Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

October 18, 2020

I swear you can see rolls of chub on Poseidon when he turns in that video. Nice work keeping him so plump!

October 19, 2020

5 hours ago, chipz said:

I swear you can see rolls of chub on Poseidon when he turns in that video. Nice work keeping him so plump!

Thanks! 😄

October 19, 2020

Too tired, so I fed everyone pellets for dinner today. Hungry fishies:

October 19, 2020

Bought two extra turban snails to help munch on the algae in this tank. Might be inclined to buy more if my current CUC can't handle it. Was tempted to borrow a Halloween Urchin and a 2" foxface from the LFS to help out as well, but abstained. (Really think I should have picked up the extra urchin though)

Nothing much going on except all non-coral livestock seem okay. My cup coral is neither declining nor recovering at the moment. My two remaining LPS colonies - the bicolor hammer & orange cynarina, are still doing okay and appear to be quite content.

I scoped out several shroom and chalice frags from my LFS today to be added into the tank at the end of this year. I'll probably stock up on the shrooms in Dec first, to repopulate mushroom mountain. Nothing too fancy except the usual array of rhodactis & discosomas. And perhaps a normal yuma or two.

If the shrooms do well after two to three weeks, I'll slowly pick up more frags - hardy LPS & softies. As for zoas, I'll try to frag the zoas from my pico and add them to this tank a bit at a time. If they flourish & grow out, I'll add more morphs/varieties.

My goal is simple: re-stock within a set budget. Preferably non-premium or overly rare corals. I find a lot of the simple, beginner corals are actually beautiful and often overlooked in favor of high-end ones with fancy names. So I'll probably set my sights on the budget rack and pick up any strays for cheap prices.

In the middle of next year, I'll try to pick up 2 to 3 mini maxi nems to decorate the right side of the tank, along the rocky ledge facing the glass.

No plans on adding anymore fish except....*maybe a female ruby dragonet to accompany Orion.

Will still work on removing my steinitz goby pair in the meantime - those buggers are quick!

Also, my mom discovered Poseidon's *existence today. She walked into my room and requested to see the 'green spotted fish' that I have. Her remark left me confused, until she told me that I kept updating my social media platforms with pics/videos of the same fish over and over, so I hazarded a guess and showed her Poseidon. She seemed quite happy to watch him hover around the rocks in my tank. Looks like Poseidon has a new fan! :lol:

October 20, 2020

Goblin in the cup coral:

Bella hunting for pods:

Coralline on one of the LR pieces at the back of the tank: 🤗

October 20, 2020

Orion is improving very well. I think he has gained a *bit more weight since I last filmed him. 🥰

Quite happy with his progress. 👍

October 20, 2020

Bella is huge now. 🥰

October 21, 2020

Shadowing some 🐲🐉this morning. 😊

Illaron:

Bella (gravid again 😄) :

A closer look at the hammer coral:

October 21, 2020

Poseidon hunting for pods at the back: 💦

Thanos seeking refuge:

October 21, 2020

Poseidon. 💦

I had a very rare oppurtunity to get all four of my dragonets in one frame, but I was too slow and the one time I want to click something, my finger doesn't respond to my brain and I missed the shot. 😭

It was nice seeing all four of them hunting together in the same spot though. The rockwork at the back right corner of the tank seems to be a popular hangout spot for all of them. 🤔

Ah, maybe next time. 👍

October 22, 2020

The fuge...is alive.... 😮

October 22, 2020

Chunky boi: 😅

Helios: 😊

The new turban snails I purchased recently from the LFS turned out to be relatively hard workers:

They move quite quickly for a snail, too:

I think I might pick up another pair of snails the next time I visit my primary LFS. 🤔

October 22, 2020

Fed the reef a triple breakfast - a mix of mysis, copepods & rotifers. 😊👍

October 22, 2020

I think Bella & Illaron might spawn again tonight. 🤷‍♀️

October 22, 2020

Well, they didn't disappoint. I'm sorry if the vids are blurry, but I had to zoom in from a distance because if I get too close to the glass, I'll interrupt them & scare them off.

Illaron signalling Bella to mate by raising his dorsal fin:

The pair rising together as the norm of dragonet courtship:

Bella will probably discharge her eggs to the water column later.

So happy to watch them spawn actively like this. When I first got them, they were in no condition to breed and Illaron had his lateral lines showing at one stage.

Now that they've adapted to both live, frozen & pellet food in the aquarium, they've gained enough weight that they can do this.

My hopes is that my ruby dragonet, Orion, will recover too, & put on enough weight so that he might be receptive towards a potential female mate in the future. 👍

Poseidon, my mandy, is a hardass and flies/swims solo. So no pairing for him. (Seriously though, he's quite aggressive towards other mandys, and I've tried to hook him up twice without success)

October 23, 2020

Goblin in the cup coral:

Checking up on Bella:

She still looks pretty big, so either she became gravid again (?) or she didn't release any eggs last night after her courtship with Illaron.

I'm inclined to think it's the former than the later, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm still relatively new to keeping a spawning/mated dragonet pair. There is still much to learn about their behavior and patterns, and a *lot of observation is required. 🤔

I'll update the journal accordingly if I discover anything new. 👍

October 23, 2020

Poseidon having some early dinner: 💦

October 24, 2020

Poseidon on the quest for pods:

Goblin on the cynarina:

October 25, 2020

Mr. Prickles came out to say hello last night! 😊

Shadowing Orion today morning: 💦

He's still improving. 👍

October 25, 2020

Orion's progress, decline, & progress again, from 5/9/20:

Present day on 25/10/20:

This is a long post. But I needed & wanted to show all of you Orion's journey in my tank over the last <2 months.

Bringing home a thin dragonet is risky, and the road to recovery is tough on the fish. In most cases, most dragonets perish prematurely because they simply give up and refuse to eat - or rather are too weak to find their own food.

If you look at the train of pics, you'll notice that Orion actually *lost weight in my tank and became thinner than the first day that I acquired him. It was quite...scary, because there was a time when I genuinely thought he would die on me.

But this little red dragon had heart. He never stopped *eating, or looking for food. Weaning him onto prepared was difficult because he was much, much smaller than my other dragonets, and even the smallest of mysis or pellets couldn't *fit into his mouth.

But eventually, he learnt to accept food by watching my other dragonets eat. It was difficult - I still had to chase him around with a baster full of frozen pods & artemia - too much chasing & he flees, but too much holding back & the other fish pick off the food first.

Somehow, we eventually found a way where I could feed him safely, he actually grew a *bit bigger, and his tiny mouth could finally accept larger pieces of food including frozen mysis & 0.5mm NLS pellets.

Eventually, he came to accept the even larger ON pellets, and now he eats anything that I throw into the tank. It was a struggle weaning him onto prepared, but I think it was worth it.

Looking back, he has come a long way in just ~7 weeks, and his journey continues. I love these little dragons - but I have to admit, they are a lot more work than I realize. 😕

Food prep for these fish alone can take a full hour per day - sometimes more. But I think it's worth it. I love my dragonets, and I enjoy having them in my reef.

For anyone considering a dragonet in their tank in the future, just remember - it'll take a *lot of time & effort. My specimens are all wild-caught; I have no access to captive-bred ones atm. If this is a fish that you want to go for, try to get a captive-bred one if you can. And be prepared to train them and still spend $$$ to buy pods to seed the tank.

I know I haven't touched on this before, but I spend a lot of $$$ in fish food per month, most of which are devoted solely to dragonet-keeping. I seed my tank with pods by replenishing my refugium with new macro from my LFS every bi- or tri-weekly. Sometimes, I buy three large bottles of live pods (monthly) & dump it in the fuge too.

These guys can't survive on frozen or pellets alone. And they eat *constantly. I've watched my male mandy, Poseidon, actually actively scope out the tank for pods at 10+ pm at times. He only sleeps when the main lights in my bedroom are off, when I head off to bed.

My current efforts are a far cry from success, but check back in a few years. If they're all still here, then I guess all of this would be worth it. (For the record, I think it is because they bring me & my family much joy). 👍