Enough pods for mandarin???

[Reefer1991]

I will add live rock rubble from my display and that will atleast give him a small supply of pods to munch on while I try nutramar and what not. I will also seed filter pads in my dt which will make the qt cycled. Last time I did that I also got a decent pod population in the qt from the filter pad. I am not too worried about him eating frozen because I honestly feel that I have enough pods to sustain him although i would feel a lot better knowing he will eat frozen if the pods somehow get depleted.

I don't have a fuge so I can't do what the other person is planning on doing. If I put him in my sump with my lr rubble after I insured he had no parasites, he would be able to swim freely around my skimmer and return pump which isn't ideal. I am most likely going to do a 2-3 week observation and put him straight in my display if no parasites or illnesses show. I don't have all of the supplies for ttm nor do I really want to do that. I prefer cp and hypo for treatments(I'm not going to put the mandarin through either). Do they take prazi pro well? I could give him some prazi treatments while I observe to treat for internal parasites.

 

[Chriss614]

Misread the original question. I would never advise using a Refugium as a QT. To train a mandarin yes but kill all parasites first!

To clarify, I understand that Refugiums cannot be used as a QTs. I was asking under the pretense that the fish was treated with regular QT protocol (which for me is TTM with Prazi and formalin). If the refugium would be a suitable area to keep the fish for a few weeks to get it comfortable, trained on food, and observed for any odd habits(baring disease). As long as no pod destroying fish are in the DT I assume the pod population would be able to survive using the DT as a harbor while the mandarin is in the fuge.
This doesn't directly answer the Original question but since the OP said he only QTs for about a week, which may not be enough time to train the fish, he may want to consider doing something similar to train it without other fish in the way.

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[Chriss614]

I will add live rock rubble from my display and that will atleast give him a small supply of pods to munch on while I try nutramar and what not. I will also seed filter pads in my dt which will make the qt cycled. Last time I did that I also got a decent pod population in the qt from the filter pad. I am not too worried about him eating frozen because I honestly feel that I have enough pods to sustain him although i would feel a lot better knowing he will eat frozen if the pods somehow get depleted.

I don't have a fuge so I can't do what the other person is planning on doing. If I put him in my sump with my lr rubble after I insured he had no parasites, he would be able to swim freely around my skimmer and return pump which isn't ideal. I am most likely going to do a 2-3 week observation and put him straight in my display if no parasites or illnesses show. I don't have all of the supplies for ttm nor do I really want to do that. I prefer cp and hypo for treatments(I'm not going to put the mandarin through either). Do they take prazi pro well? I could give him some prazi treatments while I observe to treat for internal parasites.

Sounds like a solid plan, I wasn't sure of your sump setup but I agree it's not ideal to have a fish swimming around with all the equipment around.

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[Reefer1991]

Sounds like a solid plan, I wasn't sure of your sump setup but I agree it's not ideal to have a fish swimming around with all the equipment around.

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Yea it's a great idea though if I had a fuge. I will probably add one eventually, I just don't have much space in the stand. Good luck with qting your mandy. Post some pics whenever you get one. Thanks for all of the replies guys, I appreciate it. I will probably be ordering one of LA this Friday. I'll post a pic once he comes in!! I'm hype that I'm finally getting one. I've always been paranoid about starving one. A 10g should be good for a mandarin for a qt right?

 

[MondoBongo]

as additional feeding options i've always found live foods to get their attention quite well.

specifically live white worms, live black worms, and freshly hatched baby brine shrimp.

none of these are great exclusive long term food sources. but they do make a good stop gap, emergency, or treat food source.

 

[Reefer1991]

Good to know Mondo, my lfs carries them so its good to known i could get them as a last resort.

I have an idea for a fuge and I want to see if anyone thinks it's a good idea. I would make an acrylic tank about 8"x8"x10". I will drill small 1/8 inch holes all over each side and put the tank directly into my sump. That way water flows through but it's not high flow. Would this work? This seems to be the easiest way because I wouldn't need to buy another pump and what not. Any thoughts on this?

 

[MondoBongo]

Good to know Mondo, my lfs carries them so its good to known i could get them as a last resort.

I have an idea for a fuge and I want to see if anyone thinks it's a good idea. I would make an acrylic tank about 8"x8"x10". I will drill small 1/8 inch holes all over each side and put the tank directly into my sump. That way water flows through but it's not high flow. Would this work? This seems to be the easiest way because I wouldn't need to buy another pump and what not. Any thoughts on this?

if you have the room for it, that's certainly a possibility. really anywhere that is "off limits" to pod predators can be used.

there are some pre-made HOB fuges, you could make a chaeto reactor, or you could see about pod condos.

realistically though i think you'll be fine. when i was in my 75 i didn't have a fuge and my mandy was fat, happy, and healthy. i was rock heavy, and had no other competition. i also had a nice amount of rock in my sump.

 

[Reefer1991]

realistically though i think you'll be fine. when i was in my 75 i didn't have a fuge and my mandy was fat, happy, and healthy. i was rock heavy, and had no other competition. i also had a nice amount of rock in my sump.

Awesome. I'll go without the fuge for now and IF he somehow eats all the pods which I also doubt, then I'll add the fuge. I thought of that fuge idea because I don't have any room in the stand so that would allow me to put it directly in the sump and not take up any room.

 

[Reefer1991]

I decided to make a fuge anyway because i was bored and its something to do lol.This is the container I'm going to use. It's reef safe plastic so I figured I would use this instead. I drilled holes on only 2 sides because I am putting this into the corner of the sump so the other two will be up against the wall. Does it look like I drilled enough holes? I don't want the flow to be too strong and I also don't want the chaeto to get sucked up into the holes and clog it. I have about 450 gph going through the sump

 

[Reefer1991]

Here it is hahahaha. A very ugly and sloppy refugium but I'm hoping it will do then job. Can't beat free. I'm going to order come chaeto when I order the mandarin. The flow looks very slow in the fuge from what I can see. That's good right?

 

[MondoBongo]

that might not give you enough flow, but give a try, you can always alter it later if you're not happy with it.

i like to use egg crate light diffuser for stuff like that, or the clear mesh that BRS sells for making screen tops. they're both easy materials to obtain and work with. additionally Gutter Guard can be real useful for building with as well. not just fuge boxes, but all kinds of handy projects.

 

[Reefer1991]

that might not give you enough flow, but give a try, you can always alter it later if you're not happy with it.

i like to use egg crate light diffuser for stuff like that, or the clear mesh that BRS sells for making screen tops. they're both easy materials to obtain and work with. additionally Gutter Guard can be real useful for building with as well. not just fuge boxes, but all kinds of handy projects.

Would you recommend I drill more holes? I can do that no problem but I figured I would start with less since I could always add more. I heard that a 2-3x turnover rate in a fuge is good and I'd imagine that's about what I have right now. Is 2-3x a good rule?

 

[Reefer1991]

I also have egg crate so I could make something out of that too which would probably look nicer than what I am using now. I was worried about the holes being too wide and having the chaeto squeeze through.

 

[MondoBongo]

hey, give it a try, it might be all good. that's half the fun of this hobby is the trial and error when you're engineering something.

chaeto could probably slip through the egg crate, but i doubt that would be too big a deal.

 

[niveknow]

Manny

Manny

I added a red manny to my 40B with a 15 sump. The fuge part of my sump is small with lots of rubble, but with a grow LED (pink light) that has been growing chaeto like crazy in it. I shake a handful of the chaeto into the DT every few days hoping to drop pods into the DT. Read that I'm not likely to visually see the copepods so not sure if the shake and bake action is working or not. Continuing the paranoia about not giving the manny enough pods... I moved a small breeder box (link below) full of chaeto into the back top corner of the DT as my mini intank pod hotel. Now I see my manny up around the breeder box area very often assuming he's eating and there's enough cheato in there protected from the manny if the whole pod hotel theory works.

Is it working? I don't know. lol. It's more of question back to other reefers. Is a cheato solution enough? I'm not too rock heavy (maybe 20#s) in my aquscape as I wanted more room for coral.




breeder box:
https://www.amazon.com/LEE-10255-Le...F8&qid=1498160843&sr=8-4&keywords=breeder+box

 

[niveknow]

And no. it's the only pod eater in the tank. =)

 

[Reefer1991]

Not the best pic but here he is.
https://plus.google.com/107054426560917985851/posts/Na9k3VyU8sx

The file was too large so I had to just post a link. Sorry

I just got him yesterday. I qaurantined him till this morning just to observe for a little. I wouldve kept him in longer but the tank was in my guest room and my cousins are in town so sadly it had to come down. It'll definitely be going back up before I get any other fish though. I just took my chances with the mandy. He's pecking around the rocks and looks pretty good so alls good for now.

 

[Reefer1991]

Well I feel like a complete idiot. When I woke up this morning I looked for the mandarin and saw him in the rock work. He was barely visible but it looked like a trochus snail was on him so I figured he died. I grabbed a turkey baster and started spraying it in the rocks to get the body out. Next thing you know he starts breathing again but now he is literally covered with sand, has his fins clamped, and is breathing somewhat heavy. Did I injure my fish or is he probably just stressed from getting woken up like that?

 

[MondoBongo]

just leave him alone and see how he does. they like to sleep in the sand bed, and often cover themselves with bits of sand and lose their coloration while resting.

 

[Sandybw1]

This is a silly question... but when you say pods are you referring to copepods or amphipods?

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