Green Mandarin

[Chago09]

is it possible to house a green mandarin without a refuge???? My tank is a 150 gallon with 150 lbs of live rock. Would there be suffucient places for pods to grow for the mandarin to eat???

 

[craigwol]

I would say yes. The general rule of thumb is that you need 75 lbs of live rock to produce enough pods for a Mandarin.

Keep an eye on him to make sure he stays (or becomes) plump.

Good luck!

 

[sufunk]

I'd agree that 150lbs of live rock is probably enough to support a mandarin. Since you have no fish yet, i'll assume this is a new setup. If it is, you should wait at least a few months and probably more to build up a nice pod population.

You may wanna try qt'ing also and try to get it eating some frozen food. Its rare but worth a try probably.

 

[reeftanker04]

You could also buy some LR rubble and put it somewhere in the tank (if you have room). Put a little pile in there and they'll be able to multiply w/out fish or inverts getting in there and eating them.

 

[Chrsnwk]

I have had one fat happy and well in my 125 for a few years now, I'd guess there's ~100 lbs of rock in there. I think the overflows act as a bit of a fuge for me.

 

[papagimp]

a refugium will only be needed if you tank cannot support a large enough pod population without. But I do agree with some of these other comments, I would make a dedicated area in the tank somewhere, usually back behind or beneath some rockwork, where you can creat a place for the pods without fear of being eaten.

If this is a new setup as mentioned before, I would give the tank a few months at least, 6 would be better. Most new tanks will see an abundance of pods for the first several months, then as they consume their food sources they'll die back. So the tank may have enough right now, but the mandarin could easily decimate them right out of the tank completely in no time. You will want to dose the tank with phytoplankton to help pod populations as well. If you have a sump, may even want to stick some rubble rock there as well, this will act as a "refugium" for the pods. Heck, even some larger pieces down there wouldn't hurt, such as a few nice big chunks of rock surrounding the return pump. Pods will breed around those rocks and their nauplii will get sucked up in that return and end up in the display to grow and feed the mandarin (pod nauplii are free swimming in the water column and far to tiny for the return pump impellar to hurt em any.)

 

[reeftanker04]

I've read that some people will put an upside down container like one that strawberries come in to make a little cage for the rubble so it's undisturbed by fish/inverts.