Mandarin goby and pods

[C2O]

Hello,
I would like to get a Mandarin Goby but I don't have a refugium on my tank. What I do have is a now empty 10 gallon tank (it was set up for harlequin shrimp but I sold them). What I would like to do is use the tank to breed pods and once the population is large enough get the Mandarin and add pods from this tank to my main tank on a daily basis. Has anyone ever done this before, and would it be a suitable method to keep the Mandarin healthy?
Any input is appreciated, thanks

 

[BonesCJ]

Did you have a plan on how to move the pods? Like shaking out a clump of chaeto?

 

[C2O]

From what I've read so far, have a bunch of chaeto, once there's a large population of pods take one piece out and put it in the main tank and just rotate them. Not sure how well it will work...

 

[MondoBongo]

how big is your tank that you're considering putting the mandy in?

how much rock do you have?
does it have a sump?
is there any competition like wrasses or similar pod hunters?

 

[ThRoewer]

Standard tanks are not really great for culturing pods, especially not Tigger Pods which are easiest to culture in reasonable quantities. Shallow plastic containers are better suited. You also want to make sure that you have at least 3 if not more cultures going at a time (ideally in different places, indoors and outdoors) to avoid being without pods when one culture crashes or a winter storm blows your cultures away (which is what happened to mine this winter).
IME outdoors cultures do better than indoor cultures, but both can produce quite a number of pods.
However, to have enough pods every day you would need to have about 30 cultures (It takes about 30 days for a culture get harvest density.) Since that is in most cases impossible for hobbyists I would suggest that you also set up a brine shrimp hatchery to provide bulk and consistency to the live food supply.

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[JVan82]

I currently have a biocube 32, I also wanted a mandarin. So I started with a fuge basket in the back, added chaeto. Waited a week or two, to be sure there was enough nutrients for it to grow and survive. After which I bought 1 bottle of tibse pods from marine depot. Waited about a week and saw nothing in terms of pod population increase. So I purchased another bottle. A day before the second bottle arrived there were pods all over the glass. So I added the entire 2nd bottle to the fuge. ( First bottle I split between the sand bed and the fuge.) Now almost a month after adding the Mandarin, there are till plenty of pods on the glass sand and rocks. I just purchased a 3rd bottle to be safe. Will start hatching brine shrimp soon as well. He is still skinny, but he's filling out nicely.

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