Amphipods & Copepods

TriMax

New member
Do I need to buy Amphipods & Copepods for mandarins to eat? I have a 375g tank that has been up for about 6 months. The contents were in another tank for 2-3 years. I have been told I have pods, but I do not see then. I do not see all that good though. :fun4:

If I should buy some, how many? I am hoping to get two mandarins.

Is it ok to buy both or should I just get amphipods or copepods?
 
Should be fine on food but just make sure you don't get 2 males. Mandarins are easy to sex but females don't come in very often.
 
I have 2 mandarins in a 125 gallon. They do great together and have plenty to eat. I bought 4000 pods from www.reefs2go.com. In such a big tank they will do fine. Make sure you do get a male and a female. The male mandarin dorsal fin that has a long spike. You should get the pods a month or so before you get the mandarins put them into your tank and your refugium and let them breed. My mandrins also eat nutramar ova, so you can try to get them to eat that. Before you buy them make the store feed them to see if they are eating frozen food. The ones that do are they ones you want!! Please feel free to contact me with any mandarin questions
 
I am hopfully on track with the male and female thing. I will probably buy some pods because I just like to spend money. :lol:

Thanks

Eddie
 
Usually reefs2go has a deal where you can buy 1000 and get 1000 free. they are both amphipods and copepods. Seems to do well for both of mine. You know you and I will be going against the grain as most people say keeping 1 mandarin alive is impossible yet alone two! Mine are doing well
 
I had one in my 135g tank for YEARS. He was as fat as a little sausage too.

Eddie, I think you should go ahead and get a male mandarin (we have several at the store) then wait and I'll call you if we get in any females. I am pretty doubtful that we can get a specific sex of mandarin but we can continue checking. They do not usually have to be introduced simultaneously...not that I'm aware of.

I would think you have tons of copepods at this point but as Dustin and Kristy demonstrate, more is never a bad thing.
 
I introduced my female much later and the male taught her how to eat frozen. Now they spawn once or twice a week so they're obviously pretty happy. I never added pods or anything.
 
After reading responses on here, I just wanted to put in my two cents, I would so buy like 4000 ++++++ pods keep in mind if you really have a huge population of pods and observe your tank you will see that most all of your fish eat pods, at some point or another I have seen every single fish in my tank eat a pod other than the cleaner gobies and my two spot. So I think the population can rapidly decline.

Dustin and I have had sucess so far but we have only had 2 mandarins for a few months now and still feel compelled to buy them more pods, even though I can see them everywhere in my tank.

CR has some really cute FAT male guys right now.

Kristy
 
Yea id say if your mandarins spawn once a week there pretty happy there dave haha
how long was your tank setup before you add the dragonettes?
 
Male went in March 6, 2004 so he's an old man. The female probably a year ago (my record keeping has gotten sloppy recently). Tank was set up November 2003, so about 5 months before I added the 1st mandarin.

Dave
 
Wow, Dave, he is an old man. Neat the he was willing to let the young lady join him. Might have been a male/female thing, huh. :spin3:
 
At the bottom of the page where it lists all of the clubs threads and the "Currently Active Users", what does the "+" mean?
 
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