zeszes
Community Member
Hey all I need some advice,
So I'll be the first to admit, I know VERY little about saltwater fish, mainly because most of them just get way bigger than most of the tanks I keep, my biggest I've had was 75 softie tank, and usually I keep more in the 5-30g range, and sometimes pico's. I know my inverts and I love my coral, but normally I'm the kind of person to get all my inverts coral and nems set up, and then let it run for 6 months before I add my first fish just for the sake of movement and I might add one or two here and there as time goes on.
This pattern repeated when I moved, I got my tanks set up, a 25g and a pico 5g, I let them cycle for a few months, got my coral going, lots of nps and lps, with deep caves and dendronepthea, but I digress, the point is, a few months ago I added my first fish to the 25 and one to the 5, a tiny yellow watchman in the 5 with a few sexy shrimp from the old setup, and a blue mandarn in the 25 with some older pom pom crabs, this is the first time I've done mandarins but I've always loved the way they look, (plus I cultivate phyto and pods in my office for my nps so he has a constant supply of food anyways) unfortunately mine is a little shy, I only see him at about 6pm which is when I normally does my AB+ and feed, other than that, he's hiding in or behind the scape entirely. (don't actually know the gender)
So I wanted more fish, I opted for firefish because they're easy and small, and they died within a week. couldn't tell if there were injuries because the hermits were picking the bodies apart so we chocked it up to disease, (chemistry was spot on still) I gave the tank some time before trying again and we did
Then I tired a cleaner wrasse and some neon gobys, same thing, all dead within 3 days, hermits picking them apart, no signs of disease, (reef chemistry was always fine, very low nitrates and 0 ammonia) I waited a little longer before attempt 3, I was recomended 4 engineer gobies because they're good for movement. 1 was gone a few days in, I watched one of my bta's actually eat it's body, no idea how it got there, then a second one was just missing, no signs around the tank. then I saw it, my blue mandarin was hunting down one of the goby's like his life depended on it before he actually managed to get him and I broke it up and seperated them.
This is just a long winded way of really saying, that I have a very health, extremely agressive blue mandarin (not sure how to tell the gender) who eats well on pods and mysis and kills other fish. and I'd like to be able to put some more fish in there so it's not just him hiding and there's some actual movement of fish going on. the surviving 2 engineers are pretty young and temporarly living with the yellow watchman, but it's just a stopgap, I don't want that many fish in my pico and I think I may return them until I get the mandarin situation figured out, any advice on how to calm this thing down, or how to introduce more fish to the tank without incurring fatalities would be greatly appreciated.
So I'll be the first to admit, I know VERY little about saltwater fish, mainly because most of them just get way bigger than most of the tanks I keep, my biggest I've had was 75 softie tank, and usually I keep more in the 5-30g range, and sometimes pico's. I know my inverts and I love my coral, but normally I'm the kind of person to get all my inverts coral and nems set up, and then let it run for 6 months before I add my first fish just for the sake of movement and I might add one or two here and there as time goes on.
This pattern repeated when I moved, I got my tanks set up, a 25g and a pico 5g, I let them cycle for a few months, got my coral going, lots of nps and lps, with deep caves and dendronepthea, but I digress, the point is, a few months ago I added my first fish to the 25 and one to the 5, a tiny yellow watchman in the 5 with a few sexy shrimp from the old setup, and a blue mandarn in the 25 with some older pom pom crabs, this is the first time I've done mandarins but I've always loved the way they look, (plus I cultivate phyto and pods in my office for my nps so he has a constant supply of food anyways) unfortunately mine is a little shy, I only see him at about 6pm which is when I normally does my AB+ and feed, other than that, he's hiding in or behind the scape entirely. (don't actually know the gender)
So I wanted more fish, I opted for firefish because they're easy and small, and they died within a week. couldn't tell if there were injuries because the hermits were picking the bodies apart so we chocked it up to disease, (chemistry was spot on still) I gave the tank some time before trying again and we did
Then I tired a cleaner wrasse and some neon gobys, same thing, all dead within 3 days, hermits picking them apart, no signs of disease, (reef chemistry was always fine, very low nitrates and 0 ammonia) I waited a little longer before attempt 3, I was recomended 4 engineer gobies because they're good for movement. 1 was gone a few days in, I watched one of my bta's actually eat it's body, no idea how it got there, then a second one was just missing, no signs around the tank. then I saw it, my blue mandarin was hunting down one of the goby's like his life depended on it before he actually managed to get him and I broke it up and seperated them.
This is just a long winded way of really saying, that I have a very health, extremely agressive blue mandarin (not sure how to tell the gender) who eats well on pods and mysis and kills other fish. and I'd like to be able to put some more fish in there so it's not just him hiding and there's some actual movement of fish going on. the surviving 2 engineers are pretty young and temporarly living with the yellow watchman, but it's just a stopgap, I don't want that many fish in my pico and I think I may return them until I get the mandarin situation figured out, any advice on how to calm this thing down, or how to introduce more fish to the tank without incurring fatalities would be greatly appreciated.
