Corey's irresponsible 16 biocube

[Northern Flicker]

Looks good but I am gonna be real with you - you should never stick your hands in an LFS' tanks, and you should never scrape an anemone's footing off a rock.

When I worked at an LFS, a well meaning customer did the same since they thought they knew the staff well enough. They didn't realize they had sunscreen on and they wiped out all of the animals. There is also a huge liability risk for the owner if you are shocked/cut/bit/infected/stung.

As for the mandarin, you will need to buy live pods at a minimum once a month. At the size it's at now, I would go with Tibse or maybe Tiggers. In a 16g tank, there is simply no way to have enough pods naturally, mandarins will eat a pod every 6-10 seconds. It's not necessarily a good sign that it didn't flee from your hand to be honest.

You were right about the irresponsible part! lol just make sure your irresponsibile-ness doesn't kill off a bunch of animals!

 

[moretor1]

Looks good but I am gonna be real with you - you should never stick your hands in an LFS' tanks, and you should never scrape an anemone's footing off a rock.

When I worked at an LFS, a well meaning customer did the same since they thought they knew the staff well enough. They didn't realize they had sunscreen on and they wiped out all of the animals. There is also a huge liability risk for the owner if you are shocked/cut/bit/infected/stung.

As for the mandarin, you will need to buy live pods at a minimum once a month. At the size it's at now, I would go with Tibse or maybe Tiggers. In a 16g tank, there is simply no way to have enough pods naturally, mandarins will eat a pod every 6-10 seconds. It's not necessarily a good sign that it didn't flee from your hand to be honest.

You were right about the irresponsible part! lol just make sure your irresponsibile-ness doesn't kill off a bunch of animals!

The mandarin is sustained off of munnid isopods.
I have no shortage of those guys as they breed in a large clump of chaeto and sit in extremely high flow areas where the mandarin can get them

I don't like sticking my hand in the LFS tank but I will do it if I notice something dying. I don't use skin products of any kind except hand soap

Actually the mandarin seems to have increased the population of pods as it leaves the largest breeding ones alone and eats all the smaller ones

 

[Northern Flicker]

The mandarin is sustained off of munnid isopods.
I have no shortage of those guys as they breed in a large clump of chaeto and sit in extremely high flow areas where the mandarin can get them

I don't like sticking my hand in the LFS tank but I will do it if I notice something dying. I don't use skin products of any kind except hand soap

Actually the mandarin seems to have increased the population of pods as it leaves the largest breeding ones alone and eats all the smaller ones

I don't think you really understand mandarins. I am not telling you that you need to supplement because it's my experience, I am saying it because it's very established amongst the community what the long term needs of these fish are. A few pods in a ball of chaeto and minimal live rock in a 16g will not hold up. At the very least, that tank should be filled to the brim with very porous rock, but the last picture you shared it looks very sparse.

As for the anemone - @OrionN would you agree that sticking your hand into an LFS tank and scraping it's foot off the rock is probably not what's best for the anemone?

Those of us that keep these animals long term know there are much better methods. You are quite new to the hobby, this is a chance to learn. Remember, the important thing isn't that you get your anemone, it's that you take over the care of an animal and set it up for long term success.

 

[moretor1]

I don't think you really understand mandarins. I am not telling you that you need to supplement because it's my experience, I am saying it because it's very established amongst the community what the long term needs of these fish are. A few pods in a ball of chaeto and minimal live rock in a 16g will not hold up. At the very least, that tank should be filled to the brim with very porous rock, but the last picture you shared it looks very sparse.

As for the anemone - @OrionN would you agree that sticking your hand into an LFS tank and scraping it's foot off the rock is probably not what's best for the anemone?

Those of us that keep these animals long term know there are much better methods. You are quite new to the hobby, this is a chance to learn. Remember, the important thing isn't that you get your anemone, it's that you take over the care of an animal and set it up for long term success.

The anemone was a while ago, to clarify i dont scrape at their foot and more or less just poke/annoy the foot until it releases. This works with any invertebrate that travels using a foot and is how i move snails without hurting them
Sadly it was eaten by my peppermint shrimps. I'm considering trading the last one in anyways as i suspect they've been the culprit to a lot of things being stressed

I know what the consensus is on mandarins but i would argue that a large chunk of chaeto is much better for sustaining large populations of pods than live rock, if placed appropriately
Most people use chaeto in their sump, not their display tank. That would not work in this scenario as these are isopods who are on the rocks and glass and would have no real way to go from the sump to the display tank.
it's not a "few" pods as you can watch them in this timelapse. (it clears up about a minute in)
The mandarin has fattened up a lot since i've gotten it and pod populations have not visibly decreased. they are absolutely everywhere in my tank