Dawn's shrimp chalet & 5.5 AIO !

[RIP Sebastian]

On ‎3‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 9:20 AM, tanacharison said:

I'm really sad Adam is selling the store! Hopefully someone good takes over.

He's selling it?!?!?!?

[tanacharison]

10 minutes ago, RIP Sebastian said:

He's selling it?!?!?!?

Yeah currently trying. 

[JBM]

Wonderful progress. Absolutely wonderful 

[vlangel]

10 hours ago, JBM said:

Wonderful progress. Absolutely wonderful 

Thanks JBM, I appreciate it.

[Clown79]

Beautiful. I love it.

[vlangel]

5 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Beautiful. I love it.

Thanks clown, I think your jar is beautiful too.  I also enjoyed sharing in the comraderie of this contest with you.  Thank you!

[seabass]

Excellent pico!  Well done.

[vlangel]

17 hours ago, seabass said:

Excellent pico!  Well done.

Ah thank you seabass!  It sure was fun to participate, wasn't it?  I learned so much from everyone.

[vlangel]

The Shrimp Chalet lives on but will look different when I take the next pic.  I removed the coral rock from the creative container contest and moved it into the aio 5.5 g.  Then I chose a nice, but slightly smaller rock covered in macro algae to put in the shrimp chalet.  The coral rock was so big that netting shrimp was going to be a major problem, especially if I did not want to beat the coral up.  The macro algae needs pruned regularly anyway and is tougher, so I expect that it will be ok.  And it's beautiful in its own way.

 

I will take a pic when I get home from watching the grandchildren.

[vlangel]

 

 

The rock and coral from the creative container contest moved into the air 5.5 g.

[Pjanssen]

Whoa, baby!

[vlangel]

5 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Whoa, baby!

? thanks Penny.

 

 

And here is the shrimp chalet.  I put 250 shrimp in it although some perished while I was away.  It was probably lack of O2 or too much heat.   They are doing well now.

[teenyreef]

Wow, I love it!

[vlangel]

I did 90% WCs on both the aio 5.5 and the shrimp chalet.  They were both pretty dirty.  There are still a lot of shrimp in the chalet so I added a sponge with a hole in it to put the airline tube into.  The sponge is wedged into a hole in the rock  where its out of sight but I am figuring that it not only be colonized by biofiltering creatures but it can also act as a sponge filter.  I decided that I did not need the rio pump for circulation or heat as I have kept the shrimp in the past with only an open airline.

[Lula_Mae]

Looks great!  I have a little 1 gallon jar I've just been throwing macro scraps and stuff into, no circulation or heat lol.  Just a basic household CFL on a timer.

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

Looks great!  I have a little 1 gallon jar I've just been throwing macro scraps and stuff into, no circulation or heat lol.  Just a basic household CFL on a timer.

I know, I hate throwing those little macro algae scraps away too.  I saw that you plan to move your jarden into your 5.5 g too.  I am really liking mine.  Its nice to enjoy the coral without the distortion of the glass of the jar.

[vlangel]

Some of you who follow my seahorse garden know that I bought a male female pair of captive bred mandarins.  I expected them to eat frozen mysis but they would not.  Needless to say even though I seeded the seahorse system with 4 bottles of tisbe pods, they quickly wiped them out and the fuge is not adequate to make up more for the mandys' needs.

 

I was feeling desperate to try something new since I could see both mandarins getting thinner.  So I moved one mandarin into the 5.5 aio tank as soon as the contest ended.  That way the seahorse tank only had to produce pods for the one that I left in there.  I planned to feed the mandarin in the 5.5 newly hatch nauphii and focussed on training it to eat frozen mysis.  Finally this week she did start taking to the mysis.

I decided to move her mate in with her and work on training him as well and maybe he would learn by seeing her eat the frozen.  Well, I am not sure that parting makes the heart grow fonder when it comes to mandarins.  She is considerably smaller than him but she jumped on his back and bit the daylights out of his fin!  I was just ready to separate them when she stopped and has not shown any more aggression. Hhm, maybe she was just ticked off that he took so long to reunite with her?  I don't know.  Anyway, I hope he follows her example.  I may just keep them as permanent residents in the 5.5 because I already feed it heavily and its risky to do that in the seahorse tank.  They seem quite content to pick around on the coral rock and sand and I don't mind hatching nauphii for them to supplement the mysis as it feeds the coral too.

[debbeach13]

Oh I hope she remains peaceful. Sounds like a good idea keeping both in the 5.5. Easier to see them and if needed much easier to do a large WC.

[vlangel]

I hatch nauphii every day for Yin and Yang plus I shave frozen mysis and fish frenzy.  Yin was eating the frozen but has stopped and Yang never would.  I Don't even see them eating the abundance of newly hatch bbs so I am quite discouraged.  You can see the grass shrimp in the video is full of bbs and if you look closely you can see bibs stuck to the feeding tentacles of some of the coral.  This will no doubt be my last time of trying to keep mandarins which is so sad.

 

Under good news however this little reef is thriving.  I put cheato and red titan in the first chamber for some nutrient control between by weekly water changes.  The coral are heavily fed as you can see, ha ha!  There are still no real algae issues and it's a fun, easy little tank.

[teenyreef]

Sorry to hear the mandarins aren't doing well, that's so discouraging given that they were tank raised. But I'm glad the tank is doing well otherwise!

[vlangel]

17 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Sorry to hear the mandarins aren't doing well, that's so discouraging given that they were tank raised. But I'm glad the tank is doing well otherwise!

Yes, it stinks for sure.  I do not believe in keeping animals that you can't provide for and I never meant for this to happen.

[Christopher Marks]

I really like the new 5.5 AIO setup for the former jar!

 

Sorry to hear about your mandarin troubles, you're clearly giving all that you can, I mean just look at that feeding frenzy with all the hatchlings.

 

Hopefully this week brings some better progress  

[tanacharison]

It sounds like your doing everything you can.. if I put money on anyone on here getting a finicky pair to eat and re-bond its you. I'm sorry for the stress. I'm happy to hear the little tank is thriving.

[JBM]

Persistence is key, atleast that's what a buddy of mine says. Your doing all the right things. Hopefully sooner rather then never Yin starts to eat again. And your right, if Yin eats. Yang will most likely follow. As I'm sure both are getting hungry. 

 

The stress of another tank mate may have shocked it into not eating. Patience and often feedings without fouling water will be the only course. 

[vlangel]

On 4/16/2018 at 1:42 PM, Christopher Marks said:

I really like the new 5.5 AIO setup for the former jar!

 

Sorry to hear about your mandarin troubles, you're clearly giving all that you can, I mean just look at that feeding frenzy with all the hatchlings.

 

Hopefully this week brings some better progress  

Thanks Christopher, I am loving the 5.5 AIO for the final home of the reef jar coral. It is still easy to maintain but a bit roomier than the jar.

 

I finally made a decision and got on the forum for my local reef club and have offered the mandys (free to a BIG home) and one of the key members with a 180g well established system is going to take them.  I feel that is in the best interest of the pair.

4 hours ago, tanacharison said:

It sounds like your doing everything you can.. if I put money on anyone on here getting a finicky pair to eat and re-bond its you. I'm sorry for the stress. I'm happy to hear the little tank is thriving.

I appreciate your confidence in me but I broke down and offered them to anyone in our club who had a big tank.  George, a very knowledgeable reefer is taking them.  I will feel better knowing that they should live good happy lives in his tank.  The pair have lived peacefully together except that one incident so I think they have made amends.