Scooter in nano and water quality

[dendro982]

Who is keeping scooter in a nano, how do you maintain water quality?
Quantity/frequency of feeding, filtration, refugium, protein skimmer (and what DIY improvements were necessary to make it produce dark foam in a large volumes).
Thanks.

[sir_dudeguy]

the water quality would be the same as any other fish (that is reef that is. Of course i dont mean the same as something like a catalina goby which needs colder water).

But you'll find it hard to keep enough food for it in a nano. I seriously doubt that it would do good in a small tank. Of course there's people who do it, and they probably buy food every week. Personally i dont think that having the water quality right will do much. Its the food like i said. Rarely will you find one that takes something other than live pods. And even if you got "tons of pods all over the glass" or whatever right now, you wont in about 2 months after adding this fish to a nano

[Illuminati]

Yeah, scooters are dragonettes, same as a mandarin and just as tricky to get to eat prepared foods.

[nYgel]

I have a 29 and have been keeping a scooter and mandarin in there for a while, the scooter the longest,

my trick: have alot of live rock with spaces where they cant get too, place pvc pipes in the back of the tank (small enought they cant fit in) and then supplement pods every few months, or when they get a little thinner than they should be. The scooter is MUCH easier to take care of than a mandarin, for no reason at all it decided to start eating mysis... which was awesome.

[crabbejoe]

Mine's in a well established 55 and doesn't really eat much besides pods. Have you read this yet?

http://joshday.com/mandaringoby.htm

Or if you had a large refuge, it would probably work.

[dendro982]

Sorry, my fault, let me rephrase question:
"Those, who are keeping scooter blenny in nano-tank for more than 2 months and feeding it by frozen food, how do you maintain water quality? Quantity/frequency of feeding, filtration, refugium, protein skimmer (and what DIY improvements were necessary to make it produce dark foam in a large volumes).
Thanks. "

The scooters (at least 2 of mine, and I had read the same on forums) are more easily accepting frozen food or a smallest pellets, than the mandarins - in a days, not weeks. I have some pods too, but they are not available for sale locally, and I really can't afford this.
More - the starved in LFS scooter restored the she shape in 3 weeks, eating some pods and mostly frozen food.

The problem is with water quality - skimmer is too noisy for the room, where the tank is now, or I have to feed less, or anything else.

The last idea what happened to me - move tank to the basement and connect it to the 90g tank's sump with 250g-rated skimmer.

Still open to other people's experiences, please post.

[crabbejoe]

You could set the skimmer on a timer and have it run only at night.

[dendro982]

I'm sleeping in this room at night :mad2:

[crabbejoe]

Oh, sorry. You didn't say you were sleeping there.

[sjm1978]

i keep a scooter in my 24g aquapod with 1 clownfish. i feed reef nutrtion arcti-pods everyday. my scooter goes crazy for the arcti-pods i guess i got lucky that i got a scooter that eats dead pods :)

[dendro982]

:)
I envy you: here, where I am, is only dry Cyclop-eeze, and it's small. And the frozen one is expensive to ship.

How much are you feeding him? Do you have protein skimmer or a lot of corals?

I'm giving 1/4 cubic in. x3 times daily (mysis and marine cusine, rarely brine), for him and chromis, in 10g. Set skimmer last month only - it helps. Not much corals: 5 LPS, some yellow polyps and GSP, but have good filter-feeders to clean water: Christmas tree rock, small feather dusters and 2 baby Tridacna maxima.

[acrodave]

i have one in my 25 gal i have had him for all most 3m i feed him live mysis pods and the dead arcti pods every now and then he will pick at the dead mysis but most of the time they are to big for him and he spits them out

[dendro982]

Mysis can be of different sizes: the smallest I met - Kordon brand, than Hikari, than - San Fransisco Bay Sally's. Marine Cusine and enriched Brine Shimp are smaller.
I also have alive hitchhikers mysids shrimps - just right size. They live inside the rock caverns (Fiji LR), where they are safe from being eaten all. But not enough of them.
At beginning scooter was eating also pellets - but the smallest pellets only (Hikari S), served as in Melev's Mandarin Diner.