Dtip

Yeah, also heard that berghia supposedly do their thing much more efficiently if you can remove a rock at a time to a smaller system with much lower flow, and let them wipe things clean a rock at a time. That way they don't spend hours and hours hunting around in the middle of nowhere or risk getting blown around, wasting more time. Though the way Aptasia spread, you'd think that they'd regrow on the treated rocks before all of the rocks could be treated. Regardless, it's a really good idea to create a trading ring for them so they aren't just doomed (though, obviously, if they start reproducing, most of the offspring aren't going to make it anyhow). It's definitely not a myth that peppermints will eat the buggers as I've seen the results. But it does seem to be hit or miss, especially if they have other food sources: if the one I had hadn't died I'd be more than happy to lend or give him away. I think my tank just wasn't fed often or messily enough at the time (didn't have any fish so just tried to spot feed him/her).

Had one a long time ago that did seem to pick and poke at my frogspawn from time to time and then retreat but never really did any damage I could see. I don't think they have the stomach to take on something smaller than they are unless they feel like they have superiority in numbers.

Also interested in adding these to my tank at some point (more interested in molluscs than fish). I have a rapidly growing population of collonista and would like to get some diversity/competition going before they completely fill that niche.

Had little luck injecting with kalk. Got a peppermint and every single polyp was completely gone when I woke up the day after acclimation. Then the shrimp died a week later, no idea why. Then I found a lone polyp hanging out in my pump chamber. Oh well. Since it's attached to the glass manually removal might be possible without side effects but we'll see.

Definitely, and thanks. Happened to be throwing it in to a purchase and seemed easy enough. The snail appears to be an astrea. It's so far headed up to the waterline (but kept the xenia under the water level), and through a cave, but the xenia frag seems ok for all that: fully extended at least. I'm not really sure about the long-term viability of this pairing, but not sure it would have had any better luck surviving in the LFS if I had taken it back. The main thing I worry about long term is the that the snail seems to enjoy the idea of taking it close to my hammer coral, and if that happens at the wrong time, sting city. At some point I may just try to separate the two, but don't really have time left this week.

Was picking up some of my first tank corals from a LFS and wanted a sprig of xenia. The LFS I was at mostly had huge colonies but there was one they suggested that didn't look so hot, so I initially balked at getting it. The store owner rightly retorted: look, it's the same coral as those big colonies: that sprig just isn't in a good location, polyp extension and appearance is often all about location. So, fair enough: that's often true! And he offers to sell it at a really good price anyhow. So, I get the thing home, float it, and notice that... it's moving. I've never heard of Xenia being able to move. I look closer and... the whole darn thing is attached to a very much alive, very active snail. I don't actually know if the store owner knew about this unlikely combo, but if so, his emphasis on "location" is pretty funny, in retrospect. Because this thing is never going to be in a single location. (once I realized what I'd gotten, the hard part was thinking about acclimation: I didn't want to delay getting a softie into the new system but also didn't want the snail to die, so I tried the the technique of getting the snail to retract/expunge its water out of the water, then letting it stick above the waterline and enter the new water at it's own pace. I did this by doing a waterchange so that I could get the snail stuck to a the underside of a magfloat such that the xenia would be underwater while the snail was not. Everything seemed to go ok: we'll see how things go over the next few days)

Silver Spring MD. Back in the hobby with a smaller tank but the actual capability to afford the tank I have this time around.

If you are really concerned that your mandarin isn't getting enough in the way of pods, and isn't taking enough supplementary food (even well trained ones can get sick or picky), you could always consider setting up a dedicated pod farm tank, one not directly connected to the main system. I've known several different people that grew them with various methods (though none just to feed mandarins specifically), most of them fairly cheap and easy to set up if you have a spare 10gal, air pumps (since regular pumps can chew up the pods), etc. Worth a try in you have the space for a little low-maintenance farm.

Calfo is talking about regular sand beds in tank or in a refugium in that article I think. When talking about RDSBs, everything I've heard directly from him and others has suggested far deeper: nearly filling a 5gal is the standard application. A DSB in a fuge may help, but it's not going to get those deep, low oxygen cryptic zones you need to really eat away at nitrates, and it can't work like the standard RDSB, which basically puts all the focus on water flow that does not allow any light or debris to settle on the surface of the sand.