How do I know when I have enough pods?

[fdonophan]

So I love the look of Mandarins, but I've never gotten one because I know they need a pod population to survive, and I've never given much thought to artificially starting one.

However, a largeish zoa rock I purchased yesterday appears to have come LOADED with them, as my glass is suddenly COVERED after about 24 hours in my tank!

I currently only have 3 fish to my 75 gallon - a yellow tang, a female occ. clown and a green bird wrasse. All three are out in hypo brought in by a now deceased hippo tang. They will need to stay in hypo for another 4 weeks, plus 2 more weeks to bring my sg back up before introducing them back into my DT.

This means that for the next 6 weeks or so all those pods have very little in the way of natural enemies - maybe a crab or two - so they are going to populate like mad. Were I to decide to add a mandarin after all this (in other words, in 6-8 weeks after my other fish have come back from vacation), how can I ensure it would have enough to eat? How do I KNOW I have enough pods so I don't starve the little guy??

My params last night:

SG: 1.025
pH: 8.0-8.2
Amm: 0
Ni: 0
Na: 20 (this is dropping rapidly - I switched to all RO and added macro to my sump this past week)
Phos: 0
Alk: 7-8 dkh
Calc: 380 (This was BEFORE a water change last night, so that's actually going to be higher now)

 

[fdonophan]

Oh, and how would I safely QT a mandarin? Would I need to buy some pods and feed them to him while he's in QT for a couple weeks, or add some of my water with them cruising around in it?

 

[am3gross]

My opinion here is the tank needs to be established for atleast a year for a mandarine to have a chance at survival. A year worth of good pods will make a healthy happy fish. The mandy is going to deplete your pods pretty quick..

Some thing you could do to help is to create a little area with some rubble and stuff that makes for a little breeding camp for the pods.

 

[Daniel Reef]

You may also want to do a search. There are some threads about feeding mandarins and using a home made device so that only the mandarin can enter and get access to the food. This way there is no competition with the other fish. JMHO.

 

[davocean]

The only thing I see as a possible concern for you would be that wrasse, and I'm not familiar w/ the diet of that particular wrasse, but IME if I think I'm on the border tank size I just avoid all pod competition, and that includes most wrasses if not all.
Other than that, you are probably fine for ONE mandarin in that size tank.
I personally bypass QT on mandarins as the risk is relatively low, and the need for a proper environment is great.
I don't neccessarily advocate that, and admit there is still some risk in bypassing QT, just telling what I do.

 

[nanoreefer1000]

The bird wrasse will probably need more swimming space, I'd wait a while longer to.

 

[SushiGirl]

Most wrasses will compete for pods, and win.
Also, pods have a tendency to have population booms that don't last.
I would wait on a mandarin, and only add one if you have no competing wrasse and a well-established, aged tank with a steady pod population.

 

[aandfsoccr04]

I would skip the QT of the mandarin.

 

[clockwurk]

Y'know... ORA sells Mandarins that eat frozen foods. Ask your LFS to order.

Also, you can train mandarins to eat frozen. I have had 4 all eating frozen within 2 weeks. PM me if you need details on how. But I would suggest just to get the tank raised ORA mandarins.

 

[fdonophan]

I have a swap agreement with my LFS if the wrasse gets too big - he's kind of a PITA to be honest and he may end up going back regardless of size.

I hadn't thought of him competeing for the pods - since I didn't have them before, the other fish havent been exposed to them yet. They will think they are in fish heaven when they go back in the tank and there's all this "fresh" food crawling around.

That wrasse is definitely a bully - he wiped out my chromis in 3 days. At a minimum I will wait and see if I decide to keep the wrasse before I look at a mandarin.

Thanks!