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Mandarin fish is another one that I fell in love with but I know that I can not have one now. It's too soon and I can not provide for it.

Believe me, I really check a lot BEFORE I do anything in my new marine tank as I am new to this "salty hobby". I have a strong background in fresh and it has helped me a lot but I realise that I can not use the same EXACT principles in a marine tank. Marine tanks are just too sensitive so caution is a must and patience seems to be the word of wisdom in this fun and exciting endeavour.

CC

premiumaquatics has pods in a bottle [link=http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=OCEANPODS&Category_Code=DTfood2]http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=OCEANPODS&Category_Code=DTfood2" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link] The only problem is they aren't cheap and the shipping probably isn't either but it would help keep your tank from being emptied of food before the new rock is in the tank.

The scooters are cute and Chris was trying to talk me into getting one today. He kept saying things like look it scoots around how can anyone resist. But all I have is a 20g right now and I don't want to spend that much effort and money on feeding it. Maybe if I set the 55g back up some day. I was hoping someday to have the 55g back on it's stand which the 20g and 5g are using and use the 20 as a refugium.

Dan,

Thanks for the tip. No worries, I will make the research myself. Thanks for offering so much help. I appreciate it. I'll keep ya posted on my findings.

CC

The best advice I have for you was stated above. Talk to your LFS and get a Pod pack. You pour this in to your tank and it will populate your rock with pods. You may have to do this several times over then next few months as you add more and more rock, but will give your fish the best possible chance for survival. I will see if I can find a link to a supplier online.

Dan


Dan

Dan,

Thanks for the good wishes. You bet your life-savers I'm willing to go the extra mile for my lil' scooter. He is so cute, how could one refuse him anything? Ok, I must admit I'm a bit head over heels about him but hey... it's my first scooter. Pure 49cc Marine packed power on fins!!! And ya gotta love da Raised Top option!!! It just cracks me up to see him raise his fins and pose like he's some sort of Mean Machine...

SHAM : Yeah, it would have been better if my tank was 2 years old with lots of corals and not a 55gal but a 2000gal with 4000 pounds of L.R. and whatnot. The world would be a better place if everything was perfect. Unfortunately, reality is not like that and nothing is perfect, starting with me.

To everyone : Instead of telling me horror stories that can happen and what would have been better and so on and so forth, why don't you just be happy WITH and FOR me and my cute lil' scooter? That's all we ask.

Be happy all,

CC and his scooter

These two paragraphs I find important.

Dragonets feed on small crustaceans, shelled protozoans (foraminiferans) and annelid worms. I have seen adult specimens pull larger segmented worms out of live sand and suck them down like spaghetti, and on one occasion I observed a specimen ingest a small fireworm. These fish are easier to keep if you place them in a tank with live sand and live rock, which functions as the dragonets' cafeteria. Do not be surprised if your dragonet buries under the sand when threatened, or at night.

If placed in a tank without living substrate, you will have to make sure that food gets to the bottom. In an aquarium with lots of aggressive feeders this can be difficult, because most food will be consumed before the more meticulous dragonet has a chance to ingest it. You can use a long pipette, rigid air-line tubing or a turkey baster (that is used only for feeding your fish) to deposit food near the substrate where it has a better chance of becoming dragonet supper.

The last paragraph sums it up. If your willing to do the work, then your chances are far greater.

Best of luck.

Dan

Dan

I do know of a few people on nano-reef.com successfully keeping scooters in small tanks of around 20g with 10g refugiums for their listed maximum lifespan. It's not easy though and not really suggested because you'll spend more time worrying about growing pods(and restocking pods) than anything else. All of those scooters do eat some other foods but their main diet is still pods. To keep them without throwing in a constant great effort it would be best to at least have a well established tank of 55g packed with liverock. I'd have to agree that from what I've read so long as the fish you have has started eating a few other foods they don't need nearly a 100g tank. For 2 you might though especially if you lack a place for the pods to grow and multiply without the scooter getting to them.
Your scooter may be fine but it would have been best to have all the liverock in the tank for several months before you got him instead of adding it later.

You should see him go! LOL That fish is the center attraction of the aquarium. He found himself a nice live rock cave. He roams around like crazy, crawling on the rubble like coral substrate and then jumping on the LR, picking things on it. Can't see what he picks at but he does. And when you approach the tank, he comes in front to greet you! LOL We have a Salty Valet!!!

I LOVE this fish!!!

CC /:'

I should have said the profile is incomplete, not so much not accurate. This was my mistake. The bottom line here is, you have the fish, so lets make sure you make the best of it. In hindsite, waiting would have been the best option. I got most of my knowlage from experence,(over 25 years) and a good friend that owned a fish store, (over 18 years). In this hobbie everyone has an opinion, and most differ. Your best option is to take all the knowlage you get and make a desision based on this information. My advice ALLWAYS errors on the side of safty.

Dan


Dan

Dan,

As I stated many times, I will be adding more live rocks to the tank but I can not throw it in there in bulk. Time is needed. On the other hand, you make it sound like a Scooter depends solely on copepods which is not the case, nor factual.

I respect your opinion and beliefs but I am afraid that they are not shared by what I have read so far about them from repuatble aquarists. I am not implying that you are not a qualified or experienced aquarist. I'm simply saying that your opinion, as expressed here, clashes with the opinions of many others.

The fact sheet as posted in the FishProfiles.com is in accordance with what I've read elsewhere and what I was told about scooters.

CC

Dan,
you have the option of submitting any changes you feel the profile may require. And as an upstanding member of this site, you should do that. This does not mean they will go through, but you should at least submit changes if you know them to be wrong, or submit additions if you feel they need be. When doing so, please post a comment with them, explaining your reasons, and/or any links or such to more info that concurs with your submissions. This will help in them getting changed.

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There is always a bigger fish...

The profile on this site I would not consider accurate. Yes, it was posted by Dan, but not this Dan. I posted that first, then looked around and found one that is more accurate. Your tank might be big enough, but as stated above, you need a lot more live rock. As well as more time to build up a population of pods. The only problem I see with a tank that small is the population can be over harvested. You have an option of adding pods to the tank. You can order them from many good LFS.



Dan

so caution is a must and patience seems to be the word of wisdom in this fun and exciting endeavour

Yes. Very important. I always tell those with new starting up questions;
The three most important things to remember when starting up a new SW tank, is one; patience, then two; more Patience, and three - you guessed it; even more PATIENCE! With these three things in mind all the time, you can almost certainly obtain a great SW setup!

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There is always a bigger fish...

Oh yeah baby! A brand new scooter. 49cc of pure, raw Blenny power!!! I got the one with the mag wheels and the extra large exhaust pipe. A mean machine, I tell ya!

Can travel from 0 to 0.0001 miles per hour in half a sec. Eat your heart out Harley Davidson!!!!

CC

CC, the info he gave you can and is correct for some of these fish. Maybe not all, but for many of them.

The reason is because of their very close relation to the Mandrin. A mandarin fish would most definitely die in your setup at this time. It may and would probably take a month or two, but non the less, would die. As no matter how much they eat of foods given them by us, if they don't have an ample supply of copopods, they will starve. Even though they continuously eat what is given them, they will die without the copopods. This is the reason for concern to you about their needs. As some of the Scooter Blennies will do the same thing. People just don't realize this when they see them live for several months and eat heartily on what they are fed from us. Then they die, and the owners don't understand why. This info about the Mandarin, is highly and well doncumented all over the net. And there is info of the same nature out there about some of the Scooter Blennies as well. The red ones are especially close to the same needs as the Mandarin.

As for yours, you will just have to wait and see what happens with him. As he may be just fine. But then again, you may loose him in a month or two. If you do, you will then understand why.

As for personal experience, I have kept one of these in a 29 gal for well over a year (then was moved to my 75 reef). But, between the sump and the tank, there was over 60lbs of LR. And I did not have any other fish in there that were copopod hunting type fish. So the entire culture of copopods in there was all his. He also ate brine and some blood worms. But was constantly eating copopods, all the time.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Acid,

Thank you for your sound advice. I do not plan on having more than one blenny. I bought it because I fell in love with it the first time I saw it in the LFS.

Of course I will add more L.R. As I stated, I plan on adding at LEAST 30 more pounds of it. But, as you well know, I can not do it in one shot and I must exert patience. So I will add 15 pounds next weekend, and IF my water parms are ok, then another 15 pounds the other weekend.

Lighting is planned for and just a matter of time before buying. Should have 260W within 2-3 weeks tops. For now, and I know it's not much, I have to deal with only 40W. That's the best I can do for now.

Protein skimmer + sump should be installed within 5-6 weeks. Can not manage it before that... or, not sure, maybe sooner depending on some future (uncertain) incoming extra bux.

Bottom line, no worries folks. Everything is planned for and I am not going blindly into it. I take a lot of time reading and planning ahead because I love my tanks and the salty one is my new baby. I take every steps to make it a success and I will continue to do so.

CC

Dan,

First of all, thank you for giving me the links. I've read both and I am afraid that your opinion is in contradiction with what I read, specially on the FishProfiles profile page.

The photo on the page is EXACTLY what I got. I feed my fish ONLY frozen brine shrimp of premium quality and on occasion, some color bits by Tetra. Right now, feeding is not a concern at all. I simply give a bit more than usual so that some of the brine shrimps find their way to the bottom.

Secondly, still on the FishProfiles profile data sheet, it's said that this fish needs at least a 20gal size tank. I have a 55gal. Your mention of 100 gal is rather an overkill in my opinion. Mind you, you can keep your blenny in whatever setup you think is required. I will go with the information that I gathered from my LFS, readings on the web, books and links from kind people like you to guide me.

Thank you again for your concern and for the informative links.

CC

The Scooter Blennies are not as bad as their cousins the Mandarins, which REQUIRE an established tank of at least 6 months, and prefferably a year. And REQUIRE copopods as their main source of food. The Scooter Blennies will many times do fine with other sources of foods, such as brine shrimp and even the occasional blood worm or such. The foods have to be small enough to fit into their mouths, as they don't have teeth.

In a 55 gal, I would not recomend you keep more than one male, and really no more than one Scooter Blenny. If you keep more than one, make it a female. The males will have a much larger, 3-4 times as large, dorsal fin. To give you an idea or comparison, the pic here at FP is a male. The females dorsal will only come up to about the second or third stripe on the males dorsal in the pic.

I would also recomend you at least double your LR amount to 50 lbs, and better would be around 75-100lbs. The added LR will not only better your filtering process and most likely bring down your elevated nitrates and slow the incline of them, but will also give a larger area for growth and production of copopods. And depending on your lighting, the LR would give an elevated area for the addition of some softy or leather corals, which will help in the nitrate absorbtion.

Good luck with him, and enjoy. They are a very cool and active fish.

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There is always a bigger fish...

This should provide you with the information you need on this fish.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=saltaquarium&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aquariumfish.com%2Faquariumfish%2Fdetail.aspx%3Faid%3D87%26cid%3D3790%26search%3D

Dan


Dan

Here is some information on this fish.
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/scooter.xml
I had more links but lost that list when my computer crashed.

Dan


Dan