white sport coat and a pink crustacean

[timrandlerv10]

Mandarins really eat tiny tiny crustaceans?

like what? are they tiny tiny adults or baby something else?

 

[NicoleC]

LOL.

Mandarins mostly eat ostracodes and codepods, babies OR adults.

 

[timrandlerv10]

what are ostracodes? codes that arent allowed to play with the other codes?

i'm thinking of putting a 10g tank higher than the DT to breed pods, then somehow get them sucked down into a rock pile.

thoughts?

will my anemone eat all the pods? he seems to eat everything else...

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I was rather surprised to see one of my mandarins eat pretty large amphipods. They are normally pecking on something invisible on live rocks.

Tomoko

 

[NicoleC]

You anemone will eat anything he catches.
Ostracodes are one of those unglamorous no-see-ums on your live rock.

And the hard truth of the matter is that a 44g plus a 10g refugium isn't going to feed a mandarin. With that size of tank to work with, the 10g is better spent as part of a culturing system to breed live food to feed the mandarin, but this take practice and dedication.

 

[timrandlerv10]

doh...we are very shortly to have a 75 gallon tank with 55g refugium, and i hoping that with a pod-grower that would get us closer to fine!

as far as breeding live food, is that delivered to the tank in small pieces (today's food), tiny pieces (breakfast) or larger pieces (this week's groceries)?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

You anemone will eat anything he catches.

I hope it will not catch your Mandarin. A friend of mine was pretty upset when her anemone dined on her beautiful blue Mandarin.

Tomoko

 

[NicoleC]

Oh, true. BTA's are generally safe with fish but the rest of them I don't trust.

 

[timrandlerv10]

my female GSM is pretty adamant about not getting within four inches of the nem. ironically, she lets the decorator crab move in under the nem, but thats it. she even bites my hand if i put it in the water over the nem.

nicole, its a tank raised split of a split bta.

OH...found shrek a few minutes ago. He is in the middle section of the refugium. i'll dig through the rocks to see if my nudi is in there too.

thanks!