Copepod question

[armywife022]

Hi guys. I have a question. I currently have a 46gal reef tank with a Clown and a Mandarin Goby (not by choice, I bought the entire system from someone else). I added some live rock a few months ago then started noticing some snail shells (minus the snails). One day I was rearranging some rock to fit in some new coral, and I felt something 'bite' me. Long story short, some investigating made me realize I had a mantis shrimp in my tank! I removed the rock, and I just liked the little guy so much, I bought a 15 gal tank for him. He now resides comfortably in there with several inches of sand a few live rocks. I am going to connect the 15 gal to the main tank via a sump. My question is this. Although my goby eats frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp beautifully (lucky me!) I would like to introduce a nice copepod population to the tank. Can I try to cultivate them in the tank with the mantis, or will he just kill them all off? And is it even safe? Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

 

[KeMo]

I would say yes. Your prob going to be feeding your mantis anyways. Plus pods reproduce rapidly . Sounds like a great plan.

 

[snorvich]

I agree. The mantis can be a very interesting animal. Give it little bits of table shrimp and watch it go to town. No problem with it depleting your copepod population.