Carey's Bio Cube Build

[carey]

I went ahead and did it!!!! I now have an ORA Blue Mandarin! She's acclimating right now so I'll be posting pictures soon!

SOOOO excited! She's a tiny little thing, she was part of a pair but I couldnt take both so I choose the female that was eating mysis.

 

[carey]

Some not so great pictures, I'm too excited so zi just took a couple shots! Couldnt wait LOL

 

[kurtyboh]

Such a beautiful fish, im glad you got it!

 

[carey]

I've been wanting one for almost 8 months and finally feel I am ready. Well, maybe as ready as I can be anyways.

My new baby...she's almost ready to go in the tank! I hope she doesnt disappear like the other fish in the rocks, I'd love to see her out and about with her blue little fins afluttering...

 

[FishAvenger]

Hey AA!

I have been coming to this website for almost a year now and finally decided to make a profile. I have been keeping saltwater fish and corals for 3 years now. I just had to post on here about this mandarin.

Mandarins are among the most beautiful but most difficult fish to keep. I'm not sure that you are ready to properly care for it. I don't mean any offense, but it really looks like you are trying to run before you crawl. You have been doing saltwater fish for 4-5 months and have rushed resulting in several deaths thus far. I can't help but notice people refer you to new posters because your post count is so high they assume you are an experienced reef keeper. I really am just posting to advise you to slow down, take a step back and focus on keeping one reef for a significant period of time with sucess before you try to keep three. I wish you good luck with your ORA, but they usually revert back to pods and it will starve in your biocube.

 

[carey]

Well thanks for making a profile to comment.

If you havent noticed I am the first one to warn people about mandarins, they are so beautiful yet most die of starvation unless cared for properly. I've had the biocube up a few months but had a sw tank before that one. I have a total of 7 tanks starting from last year. I've had successful reefs and that has propelled me to buy bigger tanks and keep upgrading.

My rushing into stuff had nothing most liekly to do with the death count in the 125g tank, a sick fish was introduced and I didn't qt. For that, shame on me.

If the mandarin reverts back to pods I have a supply already in the cube, I keep a fuge for the tank and for in case my scooter dragonet reverts back as well. I had a bit of trouble getting him on prepared foods but that worked out fine so far.

And as a worse case scenario the mandarin can go into the 125g which has an over abundance of pods.

Bases are covered I believe, to the best of my ability. Part of the reason I forked over extra cash and waited so long for an ORA one was to give me the best chance at keeping her alive and well.

As for the rest of your post, think what you will. I believe I have a great knowledge base from all my experiences and am only here to help others. If thats a bad thing well, so be it.

 

[FishAvenger]

You say you have kept sucessful reefs but you've only been keeping saltwater tanks for 5 months. I wouldn't consider a tank established after 5 months, let alone successful. I just feel you aren't doing due diligence. You just separated a pair of blue mandarins, putting more stress on an already difficult species.

 

[FishAvenger]

BTW, rushing had more to do with your 125 then you apparently believe. Introducing that much live stock in such a short period of time increased stress. This weakened your fishes immune systems making them more susceptible to the disease introduced by lack of quality QT.

 

[carey]

Maybe you havent gotten the "gist" of this website. It is for helping others not for attacking them.Constructive critisism is always welcome but not in the way youa re going about it. Thus far I have not had any issues with people like you and hope it goes back to that way. I'm not a child, I've been keeping fish for over 25 years so I do have a clue.

I introduced 3 fish over 3 weeks in the 125g, so don't tell me I stocked too quickly. It was a sick fish, while I take responsibilty for putting him it was not human erorr. Those were the first fish I ever lost, sw or fw and I took it very hard.

Refer to the old adage, if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all.

 

[kurtyboh]

@fishavenger, its good to voice your concern about te mandarin, but caey taught a scooter blenny to eat prep, and has sveral tanks with pods.
I dobt know if you followed the whole thread but i dont think her tank was really rushed, and neither did many members on here. Some diseases are going to get through any fishes immune system when exposed, plus there is no assurity it was a disease that killed her fish.

 

[FishAvenger]

I'm not really being mean. I'm just stating facts and offering some advice. Your crucial error has been rushing in all your builds. I posted because I felt bad, it seems like every other day you are posting that you are discouraged because of losses. I mean, correct me if I am wrong but you have lost almost half of what you'be introduced. A handful of shrimp, the tangs, clownfish, corals, etc... I am trying to be helpful, you are taking it the wrong way.

 

[FishAvenger]

@fishavenger, its good to voice your concern about te mandarin, but caey taught a scooter blenny to eat prep, and has sveral tanks with pods.
I dobt know if you followed the whole thread but i dont think her tank was really rushed, and neither did many members on here. Some diseases are going to get through any fishes immune system when exposed, plus there is no assurity it was a disease that killed her fish.

This is a great point. But when you experience issues and can't pin the cause stop building on a shaky foundation and go back to genesis. Yes many members told her it was ok to keep throwing livestock in a tank that was running for two weeks, that doesn't make it right. I can't say what happened for sure, but I can tell you going back to inception works every time.

 

[carey]

This is just getting silly. Normally I would just let it blow by me....I almost lost a coral due to my clowns hosting it. I ended up saving it in an empty tank and giving it to someone. Other than that my corals have absolutely flourished, most triling in size since early this year.

The death count from that one incident were the 2 tangs, 2 clowns, a gramma and the anthias which wasnt eating. The shrimp I feel are being eaten by something, whether it be the tangs, clowns or the pistol shrimp. I won't be restocking them as I know where it may likely lead. While 6 fish is alot in my mind, in comparison to the actual number of fish I have bought it is a small number.

We've all made errors in judgement and I know I learn from my mistakes.

Can we just get back on track and admire my new fish? The one I've been coveting for soooo long? That was the point in my posting.

And if it absolutely came down to it, and she couldnt make it any of my tanks do you really think I would let it starve to death? Really? Cause if you do then you are making a HUGE assumption and you'd be wrong. The fish come first in my life, as silly as that may sound.

Oh, and the 125g was an upgrade from my 55g, it wasnt a brand new build that I threw fish into. I have 200lb of good solid healthy rock and had no cycle other than a tiny spike in ammonia, which of course subsided before adding any livestock.

 

[FishAvenger]

I know the 125 was an upgrade, I read the thread. But you were doubling your water volume. This was no small upgrade and you ran it nowhere near enough time before the switch. I'm glad your starting to learn, but my point is when shrimp are being preyed upon how do you wait until all 5 have become shrimp cocktail to take action. Mistakes like that are completely avoidable. Your beautiful new fish is already off to a bad start, stressed from both relocation and separation as opposed to only the former. So you are learning in some regards, but completely ignoring issues in others. Denial doesn't get you anywhere in this hobby. You have to own mistakes, you fried a brain coral, the answer is not never buy another. The lesson is figure out what happened, and make it a successful endeavor. You've had some issues with fish so get off to the right start next time. Are you going to QT this mandarin?

 

[hackteck]

why dont we all just move on

 

[FishAvenger]

I am moving on. Is she going to apply a lesson learned from the 125 and quarantine the mandarin?

 

[carey]

The mandarin was ordered and held for me for the last 3 weeks.

I am getting sick of this. Really. You made your point in the first post why continue? And yes, I forgot about the brain coral, again, things happen. So one dead coral on my record. And I didn't fry it, it was on the sandbed and went downhill quickly. It happens. And I take great offense to the do nothing action with the shrimp. I do whatever I have to for my livestock, to my own detriment at times so please lets move on.

this is supposed to be a happy thread, with people enjoying a new beautiful fish. Not with this back and forth.

 

[hackteck]

I am moving on. Is she going to apply a lesson learned from the 125 and quarantine the mandarin?

this post doesnt seem much like moving on to me lol

 

[FishAvenger]

There is no more back and forth, I asked if you intend to QT the mandarin so you don't risk another wipeout? It's an honest question.

 

[carey]

Yeah, I think I'm done here too hack. Took all the fun outta my new fish, but hey what am I gonna do? lol

On another note, it was so cute when I put the mandarin in, she immediately went to the scooter who was so startled by this itty bitty fish he almost jumped out of the tank! He was scared of this tiny little thing. The citron goby is doing well with her and the watchman doesnt seem to care either way. Gld I moved those clowns out of here, they would have given her grief I just know it!