Rey the Biota Mandarin

[Beer]

Beautiful Dragonette.

I ended up with a red bodied spotted mandarin recently that took to frozen and pellets immediately. It took completely shutting down circulation, but it went pretty smoothly. There are also no other competitors, so it was quite a bit simpler.

 

I think you may just need to switch to some smaller pellets (and potentially a feeding dish of some sort or jar if the clows are eventually gong back in). Being captive bred, I would think she was raised on prepared foods. It is typicall a lot simpler, easier, and more cost effective to use prepared foods in commercial operations. That and one of the bigger draws to captive bred dragonetts is the idea that they are already eating prepared foods. It would be beneficial to raise them on prepared if you are a recognized aquaculture facility.

She clearly seems to be interested in them. You could always try cutting up some of what you already have to see if she will eat them before investing in a package of smaller pellets for her.

 

I'll have to finally make it up to Amerst NH, from the Amerst MA area to check out Aquatic Creations. Almost headed out to that area last weekend, but decided to prioritize other things. Been meaning to check them out for a while now.

 

Does Paul make it out to the BRS meetings? If so, it would make the 2.5 hour drive and resulting sleep deprivation the next day at work worth it. I know he is down in NY and frequents a lot of forums, but I'd love to meet him and pick his brain a bit. I've been seeing his articles and posts for years.

He uses some 'antiquated' methods, but they fall in line with what I typically try to do in creating as natural of an environment as possible as opposed to more modern methods of stripping everything from the water and trying to keep it as sterile as possible. He's had his reef running for what, 47 years now. The newer methods work, but we'll see if people have the same systems up and running with the newer technology 15-20 years from now (without system crashes and restarts).

[MainelyReefer]

Shot of Poe and Rey sleeping together for the night

[sublunary]

Wow! I had no idea the size difference was that big.  Such a tiny fish...  I love that they sleep next to each other. 

[MainelyReefer]

Yea Poe is way bigger than Rey!  But Rey has grown probably 1/8-1/4" since I got her(speculative no actual measurement).  She has also fully healed all her fin nips, and hasn't sustained any further damage and I didn't ever end up removing the clowns(pure laziness).  Everyday I eagerly stare at the tank sometimes 10-15 minutes before I can find Rey and confirm she's doing well and not being harassed by some punk tankmate and that her belly is fat.  I broadcast nutramar ova to the whole tank along with either LRS Reef frenzy, mysis, or brine and have a 10min feed timer on the return pump.  I'm not sure if Rey is eating any yet but Poe does and it's only a matter of time until Rey will too.  I would say she is doing very well but is by no means frozen trained out of the box.  She doesn't even hunt the sand bed, only the rocks and the back wall, and IME Poe feeds mostly off the sand bed when I'm feeding him frozen/pellets so I assumed that would be normal frozen trained behavior.  I wish Biota was more in depth on their methodology because perhaps its drastically different( or perhaps they ask divers to grab tiny baby mandarins)

[Beer]

Nice!

Glad to see she is doing well. That is quite the size difference.

[Clown79]

Glad to hear it's going well.

 

They look so cute together!

[MainelyReefer]

Time to update!

Rey is doing great and noticeably growing, her colors have become way brighter too.  

Reef inhabitants seem to have 100% accepted her, short of the yellow watchman goby who I routinely witness show aggression towards not only Rey, but Poe and even the clowns.  

Usually you can find Poe and Rey behind the rockwork in "Mandarin Alley". Rey is finally eating pods off the sand so she's getting closer to accepting prepared offerings 

one thing is for sure, Poe enjoys Rey being in the tank, they always sleep within inches of each other and frequently meet and hunt close to eachother along the backwall.  Here's a series of photos where I was watching Rey and Poe came and photo bombed, in the first photo Rey is taking a bite and her mouth is blurry due to it.

Look at Rey's fat belly!As you may have noticed I keep my rear wall a complete mess, but pods love it and I think it's the reason the mandarins are always hunting it's surface, plus it is an easy to eradicate algae that is constantly trying to spread so its preferable to GHA or bryopsis. Thanks for reading

[MainelyReefer]

Rey is eating pellets! I got a 3oz package of TDO chromaboost from all the freebies I picked up at Frag Farmers Market, apparently it is some food that is suitable for breeding clownfish.  Poe has eaten it a few times since but this weekend is the first time I really overbroadcast it and Rey started eating it too!  It is the B2 size which is pretty small.  Here's a pic of the food and impossible to see but Rey is between the rockwork and the false wall, also check out how blue that bristle worm is!  I'm not sure why they are blue in this tank.  SO EXCITED REY is eating PELLETS!!!!!  May the force be with her

[KNelson]

That's great!  She is such a cutie and you've done an amazing job with her. 

 

On another note:  my bristleworms are blue too. 

[MainelyReefer]

Rey is still doing great and has grown considerably.  She now eats anything I put in the tank, frozen, pellets, even a flake or two.  It is pretty funny watching her choke down a mysis shrimp or brine shrimp but she does eventually get it down.  I am still overfeeding 1tsp of the TDO chromaboost B2 broadcast throughout the tank daily.  Rey and Poe continue to swim around the tank together and sleep nearby but other than that no other physical interaction has been witnessed.  She is getting fat like a shark

[Tamberav]

They look great! Tank looks dirty enough to grow some pods for them to snack on too. nom nom nom

[MainelyReefer]

Don’t mind my filthy tank, or my torch that has it out for my hammer.  Poe and Rey seem to be throwing off the first signals of actually pairing up!  This tank is in my dining room so we watch the tank as we eat rather than wheel of fortune.  During dinner last night Poe and Rey were just everywhere in the tank spiraling around each other going from the sand bed to nearly the water surface, Poe was flashing his front fin that males have, and Rey was mirroring his every move not letting him swim away.  The whole event was pretty awesome and let’s me know getting Rey as a mail order bride for Poe was the right choice.  Anyway here’s a junky video I got to try to add visual effects.  Of course when I go to take video they know it and stick behind the rock work but you get the idea!

https://youtu.be/H62hr3MdKmA

 

[KNelson]

Hi there!  I've been following along and you've inspired me to get a Biota blue but I'll have to order mine so I'm a bit unsure... How is Rey doing?  Still happy and healthy?  

 

Also, if you HAD to order where would you order from?  I've only ever ordered fish from Blue Zoo and was happy with my experience but they don't have Biotas. I've only ordered corals and food from LA and wasn't pleased with them.  I see Algae Barn had them and you can decide the sex, but they are sooooooooo tiny I'd need to purchase an acclimation box and some sponges for my overflow and ph.

[banasophia]

My biota mandarin is from Live Aquaria, I got him on 4/2/18 and have him in my Biocube 16. He’s my baby, still doing well... he was itty bitty when I got him. That’s him in my avatar pic. 

[KNelson]

@banasophia  Thanks!  I'm pretty excited, but worried about the size.  Did tough keep yours in an acclimation box?  If so for how long? 

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, KNelson said:

@banasophia  Thanks!  I'm pretty excited, but worried about the size.  Did tough keep yours in an acclimation box?  If so for how long? 

I just added him right to the tank after following the instructions from Live Aquaria for acclimating him prior to adding to the tank. He seemed to drift right into the back corner of the tank and laid there, still for maybe 12-24 hours as I recall, and I thought he was dead... but then he started to swim around after that. 

[MainelyReefer]

14 hours ago, KNelson said:

Hi there!  I've been following along and you've inspired me to get a Biota blue but I'll have to order mine so I'm a bit unsure... How is Rey doing?  Still happy and healthy?  

 

Also, if you HAD to order where would you order from?  I've only ever ordered fish from Blue Zoo and was happy with my experience but they don't have Biotas. I've only ordered corals and food from LA and wasn't pleased with them.  I see Algae Barn had them and you can decide the sex, but they are sooooooooo tiny I'd need to purchase an acclimation box and some sponges for my overflow and ph.

I ordered mine through a LFS, but I would go though AlgaeBarn if sourcing via the internet.  Get some pods too.  I would forgoe the acclimation box and add right to the display as the box won’t have any pods and will be a detriment.  Rey has been great though her and Poe just got upgraded to a reefer 250!  Poe picture

also don’t worry about size they will hold their own, and since they start so small I think they need less pods initially making everyone seem successful.

[KNelson]

Thanks for the update and the recommendations.  I looked at my overflow last night (because there are no aftermarket upgrades for it) and I don't think anything besides a really thin fish could get through so I might order it today! 

[MainelyReefer]

Some pics of the pair together, you can see Rey’s orange stripes are more vibrant than Poe’s.  

Not sure if it’s genetic, perhaps Biota selectively chose vibrant specimens. Or maybe nutritional as Rey’s smaller size may be easier to fully feed, as she is growing at a decent click, seemingly faster than Poe.  Both always have fat bellies especially since the upgrade as the rockwork doubled.  One funny thing is they interact with the tang a lot.

 The mandarins have also been seeing their reflection in the glass and Poe is flashing warnings off at his own reflection marking his territory and since has been following close to Rey all around the tank sticking to the outer walls while she’s in the rockwork like he’s defending his lady.  Hoping he finds pods while he’s displaying so much and in response I am allowing the lower few inches of glass to build up some film algae so he will stop seeing himself.

 

[KNelson]

😍 

 

I ordered one.   A blue from LA, paid extra for Saturday delivery.  I wanted a blue.