The Departed
I posted the following on a popular Internet fish forum:
Well, it's over, guys.
About a week ago I discovered the mandarin behind the tank. He had jumped out and was very much gone. Most likely he had jumped out the night before as I had investigated the tank in the morning and had not found him (a common occurrence in the past and it didn't worry me until I didn't see him in the afternoon when I checked again after work).
As I had attempted to be as objective and scientific as possible with this whole mandarin thing, I was very close to laying the body on a paper towel and photographing the abdomen (upon death and drying had shriveled only to the girth of my index finger below the second knuckle) with a timestamp to prove I did, in fact, keep a mandarin alive for two years in a nano, and in optimal condition.
In the end, I could not do it as I felt it would have been disrespectful to the fish because he was first and foremost my prized fish and the favorite in all my collection and not a science experiment.
As he grew and got older, I found I had to increase his feedings of roe and frozen Cyclops to twice a day. A large amount of food. This kept him well rounded and full looking. A week before the end, if I were to miss two days, he would begin to develop the lines in his sides and a slightly concave belly as opposed to his normal flush and rounded one.
As he was my last fish, upon his death a week or so ago, I had not added any food to the tank. The tank is unskimmed and very rich in nutrients. I have a bryopsis pandemic on my hands, as well as a fast growing halimeda colony that had all but taken over. For years this tank was accustomed to daily heavy feedings.
Two days ago I had awoken to discover a pea soup in the tank. You couldn't see an inch in. My first thoughts were that either the large brittle star had died and polluted the system, or the urchin had croaked and released the supposed poison death cloud of doom which we have all read about--before I go on, a word about said urchin. A tiny specimen, its longest spine no longer than half a sewing needle, which I bought a week before the mandarin's jump to curtail the bryopsis. As we all know, urchins are not good for nanos as they get huge, and can puncture LPS as well. I knew all of these things and took a calculated risk--by the way, the urchin is/was only temporary and I was going to trade him back in after a month.
Turns out the starfish did not die and the urchin remains MIA, though I suspect it's alive and well as my chaetomorph pile is diminishing, and I've been monitoring ammonia missions daily and everything remains at zero... as well as no further green cloud outbreak.
Getting back to the polluted water. I immediated mixed an emergency batch of IO and performed a 90 percent water change. After work, I got home and the tank was sparkling... LPS was out in full, as were the soft corals and crocea clam. Ammonia nothing.
As of today the tank is sparkling clear. I am, however, having pH issues for the first time in the life of this ten gallon nano.
Never before did I have to use pH boosting chemicals. The tank always stayed at 8.4. Now, since I'm no longer feeding... I'm having a hell of a time keeping it at 8.2. Correlation does not lead to causation so I can only speculate on the cause, especially now, as a number of factors are involved.
I can speculate on the cause... I assume the urchin is still alive, as I would expect some spike in ammonia after at least 24 hours of the initial 90 percent water change, and mostly I would expect more cloudiness. I think what happened was some kind of algae bloom in the water as it was more green than milky, some kind of backlash due to the sudden cease in feeding... think a flea population explosion after you and the dogs go on vacation and their numbers bloom even though they have nothing on which to feed.
As for the pH drop... damn... I don't know... but now I know what most of you guys suffer through, and everyone else in my reef club. It really sucks.
Sorry for the derailment into the state of the system. The mandarin is gone and I do not expect I'll be getting another. However, if someone wants to pick up where I left off, feel free to turn this thread into your own. One thing I thought about doing in the past is starting a tank with the spotted or target mandarin variety to see if there was any truth in the oft-repeated anecdote of the target mandarin accepting foods more so than the green species.
---
It's now been more than a week. I'm using a marine buffer to keep the pH over 8 as it's still unstable. I fed a pretty good amount of frozen mysis to the tank and that seemed to perk everyone up--corals included.
I ordered a glass hood from Drsfostersmith.com. Once the water parameters stabilize, I'm going to introduce a false percula (ocelleris) clownfish, and then later a purple firefish. These fish are very easy to care for and feed. It will be a nice break.
In other news... my electric blue dempsey was found dead, glued to the Aquaclear intake. Found him a few hours after death. Best guess is something was internally wrong with him as this is quite common in this rare strain of fish... they are very imbred and scores of them often go out.
- Josh
Well, it's over, guys.
About a week ago I discovered the mandarin behind the tank. He had jumped out and was very much gone. Most likely he had jumped out the night before as I had investigated the tank in the morning and had not found him (a common occurrence in the past and it didn't worry me until I didn't see him in the afternoon when I checked again after work).
As I had attempted to be as objective and scientific as possible with this whole mandarin thing, I was very close to laying the body on a paper towel and photographing the abdomen (upon death and drying had shriveled only to the girth of my index finger below the second knuckle) with a timestamp to prove I did, in fact, keep a mandarin alive for two years in a nano, and in optimal condition.
In the end, I could not do it as I felt it would have been disrespectful to the fish because he was first and foremost my prized fish and the favorite in all my collection and not a science experiment.
As he grew and got older, I found I had to increase his feedings of roe and frozen Cyclops to twice a day. A large amount of food. This kept him well rounded and full looking. A week before the end, if I were to miss two days, he would begin to develop the lines in his sides and a slightly concave belly as opposed to his normal flush and rounded one.
As he was my last fish, upon his death a week or so ago, I had not added any food to the tank. The tank is unskimmed and very rich in nutrients. I have a bryopsis pandemic on my hands, as well as a fast growing halimeda colony that had all but taken over. For years this tank was accustomed to daily heavy feedings.
Two days ago I had awoken to discover a pea soup in the tank. You couldn't see an inch in. My first thoughts were that either the large brittle star had died and polluted the system, or the urchin had croaked and released the supposed poison death cloud of doom which we have all read about--before I go on, a word about said urchin. A tiny specimen, its longest spine no longer than half a sewing needle, which I bought a week before the mandarin's jump to curtail the bryopsis. As we all know, urchins are not good for nanos as they get huge, and can puncture LPS as well. I knew all of these things and took a calculated risk--by the way, the urchin is/was only temporary and I was going to trade him back in after a month.
Turns out the starfish did not die and the urchin remains MIA, though I suspect it's alive and well as my chaetomorph pile is diminishing, and I've been monitoring ammonia missions daily and everything remains at zero... as well as no further green cloud outbreak.
Getting back to the polluted water. I immediated mixed an emergency batch of IO and performed a 90 percent water change. After work, I got home and the tank was sparkling... LPS was out in full, as were the soft corals and crocea clam. Ammonia nothing.
As of today the tank is sparkling clear. I am, however, having pH issues for the first time in the life of this ten gallon nano.
Never before did I have to use pH boosting chemicals. The tank always stayed at 8.4. Now, since I'm no longer feeding... I'm having a hell of a time keeping it at 8.2. Correlation does not lead to causation so I can only speculate on the cause, especially now, as a number of factors are involved.
I can speculate on the cause... I assume the urchin is still alive, as I would expect some spike in ammonia after at least 24 hours of the initial 90 percent water change, and mostly I would expect more cloudiness. I think what happened was some kind of algae bloom in the water as it was more green than milky, some kind of backlash due to the sudden cease in feeding... think a flea population explosion after you and the dogs go on vacation and their numbers bloom even though they have nothing on which to feed.
As for the pH drop... damn... I don't know... but now I know what most of you guys suffer through, and everyone else in my reef club. It really sucks.
Sorry for the derailment into the state of the system. The mandarin is gone and I do not expect I'll be getting another. However, if someone wants to pick up where I left off, feel free to turn this thread into your own. One thing I thought about doing in the past is starting a tank with the spotted or target mandarin variety to see if there was any truth in the oft-repeated anecdote of the target mandarin accepting foods more so than the green species.
---
It's now been more than a week. I'm using a marine buffer to keep the pH over 8 as it's still unstable. I fed a pretty good amount of frozen mysis to the tank and that seemed to perk everyone up--corals included.
I ordered a glass hood from Drsfostersmith.com. Once the water parameters stabilize, I'm going to introduce a false percula (ocelleris) clownfish, and then later a purple firefish. These fish are very easy to care for and feed. It will be a nice break.
In other news... my electric blue dempsey was found dead, glued to the Aquaclear intake. Found him a few hours after death. Best guess is something was internally wrong with him as this is quite common in this rare strain of fish... they are very imbred and scores of them often go out.
- Josh
posted by Josh Day at 10:36 AM
1 Comments:
What a shame. Be proud that you kept him alive for as long as you did.
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