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


Snow_Phoenix

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Snow_Phoenix

The Big Guy is ready:

 

For what, you might ask? For some food, of course! 🙂

 

I prepared a very late breakfast for the dragons today, and decided I might as well feed the corals at a go, *and document it. 

 

This is usually how *breakfast/brunch is in the reef (minus the coral-food, which is only mixed up once/twice a week) :

 

 

^The Menu list is on the Insta post. Usually, I only feed frozen pods + BBS + roe (and sometimes mysis) for the fish, especially the dragonets. 

 

Today's feeding response wasn't that great though. 😕

 

Usually the fish are more active during frozen feedings, but I think the mix up with the coral food confused (?) them - I noticed my dragonets were slower than usual as well. 

 

Anyhow, here's Icarus:

 

 

Here's Poseidon & Bella:

 

Bella was definitely having a slow day today - usually she eats frozen food quicker than she eats pellets, but she seemed to be extra playful (mostly chasing her reflection along the glass) 🤷‍♀️

 

 

4 hungry dragonets in the DT (in order of appearance: Icarus, Illaron, Poseidon & Bella) :

 

They actually take super-quick bites of the frozen-mix before moving on to the next spot to eat. 🙂 

 

Here's just a random vid. of the fish swimming around after most of them had their fill:

 

I left the pumps off for more than hour so that all the fish have enough time to eat until they're full. The feeding sessions are heavy - the next one with pellets is usually heavier, but I pretty much feed this tank heavily 2x a day, and then lightly 1x or 2x a day (usually very early morning or very late evening - before the lights are off for the day). At one stage, I was feeding this tank up to 6x a day when I had only 2 dragonets. It was crazy - I had algae blooming all over the rocks, the sump etc etc., but then I managed to scale it down to 4x, and then roughly 2x to 3x feedings per day. 

 

The multiple feedings was because when I first attained my dragonets, they *all arrived with sunken bellies. Some of their dorsal views were good, but their overall body condition was a 50/50. To get them back up to proper weight took a lot of time, effort and patience. With Poseidon, I was a bit lucky because he adapted quite well to the tank and took to pellets quite easily. But with other fish like Illaron (male scooter) and even Icarus (male ruby), this took more time. Weaning them onto prepared wasn't easy, and they actually lost some weight before regaining it. 

 

Definitely not easy fish to keep, but I love watching them scoot all over my sandbed and rocks. 🙂

 

My future plan in relation to dragonets is to acquire a nice, and preferably healthy (if it is even possible) female ruby dragonet to accompany Icarus. I already put in an order through the LFS, so hopefully she'll arrive in months to come. I'll cap it afterwards. Six dragonets in a system like this will already be difficult enough to manage, and I don't think it's wise to push for more. Plus, Poseidon made it clear that he's to be the only *mandarin in the reef - putting another female spotted mandarin in with him will most likely result in death of the female. It's not a risk I'm willing to take.

 

He ignores all the scooters though, and has no issue with them.

 

I'll try to feed Titus in the sump much, much later - he's asleep now, and he's usually active at night when the fuge lights are turned on. 

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Snow_Phoenix

Rainbow acans:

 

IMG_20200807_095524_524.thumb.jpg.25a3cd156a15612bc73ba31fecf0166c.jpg

 

Elegances:

 

IMG_20200807_095607_486.thumb.jpg.a2a9fcabfb82d9ea30be53ddadd6285f.jpg

 

IMG_20200807_095607_484.thumb.jpg.79017a59ca51c99b3705b7e03116b406.jpg

 

Titus the blue mandy has been MIA for ~1.5 days and I'm very worried. I'm going to gently peel back the floss and change it - hoping he isn't stuck in there and wasn't smothered to death. 

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Found Titus in the afternoon. It was as I had feared - he had somehow gotten pinned between the floss and bag full of coral stones, and was in poor shape: 😔

 

He eventually settled in the fuge, but he was very pale & sliming. His breathing was labored too: 😔

 

IMG_20200807_142712_531.thumb.jpg.1487fe7e24cba396f611f38e8dc7435d.jpg

 

IMG_20200807_143431_234.thumb.jpg.827e777267e565a3760b9acd2e7e91a3.jpg

 

IMG_20200807_160614_858.thumb.jpg.94495395b73389b6ce9535493c8732e0.jpg

 

IMG_20200807_160614_854.thumb.jpg.09b806e981fe76858dfacdaf1d6ee54b.jpg

 

It honestly didn't look good. I'll be preparing the nano to host him. Basically do a major WC and some maintenance in that tank, and then add as much macro as I can, including in the back chambers which can function as a dual refugium. 

 

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Some good news though - few hours after this incident, he appeared to be doing much better in the fuge, and even camoflaged himself very well in the macrobed:

 

IMG_20200807_171822_844.thumb.jpg.c91783cba50a2eca68cf09a39f8f7a2b.jpg

 

Spyder was with him too:

 

IMG_20200807_171822_843.thumb.jpg.c49f58b7bf24e65f34e2a49efe41aedc.jpg

 

You can actually see them together in this pic:

 

20200807_171906.thumb.jpg.b0fac1eb53743d2110b53402afa55c5d.jpg

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Otherwise, the rest of the tank proceeded in a routine fashion as usual - all fish in the DT are okay. 👍

 

Icarus has a full belly, which is good:

 

IMG_20200807_160744_183.thumb.jpg.886db1e51d90c57d79debc2d1155514b.jpg

 

Bella was all set on pellets today:

 

While Poseidon was a bit more sedate:

 

LPS are large and healthy too:

 

IMG_20200807_160935_671.thumb.jpg.05a5bb99bd74378279b249f15fb798cd.jpg

 

But this tank needs a WC, badly. I'll settle it once I set up the nano for Titus. 👍

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Update: Titus the Blue Mandy is missing again. So is Spyder, my decorator crab.

 

Not too worried over the crab, because it vanishes and reappears in different compartments of my sump on different days. But I am quite worried over my Mandy. I'll actively look for it again tomorrow. And perhaps isolate him in a breeder box in the main DT (and rubber band the lid so that he can't slip out) until the nano is prepared to hold him. He looked really, really awful. 😞

 

I'll be amazed if he could pull through the night, honestly. 

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Spyder emerged again in the fuge: 

 

IMG_20200808_103641_419.thumb.jpg.59b621d891f3c480acccf16d1e00d88c.jpg

 

With cyano wrapped around his legs, because God forbid, any *red-colored algae needs to be spread far and wide in the sump: 🙄

 

IMG_20200808_103641_420.thumb.jpg.076ec1f1504c84e498431b14892dafae.jpg

 

Titus is still missing. I'm not even sure *which compartment he is in. Cleaning out the nano will take a full day or two half days because I intend to be thorough. Hope he can hold on until then. 😔

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Today I decided to film my dragonet-exclusive breakfast, which is pretty much standard routine in this reef. 😊

 

First, I mixed up some frozen spirulina enriched copepods with some frozen BBS (with yolk sacs still attached), and added 1 drop of Selcon in a small plastic cup:

 

^The orange dispersed bits are the pods, and the brownish lump were the artemia (not thawed fully). The water I used in the cup is SW taken directly from the DT of my tank. 

 

I like creating 'pod storms' - meaning overfeeding the tank to the point you can see food *everywhere in the water column:

 

 

The high density of food is essential, because dragonets are slow, methodical eaters by nature. Even the fastest-eating dragonet I have like Bella, is no match for my leopard wrasse, Leopold, or my green chromis, Dude, who literally gulps in mouthfuls of food at a time. 

 

In order to give a chance for *all the fish to eat comfortably at their own pace, overfeeding is essential, and I can't compensate - not unless I want to keep bony dragonets (which I don't). 

 

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I filmed the feeding responses of all 4 of my dragonets in the DT, so you can compare for yourselves and see how different each fish is. 

 

Illaron, for example, loves frozen stuff compared to pellets:

 

Poseidon is a bit more cautious. He prefers evaluating every bit of food he can find first, before eating it:

 

 

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Bella is generally more playful by nature. She usually takes some *time to adjust to the feeding schedule, but once she realizes the pumps are off, and the food is not being blown away, she gets into it: 😊

 

Icarus usually favors feeding in on the central rock ledge at the back of the tank, so it can be hard to see what he's up to:

 

From what I've observed, my scooters eat *quicker than my mandarin. But my mandarin is thicker & larger than my scooters - he usually has a bulging belly after each feeding session:

 

 

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I have no regrets keeping any of these fish. I find them interesting, and pleasant to watch. For the most part, they're quite peaceful, although Poseidon does stand his ground against other mandarins. Otherwise, they're amazing fish to keep. A lot of work, but worth it. 👍

 

IMG_20200808_120320_350.thumb.jpg.a6196f1b9fe9805581b9cc9ca091f3b0.jpg

 

20200808_120350.thumb.jpg.c65a99963acfb574b38d8902df5340a4.jpg

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He just showed up - I just turned the fuge lights on and he was there: 😮

 

IMG_20200809_190037_264.thumb.jpg.b66d1f804db06115492fd35bea4484e8.jpg

 

IMG_20200809_190037_267.thumb.jpg.51c234435281d05cc4f70299f9b0431c.jpg

 

His color is still pale and washed out, but his breathing is even & his eyes are responsive:

 

Glad he made it through the night though - I was worried! omgomgomg

 

Also, two amphipods trapped between my floss and the glass:

 

IMG_20200809_185919_916.thumb.jpg.31fa8ff40589cb55ed3e9af9d1ff20ef.jpg

 

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  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

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