Maintaining Copepods for Mandarin...

There is a link out there (i have it but I wont link it here since it is to another site and that is rude) to what they call a pod condo. Its gutter guard and works like a rubble pile in the tank but it movable so you can make multiple of them and move them from the fuge to the tank and back.
 
Refugium I've always heard is good (I know there was some talk that those are not enough) - but with the addition of the algae scrubbers I believe that could be a potential solution... ? especially if you go with an above tank algae scrubber (if you have the space) - that way your pods fall right down into the tank without being chewed up in the return pumps. Anyone have any insight on exactly how effective an algae scrubber is in allowing copopod production? Anyone supporting long term food production for mandarine with a scrubber?

I had a green spot mandarine for a couple years in a 15 gal nano-reef... I dropped brine shrimp in the current stream created by the main power head that circled around the outer perimiter of the tank. He was trained when I came up to feed, to go to the opposite side of the tank and sit in the flow, and just pick off frozen brine as they came past.. That little guy was one of my favorite fish ever.
... That whole tank died in a week long power outage with a snow storm 6 or so years ago now. I was heart broken and didn't get back into the hobby until a couple years ago after purchasing a generator.
 
stealle said:
I had similar concerns. I have read threads where people insist that copepods are going to get diced up in the return pump. However, most people that keep a refugium for the purpose of copepods report that the return pump causes negligible damage if any to the copepod population. I have also been in correspondence with Dr. Adelaide Rhodes from oceanpods.com . She is an expert on copepods. She did not believe that a return pump would be a concern. This was her response when I asked the same question: "When people are concerned about copepods getting chopped, they are probably referring to the species with long antennae. Honestly, most copepods will swim against the current or cling to surfaces. Any harpacticoid copepods that pass through which have small antennae will make it. All of my species are harpacticoids, which are compact, torpedo-shaped bugs."

(to me that another good reason why not to try to populate your tank with tigger pods. They are bigger and probably have more of a chance at getting chopped.)
....

The message above from Dr. Rhodes. She says all of her species are from the harpacticoid family.
Click to expand...

:lol: Tigriopus are a harpacticoid, and Dr Rhodes sells Trigriopus californicus as well.

Tigger-Pods are grown in a green house. Our temps range from upper 90's at times, to lower 60's, but really hit below the low 70's. The tide pools (splash pools actually) they were collected in range from the high 40's in winter, to over 100f in summer.
 
CLINTOS said:
Was wondering if you noticed that you can keep them alive in population where they would spread inside your at tank at around 78F-82F?

or like ealier in this post someone mentioned that at higher temps they might all end up growing into males?
Click to expand...

The shift found in the study was from 50:50 to 49:51. hardly enough to slow down production, and a shift we have never seen. Labs grow small amounts to do studies on. We've grown more then all labs combined together so our sample size is a bit larger then theirs.
 
I read an idea not too long ago about keeping pod populations. Another poster said he had gotten a bunch of loose coral rubble - peaces about the size of a quarter and under - and he tied the whole pile up in a mesh bag and stuck it in the corner of his tank. It provides a safe place for pods where the mandarin can't get at em.
 
awesome very imformative thread. I just got a mandrain purple and a black dotted...Im going to buy some of the copepod linked. My tank is already 2 years old, with no other real copepod eaters, and I am hoping it will support two mandrains... BUt to ensure this I will start adding more, I've spent time look at my sump and I see all kinds of stuff living so I assume I have a thriving community.

Any way to make certain I have the required amout or my established tank should be ok?

thanks
 
The pods they eat are too small for us to see, so you can't be certain using visual clues. If your tank is large enough and has enough rock, you should be fine, especially if you "seeded" the refugium with some pods to start. I would be very careful adding two. A pair would eat an astounding number of pods daily. How big is your tank?
 
NvyroMental said:
Here is a good DIY for feeding Mandarin's. Its set up for brine shrimp, but should work for 'pods as well.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2113800&highlight=feeding+brine+shrimp

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

This is awesome idea for fish feeding training.

now to hijack this thread. My mandarin FINALLY ate pellets!!!! yay!!!! :bounce3: just now!

after 7months of keeping him in a 15 gallon QT tank, she finally ate pellets! im so exited:lolspin: I bought hikari micro pellets a week ago and started to introduce it by mixing it with decapsulated brine shrimp. I was too lazy to mix it today but he ate them!

my mandarin eats only live brine shrimp in the first 2 months, the next 4 months she accepts decapsulated brine shrimp but never liked formula1 pellets or frozen stuffs(mysis or chopped bloodworms). only eats brine shrimps nothing else.
 
i saw the bump and thought i'd add my 2cents.
i culture harpi copepods with rotifers and brine shrimp. in 2 litre cylinder jars, artemia cysts and all... all in one. the copepods eat the bacteria from the cysts. the rotifers too...the shrimp eat everything. i know everyone eats the live phyto. a fantastic live plankton culture. i use water from my daily wc to replenish/replace their cultures. i add live phyto in morn, yeast at night. every few days i add a little artemia cysts.. air bubble 1 ps, half way from surface. i cycle through two of these. i turkey baster the lot into my four gallon dt.
i use a homemade paste of live bakers yeast, and decanted phytoplanktons, duna and nanno. i use the decanted phyto to thin out the pasty yeast, bottle it and refridgerate for feeding. i go through about two liquid ounces of this in a year. i feed the roti-cope-brine shrimp culture this daily. a few drops a day into a shot glass, mixed with tankwater. feed the plankton. hour later, feed plankton to dt. cysts and all.
 
i don't feed anything in particular, the gorgs feed on the rotis, the worms feed on the phyto as well, the gobies eat everything, i feed the vase as a whole. the sandbed is rife with live worms, the sandbed houses a trio of stonogobiops nematodes and randalls pistol. the system is plankton friendly and air driven. i've been reefing like this for a while. i never got out of the habit of maintaining plankton.

20140908_222834.jpg


here's a pic i took tonight. the 2.6 gallon vase inside has a par 30 over it. it's full of pesty hermits, palys and a good amphipod culture. it gets a daily wc as well. not much, a few litres from the dt.
 
I managed to breed Tiger pods after 3 atempts. See my thread.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2463026

This was for Madarin, which is eating tigger now.

Next project is to make a brine shrimp farm. I started last night. Used standard brine shrimp eggs.

Instructions say baby brines will be ready in about 24 hours.

I guess if you feed the baby brine, they will grow up to adults, for a larger meal size.
 
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