schigara
New member
I restarted my 75g about 3-4 months ago and pretty much planned for a Mandarin. I have filled the return area and refugium of the 55g sump with LR and base rock which is the lightest and most porous rock I have and have been adding a few pounds a week of the same kind of rock.
I have noticed in the past month, a ton of pods appeared in the refugium and was thinking that I would start shopping for a Green Mandarin in the next month or so.
Anyways, I was at one of my LFS's a few days ago and happened to spot the most gorgeous, large male psychadelic madarin I have ever seen. I walked away 3 times and told myself the system was too young and he might starve. As you may have already guessed, he came home with me.
I put him in the refugium and have been training him with minced frozen mysid and formula 1 and 2 pellet and have seen him eat both along with the usual hunting and devouring of pods. I put an olive jar in the fuge with about 20-30 pellets and the mysid and he eats that slowly but still prefers the hunt for pods. He actually sleeps inside the olive jar! Every morning I open the door and look inside the fuge and there he is, sleeping in the jar.
Anyways, I have been wondering how many pods have made their way to the display tank so tonight I shown the flashlight in and was totally amazed. I can see anywhere from 20-40 pods per sqaure inch on any bit of glass in the display and the water looks cloudy because there are so many floating in the column.
I feel confident I can keep him alive but I want to get him very fat. I am going to set up a 10 g tank to just grow pods. What is a good environment for a pod growout tank? What does one feed a tank to grow pods like crazy? I am guessing foam filter material is a good way to transfer from the growout tank to main system? I have a small ammount of chaeto in the fuge, should I put some of it in the pod tank?
I estimate I have about 130-150lbs of rock now but would like some input from others who have successfully kept a Mandarin in a relatively small system as I have now. Do I need to worry about the extra pod export tank?
I have noticed in the past month, a ton of pods appeared in the refugium and was thinking that I would start shopping for a Green Mandarin in the next month or so.
Anyways, I was at one of my LFS's a few days ago and happened to spot the most gorgeous, large male psychadelic madarin I have ever seen. I walked away 3 times and told myself the system was too young and he might starve. As you may have already guessed, he came home with me.
I put him in the refugium and have been training him with minced frozen mysid and formula 1 and 2 pellet and have seen him eat both along with the usual hunting and devouring of pods. I put an olive jar in the fuge with about 20-30 pellets and the mysid and he eats that slowly but still prefers the hunt for pods. He actually sleeps inside the olive jar! Every morning I open the door and look inside the fuge and there he is, sleeping in the jar.
Anyways, I have been wondering how many pods have made their way to the display tank so tonight I shown the flashlight in and was totally amazed. I can see anywhere from 20-40 pods per sqaure inch on any bit of glass in the display and the water looks cloudy because there are so many floating in the column.
I feel confident I can keep him alive but I want to get him very fat. I am going to set up a 10 g tank to just grow pods. What is a good environment for a pod growout tank? What does one feed a tank to grow pods like crazy? I am guessing foam filter material is a good way to transfer from the growout tank to main system? I have a small ammount of chaeto in the fuge, should I put some of it in the pod tank?
I estimate I have about 130-150lbs of rock now but would like some input from others who have successfully kept a Mandarin in a relatively small system as I have now. Do I need to worry about the extra pod export tank?
