blind1993;100816 wrote: mysterybox i think that was extremely rude if you have met him then you know what he is like and he does care. he drove all the way from marrieta to alphretta just to get sea grapes for his tang.
I apologize if I was rude. I am a little discusted how he treated all those animals that he was repeadedly warned about while he was asking for advise, but continued to heed barely any.
how many fish are alive? Inverts?
reminder?
just acquired several new fish for my tank... they were not planned on, but sometimes you must look at a gift as it is.... especially one as generous as the one I have recently received.... while the recent population explosion has raised some questions, it also brings other questions that had been lurking in the back of my head.
To start, here's what's in the 55gal tank:
A bunch of live rock
chaulerpa (wavy)
chaeto with little buggy guys running around n them (that's one of my questions)
2 cleaner shrimp
1 coral banded shrimp
1 ghost cave shrimp that has left a picture perfect molt (or that may be 0 ghost cave shrimp)
hermit crabs
snails (tiny ones and two decorative cone snails with red and white candy-looking shells)
three emerald crabs (although I never see them together)
a white/pink/purple/brown condy (?) anemone
a sea apple
5 coral frags, one of which I think is about to go to coral heaven... it's a bleaching open brain
1 6-legged magenta starfish
1 serpent star
1 clownfish (orange with clean black lines around the white)
1 6-line (8-line?) wrasse
1 dragon goby
1 mandarin
1 yellow tang
1 foxface
1 flame angel
1 juvennile emperor
1 tang that is a bristletooth and a flamy-tail
a flame hawk
a diadem dottyback
a purple dottyback
All of the fish are small, and there is no evidence of crowding (or so I think right now) and a pecking order seems to have been established.
So here are the questions:
Do fish normally hide out of sight for a couple days (emperor angel and new flamy tail tang) when first introduced?
How do i get that shimmering light effect with my fluorescent light tubes?
How much chaulerpa is too much?
Do shrimp leave perfect molts right out in the open?
How much should my water be moving?
How do I get just a little more movement without having to drill holes or macguyver it?
How does one use a turkey baster to feed animals and corals?
How can I feed my anemone without the cleaner shrimp getting in there and pulling food out?
If my open brain is dying, how can I revive it before it's too late? Some bleaching is occurring.
I have a sump, but it seems to be more of a place where water flows out of the fishtank through a big sponge into another tank then into a channel with white confetti-looking staff into another tank and then gets pumped back into the system. Is there supposed to be something else there?
My water always tests perfect when I take it in (except once where salinity was a little high and calcium was low). Should I just leave it alone and see what happens?
I stopped reading at sea apple.
That thing is gonna fry your tank one day.
__________________
Loren W.
went in with my eyes somewhat open and not completely uneducated... Judging from the fish going in and what was already there (for example, the two dottybacks are being introduced at the same time),
I figured it was worth a shot... and I do expect a couple of them to go down (the Mandarin, for example), but the others that will go... good question.
I'd like to address a couple of very legitimate concerns that were brought up...
First, the sea apple...
It's a time bomb... one that we don't know when it will go off, and I understand that when it does, I'll need to start the entire system over. It's something that I've wrestled with a bit and finally decided that when the time comes, the time comes...
But let's say I chose to get rid of it... who would buy one? Where would be a good place for me to sell it?
Hey David, for what it is worth,
I agree that you need a lot of education really fast. I consider myself a pretty experienced reefer who has his 55 gal stocked to the max and can get away with it because of how I have set up my system but even I would not stock your 55 that much with that mix of fish. It is a recipe for disaster! My advice would be to pick what you like the most and go trade the rest for store credit. If you need one of the experienced reefers to come over and give you some advice, I am sure one of us would be more then happy to stop by or have you stop by our houses.
Brandon
David, maybe pick 5 or 6 fish and put the rest of in the For Sale thread...you might be able to trade or partial trade for some equipment such as a skimmer or lights.
I would do it at the soonest...if one or two of those die and you're not there or don't see them because they are behind rocks, you could spike and loose everything.
I have a 55 with 5 average sized fish and I that's about all I feel comfortable with at my experience level.
Loren K.
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">
As far as lowering the population, I don't think that's going to go over with the Missus to well... I'll just have to figure out how to make it work.</span></span>
Thing is, I've seen and worked with tanks set up like this that worked well (Okay, no dottybacks or mandarins were involved), so while I understand the logic, I also have to look and say "but I've seen it done and work for months on end before."
Ya all that linda said.... and more...
David, I would be more then glad to help but I got to warn you, I am not very forgiving with advice! If I think you are out of your mind, I am going to tell you....
If I think that you are wasting the life of an animal, it is going to get under my skin.... Worse yet, if I think you do not care about what is best for the animals and consider them disposable, I am just plain not going to support that way of thinking. There are plenty of great displays that can beautiful that do not include a Mandrin that will starve to death, a angel that will grow way too big for the tank, and a sea apple that will nuke everything on the drop of a hat. How does it look for your customers when the phrase "Look at the beautiful tank with a few dead fish!" comes out of their mouth.
This hobby is not about "add x, then add Y, then you can keep Z". I know people who have set up better then mine that can not keep some of the corals I keep, heck I know people with set ups almost like mine that I can not keep some of the stuff they keep. This hobby is about science, with a dash of luck, and a lot of knowledge... I think you are heading for a world of headach and a lot of money loss by taking the approach of "I have seen it done before so I must be able to do it!"
whenever I meet someone who says "it can't be done," I remind myself that just recently, about one or two years ago, scientists and physics experts around the world...
...proved that the bumblebee could fly.
(they're still working on proving that helicopters can fly)
So please, just as respectfully, accept that I have seen other environments and biotopes succeed in tanks, and please accept that I am working in that direction... and when I separate the advice from the passion, please understand that it is just that, and that there is nothing personal being taken or implied.
David,
I agree fully with you, things CAN be done that are cutting edge and out of the norm... but there are a lot of really smart people around here that are really good at fish keeping and some of them are telling you to revise your thinking of reef keeping... Is it that they are a wuss and do not want to advise you to take risks or is it that they realize your experience level and are worried about your decisions and level of understanding? I think it is a bit of both. I could teach you how to use "driveway heat" ice melter in your tank as an additive. Would I dare do that? Not on your life! By your own admission, you are a noob and it would be too high of a risk vs reward IMHO and too high of a risk of nuking your tank but it works like a champ in someones tank that understands the chemistry of it all.
Because you have seen something in a tank does not mean that it worked in the long term! I have seen tanks that should not be running that will creep along until the point of disaster. I think that anyone with experience could predict that the life of that tank would be short but the person keeping the tank did not care because "it worked" in their mind. To me the animals in the tank are not disposable. I know some people feel that they are just fish and little value is placed on them as a pet vs a dog or a cat.
As a former "top chef" in many restaurants, believe me there is no lack of passion here. But my passion is only offered to people with open minds to honest advice. Not that you are forced to take my advice, just do not be surprised when I give it, you do not take it, you come back on here 2 months later going "everything is dead! Why?" and I sigh!
