Is it possible?

[JinxXx0085]

It appears that I'm left with lot of extra LR more than I need for my 29g and I'm extremely tempted to set up my 20L as SW instead of being a project tank.

Anyhoo... will I be able to grow sufficent number of pods or mysis in the 20L that I can feed a green or spotted mandarin everyday?
I don't plan on keep anything else in the 20L besides some substrate, LR and pods/mysis. I can't recall which exactly the mandarins likes to eat.

 

[racer69]

Mandarins need pods, and lots of them. It is possible in a 20l, but your pod population would have to be very big. You would need some type of rufugium to bread them in so they could supply the main tank.

 

[roushracer]

I had a massive pod population in my 29g with a 10g fuge. I must have had thousands of them. My mandarin wiped them out in a week, and over the course of the next 2 months after that, there wasn't enough left to sustain him and I had to get rid of him.

I have 60 lbs of LR in the tank, and about 10-15 lbs of rubble in the fuge too.

 

[thejrc]

you definately will need a refugium or "pod pile" some place where they could reproduce without terror. though a 20L is enough room for the spotted when you remove food source woes.

As an extra precaution I'd be ready to suck some pods out of an existing refugium or possibly start a culture to keep the guy fed. I've got a 20L sitting dry here in the garage that I keep pondering use of with a mandarin, but the idea of shuffling pods around before I get my cultures perfect scares me. I beleive Reefjerks mandarins eat mysis which is not unheard of at all and it's quite easy to get good mysis stock live via reefnutrition, etc so you might be alright. Just be ready to siphon and shuffle or pick up live critters at a moments notice and you should be alright.

 

[JinxXx0085]

Eh... I was more of thinking about getting a mandarin to go in the 29g and then grow pods in the 20L. The 20L will not have any fish in it just LR/substrate. I'd siphon out the pods to be dumped in 29g daily.

Right now I have 2 clarkii clowns and the pink spotted watchman goby in the 29G. This is not a definite stocking list. I might make some changes if this idea will be feasible. I don't want to do too much work. If this isn't feasible, I will just go ahead with what I initially planned for the 20L (project tank) and get rid of the extra Live Rocks.

 

[murfman]

Your other fish will eat the pods as you put them in too.

 

[JinxXx0085]

Yeah... I just made up my mind today. I will stick to the project that I've planned for the 20L so I won't plan on having mandarin at this moment until I land a mandarin that eats prepared food

Thanks for the feedback guys!!

 

[thejrc]

hmmm... no pod tank for you.... bummer....

 

[JinxXx0085]

LOL. I'll live. I really wanted to do my project tank though. At least this way I will only have 3 tanks(55g, 29g, and 20L) instead of 6 tanks!

This will be easier on me to maintain them in long run.