mykayaknme Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 4 months and looking good i think. I stopped checking chemistry about a month ago .We keep salinity level at .25 If critters look happy im not going to worry about it. Anyway, im happy nothing has died, HOWEVER; I have had TWO fish completely disapear could something on the list be eating them? One was a little yellow goby, the other was a green mandarin.Also is that pulsing Xenia supposed to spread like a weed? Inhabitants are; 1 StarfishI blue legged hermit crab2 emerald crabs3 red legged hermits1 Anemone crab5 snails1 large red shrimp1 Pistol shrimp2 clownfish 1 large BTA1 small BTAXeniaRicordea? (Dunno whats its called. Its flat and round and i have 2).1 Torch coral1 small GSP ZoanthidsSponge Copepods, etc. Thank you, Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykayaknme Posted September 30, 2017 Author Share Posted September 30, 2017 Here is the photo ro go with my postSent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrc Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 (edited) On 9/30/2017 at 1:24 PM, mykayaknme said: I have had TWO fish completely disapear could something on the list be eating them? One was a little yellow goby, the other was a green mandarin. I don't think anything on your list would catch/kill a live goby or mandarin... However, if either died via some other cause, the shrimp and crabs can clean up the evidence fairly quick. Only other thought is if you brought in a hitchhiker on a rock. I had a Mantis without knowing it for a few months. ETA - Tank looks good btw. Edited October 29, 2017 by nrc add a note Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 Nice looking tank! Seems like things are doing well for 4 months in. As nrc mentioned, a cleanup crew can make short work of a small fish if it happened to expire from other causes. Also, those are both “perches” so could have run afoul of your large bubble tip. In general, I would hesitate to add a mandarin to a relatively new tank as they are normall hesitant to take prepared food and rely on an indigenous pod population. If you weren’t supplementing with live pods (or have a well established refugium) it may well have starved 🙁 If you decide to replace him, try to find one already adapted to frozen food - you might have better luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 Welcome! Looks like you’re off to a good start. It stinks when a fish disappears. Unfortunately, the mandarin most likely starved and was quickly cleaned up by your invert crew. I used to keep dragonets (mandarin and ruby red) in the same size tank, but it got to be a pain breeding enough food for them. Even mandarins trained to eat frozen will struggle to get enough to eat in tanks under 100 gallons, sometimes larger. They’re copepod monsters with insatiable appetites. If you want to give it another go, look up breeding methods for tisbe copepods (important to get this specific type) and set up a breeding station. Mine was a series of 1-gallon jugs with airlines that I fed phytoplankton and crushed fish food. Harvesting was the only task I found to be a pain, but even that wasn’t really hard, just more of a job without much joy in the way of copepods not being nearly as pretty to look at as the critters in my tank. I might give it another try this winter, as mandarins are one of my favorite fish and helped convinced me I had to have a saltwater tank. It’s also good to get into the habit of quarantining fish early on. Reef2reef has great information in that regard in their fish disease forums. You may not have any problems now, but the more fish you add, the greater the risk. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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