Mammoth Nano SPS Reef

[Pdash]

A quick full tank shot. Unfortunately not much to see other than a bunch of small frags.

How many of those longspine cardinals do you have, and how did you find acclimating them? I have 6 in quarantine but started with 9. They don't seem to eat as well as I'd like, any tips? Such a nice fish though, really glad to see them in a tank like yours. Thanks dude, amazing tank/photos.

 

[Dugless]

How many of those longspine cardinals do you have, and how did you find acclimating them? I have 6 in quarantine but started with 9. They don't seem to eat as well as I'd like, any tips? Such a nice fish though, really glad to see them in a tank like yours. Thanks dude, amazing tank/photos.

I ordered 9 and received a fingernail sized pajama in the mix that never ate. So 8 longspines made it to the display, but my Japanese angel decided to start bullying them a few weeks in and killed one. I unfortunately had to remove the angel as it was getting too feisty with my wrasses as well. It appears all but the original runt of the group have paired up. At lights out they all group up and shoal for the evening. They also shoal when I have my arm in the tank. I’d like to add a few more in the future.

I think cardinals enjoy meatier foods, but aren’t super picky once comfortable. I’ve even seen a few go for the seaweed pellets. Cardinals in general are not the bravest/smartest fish and usually take a few weeks before they really start eating like champions.

It’s amazing how blue their eyes are, almost like living LEDs.

 

[Dugless]

You might try going without lighting, other than ambient room light, to get them more comfortable. Once they understand the feeding schedule/concept you should be fine. Getting a fish to eat in my experience is the most important hurdle.

 

[Pdash]

You might try going without lighting, other than ambient room light, to get them more comfortable. Once they understand the feeding schedule/concept you should be fine. Getting a fish to eat in my experience is the most important hurdle.

Thanks, they are eating just not eating really well. I've been feeding live baby brine, frozen baby brine, lrs, rods food, small mysis shrimp ( but they don't seem to love anything but the baby brine which isn't great). I will try the lights out thing for sure. Thanks for the advice I'm frankly amazed you have managed to keep them all alive (more or less), I've heard a lot about how poorly they ship etc.

 

[Dugless]

Thanks, they are eating just not eating really well. I've been feeding live baby brine, frozen baby brine, lrs, rods food, small mysis shrimp ( but they don't seem to love anything but the baby brine which isn't great). I will try the lights out thing for sure. Thanks for the advice I'm frankly amazed you have managed to keep them all alive (more or less), I've heard a lot about how poorly they ship etc.

I wasn’t thrilled with how they were shipped to be honest. They arrived in frag sized bags and they were all gasping for air. I expected to have some losses, but they seemed much less delicate than my experiences with wrasses.

 

[Pdash]

Same experience, except mine also came in with a decent amount of fin damage + internal parasites, lost 3 in the first 3 days. It's been 18 days at this point.

 

[Dugless]

Same experience, except mine also came in with a decent amount of fin damage + internal parasites, lost 3 in the first 3 days. It's been 18 days at this point.

If you’re 18 days in that’s a good thing. Are you doing TTM?

 

[Pdash]

Chloroquine phosphate and also the 2 planned rounds of general cure out of the way already. I also dosed Furan-2 because it looked like one had developed a secondary infection on his fin, he has since recovered. At this point just the CP. Planning on removing it at the 30 day mark, and leaving them in place until I'm comfortable with how they are eating and am sure they will handle the flow etc in the DT.

 

[Dugless]

I forgot to mention, you’ll know when they have settled in and are thriving once they start spawning. It seems at least one of mine has a clutch of eggs every other week. I always feel bad for the fish as they go on a hunger strike when doing so. You’ll notice this when the fish has a squared looking jaw and looks almost pelican-like as it aerates the eggs in its mouth. I don’t think I’ll ever see any fry as the environment wouldn’t allow them to thrive.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

I ordered 9 and received a fingernail sized pajama in the mix that never ate. So 8 longspines made it to the display, but my Japanese angel decided to start bullying them a few weeks in and killed one. I unfortunately had to remove the angel as it was getting too feisty with my wrasses as well. It appears all but the original runt of the group have paired up. At lights out they all group up and shoal for the evening. They also shoal when I have my arm in the tank. I’d like to add a few more in the future.

I think cardinals enjoy meatier foods, but aren’t super picky once comfortable. I’ve even seen a few go for the seaweed pellets. Cardinals in general are not the bravest/smartest fish and usually take a few weeks before they really start eating like champions.

It’s amazing how blue their eyes are, almost like living LEDs.

I find this discussion about the longspines (I call them blue-eyed) interesting. I've never had any issues getting these guys to eat, even 15 minutes from intro to my tank from the LFS. I think your supposition about how they are shipped might be right; the particular LFS I frequent doesn't buy from wholesale distributors in the US; instead, he gets his fish shipped directly from the divers/collectors, generally one to a bag in a LOT of water, water change at the port of L.A., and on to him. The cost is roughly 50% to double what the typical retail is, but it's pretty rare for me to lose a fish from him.

 

[Dugless]

I find this discussion about the longspines (I call them blue-eyed) interesting. I've never had any issues getting these guys to eat, even 15 minutes from intro to my tank from the LFS.

I was surprised to lose the pajama as I would describe my experiences similar to yours. However, the fish was smaller than any I’d ever seen before and was most likely too fragile yet for shipping.

 

[Dugless]

Anybody have any experience with Brightwell's Bio Xport media? I've been soaking the cubes I received in RO water and the TDS is measuring in the 200ppm range after a few hours. I'm wondering how long before I get a low enough reading that I am comfortable introducing them.

 

[SeaDweller]

Anybody have any experience with Brightwell's Bio Xport media? I've been soaking the cubes I received in RO water and the TDS is measuring in the 200ppm range after a few hours. I'm wondering how long before I get a low enough reading that I am comfortable introducing them.

I haven’t used that one, but I can’t imagine it being different than Seachem matrix. I used to use like 4-6L if matrix and maybe it did ok? I ended up ditching it as it was a hassle clearing the detritus from it.

I DO doze MB7 twice a week though. Havent had any negative effects but I feel like it may help with biodiversity? Maybe coral food source?

 

[Dkeller_nc]

I don't have any personal experience, as I use live rock. But I have seen some reports that they tend to fall apart into mush over time. Also antecdotal, but a fair number of the "bio block" brands seem to introduce aluminum into the water over time, which makes sense as many ceramics are alumina (aluminum oxide). It's definitely not certain, however, as to whether the aluminum really matters or not.

What problem are you trying to solve with them?

 

[Dugless]

I don't have any personal experience, as I use live rock. But I have seen some reports that they tend to fall apart into mush over time. Also antecdotal, but a fair number of the "bio block" brands seem to introduce aluminum into the water over time, which makes sense as many ceramics are alumina (aluminum oxide). It's definitely not certain, however, as to whether the aluminum really matters or not.

What problem are you trying to solve with them?

I feel like the rock isn't quite pulling it's weight yet in fully processing NO3. I was hoping to give bacteria a better chance with this product. I was planning to keep them in a container within the sump to isolate the chances of them breaking down. This is also the reason I thought to use the small cubes instead of the large blocks.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Well, I'd suggest carbon dosing, but you're clearly not a newb at this, so I suspect that would be frivolous. One idea if you decide not to use the bio Xport media would be to buy a container of Two Little Fishies' ReBorn calcium reactor media, or perhaps CaribSea's Rubble Zone, both of which are natural products, and at least with the ReBorn, definitely out of the ocean. Not precisely sure if CaribSea's product is mined fossilized aragonite, or it's actually rubble from a reef.

 

[Dugless]

BC AquaticMan

 

[bubbaque]

Stunning! Yours is red like mine gets. I am curious what par Adam keeps his under to get that orange.

 

[Dugless]

Stunning! Yours is red like mine gets. I am curious what par Adam keeps his under to get that orange.

The Bohemia Table I have has a nice orange-ish tone with light green trim. It is directly below my Aquaticman and I much prefer the Bohemia. So far that is.

 

[Pdash]

I was surprised to lose the pajama as I would describe my experiences similar to yours. However, the fish was smaller than any I’d ever seen before and was most likely too fragile yet for shipping.

Sorry if I'm derailing the thread, but I took some of the black aquarium backing and covered the left end and half of the front of the aquarium and am now keeping the lights dim for the longspine cardinals. I'll see if this gets them a bit more comfortable. Thanks for your thoughts!