seecrabrun
Active Member
Did you catch the damsel yet? What kind is it?
finally taking the great mandarin jump
- Thread starter pinky327
- Start date
pinky327
Member
Wow Pegasus that is one handsome male! Thanks for the advice I do plan to go slow I'll keep her in there for as long as it takes she doesn't seem to mind I put some rocks in with her so she has a somewhat natural environment.
My tank many not be as large as some people say they need but I have read others keeping them happy and healthy in smaller systems as long as good food was provided. I was under the impression that th baby brine shrimp with the yolk were nutritionally rich. That's why I built the feeder designed by Paul B, i believe thats his main food source for his mandarins, but I may be wrong. So the BBS and the fresh fish eggs which are also nutritionaly rich were ment to be the safety net that kept weight on her. While I do have pods in my tank I'm not sure I have the 1000s a day she would need to survive on them alone. That's why I'm doing the two diners one is for the BBS and the other for the fish eggs and whayever other food I see she likes. I have both diners in with her now and so far so good. I knew the problem with the eggs was they didn't wiggle like live food but I was happy to get some in her. But yesterday she got her fist batch of BBS and was all about that. My mesh was pulled too tightly so they escaped the diner rather fast but she was sucking them out of the water column like a pro.
I don't want to just fatten her up to watch her starve again later, I want her to get use to going to the diners for food when its feeding time. While at the same time be hunting the rocks for pods while I'm away. So I guess I'm trying to feed her mainly off BBS, eggs, and worms (if she will ever eat them), and have the pods as her snack food. I'm really just going on theory's based on everyone else's experiences so I can only hope this works!
My tank many not be as large as some people say they need but I have read others keeping them happy and healthy in smaller systems as long as good food was provided. I was under the impression that th baby brine shrimp with the yolk were nutritionally rich. That's why I built the feeder designed by Paul B, i believe thats his main food source for his mandarins, but I may be wrong. So the BBS and the fresh fish eggs which are also nutritionaly rich were ment to be the safety net that kept weight on her. While I do have pods in my tank I'm not sure I have the 1000s a day she would need to survive on them alone. That's why I'm doing the two diners one is for the BBS and the other for the fish eggs and whayever other food I see she likes. I have both diners in with her now and so far so good. I knew the problem with the eggs was they didn't wiggle like live food but I was happy to get some in her. But yesterday she got her fist batch of BBS and was all about that. My mesh was pulled too tightly so they escaped the diner rather fast but she was sucking them out of the water column like a pro.
I don't want to just fatten her up to watch her starve again later, I want her to get use to going to the diners for food when its feeding time. While at the same time be hunting the rocks for pods while I'm away. So I guess I'm trying to feed her mainly off BBS, eggs, and worms (if she will ever eat them), and have the pods as her snack food. I'm really just going on theory's based on everyone else's experiences so I can only hope this works!
pinky327
Member
Oh sorry seecrabrun just saw your question... No I haven't. he is a bluefin or black damsel depending on which source you read. He is 7 years old, and just much smarter than I gave him credit for. I have tried so so many ways to get him out. I tried the net he knows what that means and goes straight to his cave once I come at him with it. I even tried not feeding him for days and then putting a shrimp in my net. No go. I tried a dyi fish trap wouldn't go in. So I have been trying to fish him out with a hook. And it appears his super fish senses knows what a hook is so that was a failure. I just don't want to move all my rocks to get him out. The only reason I want him out is cause he needs a bigger tank I actually really like him he has personality and is always out looking at me but im concerned he will be too pushy towards my mandarin which isn't a problem right now as I have her separated. I'm not happy with the way this has gone and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to take out a bunch of my rock just to get him...
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pegasus
Well-Known Member
Thanks, pinky. I'm glad to see that you are taking proper approach to keeping your beautiful fish alive and healthy. Too many people rush to buy them without any knowledge of how to raise them, and too many die as a result. It's looks like you're off to a very good start. She obviously is recognizing the eggs as a food source, so that's great news. Yes, brine fry with yolks attached are far more nutritious than those without. They still lack the proper nutrition to keep a mandarin healthy. That's where variety in the diet plays a key role. One thing that will help tremendously would be to soak a small amount of crushed flake food in American Marine Selcon (fantastic source of nutrition), and gut-load baby brine before feeding them to her. No, a 28G tank will not sustain a large enough population of pods to feed a single mandarin, nor will a tank twice that size. It will be up to you to feed her and keep her healthy. Keep up the good work!
jay0705
Well-Known Member
variety is the spice of life. For fish too. Also I dont reccomend this normally bc people thinks its an easy fix. But you have done ur home work, u can buy copepods/amphipods packs. These are live and will be a nice treat. However u would go broke only feeding this lol. So I say treat. Yes they will eat amphipods, there bigger but its still a live critter they like.
seecrabrun
Active Member
do you have a picture? Damsels are actually one of my favorite fish. I have 2 currently, 4 technically as chromis are part of that family.
seecrabrun
Active Member
except I don't have a clown, yet... lol!
pegasus
Well-Known Member
The video is 9 months old, and there have been a few additional corals added since then, but it'll give you a general idea of how it looks. Sorry... there's no audio.
pegasus
Well-Known Member
It was a used system that I bought about 2 1/2 years ago. I don't know how long it had been setup before, but the tomato clown that came with it was 8 years old. It was a very lightly stocked, bare-bones FOWLR tank, so there really wasn't much to the system when I got it, five fish (still have two of them), a few rocks, a little sand, crappy sump, crappy lights, and a decent skimmer. When I set it up at home, I added 120lbs if live sand, 60+ lbs of rock, and slowly stocked the tank with fish and a few corals. I upgraded the skimmer, replaced the sump with a large fuge, and replaced the MH/PC lights with a six lamp T5/HO. Without resorting to heavy mechanical filtration, it's pretty much maxed on fish capacity. I'm mainly focused on adding corals at this point, but that'll be a "years-long" process. Some people say it's a never-ending process... lol!
pinky327
Member
its all good i was enjoying the read! looks like the only one I have up right now is a little old but here he is. I feel like so many people hate them, where i really love my damsel, he has the most personality out of any fish i have ever encountered. if only i had a bigger tank for him....
on a side note my little mandarin is still kickin! she seems to change he preferred snack food with her mood, some days she wont eat the eggs some days she will. she started eating the white worms a little so thats an additional food source, she wanted nothing to do with the mysis, and neither did my damsel which is weird he is normally my little chow hound and eats everything. I used the brine shrimp and the feeder to trick her into eating the cyclopseeze, which after doing some research on seems to be genetically designed to offer tons more nutrients so im happy with that option also as for now its a so far so good kind of story!!
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on a side note my little mandarin is still kickin! she seems to change he preferred snack food with her mood, some days she wont eat the eggs some days she will. she started eating the white worms a little so thats an additional food source, she wanted nothing to do with the mysis, and neither did my damsel which is weird he is normally my little chow hound and eats everything. I used the brine shrimp and the feeder to trick her into eating the cyclopseeze, which after doing some research on seems to be genetically designed to offer tons more nutrients so im happy with that option also as for now its a so far so good kind of story!!
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