# 187 Gallon Again



## fishfreak2009 (Aug 5, 2009)

I wanted to thank eveyone (especially Pasfur) for helping with my saltwater 187 gallon. I wanted to let everyone know that everything's going well. I never took any of the fish out, they all recovered very well. No signs of Ich between the sterilization and garlic supplement. I also should add that I now have a quarantine tank for new fish. Two fish were added to the display from the quarantine 2 days ago. So far both look great. No compatibility porblems or signs of disease. The tank now has:
1 Seagrass Filefish (Acreichthys tomentosus)-He loves to nip at snails as well as swimming in all the Caulerpa
1 Diamond Sleeper Goby (Valenciennea puellaris)-She set up a burrow in the front of the tank
1 Heniochus (Heniochus acuminatus)-Likes to bite me when I clean the tank
1 Pearlscale Butterfly (Chaetodon xanthurus)-very friendly and finger feeds
1 Mandarinfish (Pterosynchiropus splendidus)-He stays very fat because my parents are buying a bottle of copepods a week and adding them to the refugium
1 P.J. Cardinalfish (Sphaeramia nematoptera)-always front and center
1 Royal Gramma (Gramma loreto)-Smallest fish, but has the most spunk. Very entertaining to watch.
2 Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion percula)-Cleaning a spot to lay eggs inside a barnacle.
1 Bicolor Angelfish (Centropyge bicolor)-Eats all the grape caulerpa I put in the tank
26 Astraea Snails (Astraea tectum)-Mow down all hair algae
23 Nerite Snails (Nerita sp.) Somewhat useless, get nipped at by the butterflies and filefish, always on their backs.
1 Turbo Snail (Turbus sp.) Amazing cleaner, cleans more by himself then 5 Astraeas.
1 Nassarius Snail (Nassarius sp.)-Seems to like Nerite Snails...
1 Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)-Loves riding on the pearlscale butterfly all around the tank.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Glad to hear its going well. I'm jealous that you have a BiColor Angel doing so well!!!!


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## fishfreak2009 (Aug 5, 2009)

Another question. My mandarin seems to be getting thinner. I have 180-200 lbs. of rock along with my refugium. I hav been adding a bottle of tigger-pods every saturday, but he keeps getting thinner. How can I keep him fat? Within 2 weeks of purchase he ate all of the millions of tiny tubeworms in the tank and I haven't seen a single bristleworm since I added him. I really don't want him to starve. Do you think he has intestinal parasites, like what is common with leopard and belted wrasses?


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## Bluetangclan (Jan 23, 2010)

How long was the tank set up and established before you added the mandarin? One bottle of those tigger pods is, mass wise, probably what a mandarin eats in a normal morning. If you didnt wait 6 months or so for a pod population to get established in the main tank he is probably SOL. The seagrass file is also direct competition for pods as it is a hunter as well and will clear the primary pod breeding areas(macro). There probably arent very many pods of a decent size(pencil lead size or more).


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## fishfreak2009 (Aug 5, 2009)

I added all the live rock about 2 years before adding either. I got him to eat some live brine shrimp today (he only eats them when they hit the bottom, so thankfully I have a target feeder). I also bought some arcti-pods. By the way, do you think it is a good idea to set up a new smaller tank (i.e. 10 gallons) with a sponge filter, some live rock rubble, some live sand, Caulerpa, 3 bottles of phytoplankton, and 3 bottles of tigger-pods. I would put a gro-light on it for freshwater plants and fill it with water from the main aquarium. When I needed pods I could take the target-feeder and transfer some to the main tank. When I look closely at the big tank I can see little copepods moving around the rocks and sand, as well as the Caulerpa, by the way, so I know there's a lot of them in there. If I take a rock out and put it in freshwater, it swarms with little pods.

Another side note. I found out that all the chromis and other small fish that were going missing in my tank before were largely because of a crab I found hidden in the rocks about 3 weeks ago. He was about an inch across, with white and black stripes. I killed him as soon as I saw him. I did not buy him, so he must of came in on the live rock and I never noticed him.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Do you have a refugium? That is the answer to your pod question.


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## fishfreak2009 (Aug 5, 2009)

fishfreak2009 said:


> I have 180-200 lbs. of rock along with my refugium.


Yes, I do. It's 15 gallons.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

The fuge will help tremendously. This is probably why you are having such a good pod population.


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