Breeding copepods fuge

[Richiefile]

Ok I'm extremely new to reefing and salt water. So far i've been doing great. My tank is doing extremely well. I purchased the set up off a friend who could no long keep it. He started it over 4-5 years ago. He said hes never had a crash or fish die.

Usually I do my research very in depth till now. I was purchasing some brain corals for my tank when i saw this amazing fish swim by. A Mandarin Dragnet. I googled it quick on my phone. Min 50 gallon tank, 70 pound min live rock and a well established tank over a year old. I figured perfect i have more then enough to keep this guy happy.

When i get home i start reading and realized i'm in over my head. Ive been searching and reading everything i can. Been up for two days straight now no sleep. Ive ordered two bottles of live copepods in hopes to breed and sustain a big enough population to feed him.

My game plan at the moment is to use my refugium to breed them and populate. My question is i think i might have to much flow through my fuge to house them there. Well the pump just destroy them all? And do i have enough time to do all this before he starves to death.

He seems healthy right now. But hes not really moving lots. Hiding most of the time. He was active at the store. Im thinking hes just getting used to my tank? Ive tried dropping shrimp pellets in front of him to see if maybe they taught him to eat pellets at the store but he doesnt seem interested at all. Ive only had him for maybe 55 hours. But i know time is limited and i need to figure this out.

Here's some pictures to give you an idea of what i have to work with. He has no competition. All i have in there is one star fish, fire scollop, sea urchin, two clone fish and a blue tang. Some hermit crabs and snails. There's about 150 pounds or more live rock. 9-10 different corals. Actually now that i'm thinking about it theres tons of stuff in there.

 

[Cirenus]

Mandarins can eat 1000's of pods a day, it is better to put them in once you have a steady tank for a while, lots LR, and can visually see pods on your rocks at night. He is likely hiding right now due to the transition. I would suggest trying to mix pods with some sort of frozen food and try to ween him slowly off pods onto frozen. You fuge will do for pods, they will cling to your chaeto, and sand. Make sure some food makes it to the fuge so the pods can reproduce faster. I grow out pods like crazy in my fuge and in my 10g pod setup.

 

[Richiefile]

Mandarins can eat 1000's of pods a day, it is better to put them in once you have a steady tank for a while, lots LR, and can visually see pods on your rocks at night. He is likely hiding right now due to the transition. I would suggest trying to mix pods with some sort of frozen food and try to ween him slowly off pods onto frozen. You fuge will do for pods, they will cling to your chaeto, and sand. Make sure some food makes it to the fuge so the pods can reproduce faster. I grow out pods like crazy in my fuge and in my 10g pod setup.

The Mandarin is already in my tank. I ordered live pods, they will be here tomorrow. I think my plan is now to set up a 5 gallon culture tank with 5 copepod condos. Mature them as fast as possible then stick one of the condo's in the fuge and one in the display tank. Then i can switch out the condo's as needed.

I have a ton of chaeto to spare for the culture tank. And im thinking of ordering this stuff to help it also. http://www.marinedepot.com/DTs_Prem...ls-DT`s_Plankton_Farm-DT1133-FIFDFZRF-vi.html Just hoping it will be enough and before he starves.

 

[ramseynb]

You might try nutramar ova if you want to try to ween it onto frozen food.

 

[Richiefile]

Living in Canada i can't get anything from these sites. Wont ship frozen or refrigerated items.

 

[drej424]

If you purchased the entire package from your friend, including the live rock, you may already have pods in there. If you pick up a small piece of rock, you can usually see them scramble for cover. Good luck with your new fish!

Denise

 

[BearCatFish]

Wait an hour or so after your lights go out tonight, then look at the tank with a flashlight or turn the lights on. Chances are if you bought the setup from a friend there is already an established pod population in the tank. They are nocturnal & hide during the day.

When your new pods come in I'd add half to your display & the other half to your cheato.

 

[Cirenus]

+1 to the advice above. Also, when you do your separate tank for pods make sure you feed them! Mine are a fan of meaty foods and grow very quickly off of it.

 

[rossv]

Been up for two days straight now no sleep.

Woah take a xanax or something and get some rest! You sound like you know exactly what needs to be done. The fish wont starve overnight, your tank sounds like it probably has plenty of pods already to keep him happy for a while. You could probably just use pod condos in your fuge instead of starting a whole new tank for it. Take some deep breaths everything will be ok!

 

[Richiefile]

Woah take a xanax or something and get some rest! You sound like you know exactly what needs to be done. The fish wont starve overnight, your tank sounds like it probably has plenty of pods already to keep him happy for a while. You could probably just use pod condos in your fuge instead of starting a whole new tank for it. Take some deep breaths everything will be ok!

I'm still frustrated and losing sleep lol. I ordered copepods from reef2go Shortly after i started this thread. They've been "back ordered" up until last Monday when they sent me an email saying they would be shipped Tuesday and i can expect them Thursday. So Friday comes along and i send them an email stating i haven't received my pods yet. They replied that they've never received an order from me and have no idea what im talking about. I forwarded the last 4 weeks of emails and a copy of the paypal invoice. Haven't heard from them since(probably cause of the weekend). Hopefully tomorrow they can resolve this asap.

My tank has a large pod pop as of now still. I flashed a light on the rocks after lights out and i see lots of critters running everywhere. Some are pretty big. My dragonet is still active hunting around the rocks all the time. But his stomach looks sunken in (I think). I don't think hes eating.
I started the culture with cheato and live rock to see if i can build something out of what i already have. Below are some pics of what i set up. Its messy but putting holes in plastic containers is harder then it looks. You can see two critters under the rock i flipped over. I don't know what they are tho. Feel free to enlighten me.

Im dosing a cap full (5ml) of Seachem's Reef Phytoplankton 2-3 times a week. If it works im working on culturing my own Phyto. I know there's three different kinds Nannochloropsis & Tetraselmis & Isochrysis. Still working on which or all of them to use. Live phyto is extremely hard to get where i am.

 

[Richiefile]

Also spent 6 hours cleaning the crap and ugly bits out of the tank. Cleaned it up alot and added a little bit of sand. Also ordered Jebao WP40 Controllable Powerhead (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXfEwdNG_wg) The reviews and price were to good to pass up.


Looks empty, every things sleeping.

 

[dartier]

Richiefile, can I ask where you are located in Canada?

For local pods (in Canada) you can order (Nitokra lacustris
) from Reefcrew . They also sell Phyto (Nanno C) and F2 fertilizer. Pretty much everything you need to feed a Mandarin.

And they ship overnight. You can also order through LFS if you have any close that do special orders. Reefcrew can tell you what stores do special orders for local pickup.

Dennis

 

[jerpa]

Isochrysis is the best choice for copepod culturing. Nanno isn't digestible by most copepods. Many of the benthic pods will eat phyto pastes or the dead phyto feast products. Live phyto is necessary for some of the more sensitive varieties and generally results in a more nutritious pod but it isnt always necessary. It also helps keep the culture water cleaner.

 

[MelloW33]

I think you will be OK with one mandarin in there. In the past, I have slowly introduced frozen mysis to my mandarins by letting the cubes thaw in front of the powerhead. It's almost like the mandarins think the shrimp are alive if they are getting blown around.

 

[ca1ore]

I have tried growing pods in refugia of various sizes and have come to the conclusion that it is not possible (or just impractical) to supply all of the feeding needs of even a single Mandarin over the long term. The numbers just don't work.

A friend of mine has kept Mandarins for years and his experience is really quite simple - if the fish 'learns' to accept frozen Mysis or some other kind of prepared foods he lives long-term, if not, he does not. Use a population of pods to initially establish a Mandarin, sure, but in the long run is not sustainable.

 

[rlpardue]

+1. Putting in the work to either find a mandarin that eats prepared foods or training one to do so is worthwhile.

 

[Richiefile]

Richiefile, can I ask where you are located in Canada?

For local pods (in Canada) you can order (Nitokra lacustris
) from Reefcrew . They also sell Phyto (Nanno C) and F2 fertilizer. Pretty much everything you need to feed a Mandarin.

And they ship overnight. You can also order through LFS if you have any close that do special orders. Reefcrew can tell you what stores do special orders for local pickup.

Dennis

Im in Winnipeg. My local shop ordered some, should be in next week. After fighting with reef2go and getting the run around they have finally refunded my money after threatening to fill a complaint with bbb and paypal. But ill will check out reefcrew asap.

Isochrysis is the best choice for copepod culturing. Nanno isn't digestible by most copepods. Many of the benthic pods will eat phyto pastes or the dead phyto feast products. Live phyto is necessary for some of the more sensitive varieties and generally results in a more nutritious pod but it isnt always necessary. It also helps keep the culture water cleaner.

Awesome thank you.

I have tried growing pods in refugia of various sizes and have come to the conclusion that it is not possible (or just impractical) to supply all of the feeding needs of even a single Mandarin over the long term. The numbers just don't work.

A friend of mine has kept Mandarins for years and his experience is really quite simple - if the fish 'learns' to accept frozen Mysis or some other kind of prepared foods he lives long-term, if not, he does not. Use a population of pods to initially establish a Mandarin, sure, but in the long run is not sustainable.

+1. Putting in the work to either find a mandarin that eats prepared foods or training one to do so is worthwhile.

I think you will be OK with one mandarin in there. In the past, I have slowly introduced frozen mysis to my mandarins by letting the cubes thaw in front of the powerhead. It's almost like the mandarins think the shrimp are alive if they are getting blown around.

After changing out my power heads for the wave maker my Mandarin is out all the time now. She looks very good too. And ive noticed now that she's out she's been eating the scrap brine and mysis that falls to the sand bed when im feeding the rest of the fish.

Also on a weird note she hangs out and sits on my serpent starfish.

 

[rayr18]

mandarins can eat 1000's of pods a day, it is better to put them in once you have a steady tank for a while, lots lr, and can visually see pods on your rocks at night. He is likely hiding right now due to the transition. I would suggest trying to mix pods with some sort of frozen food and try to ween him slowly off pods onto frozen. You fuge will do for pods, they will cling to your chaeto, and sand. Make sure some food makes it to the fuge so the pods can reproduce faster. I grow out pods like crazy in my fuge and in my 10g pod setup.

+1

 

[rayr18]

+1. Putting in the work to either find a mandarin that eats prepared foods or training one to do so is worthwhile.

I believe ORA grown Mandarin Dragons are all trained to eat frozen before sale. So if your friendly with your LFS you could ask them to purchase from ORA

 

[REEForBANG]

I believe ORA grown Mandarin Dragons are all trained to eat frozen before sale. So if your friendly with your LFS you could ask them to purchase from ORA

^^This is the best way to go with for mandarins^^you don't want to starve them out which is easy to do with wild mandarins you can ask them to special order it or look up online retailers that ship.