Dawn's seahorse garden!

Thanks Michael and Kevin, I am definitely not going to put Cheerleader in the same tank as Whiplash.
 
Well, I have come to a decision. I am taking Whiplash back to the lfs. I hate to do it but he's quite aggressive. Honestly I would be afraid to keep anything else with him and I am not maintaining a tank just for him. I need his tank for feeder shrimp. At least I have fattened him up nicely.
 
Sounds like a good call, Dawn. It blows my mind how many folks hold onto fish that don't 'work' in their setups. We all make mistakes. What we do to correct them is what's more important.

I'm curious how you're doing with the other changes. I know you had to be very diligent with water changes, etc. for your horsies. Now that you're sort of changing over from a species tank to a community tank, how is that going? Have you had to adjust your methods to keep everyone happy? I would imagine it's a little more complicated.
 
Michael Hoaster said:
Sounds like a good call, Dawn. It blows my mind how many folks hold onto fish that don't 'work' in their setups. We all make mistakes. What we do to correct them is what's more important.

I'm curious how you're doing with the other changes. I know you had to be very diligent with water changes, etc. for your horsies. Now that you're sort of changing over from a species tank to a community tank, how is that going? Have you had to adjust your methods to keep everyone happy? I would imagine it's a little more complicated.
Click to expand...

It turns out that Whiplash has done well for himself. I took him to a local meeting, traded him for a frag of a coral from another aquarist who has a 280 gallon tank. It only has tangs, firefish and bangaii cardinals so Whiplash should be great as long as he behaves himself.

As far as the ponies are concerned, so far so good. I vacume the shallow sand and I do a little more water changes. Its not been hard to keep the pajama cardinals happy, I just give them a squirt of mysis and they let the ponies eat out of the bowl without any hassle, (unlike Whiplash who went right into the bowl and would not leave ). I am worried about the mandarins. They are not troublesome for the ponies but they are getting thinner. Even though they are captive bred they refuse to eat mysis. I am supplementing the tank with baby brine shrimp but it is not helping enough in my opinion. I am sorry that I got them and I never should have gotten 2.
 
Hmmm.... If you are committed to keeping them you might try culturing pods in a bucket to supplement. Tigger have grown pretty dense for me with very little care.
 
Have you tried frozen cyclops? Maybe they'll eat those-they're smaller. You'd think captive raised fish would eat some kind of frozen food. Can you contact who raised them and find out? I'm sure they'd be happy to share that info.

Sorry for your troubles and good luck with them.
 
This morning I removed the female Mandarin and put her in the 5.5 AIO tank. I can supplement her with bibs and also really work on training her to eat some frozen. Michael, I will try some frozen cyclopese.
 
Oh, I wish you luck with your mandarins. They are so cool. I don't know much about them, but I see live pods sold at our LFS. Do you have an LFS near you that has them? Mine keeps bottles of them in their refridgerator. If that is true, then perhaps you could feed them some directly and use the rest to culture your own? Does your thank have a refugium where pods can reproduce without predators to wipe them out? If not, maybe add one? Just suggestions, and not from my experience, but rather from doing research on the direction of my tank.

In my display tank, the pods are disappearing without the fish in there. I have no idea why. My photoperiods are reduced, so perhaps that is the reason. Before I took the fish out, I had them everywhere. Weird. So much to learn.
 
Chasmodes said:
Oh, I wish you luck with your mandarins. They are so cool. I don't know much about them, but I see live pods sold at our LFS. Do you have an LFS near you that has them? Mine keeps bottles of them in their refridgerator. If that is true, then perhaps you could feed them some directly and use the rest to culture your own? Does your thank have a refugium where pods can reproduce without predators to wipe them out? If not, maybe add one? Just suggestions, and not from my experience, but rather from doing research on the direction of my tank.

In my display tank, the pods are disappearing without the fish in there. I have no idea why. My photoperiods are reduced, so perhaps that is the reason. Before I took the fish out, I had them everywhere. Weird. So much to learn.
Click to expand...
Actually I odered 3 big bottles of pods when I first got the mandarins plus they gave me a 4th. I put one bottle in the fuge where there a no pedators and 3 bottles in the display. I have been feeding the coral tank and the seahorse tank bbs and I see the female mandarin eating it. I enrich the bbs the 2nd day.
I am doing the best I can but I am not optimistic.
 
2018-03-29_08-15-03 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
I did a super cleaning yesterday removing all the coral and all the macro algaes. I washed them in saltwater from the tank, basted all the rockwork, stirred and vacumed the surface of the sand and finished off with a big WC. I figure that I ought to do that every 2 months. I also syphoned the sump chambers since I run my system sockless.
As you can see in the pic, I either have some diatoms or cyano. My guess it is because I did not use live sand so I think this should just be an ugly stage that slowly improves as life begins to colonize the sand.
 
You have a very beautiful tank. Your video was quite a treat, thanks! Your mandarin seems a little skinny, but I think looks healthy and is actively feeding. The colors look great, so maybe in time he'll fatten up.
 
Chasmodes said:
You have a very beautiful tank. Your video was quite a treat, thanks! Your mandarin seems a little skinny, but I think looks healthy and is actively feeding. The colors look great, so maybe in time he'll fatten up.
Click to expand...
Thanks Kevin, and yes I am so grieved about the mandarins. I separated them so that only one is in the seahorses tank and I am feeding the other Mandy bibs and trying to train her onto frozen but am still not having any success. I add bbs to the seahorses tank too. I just Don't know🤔.
 
I am speaking at my marine aquarium club tomorrow on seahorses. I am not a public speaker but I want folks to be informed on what is required to keep seahorses.

I am also giving my mandarins to a club member who has a long established 180g tank. The mandys should do well there. Ha ha, lately it feels like I am buying fish to give them away.
 
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