Another Newbie Saltie.

[malakye]

Totally pee'd off today, travelled 70 miles to get to what we were assured were one of the best places to get Corals from to find their tanks have crashed and they had nothing in what so ever..................gutted cause it took me all weekend to convince my hubby he had to take me there.

The corals I have are too small to frag lol, they are only frags themselves.

 

[kj23502]

oh no. That sucks. Maybe call ahead next time. And sometimes even calling ahead doesn't work Been there, done that.

 

[seffieuk]

How annoying I bet the journey home was interesting

Seffie x

 

[malakye]

He was actually ok about it all, I think he knew how gutted I was lol.
He actually took me to the other shop we usually go to yesterday and bought me a finger leather, a green clown goby and a scooter blenny which followed us about and I couldn't resist lol.
Heres some pictures for you.

Green clown goby Not the best of pictures hes quite shy and the pictures do not show his colouring properly.

Scooter

finger leather

 

[kj23502]

Awesome fish and love the leather

 

[seffieuk]

Lovely goby - but is that a scooter blenny

If so, you do NOT have a blenny but you have a Dragonet, Synchiropus stellatus. They are actually extremely difficult fish to keep alive and require the same conditions as a Mandarin Dragonet. They need a mature tank with at least 100lb's of live rock with a lot of copepods to feed off. They have an abismally poor survival rate in captivity.

You should take him back I am afraid - as your tank is both new and you do not have a pod culture - if you are really keen to keep him buy copepods on line until you can get a culture going - otherwise he will slowly die

Seffie x

 

[Buddyboy67]

Nice start, cant beat rics and zoas, but then i'm biased cos i love em,lol...
Try your scooter with frozen bineshrimp as well but seffie is right to recomend getting pods online, many now offer mandarin and drogonet mixes...

 

[owlbassboy]

if you search for reefphyto he sells mandarin feed packs which will be the same for a scooter. but as said they dont have a good survival rate hopefully you can get some pods for it maybe even culture your own pods to make sure you have a constant supply.

 

[steelhealr]

How many gallons is this tank? SH

 

[malakye]

He is captive bred and eats frozen, I will also be buying in extra copepods for him, I knew what I was taking on when I bought him and made sure he was eating frozen by insisting they fed him before I handed over any cash for him.

 

[Buddyboy67]

well thought out..nice.
Getting to see fish feed before you part with any cash is always to be reccomended, will love the pods as a treat..

 

[malakye]

I might be new to keeping marine but not to fish keeping have had a lot of dealings with friends (only one local though) who have marine tanks, I got a load of pods from one of them to add to my tank same day I brought him home even though I did have some in the tank already.
I will not be adding any more to this tank in the way of corals or fish, had thought run this for a year then swap to larger tank but already feeling limited by the small size and hubby is showing a lot of interest which he never did with the tropical tank and has agreed a larger tank would be better (Still in shock from that one), so will be upgrading to a larger tank within the month. This tank will become the sump for the larger tank.

 

[kj23502]

wow how exciting. An upgrade already

 

[malakye]

I had thought it would take a lot more time to convince my hubby that marine would be better with a big tank, I had thought he would insist I convert the 4ft tropical tank but hes all for the marine and he has volunteered to buy the bigger tank.

 

[seffieuk]

I commend your planning but I am afraid dragons can't live on frozen brine shrimp etc. they can only really be called a supplement they must have huge amount of copepods - as your tank hasn't got the amount of live rock needed (100lbs) then you will have to supplement your tank at least two or three times a week when s/he is fully grown - so get that culture started now - it's real easy, must be, as I did it You can buy the cultures from several places - grow rotifers and copepods for your little fellow and you have some chance of success. But just to reiterate, they can not live on frozen alone

Seffie x