Sick mandarin?

[ThRoewer]

In general those pods are cultured in fish free systems, especially if they come from a reputable source. So I wouldn't suspect that as the source of the infection, especially when there are much more obvious causes = no quarantine of mail-ordered fish - a total no-no for any new fish.

As for setting up a pod farm, larger is better. 7 quarts (~7 liter) seems a bit small for a productive culture. I would use that more as a culture backup.
I used some 99 liter clear Sterilite container to set up my tigger pod farm on the balcony and they produce now so much that I can feed two tanks daily.
Best is to culture green water at the same time so the larva stages and the adults have always enough to feed on. For me it took about two months for the culture to get dense enough for daily harvest - so patience is needed.

I'm just working on bringing a tisbe culture up to size.

 

[NMSREEFER]

Thanks. Can you describe your set up in more detail? Aeration, media, temp- they can tolerate quite a range can't they? How do you harvest.

 

[ThRoewer]

I have just an airstone, no filter. Temperatures are currently just outside temperatures (works fine for tigger pods because they are a California native species).
I have another smaller culture in a Container Store shoe box just with simple aeration at room temperature under a 100W equivalent Phillips Daylight LED bulb (got that one from Home Depot). That works well too.

 

[jmstukey]

Thanks for the suggestion. I am pretty open to looking at any suggestion someone wants to send my way right now. We did add some pods that reefs2go sent with the mandarin. However, we had not added pods to the tank for close to a year before that. We did do some things to our tank to increase the pods ability to self replicate within the system including adding several "pod condos" discussed on other Threads in Reef Central. We also added a second refugium above the tank (water is pumped up and gravity causes it to flow back down). Then, we were patient and let the tank sit for months so the pods had a chance to really establish before we added the mandarin. In the year and a half we have been working on adding pods for the mandarin, we went from very few visible pods to where they look like ants all over The glass. The male mandarin has made no visible dent in them at this point despite lots of picking at the rock and glass.

The no quarantine could explain the death of the clown, it was a calculated risk based on alot of reading on the threads pertaining to mandarins and is not a decision we would have made with ANY other fish. However, I am not convinced it was the cause because there did not seem to be enough time between the addition of the mandarin and the clown (that had seemed really healthy for years) getting sick and dying. If something was that deadly, you would think it would be affecting the other fish too. So it seems logical that the addition of the mandarin could have caused the clown's death since that was the major change. But, I am not convinced that the correlation equals causation here because the other data doesn't seem to line up. I am not ruling it out either.

Trust me, I would LOVE to know what the problem is. So if anyone has suggestions, I am definitly open to exploring them. At this point I really have no idea what we are (or were?) fighting.

 

[jmstukey]

Also, all the fish ate great and are acting normal at this point!

 

[jmstukey]

All the fish seem to be great. The clowns laid eggs again. They do get a little defensive of their territory when they have eggs so I wonder if they might have gotten aggressive with the other clown. We watch the tank pretty closely and never saw it, but I can't rule it out either.

 

[ThRoewer]

Did you see the little clown die? Was he injured?
Is there any possibility he was killed by the spawning pair?

I never managed to get a third or more little clowns to survive being in the same tank with my spawning pair. And that was a 700 liter tank (150x80x60 cm³), set up as a room divider. Sometimes the little ones made it for a year but sooner or later they would perish under the constant pressure from the adult pair.

 

[JaihWill]

I have just an airstone, no filter. Temperatures are currently just outside temperatures (works fine for tigger pods because they are a California native species).

I have another smaller culture in a Container Store shoe box just with simple aeration at room temperature under a 100W equivalent Phillips Daylight LED bulb (got that one from Home Depot). That works well too.

What do feed your pods? Do you use chaeto ? Sorry for commenting on an old post but looking for some guidance on creating a pod "farm"

 

[ThRoewer]

Flake food for algae eaters works just fine. I also found that you don't rally need a lamp.

 

[JaihWill]

Flake food for algae eaters works just fine. I also found that you don't rally need a lamp.

So bucket, phyto, pods, small amount of fish flakes?

 

[ThRoewer]

So bucket, phyto, pods, small amount of fish flakes?

Should work, but I would rather use a shallow container with a large surface than a bucket. The cheap clear Container Store shoe boxes are ideal. And they come with a lid.

One other thing: tigger pods like higher salinity - 1.038 to 1.042
They also handle abrupt large salinity and temperature swings quite well.

 

[champion6sigma]

Should work, but I would rather use a shallow container with a large surface than a bucket. The cheap clear Container Store shoe boxes are ideal. And they come with a lid.

One other thing: tigger pods like higher salinity - 1.038 to 1.042
They also handle abrupt large salinity and temperature swings quite well.

I feel like i'm hijacking the thread also...but can you tell me the way you transport your pods to the main DT....from the setup in your balcony?

I was also having a problem with one of my clowns (I have a large and baby) the large one has a white mucous covering it....and is at bottom of tank looking like breathing is fast, and hes tired....not moving much. The baby one tries to get his attention....but is fine and does not show similar symptoms. I do have one green mandarin...I spent 50 bucks on 2 jars of pods but I cannot get the things into the main tank correctly. Then I had a filter sock in sump return and they may have all ended up in there. I need to setup a fuge and I need to find out whats wrong with my clown. All my fish are normal besides him. Water quality is good. I just did a small water change few days ago. I have one bubble tip anemone, some sps, 6 total fish, and a CUC of crabs/snails.

The baby clown is new (within a month) The large one I've had for 3 years. The mandarin is new (within a month).
It doesn't look like a white dot or two it looks more like a mucous layering starting from mouth to back (heavier in front I think) He's still fairly vibrant colored...but its an obvious white layer present