Banasophia’s Evo V 🌀

[banasophia]

Oh yeah, I set my pod culture back up yesterday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

With the two new fish are you feeding more? I doubt it is the salt but like you said it is hard to tell with other things also being changed.

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

With the two new fish are you feeding more? I doubt it is the salt but like you said it is hard to tell with other things also being changed.

Yes, I may be feeding a little more and also leaving the flow off for longer... another possible cause... 

[debbeach13]

I am sure you will get it back under control.

[banasophia]

18 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I am sure you will get it back under control.

Yeah, hopefully so... I don’t want to move the fishies back to the Biocube right now because my sea hare totally disappeared in there and I want to make sure I don’t get a crash from it... all kinds of challenges right now 

[Tired]

As long as the algae isn't growing over and smothering things, it's not a huge concern. You have plenty of time to figure out what will get it into the background again. If it does try to grow on something, a turkey baster or pipette will fix that. 

[banasophia]

Finnick, pigging out on Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet pellets:

 

Nom nom nom

[MarieH]

Finnick looks like a very well fed boy, who would have thought this would ever be possible,10 years ago :)

[banasophia]

On 8/3/2020 at 3:36 AM, MarieH said:

Finnick looks like a very well fed boy, who would have thought this would ever be possible,10 years ago 🙂

Yes, though I’ve never tried to keep one myself, wild caught mandarins seem to be such timid eaters and are highly dependent on a significant pod population. For my little guy I still like to ensure he gets some pods, either live or frozen, for dietary reasons, but he probably won’t starve even when the pods are running low... he eats pellets as well if not better than my other fish. 
 

The tricky thing about these little guys though is that they are so tiny when you get them... it was sometimes difficult to tell how well he was eating when he was new, though that was when he started swimming up to the surface to eat the live baby brine shrimp and pods that were attracted to the lights at the surface and I would sprinkle crushed up pellets so he would eat them at the same time (and maybe that’s how he acquired the taste?).
 

This was back when I’d had him for a month. But I should say I spent many many hours caring for him, and made that tank into a highly fed NPS dominant tank to create the best possible home for him. I started a pod culture, created a rubble pile in the tank, started culturing pods, and used a shrimpery to add fresh hatched baby brine shrimp 3 days per week. I also had purchased supplies to do a mandarin diner and brine shrimp feeder but didn’t end up needing to take those measures. Finnick is a fairly easy fish now, but anyone considering getting one should be prepared to go to great lengths to keep it.

 

 

[banasophia]

Not to be outdone by Finnick, my hermit crabs wanted to demonstrate how they get their share of the Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet pellets. Note, the flow is totally off and Mr Krabs is using his legs to create the current.

 

 

[debbeach13]

That crab was really working it!

[banasophia]

21 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

That crab was really working it!

Haha right? 😆

[banasophia]

My 3 lil fishies just chillin when I came into my office this morning:

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Just so I don’t miss posting a FTS this month:

 

 

[banasophia]

Torch’s getting stingy

[Tired]

"I don't like you being there! I'm going to reach over and sting you", says the torch coral. Naughty.

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

"I don't like you being there! I'm going to reach over and sting you", says the torch coral. Naughty.

I know! I already moved one of the candy cane heads on the left to my other tank... Hope I don’t have to move that one too. Meanwhile the hitchhiker sun corals are messing with the other candy cane on the right... I’m not feeding them but they are still growing and thriving. There’s a pretty big sun on the back side of this coral, but I can’t get a pic... it’s preventing the candy cane from opening up all the way, but Hank doesn’t seem to mind. 
 

 

Most stuff transferred from my Biocube 16 has sun babies. He’s a little piece of rubble I moved over for the zoas (and there’s a baby zoa growing!)

 

 
 

 

 

 

[Tired]

Wow, self-maintaining sun corals. That's really cool. Though I wonder if they'll do well long-term.

[banasophia]

1 minute ago, Tired said:

Wow, self-maintaining sun corals. That's really cool. Though I wonder if they'll do well long-term.

They’re certainly growing a lot now... the babies are growing all over my 16 too and I don’t target feed them... I’m thinking there must enough food for them from the pellets... actually cutting back on my target feedings in the 16 because of this.  

[banasophia]

my fishies with one of the two new additions - knopia 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

my fishies with one of the two new additions - knopia 

 

 

 

 

Finnick looks great! Very healthy and vibrant. 🙂 

[banasophia]

3 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Finnick looks great! Very healthy and vibrant. 🙂 

Hi Snow! Thanks! And thank you for popping in. 🤗 He’s doing pretty well... I was just debating whether I need to vary his diet more since he’s mainly just eating pellets in this tank. He’s a little porker and eats tons of them each night so it’s probably enough calories, but i want him to be healthy and should probably do some frozen pods from time to time...my nassarius snails would probably appreciate that too, they aren’t big fans of the pellets. (I need a more balanced diet myself for that matter!)

[SaltyGallon]

How's the pod culture doing @Banasophia? That looks a very good and easy to maintain set up! 😎

[banasophia]

7 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

How's the pod culture doing @Banasophia? That looks a very good and easy to maintain set up! 😎

Well... I have been neglecting it tbh since Finnick eats the pellets so well and since he really just scarfs up the tigger pods immediately just like when I add a batch of fresh hatched baby brine shrimp. 
 

I’d like to get my hands on some apex pods instead because I think they are more likely to hide in the rocks/back chamber and survive in the tank, but they are seldom in stock at my LFSs. But, that being said, even if the tigger pods are just a single meal, there’s probably still value in adding them from the culture once/week for the nutritional benefit, so I should do better about feeding the culture and harvesting some on a more regular basis. 

[banasophia]

Tanks and I have all been in survival mode for the past month... too much stress to devote a lot of time to the tanks. 
 

This tank started growing tons of algae so I moved Hank and Finnick back to their regular home in the Biocube to reduce the bioload... Finnick (the mandarin) needs heavy feedings for at least 30 minutes so it’s a lot for a small tank. I’m sad for the fish though... the two of them and Jack the neon goby all seemed happy together in this tank. 
 

The night I moved the 2 fish out I also realized I hadn’t changed my chemipure elite in at least 4 months so I changed it out that night and saw an immediate improvement in the fluffiness of the candy canes by the next day. I tried to get some additional Mexican turbo snails to deal with the abundant algae, but I found out they are seasonal and my LFSs don’t expect to have them in again for a long time, so I just paid a fortune in shipping and my million dollar turbos arrive from blue zoo tomorrow. 
 

I also had to move one of the gorgonians and candy canes to different locations in the tank (father from the torch) because the torch was reaching out and stinging them. And I got a couple of pretty zoas but found out right away they had zoa pox and I need to get around to treating them this weekend. 
 

Anyway, this is probably the worst tank shot ever, but in the interest of keeping it real and staying in the game, here it is: