sheni_angel
Member
Love the little Scooter Blennies. Anyone know much about them? Like would they bother a Mandarin in a 100 gallon? And how many Scooters? <img src="graemlins//angel.gif" border="0" alt="[angel]" />
Just Scootin Along......
- Thread starter sheni_angel
- Start date
sheni_angel
Member
I know that. I'm talking again of a very stable tank with copepods or none of either. But in a stable tank, is it possible to have both? 
sheni_angel
Member
Don't mean to sound snotty at all K.Lee. I've researched quite a bit on fish, except for the copepods and such. Appreciate your info and will do research. Do you think I could have both well and happy if they had all that food?
k.lee
Member
I'd say any scooter needs 30 gallons of LR to browse over and live. This is from my expereience, not a book.
I've kept fish including a mandarin and a clown tang who never touched anything I gave them. The mandarin prolly died becasue of my stupiity after @6 months (maybe overstocking)? The clown tang disappeared recently. MIA.
I've kept fish including a mandarin and a clown tang who never touched anything I gave them. The mandarin prolly died becasue of my stupiity after @6 months (maybe overstocking)? The clown tang disappeared recently. MIA.
sheni_angel
Member
I'm sorry. I've heard it seems that Mandarins are very hard to care for, but I'd REALLY like to have one of those guys. Don't want to screw it up with a Scooter though, even though they're pretty cool.
k.lee
Member
If there is no-one to bully them,. and they can pick their food off liverock, they are hardy. Like said give them 30-55 gallons of pickings. They are relatively disease free. I had the green mnandarin, FWIW, AND WANT ANOTHER one for my reef just setting up now. I'll wait a month or two tho, coz their are no detectable copepods/food items for the mandarin yet.
Lee
Lee
fshhub
Active Member
yes, they normally can mix, but they need good food, as you mentioned, scooter are easier to care for, and eat no where near as much as a mandarin, and are also easier to get to take food, but the 2 combined(or just the mandarin), will DECIMATE what MOST would think of as a good pod population
the scooters are much easier to care for, and are fearless, it takes quite and animal fo a fish to scare one, they do not back down from much at all but mixing anyother dragonnettes, would be risky, most dragonnettes hate others
the scooters are much easier to care for, and are fearless, it takes quite and animal fo a fish to scare one, they do not back down from much at all but mixing anyother dragonnettes, would be risky, most dragonnettes hate others
kris walker
Active Member
Just be cautious with scooters. IMO, they are not all that easy to care for, but fshhub probably has more experience than I do, so would know better. And since I never had a mandarin before, I can't really compare. Scooters do eat a lot of pods though (but again, compared to a mandarin I don't know). More often than not, scooters will be very skinny when you see them in a LFS, cause they don't have enough pods in the tank to sustain them.
Most of the scooters (2 of 3) I had died of a bacterial disease. They partially bury themselves at night, so the potential to pick up bacterial in the sand or CC is great. But I agree that they are sorta hardy. A month before one died, it did a full recovery from a bacterial disease after treatment with maracyn-2. I was really impressed. But my lack of a proper QT tank screwed them over in the end (a half-gallon bowl does not cut it).
Good luck,
sam
Most of the scooters (2 of 3) I had died of a bacterial disease. They partially bury themselves at night, so the potential to pick up bacterial in the sand or CC is great. But I agree that they are sorta hardy. A month before one died, it did a full recovery from a bacterial disease after treatment with maracyn-2. I was really impressed. But my lack of a proper QT tank screwed them over in the end (a half-gallon bowl does not cut it).
Good luck,
sam
sheni_angel
Member
I really don't want to screw up my Mandarin, so is it better not to have the Scooters? And I've researched to know they need copepods and to wait until my reef tank is very stable (I'm going to have a 100 gallon tank = 100 lbs rock?) But I don't know about copepods yet. Do they form on their own in ripe conditions or do I buy things? <img src="graemlins//angel.gif" border="0" alt="[angel]" />
kris walker
Active Member
Pods will proliferate throughout your tank when there are few things that eat them. Having sand or CC substrate will be fine. Having LR is important.
I don't know about mixing as said before. But I would trust fshhub's advice when he suggests that the act of mixing should not be a problem. It's really a question of enought food.
sam
I don't know about mixing as said before. But I would trust fshhub's advice when he suggests that the act of mixing should not be a problem. It's really a question of enought food.
sam
fshhub
Active Member
newb, yes and wiht mandarins, it is all hit and miss, with anythign but pods, some will take brine, but most wont, some will take bloodworms, but most wont, and even a few will take pellets, but most wont,
some(but very few) are successful with anyting but pods(you very well may be one of those lucky individuals, and this makes me glad that you are), the key here, is very few, so some people get lucky, but in any case, if i were to get a mandarin for our new tank, i wouldnot gamble with the fact of him taking anything but pods
some(but very few) are successful with anyting but pods(you very well may be one of those lucky individuals, and this makes me glad that you are), the key here, is very few, so some people get lucky, but in any case, if i were to get a mandarin for our new tank, i wouldnot gamble with the fact of him taking anything but pods