Mandarin pictures

I have some awesome pictures today.

Compare the images to your left and the two below to this picture here. You can clearly see how emaciated the first mandarin was, which is in the linked picture. Note the lines in his abdomen as he was curved about, and then look at the pics below where you cannot see a line or pinched stomach at all.

He's begun eating Cyclo-peeze in addition to the roe.

I'm going to try to wean him onto mysis and Formula 1 as well. I tried yesterday with mysis, and he didn't seem interested in the slightest. I may have more luck with Formula 1 because it's easier to mix it with the roe. The Formula 1 also settles on the bottom.

Another point of interest is the pods appear to be returning. Last night and this morning at dawn I checked the tank with a flashlight, and they were scurrying about, everywhere. On a whole, they were all pretty large too. This makes me wonder. Does the population naturally wax and wan as I had hypothesized before? Has the mandarin not pursued the pods as virolently due to his new diet? Or is this the results of the 2 bottles of Seapods I put in a few weeks ago?

I doubt I'll ever be able to answer any one of those questions definititvely. There doesn't seem to be an exact science with pods. Then again, this mandarin project is pretty far from exact science.

- Josh Day
http://joshday.com

More info about mandarins and roe

Here's an intriguing discussion I found about roe and mandarin feeding.

Mine is the processed and frozen kind, and full of food dye as well. I look at it as processed fish foods all have soy, preservatives, and other bad things in them, and the fish love this roe. Also, it's the only thing the mandarin is eating that I can supply in abundance.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

The mandarin eats

Some great news. The mandarin eats! And he eats something other than pods!

No more speculation--finally, I can venture into the realm of fact. This mandarin happily and greedily consumes roe, the orange fish eggs scattered atop sushi rolls. He slurps them off the sand, off the rocks, and even gobbles clusters of them. By many accounts, these fish can only eat small portions at a time, but mine devoured every last orange ball he could find and was hungry for more. This may be because he hasn't eaten much in several days (he wiped out the podulation), and once he gets in trim shape, he may settle down and not go after the roe with such zeal.

I can't really express how exciting it was to witness this fish finally eating.

Now for some questions I'm going to look into.

Will roe sustain a mandarin indefinitely? I need to look up the nutrtional content of roe. Also, I'd like to find a brand that doesn't have sugar or soy or other crap, even though most fish foods contain soybean in some form.

Good news is I won't have to rely solely on pods, though I plan to buy a bottle or two every month.

Other questions... do other mandarins eat roe as well? I'll have to contact an LFS that carries multiple fish and see if they'd be willing to try feeding them roe.Now that I know for a fact he is eating something I can supply in abundance, I can finally begin to experiment and try to wean him onto Cyclo-peeze--if he isn't eating them already--then mysis, then ultimately powdered Formula 1. Best way to do this is the mandarin diner, which was mentioned at the outset of this project.

A nice thing about roe is it goes straight to the bottom, unlike the Cyclo which floats and wanders.

For the first time since I started this project, I feel like I'm not on a fool's errand and even somewhat vindicated, and all of my time and work hasn't been for naught.

To read about the whole of this project, please see my article here.

- Josh Day
of Josh Day .com

Rough looking colt coral

Over the last three days my colt coral hasn't been looking so hot.

I noticed this the other day, the pink colt coralwas droopy and didn't extend to its proper self. Yesterdat was a lot worse. Limp, discolored in some stalks (but oddly they color up again and another one seems dark), and just shrunken and unhealthy-looking. I moved the powerhead a bit and that seemed to help. May be getting too much water movement or not enough.

Checked my params and other than a .25 reading for ammonia (which I now think is an error), everything is fine. Other corals and starfish are fine. Only colt is dwindling.

I added some carbon today to be on the safe side. Good news is it hasn't gotten any worse from yesterday, maybe a little better.

To the left is what it looked like at its worst yesterday.

I pulled out all the macro scroll algae too. It was out of control and the detritus it collected was causing my filter and powerhead to gag.

Tank looks bare. Pod pile was stupidly rearranged cause I was trying to put another scrubber in, but it just wasn't having it. Needs to be arranged again later when the colt is doing better.

That's it for today.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Roe and Cyclo-Peeze

I've begun to worry about the state of the new mandarin.

He decimated my thriving pod population in a week. I can still see amphipods at night, but the preferred little copepods are nearly invisible. The pod pile is still active, which gives me some hope--if I keep at least some pods alive, they will continue to reproduce, though not in great numbers as before. The copepods have always been difficult to see in the pod pile so I can't say if they're in there in abundance or not.

The mandarin is also getting skinny fast. The rate it's happening is so alarming that I may have to give him away at the local reef club meeting next week. However...

I think I may see some light in the tunnel.

I ordered a new batch of copepods from Sharky's Reef, a top notch online retailer. Fast and friendly customer service, great deals, and beautiful corals... I definitely recommend the site.
Anyway, the new copepods product is called Seapods. It is a lot cheaper than the bottles I bought last time, and Sharky's shipping makes it affordable, as opposed to the ridiculous 10 dollar 2 day shipping you are required to do for the other brand.

My last culturing experience was a total waste of time and resources. I'm not doing that again. Instead, I may order a number of these bottles from Sharky's every month, the exact quantity to be determined when I inject the two initial bottles directly into the tank.

Today I went to the LFS and finally bought some Cyclo-peeze. I was expecting frozen blocks, but instead I came home with some freeze-dried. Freeze-dried looks like powdered red chunks, and they break apart when they hit the water to reveal copepod-size "Cyclo."

And for the first time, I honestly believe the mandarin is eating something other than pods.
Though my turkey baster has not been exactly effective, I sprayed enough to settle on the bottom and some of the rocks, and the rest--that wasn't engulfed by the clown and the rampaging brittle star--eventually came to a standstill too. I watched the mandarin for about five minutes and saw it hitting up the area of sand directly blasted with the Cyclo. The mandarin was busy consuming... and he was chewing, which is something different from the other times when I thought he maybe was eating mysis or frozen brine.

I also bought some roe too, the orange fish eggs on sushi. Unfortunately, it has soy and crap on them, but it was all they had... and the clownfish loved it nonetheless. Later today I'm going to inject the tank again with roe to see what happens.

This mandarin was hale and hearty for 2 weeks at the fish store with NO live rock whatsoever. This makes me believe he was accepting some form of prepared foods as his state has diminished in my care when I had loads of pods... (the pic below is for any nay-saying asshole). Unfortunately, all those white dots above have vanished due to the mandarin's appetite. But I am working on bringing them back.

I've learned a lot from my last go-around. I do not intend to lose this mandarin too.

- J
http://joshday.com

New coral and starfish pic

Hope you had a nice Fourth for all the American fish hobbyists out there.

I got a colt coral last week and it's settling in nicely, already growing. I placed it in the nook of the tonga branch.

Above is my red fromia star, Fromia milleporella. And yes, all those white dots are pods.

In other news, I lost my fiddler crab, most likely due to the extreme regular heat in the bathroom tank (86 degrees). I've started turning the light on at dusk and leaving the hood off in the day to keep things cool at around 80 F. Also moved the larger guppies into the densely planted and crowded ten gallon tank. Little guppies remain, food for my new puffer.

The vases are starting to look green and nasty. Time for a big 70% water change on both of em... also, the elodea one is all uprooted and tangled. Needs to planted back down under the rock.

Sorry for the delay for the pics. I'll post a whole tank shot of my nano reef soon.

- Josh Day
of Joshday.com