Chaeto, copepods, and mandarin help!!!!

dmyers557

Member
I just bought a mandarin and was looking for some good help. I have the outer orbit lighting fixture with the tunze skimmer and media rack. So my plan is to put chaeto in the back, next to the skimmer and fill it with a bottle of copepods. Is this going to work for me? Any better idea's? Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

Clownfish518

Razorback
PREMIUM
34 gallons is too small to support a mandarin, need a minimum of 75 gallons, preferably larger.

Welcome BTW
 

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
That will work short term but without a dedicated Refugium the mandarin will likely consume more PODS than you can keep going in that set-up. They constantly "Graze" 24/7.
 

dmyers557

Member
Its only too small if you don't feed them. I'm not worried about that. I have a supply for copepods for years from a friend. I want to do it myself though. Any helpful people please? I was even thinking of maybe putting live rock in the back chamber to help them breed? Any problems you guys might forsee? Installing a fuge or refrigium is my last resort.
 

marine281

Member
I have live rock in my back chamber, plus a fuge, plus quite a bit of macro in my display with a few bits of rubble on top of it to hold it down. My mandarin spends his days tangled up in macro hunting happily:)
 

dmyers557

Member
Thanx Marine for the info. You think I could get away with live rock in the back? Maybe some chaeto in the tank?
 

Clownfish518

Razorback
PREMIUM
If you can find a copy of the Jan/Feb 2009 Coral magazine, they have an article on how to wean mandarins to prepared food. You should check it out
 

Clownfish518

Razorback
PREMIUM
I should add the reason I do not think it will work is because of the size of the system, and the other fish. Mandarins are very slow, methodical eaters and the other fish are likely to scarf up their food before they can get to it.

But I wish you luck and really hope you prove me wrong
 

dmyers557

Member
I actually threw pods in today and the chromis went crazy on them. He might have to go.
 
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Clownfish518

Razorback
PREMIUM
30-40% of a clownfishes diet in the wild are pods, makes sense chromis would like them too as they are in the same family.
 

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Just a "general" word of caution about "Live Rock" or Live Rock Rubble" in the back chambers. Adding either of those does essentially the SAME thing as having the bio-media back there. It gives lots of knooks and crannies for detritus to collect and cause a general increase of NO3.
 

Mavjoy

Active Member
I have some LR in my back chambers and all my levels are stable...you can even put a powerhead back there to have some flow so no debris stays....and don't put too much of it...i have like 3-5 pieces.
 

Clownfish518

Razorback
PREMIUM
I have like 20 pounds of rubble in my system and have 0 nitrates. I think you want to keep your refugium low flow. But I do see Big Al's point. I have been doing some reflecting on Bob Goemans new theory of nitrates and nitrification in the aquarium and I think I have quite by accident hit the sweet spot with my sand bed. But I am getting way off topic. Someone please remind me to write this up tomorrow it is getting to late to do it justice tonight lol
 

Sapphire

Active Member
Hi,

I have mandarin in my RSM 130 and he has been there for over a year.

In general I wouldn't recommend this unless you have the ability to provide the extra food required as technically a RSM is not big enough on it's own to contain enough live rock to sustain a sufficient pod population. Also you can't be sure a mandarin will eat any frozen or prepared food.

I did get rid of my flame angel too - in part becuase he was direct competition for pods.

We don't have a refugium or anything, but have set up a 'pod tank'. I'm from New Zealand and we can't buy them here so if you want extra you just have to breed them. Essentially all we did was get an old tank -can't remember the exact size but around 50 litres. We've added some coral rubble, a bit of live rock and sand, a power head, basic light and a heater. We just cycled this as normal (you don't need great quality water - I just used our water change water). After a couple of months you have a pod population. To collect the pods we just put some black coarse filter matrerial on the surface and shine a light over it and leave it for afew hours. You can then transfer the material (and the pods inside) to your main tank. They will head into your rock work - I would suggest doing this at night so your fish don't get them all!

We also hatched enriched baby brine shrimp directly into the tank (as they are most nutritious within 4 hours of hatching), although this did introduce extra nutrients.

After a couple of weeks -maybe a month or so we noticed he was also eating the brine shrimp we were feeding the sun corals. I'm guessing he made the link between the live baby brine shrimp and the frozen ones.

He now hangs out around the sun corals whenever they get fed and eats frozen brine and mysis (although he still totally ignores flake food). I've also heard you can train then onto white worms and blood worms - so I might try that in conjunction with the food he already eats.


Anyway good luck- they are a wonderful addition to a tank and well worth the extra effort!
 
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marine281

Member
Definately try the blood worms, mine loves them.. turn your flow down when you feed so that they fall to the bottom for easy pickings. Pods are really only good as a snack during the day, if they are all he's eating, then he's not gonna do too well long term.

You could also get some live mysid shrimp, they breed quite easily in a tank. I'm watching some crawl around in mine at the minute :)

You could also hide a piece of the black sponge like that in the back of the max in the display, nice spot for all sorts of critters to hide & breed in away from the hungry fish!
 
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