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- From: tse@ra.nrl.navy.mil (Anthony Tse)
- Subject: Re: Mantis Blues
- Message-ID: <C1FnJq.897@ra.nrl.navy.mil>
- Sender: usenet@ra.nrl.navy.mil
- Organization: Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC
- References: <1993Jan25.023944.22827@esrican.uucp> <C1FCE6.2A6@hpchase.rose.hp.com>
- Distribution: na
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 23:21:24 GMT
- Lines: 26
-
- In article <C1FCE6.2A6@hpchase.rose.hp.com> dbs@hprnd.rose.hp.com (Dave Sheehy) writes:
- >Secondly, they provide food for the other animals in
- >the reef. As opposed to some of the other people on the net I believe in the
- >"feed as little as possible" school of thought with regard to fish in a reef.
- >Forcing the fish to forage for food among the "small critter" population helps
- >reduce the nutrient load. It also provides a check on the small critter
- >population (kind of like a real ecosystem ya know :-).
-
- A pair of mandarins will wipe out most of the small critters you
- may have in your tank in no time flat. I can see the small critter
- population blew up when my 2 mandarines died, and crashed days after
- I put in a new pair. I think mandarins prefer small critters in tank
- over live brine shrimp since I feed my tank live brine 4 days out of the
- week, Formula II the rest of the times, and the small critter population
- still crashed. One other problem w/ not feeding daily (at least in
- my tank), pygmie angels pick on my clams and corals.
-
- I have a pair of clowns in my other tank. The small critter
- population is fairly stable. I feed that thank 4-5 days out of the week
- as oppose to everyday. The clown will eat small critters when they are
- hungry. Best of both world, clowns never go hungry, I don't feed
- everyday.
-
- Best possible solution: don't out any fish in your reef tank.
-
- -Anthony
-