Mandarin dragonettes and pods

[Figment]

Hello everyone,

I know that mandarin threads must pop up all the time deadhorse, but I have a question that I can't seem to find using the search function.

How does everyone ensure that the pods end up in the display tank from the refugium? It seems unlikely to me that the pump would provide a sufficient amount of pods to the display to keep the dragonette fed unless its the only pod eater in a 125+ gallon tank with a 50+ gallon refugium sump. I've been told that shaking out live rock from the refugium into the display will do the trick, but the crevices seem to make that incredibly inefficient. I researched little bags of live rock that people call "pod condos" that you take from the refugium and place in the display to allow the pods to come out on their own. However, I've been told that these are detritus collectors that I should avoid.


So how do you transfer pods from the refugium to the display without sending them through the pump?

 

[Midland246]

Just tagging along because I was wondering this as well.

 

[jason2459]

Plenty of pods should be breading in both locations. That return pump will supply quite a lot of various types of pods if your tank and sump/refugium is mature enough. Which is why people should wait to get a mandarin or any variant of them for a long time regardless of the size of tank.

 

[ThRoewer]

The refugium is only a reservoir to repopulate the main tank, it usually won't help with feeding the mandarins directly (unless you put them into the refugium).

What worked best for me was to add a layer of coarse coral gravel that functions as a in-tank refuge for pods and other little critters. It will give the pods enough protection to survive and reproduce and the mandarins can pick off the careless or stupid to fill their bellies - that's hoe nature intended it in the first place.

 

[Figment]

So I was told in another thread that using just cheato algae would be all I need in a bare bottom refugium section without adding any live rock, gravel, sand, etc. I don't doubt this to be true as far as the effectiveness of the filtration the algae provides, I'm basically looking for a good way to move extra pods from the refugium to the display tank if the population looks a little low. I plan to have plenty of live rock in the display tank for the pods to hide and repopulate, but since I know mandarins are non-stop pod devouring machines, I want to have a population in the refugium as well in case I need to suppliment the display tank population a little.

Would I just cut off a section of algae and shake it off in the display tank before replacing it in the refugium or throwing it away? Or is there an easier way to move them? I just don't want to risk letting nature take its course as far as "relying" on pods to get sucked up through the pump into the display. I want to make sure I have enough pods to feed without having to risk the dragonette or the pod population.

 

[jason2459]

Pods will like the algae that's for sure but you should be constantly trimming the algae back. I would not depend on that as the sole source for breeding pods.

What size tank are you looking at putting one in?

 

[sixpackgarage]

I was kind of wondering the same, but I assume the return pump will transport plenty of them to the main tank. I just received an order of pods from Reefs2go.. I ordered the 1000 pods BOGO deal.. dumped one bag into the fuge and the other into the main tank. My Mandarin has been on the hunt for 2 days now. He is definitely eating them. They burrow in the sand, but he has some magical sense knowing where to find them. He'll blow into the sand, then suck some sand into his mouth and blow it out his gills.

 

[ThRoewer]

Cheato is good as substrate for pods to settle on and to remove nutrients (NO2 & PO4) from the water but not a suitable food for pods.

If you need additional pods as food you may also consider to set up a couple of tigger pot cultures. At higher salinities they can get pretty dense and they make a great food for all fish.

 

[Figment]

Cheato is good as substrate for pods to settle on and to remove nutrients (NO2 & PO4) from the water but not a suitable food for pods.

If you need additional pods as food you may also consider to set up a couple of tigger pot cultures. At higher salinities they can get pretty dense and they make a great food for all fish.

Should I grow multiple types of macro algae in the refugium? Or is there a special food I need to feed the pods to keep them going? I imagine target feeding is impossible in a display tank, so what do they usually feed on in a display tank setup?

What is a tigger pot?

What size tank are you looking at putting one in?

Well the idea was originally to setup a 40 gallon breeder with another 40 for a sump, but I was told that was too small, so I changed it to a 55 gallon display with a 55 gallon sump. The whole reason for me wanting to do that was to take advantage of the $1/gallon sale at Petco later this year after I move into the house I'm buying in a few months.

Anyways, I was told that a 55 display would still be much too small a hunting area for a single mandarin. So I'm basically planning on having a 125+ gallon tank with a 75-ish gallon sump/refugium centered around a mandarin (which seems absurd since they only reach a few inches in length). LOL

I will be very carefully picking the tankmates for that tank so that there is no competition over the pod population. And its highly unlikely that a single pod eater would do a significant enough amount of damage to the pod population that it would ever run out of food. Never-the-less, I want the refugium to serve as a back-up source of pods and I'll probably suppliment the display pod population with new pods as often as possible without flooding the tank with the critters.

 

[jason2459]

You would be surprised how much a single mandarin can decimate a pod population regardless of the size of tank especially if it's not mature enough with a base pod population.

PaulB has a nifty feeder if you search for it. But its still only supplemental to there normal diet. They can't survive alone on people fed foods even if you could train one to do so.

 

[Figment]

I'll probably buy 4-5000 pods to seed the display and refugium, then give it about 6 months to make sure there are plenty of pods available.