"For the Advanced Reefer"

[JHOV2324]

This thread is for those who have livestock that is "For the Advanced Reefer ONLY" and are still a NOOB and would like to share...dont worry about people saying you shouldnt have this and you shouldnt have that...if you have a beautiful tang in a 40 breeder or some lovely garden eels post it...pics and description of care would be nice too :biggrin:

Mandarin in my 37 Gal.....His natural food source is copepods, but he also eats mysis and Formula I pellets...

My Harleys....All I do is feed them one starfish a month...not to hard if you ask me.....

 

[marki24]

uhh whats the point of this thread? :smash:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Everything looks good keep up the good work.

 

[JHOV2324]

Wow no one is stepping up and showing off there things....

C'mon peeps...

 

[Domboski]

My Blue Ribbon Eel eating silversides (Thanks jhale for taking the picks!).

Care: Very Difficult

Maintanence: It took me a long time to get my ribbon eels to eat frozen foods and it stills takes an effort to get them to eat. You can't just drop food in the tank and walk away. You have to make sure they eat and they are pretty picky. Sometimes they will not eat a specific fish but if I offer another one of the same kind they eat it. They even have a hard time eating live foods. One of the tougher animals I currently have. I have had one for over a year and the one pictured I've had for several months.

 

[jejton]

Was the mandarin eating non-live foods when you bought it or did you train it ?

 

[JHOV2324]

DOmboski you have way more things i'd like to see on this thread

hale you too....

Jejton the mandarin was only eating pods when i got him...i did not train him...i think he was just hungry and decided to start eating pellets and mysis.. i first noticed when he started to steal mysis from the blastos...after that i spot fed him...

 

[DontXtripNfall]

My Blue Ribbon Eel eating silversides (Thanks jhale for taking the picks!).

Where did you buy your RB's from? When my tank gets setup and starts to become established I plan on getting one. The one in the picture looks like it's black - juvenile? Or maybe it's just the lighting. Any advice on them that you can't read online, by just developing a personal perspective?

 

[ellebelle]

JHov, I am not sure it's a good idea to encourage people to get mandarins with the hope that they will start eating frozen foods. Most people do have to train their mandarins to eat frozen foods and from what I have heard, it is not super easy. I tried to do so for mine, and I failed. "Princess" lives in the great ocean in the sky now. :dead1:

 

[REEF MANIA]

My Green mandarin only eats live Pods. Been trying frozen mysis and brine shrimp no luck so far.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

I don't think mandarins can be "trained". Some are just willing to eat a wider range of food than others. Of all the mandarins I have kept, only one extended its range beyond rock picking and sand sifting.....it actually really got into eating a chunk of formula 2...the kind with mostly algae. I am always astounded at how a mandarin can swim over my sandbed, continually taking mouthfuls of sand and sifting them all the time ignoring the spaghetti worms that pack every square centimeter......

 

[mattkd5]

heres my harleys from hawaii

 

[JasonE]

This thread is for those who have livestock that is "For the Advanced Reefer ONLY" and are still a NOOB and would like to share...dont worry about people saying you shouldnt have this and you shouldnt have that...if you have a beautiful tang in a 40 breeder or some lovely garden eels post it...pics and description of care would be nice too :biggrin:

holy cow....are u serious? Tang in a forty, garden eels? No tang in a forty. Period. Garden eels? 8 inch sand bed and feed em 6 times a day and you'll have a 50% success rate. C'mon. We're talking about animals' lives here, not just some casual whim.
When will reefers take a little responsibility????? It's not about peer kudos, it's about the animals....... and the love of them.

 

[HaloStalker]

wow nice harlequins are they purple like that? i wana get a pair of elegance (the bluish ones) for my nano/

 

[tosiek]

i keep a duck in my sump.

He's happy and doesn't eat much, but to keep the colors good and the squeek to work properly i definately recommend this for advanced reefers. I've went through 2 of these, the first one died because of a parasitic developement on his squeeker and must have had gas bubble because he was floating upside down. Poor guy. /cry.... hope he's happy in that big bathtub in the sky.

I agree with jason, but there are enough people on here and around with really wierd stuff and manage to keep them in their tank due to taking care of them the right way. But you should know by now Jhov that its just gonna get more people here saying "well he can keep it, so can I" and kill a number of mandarins and garden eels in the process.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I'm with Jason, on this one. Forums like this are for the advancement of the hobby through sharing of information and experiences, not the utter disregard for the very livestock we keep. Tangs in a 40 or even a 90 for that matter isn't to be flaunted. It's no better than confining one of us to a closet for the rest of our lives. Granted most of the tanks we keep are tiny in comparison to the natural environment but there are limits to what is acceptable and what is right and wrong. Now if you were to start a thread for hard to keep or advanced specimens being kept under the proper conditions and thriving... that would be a different story and something useful for those considering said species for themselves. Dom can start it with his amazing silverside eating ribbon eels :shocked1:.

 

[jejton]

I agree with Jason as well. As for the mandarin, dont worry, as much as I love them I dont plan on keeping them in my current tank. I was asking because I once read a thread on nano-reefs.com about a guy who worked with his mandarin and was able to train it onto frozen foods. His technique was very simple but smart. It didnt work with all his mandarins though.

 

[JHOV2324]

How am I encouraging people to get mandarins? Listen folks this thread is for the people who are breaking the rules and are caring for animals people say they cant have....people are going to get them whether you guys like it or not and i would like to see them...as you can see i wrote to post the care of the animal....keep it real folks postem up.. that is all

 

[inkblue]

:lol2: i bet peopLe complaining aBout this tHread have kiLLed more of these "animaLs" than the person who started this tHread...

 

[russianmd]

Hmmm.... I have a Copperband Butterfly that I got from Aquatic Express - it eats frozen. So far (knocking on wood), not bothering corals. And while I have a ton of aptasia in my overflow boxes, none are in the DT.

I tried a CBB (mail order from an almost-local dealer) before, and was assured that it eats frozen - it was probably the most painful thing watching that beautiful fish waste away, because it didn't even want to try. I ended up with a hugely overfed/polluted tank, dead CBB, and guilt.

I asked Alex at AE to hold one for me for a couple of weeks, watched it eat frozen in front of me (twice), and then went ahead and purchased it. It's enjoying all the frozen food I throw into the tank, and is trying to figure out flakes - but so far, no luck (not that I am complaining).

So, I guess I am with most people - yeah, some animals can be "for experts only," but noobs succeed with them - either with luck, or with proper guidance/research and a great supplier.

And yeah, rubber duckes are the best! Incredible color, go from salt to freshwater, and let you play with them!