% of the time will never eat anything other than copepods.
They need to eat a ton of them too. They eat constantly while they are awake and at a rate of about 1 pod every 3-5 seconds. Doing the math, a Mandarin can eat upwards of 12,000 pods per day if they are awake for 16hours and only eat one pod per 5 seconds.
Most people should never buy these fish unless they research their feeding needs and then set up a system that will sustain them.
Mandarins have one of the highest mortality rates of all the fish kept in the salt water aquarium trade.
I'm sorry but you should really consider returning him.
A good protein skimmer does pretty good job too. If you don't have a cleaner crew a good skimmer is a must.
Agreed with Schigara, more flow- less algae, thumbrule.
Dragonettes won't survive in an unestablished system, other tumbrule.
Conchsnails also does great job on sandbads, but they also attack smaller snails and crabs..you don't want that, but they stir the sand like crazy.
On the other side.. I'm not sure that you're dealing with cyanobacs or nuisance algaes...Where those red and green spots are? On the surface of the sand, or below?
Totally agree with the skimmer. I would never run any salt without one. Once you see the organic crap that comes out, you'd never want to go skimmerless again.
all the main issues have been covered by the pro's ....lol ....now for the snowboss's low tech tip of the evening............
.get yourself a good old fashion turkey baster {note: not your mothers/girlfriends/wife/other} they won't be very happy, lol} and just gently "blow" the crap off the sand and rocks everycouple of days and let the filter and skimmer take care of it...........i did it daily for a good month straight and until i got some algae hermits a few weeks ago i was still doing it every week to ten days or so ...................................
I would NEVER have a salt tank of any kind or any size without a skimmer again ....wow......the stinkt slimy crud they pull out of a perfectly clear tank is amazing ..........i can hear the skimmer noise cange just from sticking my "clean" hand in the tank for a minute.....
gosh..seems ive got some catching up to do. :( skimmer. seems a must. o and dick(no offense) lol. the spots are on the very top of the sandbed..green..and reddish ones. almost the same reddish greenish color on ma live rock...so cleaning crew asap and skimmer..ill check out petsolutions or drsfosters for those. thanks for the update guys
i use a red sea prizm HOB skimmer....not the best out there by far ....but she does a great job and is reasonably easy to use.and it's right at 100 bucks ................ive got it down to just cleaning now ..............and just let her chug along getting the nasties out...Boss
i dont know if anyone said this yet but i had trouble with cranobacteria which im almost sure that what you have. ADD MORE FLOW i had to little flow in my tank so i added a korilla and than it went away alittle and then added another went away completely... if its not flow it may be over feeding.
as for a mandrine i have one i waited 6 months before i added on my girlfriend was bugging me so bad that i almost killed her. they also like alot of rock word that they can weave in and out of all day. I have this nice piece of rock work that goes all the way to the top of my tank and cups at the top and it loves sleeping in it at night like its a bed i always wake it up when i turn on the lights in the morning its kinda funny.
well as much as it sucked..i returned the mandarin...he was lookin sluggish...and i didnt want to risk loosin the lil guys life over me being hard headed..ill just wait till my tank is super established. lol but great news my lights look gr8! nova xtremes. real nice. so now i can focus on some corals to bring some color to my tank. wassup with u guys tho. any updates?
much respect to ya Easy...................sorry you had to take the lil fella back ....I have been in love with Manderan since before i added salt to my water and I have to fight myself to not buy one .............i hope to put some real tall tonga branch live rock in the big tank one day and then get a couple manderans do a youtube search on them .....they have some incredable footage of them in their natural habitat....then you'll see what they need for a tank environment ,,,,,,,,,,i'd rate them right up there with hard corals and the like as far as care needed ...................
cool on the lights.........ive been watchin Gumbii post about some DIY halides................I'll wait a bit and maybe learn from any mistakes he might make {hehehehe} and then try some for my tanks................Later bud, Boss
There's one vid I saw on youtube of a mated pair of Mandarins doing their mating dance. Very very cool to see! I wish I could find the link to it.
SPS corals are easier to keep, I think. Easier to feed anyways. Just some intense light and fish poop keeps them fed nicely.
The two best Marine Stores I have been to happen to be here in Memphis and they will throw a ton a questions at you when you inquire about difficult to keep fish, corals and inverts and will make proper suggestions of any changes needed to the system or will actually refuse to sell certain livestock to people with inadequate systems. They are very highly respected and ultimately do more business than the other 2 marine stores that will sell anything to anyone.
They know if they help someone to keep a healthy tank with minimal losses and teach them how to keep a nuisance algae free tank, their customers will have an enjoyable experience and will stay in the hobby rather than giving up in a year or so.
