Felicia Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 PYA posted something I want as my replacement coral... I've got an obsession with acans after getting my first ones and for $14.99 I couldn't pass these up. Now all I owe is shipping, which makes me want to add something else to the order to make it worth while. I'm thinking maybe one head of dendro or one head of duncan...hmmm... Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 I decided to add one head of duncan to my order to make the shipping worth while. $12.99/head is much better than the $30/head my LFS charges. Link to comment
NURSE33.4 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Very nice choices The acan looks great too! Link to comment
gena Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 VERY nice choices! Acans are so pretty! I still have to figure out what to get with my credit Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Thanks guys! Hopefully they arrive happy this time and look like the pictures. I've pretty much decided acans are my favorite coral and now I'll have three different varieties. Is there something specific you've been looking for Gena? If so, you should just wait until you see that on PYA. Link to comment
gena Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Thanks guys! Hopefully they arrive happy this time and look like the pictures. I've pretty much decided acans are my favorite coral and now I'll have three different varieties. Is there something specific you've been looking for Gena? If so, you should just wait until you see that on PYA. Hmmm...I think I'm holding out for an awesome paly. I want a rainbow paly. I may throw a duncan in there too. I'm getting extremely limited on space...agh!!!!! Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Hmmm...I think I'm holding out for an awesome paly. I want a rainbow paly. I may throw a duncan in there too. I'm getting extremely limited on space...agh!!!!! Rainbow palys would be awesome. And I understand how you're feeling about space. I'll let you know how the Duncan looks when I get it next Wednesday. Phils shipping my order out on Monday. Link to comment
NURSE33.4 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 How are your orders shipped from PYA? Are you guys going with the priority 2-3 day? What comes in the box to keep it insulated? Thinking about placing an order with them Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 How are your orders shipped from PYA? Are you guys going with the priority 2-3 day? What comes in the box to keep it insulated? Thinking about placing an order with them It just came in a box lined with styrofoam, but did not include any heat packs or anything. I'm only ok with using the 2 day because I'm in the same state as PYA...I don't know if I'd trust that all the way to Florida, but it might be ok. Link to comment
gena Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Mine was shipped the same way. I'm local so his priority gets to me in 1 day. I would think if shipping out of state he'd include a heat pack...at least I would hope so. Definitely let me know what you think of the Duncans. So many people have them and love them. I just don't know if I have the room....story of my tank life Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Definitely let me know what you think of the Duncans. So many people have them and love them. I just don't know if I have the room....story of my tank life That's why I bought the 1 head of duncan for $12.99 vs. buying the duncan cluster thats 6+ heads for $24.99. I figured I could find room for one head and that it would take a while to grow into too many heads. I'll keep you posted about what kind of shape my new stuff is in when it arrives. Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 17, 2011 Author Share Posted November 17, 2011 I'm getting my male green mandarin dragonet that is trained to eat frozen brine today! Yay! I went to the LFS yesterday and picked up frozen brine shrimp for him and also some tigger pods just in case he gets picky on me while he's adjusting to his new home. I'm getting him for $25 from a woman who posted a bunch of things on craigslist because she's downsizing a couple aquariums. The fish is located an hour from me without traffic, which means with the traffic in the bay area it would take me an hour and a half both ways to pick up this fish. I was debating whether or not this was worth it when my friend who commutes to work in the same city as the woman with the mandarin offered to just pick it up for me. Considering my friend who's picking it up has never even had a betta, this could get interesting. The woman is going to feed the mandarin frozen brine in front of him to prove that it eats and I also want him to try to examine the fish to make sure it looks plump and healthy. I've tried to explain everything, but he's supposed to call me if there are any problems. I can totally see this turning into a conversation like Metrokat's tank sitter... I'll update later with how everything goes and hopefully some nice pictures and video of the new addition. Link to comment
gena Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 I'm getting my male green mandarin dragonet that is trained to eat frozen brine today! Yay! I went to the LFS yesterday and picked up frozen brine shrimp for him and also some tigger pods just in case he gets picky on me while he's adjusting to his new home. I'm getting him for $25 from a woman who posted a bunch of things on craigslist because she's downsizing a couple aquariums. The fish is located an hour from me without traffic, which means with the traffic in the bay area it would take me an hour and a half both ways to pick up this fish. I was debating whether or not this was worth it when my friend who commutes to work in the same city as the woman with the mandarin offered to just pick it up for me. Considering my friend who's picking it up has never even had a betta, this could get interesting. The woman is going to feed the mandarin frozen brine in front of him to prove that it eats and I also want him to try to examine the fish to make sure it looks plump and healthy. I've tried to explain everything, but he's supposed to call me if there are any problems. I can totally see this turning into a conversation like Metrokat's tank sitter... I'll update later with how everything goes and hopefully some nice pictures and video of the new addition. That's fantastic news!!!!! I got my new issue of Coral magazine yesterday. It has a dragonet on the front of it....I immediately thought of you Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 17, 2011 Author Share Posted November 17, 2011 That's fantastic news!!!!! I got my new issue of Coral magazine yesterday. It has a dragonet on the front of it....I immediately thought of you I need to subscribe to some sort of reef magazine. How is Coral? I'm so excited to get the mandarin, I just hope he's in good shape and has no issues eating frozen brine the way the woman on craigslist claims. Hopefully my friend can at least tell if it eats when she feeds it...that's not too complicated I hope...haha Link to comment
gena Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I need to subscribe to some sort of reef magazine. How is Coral? I'm so excited to get the mandarin, I just hope he's in good shape and has no issues eating frozen brine the way the woman on craigslist claims. Hopefully my friend can at least tell if it eats when she feeds it...that's not too complicated I hope...haha It's great! I love it! It seems to be the most highly recommended of all the reef trade magazines. I wouldn't put anything past a non-reefer. Especially a tank sitting non-reefer. Had my MIL reef sit my very first reef tank. Took her through everything!!!!! Twice!!!!! Came home to a tank that had evaporated about 5 inches...ugh!!!!! Luckily everything survived p.s. I'm sure your friend will do a great job Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 It's great! I love it! It seems to be the most highly recommended of all the reef trade magazines. I wouldn't put anything past a non-reefer. Especially a tank sitting non-reefer. Had my MIL reef sit my very first reef tank. Took her through everything!!!!! Twice!!!!! Came home to a tank that had evaporated about 5 inches...ugh!!!!! Luckily everything survived p.s. I'm sure your friend will do a great job I'll have to look into subscribing to Coral. Thanks for the info! And that's very encouraging...haha. I'm not too worried since he just has to bring me the fish. I don't know how thorough he was with the feeding part, but if for some reason it won't eat I've got Tigger Pods ready to go as back-up. He just sent me this very comical text: "Queen of the Sea this is Transport 1, we have Dragon. I repeat we have Dragon." Link to comment
gena Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 He just sent me this very comical text:"Queen of the Sea this is Transport 1, we have Dragon. I repeat we have Dragon." I LOVE this I'm so excited for your new fish!!!!! Can't wait to see it Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 Yep, I loved that text message as well So the fish survived his 2 hour car trip (makes me wonder how my friend can do that commute everyday, geez) and looks pretty good. He's in a bag which distorts things, so its hard to see how plump he looks, but from what I can see he doesn't look severely underweight or anything. He's also swimming around pretty actively and looking like he's in good shape. He's currently acclimating and I'll post some pics as soon as I manage to get some decent ones. My only concern about the whole thing is that I got him through craigslist, and the woman I spoke with told me that she was consolidating some tanks and selling off the stuff she didn't have space for. That's why I was willing to get this particular mandarin because I was under the impression she had had it for a while in a tank in her home and that it was living healthily off frozen food. Come to find out this lady owns a business that sells things (apparently it was like a warehouse with couches, fish, etc.) on Craigslist and there was a tank with multiple mandarins. My friend said the mandarin nibbled at some brine shrimp, so he figured it was ok and brought it to me. Hmmm...I don't know about this...the fish seems healthy, but I'm not sure that I buy that it eats frozen food now since it came from a store selling a bunch of them. Grrr, for people being misleading. Anyways, keep your fingers crossed he eats frozen food and if not I'll try to train him while I supplement his diet with copepods. If all else fails I'll take him to my usual LFS so he can eat the pods in their giant system, because I would hate to starve him. Link to comment
gena Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 How's the fish????? I spent a good chunk of the morning time I allot for n-r and added tank specs to my first post on my thread. I used your Spec info as my guide Thank you Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 How's the fish????? He seems to be doing well. He made it through the night and was actively moving around this morning. He's in the QT tank for now, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep him in there for very long. They're supposed to pick at live rock to eat, but the QT tank is very open and when I feed them he needs to get food out of the water column which isn't going to happen I don't think. Also, since the QT tank is so open, the firefish is able to just dart around and grab all the food while the mandarin is still hovering waiting for it to settle. I think I'm going to have to spot feed him, but hes too skittish to get near with the syringe right now. I think once he's in the display tank more food will be able to settle onto the rock for him to nibble off throughout the day. I'll observe him over the weekend and if he's not showing any signs of illness I'm going to put him in the DT and give him a couple days to get oriented and eat before adding the YWG and firefish in with him. Those two are not the least bit shy anymore and eat like piggies. I did notice him nibble at a few bits of brine shrimp last night, but he seemed like he was spitting most of it back out. At least he's showing interest in the food. When I fed them this morning he perked up and I could tell he wanted to eat he was just waiting for it all to settle. Hopefully he managed to pick up a bit off the bottom. Also, I think I'll put the bottle of live tigger pods into the DT today so they can start increasing in population with no fish to eat them. Then once the mandarin is in there he'll have those to eat while I work on making sure he's eating the frozen food as well. I spent a good chunk of the morning time I allot for n-r and added tank specs to my first post on my thread. I used your Spec info as my guide Thank you I'll have to go check out your thread now! I'm glad my set-up was able to help. I like when threads have all that info on the first page so that I can quickly compare how similar it is to my set-up and get ideas. Link to comment
gena Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 That's exciting! Can't wait to see the three of them back in the DT!!!!!!! Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Updates 11/19/11 First off, I still have yet to see the mandarin eat. He seems to be healthy and doing well so far, but he's so shy that I can't target feed him. When I put the syringe in the tank he runs away. Also, he just cowers under the decorations and won't come out if I'm near the tank so I can't watch him to see if he's eating the pieces of food that fall to the bottom of the tank. I'm overfeeding them right now to make sure plenty of food settles on that bottom, so I'm really hoping he's munching on that. I added the bottle of Tigger Pods to the DT, so they'll be waiting for him when I add him in in a few days. Hopefully once he gets more settled and less shy I can get him to let me target feed him brine shrimp. Also, since I had a $50 store credit I decided to make a trip to the LFS today and use it on some coral. I don't have much space left, but I wanted to get some kind of pretty zoa or paly to replace the magicians that didn't make it. I ended up getting a 15+ polyp rock of magicians for $25 and then bought a frag of plate coral for $17, although the girl in the store told me it was like a plate coral, but wasn't actually a plate coral. She said it doesn't have a common name and she couldn't remember the latin name. Let me know if you have any ideas what that could be. I also got some kind of SPS that she couldn't identify for $10. I figured at that price I could try my first real SPS and if I kill it I won't feel too bad. Its got kind of a purplish tint with green over the top. You can see it in the photos below. Finally for my free frag (since its always buy two corals get a $10 one free) I got a little tiny blasto. Best shot I have of the mandarin right now. His new hang-out. The "Not-a-Plate" coral. The magician palys. They were just added to the tank when I took this, so they weren't all open yet. The new SPS. Let me know if you have an idea what it is. For some reason this photo makes it look brown, but its really a nice shade of green. Link to comment
gena Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 you got magicians!!!! Lucky!!! I'm in the mood to shop for coral today but it's my son's birthday and that's not on his list of things to do Everything looks great! That "not-a-plate" looks like a plate to me. And your new sps looks like the one Joel just got! Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Oh no! I really hope I didn't just crash my tank... So last night after the lights had been out for a few hours, I turned off the AC70 like I always do so I could target feed some of the corals and add Phytofeast without it getting sucked into the filter. I usually leave the filter off for 30 minutes to an hour while everything eats, so I decided to get in bed and read a book while I waited. I apparently fell asleep because I woke up and immediately realized I hadn't plugged back in the AC70. My original thought was they should be ok for that long without flow, but then realized the heater is now in the fuge moded section and its cold here now. My tank was sitting at 70 degrees...crap... I've got the AC70 running again trying to warm up the water and most of the corals look ok, just mildly ticked off. My Xenia though is all flopped over like it can't stand up and looks really mad. I'm hoping once I get it warmed up everything will be ok. I hope I didn't kill any of my corals...so upset right now... Link to comment
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