Hi All!!

vlangel · Apr 16, 2014

Bangai Cardinals do not have as long a life span as most SW fish. I've read 2 years but I had mine about 4 or so. Anyway I hope yours is OK.

RWoodham · Apr 16, 2014

hes our test fish and we hope he will be okay. my fiance wants to get this fish..

but we will wait on him.. I read tat Mandarin Dragonets are hard to take care of.

Naiad · Apr 16, 2014

Mandarins need a well established tank because like humming birds they have a super high metabolism so they eat almost every waking moment. They eat the little pods that live on the live rock so you need to wait for them to establish a good population. It is also best to have a refugium for the pods to reproduce in safety. I would strongly suggest a captive raised mandarin like those from ORA they are more expensive but have a much better survival rate. They will be easier to care for as well.

RWoodham · Apr 16, 2014

yea we might get rid of our crabs,, they are eating our soft coral, no matter how hard i try to make sure they dont.. they end up doing it anyway.. and if i can catch the pistol shrimp we are going to get rid of him too.. the guy at our pet store said he will take them for his tanks.. so, at least they will go to a good home. i told my fiance that we should wait about 6 months for our tank to be in good shape for the dragonets, and with that we will have just soft coral with one fish.. i think our bio-load is to much for our tank as it is.. i did some water tests this morning, and the results werent bad, but they werent great..

Naiad · Apr 16, 2014

The down side of nanos... how often are you doing your water changes? I would look at some of the nano gobies. Lots of personality in a fun size package. A candy cane pistol would also be an appropriate choice. They stay tiny so don't become bullies like the larger pistols.

RWoodham · Apr 16, 2014

Naiad said:
The down side of nanos... how often are you doing your water changes? I would look at some of the nano gobies. Lots of personality in a fun size package. A candy cane pistol would also be an appropriate choice. They stay tiny so don't become bullies like the larger pistols.

we were doing a WC every week. but our nitrites were off the charts.. And now, they are okay our ammonia is a little high. But we may not have enough bacteria to eat it.. dont the Candy cane shrimp eat the bad stuff off the rocks? if i remember correctly

Naiad · Apr 16, 2014

Your thinking peppermint shrimp. Candy canes are a species of pistol shrimp that only reaches 2 inches. This small size makes them a safe choice as far as pistol shrimp go. How long ago did your tank finish it's cycle?

RWoodham · Apr 17, 2014

Naiad said:
Your thinking peppermint shrimp. Candy canes are a species of pistol shrimp that only reaches 2 inches. This small size makes them a safe choice as far as pistol shrimp go. How long ago did your tank finish it's cycle?

Thank you, sorry for the confusion. now here's a question.. Do fire shrimp(cleaning shrimp) push the sand out from the bottom of the live rocks? My pistol shrimp did and we caught him and gave him to a good home.

eliramos · Apr 17, 2014

RWoodham said:
Thank you, sorry for the confusion. now here's a question.. Do fire shrimp(cleaning shrimp) push the sand out from the bottom of the live rocks? My pistol shrimp did and we caught him and gave him to a good home.

nope they sure don't, they're cool little critters though, they will eat and clean right off your hand.
i would wait till you get your water a little more stable before adding inverts like them. They're more sensitive than crabs so shaky parameters will stress em out.

RWoodham · Apr 17, 2014

okay were doing another WC Saturday, due to the fact we lowered our bio-load. so I know theres going to be spikes all over the place. and we are going to wait for a little while longer.. were going to let our soft coral do its thing.