I have had my 40 gallon tank set up for about six months, filled with live rock and not much else aside from a twinspot goby, snails, some polyps and a mandarin. I want to make sure that I am getting enough food to my mandarin and goby. I am considering adding a refugium so the little critters have a safe place to reproduce before getting picked off, and was wondering if I'd be better off with an in-tank refugium, or if I should build a sump under my tank with a refugium and if they'd make their way into the main tank from there?
Food for mandarin
- Thread starter amperidot
- Start date
heathlindner25
New member
Is the mandy's stomach pinched? Emaciated looking? What species do you have?
He's a green mandarin, and I haven't had him long. He is looking healthy, I just want to make sure I don't accidentally starve him by not providing enough pods. I used to have a bunch in my tank, but now I can never seem to find them, so I am a bit concerned that he has depleted their numbers.
heathlindner25
New member
Imo, targets and scooters are the most receptive to pellets and frozen food.....
Greens,not at all...
Greens,not at all...
Pods can get through a pump. A 20 gallon fuge, which can be part of your sump, is your best bet. 40 gallons with a lot of rock is very, very very small to support a single small mandy. SUggest you go for the biggest fuge you can possibly manage, with rock./coral rubble and a mass of cheato moss , or I fear he will not have a long future.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
ATS grow copepods and amphipods like crazy.
SLOreefer805
New member
I would suggest Watching him during feeding time. Find out any food that might interest it. Mine will eat live brine shrimp. So that's a pretty easy food to access as the pet store close to my house sells those for cheap.
+1 to dave, though I do think a half dozen mysis shrimp are work a few hundred copepods, just based on size.
I would try and do both. The sump with less rocks would be ideal for more equipment down the road if you want.
Also look up copepod motel (or hotel or apartment or something like that) the idea is basically to grow pods in small removable units (filter bag glass jar with holes filled with rock rubble or chaeto) and have one or two in the tank and extras in the sump or HOB and change them out every few weeks. Saw this really cool post about someone that used a blow torch to melt holes (smaller than the fish) in clear glass bottles and filled the bottles with chaeto and just left those in the tank. Idea was cool but the DIY effort seemed excessive.
You can also buy food for the goby. Bottled copepods are helpful (very expensive though) as long as you get the right ones (tigerpods for example are a cold water species of pod and are no good for your setup i would imagine). Nutrimar Ova is fish eggs and is relatively inexpensive and is used by ORA to start training their dragonets to eat commercial food. I have had luck with brine shrimp soaked in garlic, mine now eats mysis, though no pellets or flake. Take a look at the Foster and Smith live aquaria website. Their live food brand explains the type of food you would need, though the LFS probably sells it too.
I would try and do both. The sump with less rocks would be ideal for more equipment down the road if you want.
Also look up copepod motel (or hotel or apartment or something like that) the idea is basically to grow pods in small removable units (filter bag glass jar with holes filled with rock rubble or chaeto) and have one or two in the tank and extras in the sump or HOB and change them out every few weeks. Saw this really cool post about someone that used a blow torch to melt holes (smaller than the fish) in clear glass bottles and filled the bottles with chaeto and just left those in the tank. Idea was cool but the DIY effort seemed excessive.
You can also buy food for the goby. Bottled copepods are helpful (very expensive though) as long as you get the right ones (tigerpods for example are a cold water species of pod and are no good for your setup i would imagine). Nutrimar Ova is fish eggs and is relatively inexpensive and is used by ORA to start training their dragonets to eat commercial food. I have had luck with brine shrimp soaked in garlic, mine now eats mysis, though no pellets or flake. Take a look at the Foster and Smith live aquaria website. Their live food brand explains the type of food you would need, though the LFS probably sells it too.
Well, I guess that explains why I can never establish pods in my tank, my local marine fish store sold me tigerpods and my aquarium is definitely not a cold water...so that alone is a big help. Mine will eat maybe a piece of frozen mysis every now and then when I feed, but mostly seems to ignore it. I don't think he is starving, he looks healthy, but I just want to make sure I don't have issues down the road... for now I might try an in-tank refugium. Power goes out a lot here in the winter for a couple hours at a time...just long enough to possibly overfill a sump and mess up my apartment...
Well with a sump you make sure when all pumps are off that the water that drains into the sump will not exceed the height of a sump.
So I may be different than most but I power everything off when I do water changes since my powerheads are high and I simply don't want to deal with unplugging everything. The water level in my sump gets super close to the top but doesn't overflow.
I have never used an overflow box so not sure what the situation is with those.
Also just to mention I have an hob fuge on my 40 versus a sump on the 80 and the cheato is doing much better on my 40 than 80. Perhaps it's the light. But I'm also not keeping a Mandy in either tank. They are beautiful and I'd love to have one but I'd be nervous I'd starve it.
Good luck.
So I may be different than most but I power everything off when I do water changes since my powerheads are high and I simply don't want to deal with unplugging everything. The water level in my sump gets super close to the top but doesn't overflow.
I have never used an overflow box so not sure what the situation is with those.
Also just to mention I have an hob fuge on my 40 versus a sump on the 80 and the cheato is doing much better on my 40 than 80. Perhaps it's the light. But I'm also not keeping a Mandy in either tank. They are beautiful and I'd love to have one but I'd be nervous I'd starve it.
Good luck.
