Sponge based food

[LoneStar45]

Does anyone know where to get sponge based foods for my Dragonettes?

 

[bertoni]

Many of the commercial angelfish frozen foods have a fair amount of sponge in them. I didn't know that dragonets ate sponge.

 

[Pandora]

I'm a little confused as well. All the dragonets I know live on pods and small crustaceans.

 

[LoneStar45]

Hmmm, maybe Im confused. Someone had told me that I needed a sponge based food. Ya know, I should stop listening to "outside" advise and stick to the forums here. Next time I will ask what they eat as opposed to believing street talk. Thanks for the advise.

 

[Pandora]

Lonestar, are you sure what you have is a dragonet? There are a few fish that do eat sponges.

 

[LoneStar45]

I've always called them Mandarin Goby's. People say they are hard to keep, but my last one in a FO tank lasted about a year. I had him eating brine just fine. Being a Texan, I gotta say "nice hat"

 

[Pandora]

Lonestar: LOL. Not exactly your classic cowboy hat, was going more for the pimptress look...

Yeah, mandarins eat small live crustaceans. Unfortunately not all will eat brine shrimp, mine won't touch the stuff, but it seems like the refugium is providing him with enough pods. I don't think they are "hard to keep" at all, I've found them amongst the most hardy of fish, it's just that they can be picky eaters and shouldn't be added to new tanks that don't have the proper pod population yet.

 

[kamil5000]

I have a Mandarin that will eat nothing except live foods.

Some people have had luck feeding them prepared foods (Melv on RC seems to be an expert on these difficult fish) but mine will only eat what it picks of the live rock. I supplement feed once a week with live Baby brine shrimps.

If you tank (150g) is well established - then they can find plenty of copepods on the LR. Even better if you have a fuge with macroalgea (Cheto) that help cultivate more pods to be washed into the main tank.

 

[doody]

They will not and can not live off brine alone. There's no nutritional value to brine. If your tank cant provide enough pods for these guys to eat then you need to make sure it eats prepared food. Even then you should add pods to the tank now and then.

Pandora, you look as nice as the hat.

 

[doody]

My old one use to eat bloodworms, but they're not a great diet by themselves either. So, what I did was mix other foods with the bloodworms as they were defrosting. This gave the bloodworm tast to the other foods. Then I slowly took away the bloodworm. Eventually he was eating mysis and other stuff.

 

[kamil5000]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6537639#post6537639 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by doody
They will not and can not live off brine alone. There's no nutritional value to brine.

I believe that if you feed freshly hatched brine with the yolk sack - there is some good nutritional value to them. I feed my brine with Selcon 12 hrs prior to introducing them to the tank - that helps also.

But you are right in that Brine alone will not work - they need pods!

 

[doody]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6537677#post6537677 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kamil5000
I believe that if you feed freshly hatched brine with the yolk sack - there is some good nutritional value to them. I feed my brine with Selcon 12 hrs prior to introducing them to the tank - that helps also.

But you are right in that Brine alone will not work - they need pods!

Thats all true.

 

[LoneStar45]

I have been wondering where to get copepods to add to my refugium. Any ideas?
And I agree with doody. very nice

 

[doody]

There are a few places out there. You can also culture them. I'm at work now, but can search later. Of coarse you need to search a lil bit yourself.

 

[Mrs.kbmdale]

www.reef-revolution.com
www.copepod.com

Im sure there are more sites out there.

Brianna:rollface:

 

[Pandora]

Heh, thanks, but I think it may be time to change out the avatar...

With copepods, I got mine from IPSF.com . If I had to do it all over again, I would have joined my local reefing club sooner. At mine, there are tons of generous members willing to donate a handful of chaeto for your fuge, and make sure there's some pods in there. All you need is 2 or 3, and if things go well and you have a refugium that's running already, they'll quickly turn to hundreds. Another great live food is mysid shrimp. People like me culture them also and they are really easy to grow & breed, and mandarins gobble them up!

 

[doody]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6538202#post6538202 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pandora
Heh, thanks, but I think it may be time to change out the avatar...

With copepods, I got mine from IPSF.com . If I had to do it all over again, I would have joined my local reefing club sooner. At mine, there are tons of generous members willing to donate a handful of chaeto for your fuge, and make sure there's some pods in there. All you need is 2 or 3, and if things go well and you have a refugium that's running already, they'll quickly turn to hundreds. Another great live food is mysid shrimp. People like me culture them also and they are really easy to grow & breed, and mandarins gobble them up!

Yeah, what she said.
Pandora, if you change your avitar, make sure it's still a pic of that pretty smile.