Mandarin Candidate Resumed

I picked up this fat and healthy mandarin male today. A far cry from the last trooper, this guy looks like a muppet with fat cheeks, a nice, rounded gut, and a full underside and throat. Apparently, coloration is not a facor in their health and state as my last one was as bright and alluring as this guy.

He's eagerly swimming about the tank zapping pods. He has been at the LFS since 6/16 and is in remarkably good shape, much better than the other two on display. My hope is he was accepting the prepared foods offered to the other fish in the tank.

I'm going to try some roe tomorrow or the next day when I can get out to an Asian food market.
I'm also still on the look out for cyclopese shrimp as they are not sold around here at all.

Note how healthy this one looks comparedto my last fish.

- Josh

http://joshday.com

Underwater Honeymoon Photos

Finally developed the last two rolls of film, including the underwater camera. Shots turned out ok, better than I thought, not as good as I had hoped. Here are the four best pics:

Large red starfish
Sponge
Anemones
Striped fish

For all our chetday.com and crockpotrecipes101.com newsletter subscribers, I again apologize for my tardiness in posting these photos. Rather anticlimactic, I guess, as I've been hyping this for weeks now. You should have seen the water down there, though. Crystal clear, mounds of anemone-covered rocks rising from the sand, bright tropical fish everywhere, sharks, rays... well, no sharks or rays, but if I'd gone out farther, I would have seen some. And it turns out later red buoys marked the good snorkeling area, and I totally missed that.

Another note... my favorite LFS has gotten in red fromia stars. I'm going to get one today.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Some updates

I finally maintenanced the guppy tank. Drained out half the water, changed the pre-filter and filter cartridge (polyester floss), and scrubbed the impellor. I removed the plastic top brace to see why it was leaking at the top. Low and behold, the acryllic was in mint condition, no crack anywhere. My theory is the center brace was not clicked firmly in place. Now that it's back, I filled it to the top and no sign of leakage. And the tank looks great.

The corals are doing well. My penguin filter may be on its last legs. I've had to tear it down and clean the impellor as well as the impellor housing twice now. It fills with sand and chokes and gags, and yesterday it even completely stopped, burning the motor. I cleaned it, but it's getting more of a pain in the ass to deal with. I'd like to keep it cause I like the biowheel but damn, I'm going to scrap it if it keeps clogging up.

I'm also in the market for a new mandarin. Looked at one the other day but its inactivity turned me off. I want to find a fresh arrival, big and fat. Also, I want to try the spotted variety as I hear they are more inclined to accept cyclopese and mysis.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

More soft corals

Went back to Everything Fishy today and picked up some metallic green star polyps, or GSP's. These are also soft corals and very hardy and good for beginners.


I've heard GSP can take up to a week to open, but mine opened in an hour or two after being introduced. The purple is the underlying mat and the grassy green polyps grow on that. As the coral grows, the mat expands.


Whole tank shot.

Moved the zoos, or green button polyps, to the other side at the base of the pod pile and scrolled rock. As you can see, they took the move ok. The algae is shadowing out half of the polyps. Going to trim some back tomorrow.

I'm going to enjoy watching these corals grow and colonize, especially the zoos as they take over the pod pile.

- Josh
joshday.com

Zoanthids, aka button polyps

I now have corals, and my nano marine tank has officially changed into a nano reef.

Button polyps, zoanthids, green button polyps, or even incorrectly called sea mat, are members of the soft coral family. They are some of the hardiest corals and excellent for beginners. They come in a range of colors, but tan is the cheapest and most commonly available, which is good enough for me.

I also had my eye on some green star polyps If these zoanthid polyps work out, I'll give the green star ones a try as they look really cool.

Here are some pics:


I've positioned the base of rock the 60+ polyps are embedded on atop the sand, at the foot of the tonga branch and gnarly fiji piece. My hope is to have this fast-colonizing button polyps spread onto both rock pieces.




Here they are up close. I acclimated them for a good hour, adding 1/4 cup of tank water every ten minutes, slowly dripping it into the bag. I also suspended the bag in the water so the coral never once touched air. I heard this from the LFS, don't know if it's necessary or not, but it sounded like the prudent thing to do ('specially since these guys cost $35, which is actually cheap for coral).

They opened up almost immediately, and within ten minutes, every bud was open.

I do not know what that nasty white string is, but it looks dead... I guess it's just some die-off. Hope it's not a bad omen.

Until next time.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Death of the Mandarin

Well, after getting back from Wal Mart, I investigate the nano tank and couldn't find the mandarin. A moment later I discover him dead, stuck on the intake of the powerhead.

I did not see him this morning but by his near perfect state (though clearly dead, he looked asleep and only a little ragged) he must have died within a half hour of me finding him.

This was a shock as I had watched him closely last night and he was fine, no change in behavior whatsoever... and eating, always eating. I'd use the magnifying glass and watch as he came up to the glass and saw him slurp down 1 or 2 pods at a time.

I looked at the body up close and he had not changed a bit since I got him from the store. Skinny and pinched in the abdomen. It appears he did indeed starve, but I just don't understand it. The tank enjoyed an over-abundance of pods, and even when I felt the population was dwindling, you could still find at least 3 or 4 on every rock or area of sand.

My hypothesis is he was too far gone when I bought him and he just could not recover to a proper weight, even with plenty of food. I wish my camera would take pics of the pods on the glass, it's really quite amazing how many I have. It honestly looks like an infestation.At least with him gone the pods can really take over the tank now...

I still believe in my original theory and I won't let this deter me. However, I'm going to let the tank really get good and covered in pods, and for the meantime I'm going to try some zoanthids.

I'll update on this project when I get another mandarin, this time one in excellent shape and a lot larger, around 2 and a half inches.

- Josh Day
of Joshday.com

Scroll algae taking over

You're not going to believe these pics.

My scroll algae, or padina sp., is thriving. A patch or two started sprouting about two months ago, and I now have four healthy, rapidly expanding growths.

Here's what it looked like only two weeks ago.

Compare that to this spectacle below.



Talk about intense, huh?

I owe it all to my Coralife 20" 96 watt quad-tube 50/50 "Aqua"light. Yeah, try saying that three times fast, and if you're in high school, I highly recommend saying that between classes, you'll get your ass kicked so fast a tongue twister or nerdspeak will be the last thing on your mind.

Anyway, I bought that light with soft corals in mind. Soon I plan on getting some zoanthids, maybe mushrooms, but the algae is so cool it's almost like having coral.

You can see the clownfish loves the camera.

See you next time.

- J

Mandarin Update

It has been a while since my last report on the mandarin project. And no, it's not dead; on the contrary, everything seems to be staying at the status quo.

The mandarin's appearance remains the same, though he may be a little plumper. Good news is he's definitely not getting skinnier. I'm starting to believe there is no problem because he continues to be active, colorful, and alert. He perks up when msysis is injected into the water column, and though I haven't seen him eat a piece of mysis, there appears to be some cause and effect with his behavior and mysis.

The pod population seemed to be dwindling for a while. My quart jar production is not going well... and I'm almost at the point of abandoning it. The 2 scrubber pads and pod pile in the main tank may be sustaining the pods; I just have to refrain from injecting more from the quart jar next time the population drops. Either the population naturally waxes and wanes or the quart jars are keeping the pods in good numbers. I'm inclined to believe in the natural waxing and waning as the quart jars seem to be doing a lot of nothing--there has been no boom in population, and you can only see one or two pods at a time on the glass.

Today I scrubbed algae from the front viewing panel and there are hundreds of pods on the glass. And they still are crawling all over their protected areas. I'm going to inject more mysis into the pod pile; this seems to boost their population with direct feedings.

I'm feeding the pods in the quart jars powdered Formula 1.

Until next time,

- J
The Mandarin Project

Water Changes: 1.5 / 3

The 55 gallon tank is in good shape. Changed out 20% of the water and replaced all the filter cartridges with brand new ones, empty for better flow. I was using peat but the water is so red I'm giving the tank a tanning break. Also, the peat clogs a lot easier than carbon or nothing.

Changed out about half a gallon of the frog's tank. Still haven't done the damn guppy tank yet, though. That will be a pain the ass, especially with the cracks at the top. Don't know what I'm going to do with that little system.

Scroll algae has covered the entire rock. Soon it will take over the tank. Looks cool...

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Water change day

Lot of nitrate testing in my horoscope today. Then water changing... going to water change the big tank, and I'd like to drain out half the guppy tank too and investigate the leak at the very top. Don't remember if I posted that... but, when the water reaches the very top, there are two small leaks from the front of the acryllic, under the reinforcement brace. Also I need to water change the frogs too.

I hope my saltwater tank doesn't need another change.

On the topic of water changes, here's an article by Ecotank to get you in the mood.

- Josh
http://joshday.com