encouraging pods

[flanders]

Mandarin goby

So I have ultimate plans to ad 1-2 mandarin goby’s to my tank. This and a mated pair of maroon gold clowns are my Must have fish for my overall plans.

I understand that the goby requires various food that the tank must provide and it will take a year or so for the tank to be mature enough to feed them. copepods, amphipods, and mysis shrim

My question is since I have a good 6 months to prepare for their arrival.. what steps can I take to encourage a healthy growth of these creatures

i have space in my sump to include a refrugium approx 7”in by 6 in t should I add these creatures to the tank ?

any experience trying to encourage a healthy population of mandarin food?

 

[Juck]

I know you're gonna hate me for this but I'm not so sure a 72g can support 2 mandarin dragonets,, even if it's piled high with LR. My 75g with 90lbs+ LR was pod central until I introduced a Scooter dragonet,,,, he decimated them and after 6 months he started to waste away.

Get up in the middle of the night and have a look around your tank,, there should be pods. If you leave the tank devoid of pod-eaters for 6 months (i.e. don't go and buy a 6-line wrasse) it should be bursting with pods,, but a pair of dragonets would probably mow through them in short order.

You can buy pod starter/culture kits online if you were willing to culture the large number of bugs needed to support 2 of these fish. Sounds like a lot of work.

 

[WRASSER]

Juck, is that starter kit for refugiums or a small tank, or even both?

 

[Len]

I'd also only recommend one Mandarin only for your tank. Not much is needed to cultivate pods other then to provide them habitat and food. This means algae There's really not much else to it. Any refugium will help; the larger the better of course.

 

[Anonymous]

Juck, is that starter kit for refugiums or a small tank, or even both?

here's a site I read about elsewhere...

http://www.essentiallivefeeds.com/index.html

page specific to culturing them...

http://www.essentiallivefeeds.com/Copep ... tions.html

 

[WRASSER]

Thanks Lawdawg, i think im going to start a little refuglum with an old piggy-back bio-filter. i will just convert it and hang it on the back of my 150. :wink:

 

[flanders]

well.. 2 is proably me being greedy.....

do you think i can proably handle 1 ok and keep him fed?

thanks all

matt

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Lawdawg, i think im going to start a little refuglum with an old piggy-back bio-filter. i will just convert it and hang it on the back of my 150. :wink:

That's a heck of an idea, mind iffin I steal it Wrasser?

 

[WRASSER]

Nope not at all, unless you make millions :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Nope not at all, unless you make millions :wink:

Er, um I'll write ya a check for half, m'kay?

 

[WRASSER]

NO NO, im not greedy just a few hundred tho... in American Express Checks, OK.

 

[Anonymous]

NO NO, im not greedy just a few hundred tho... in American Express Checks, OK.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[WRASSER]

Oh yea, i forgot to ask, My piggy-back has a protien skimmer, can i use the skimmer while it is a refugium?

 

[Anonymous]

Oh yea, i forgot to ask, My piggy-back has a protien skimmer, can i use the skimmer while it is a refugium?

Is it before, or after the chamber you wanted to use to house the lil crawlies? If it's before, i.e. the water flows from the skimmer to the chamber I think that's okay, but if it's after you'd end up with the pods and/or gametes getting skimmed right out of the water which isn't productive.

 

[WRASSER]

It is before, but i think im going to wait on a desicion on what to do with it, i might use that chamber too. thanks

 

[WRASSER]

Can anybody give any suggestions on what else i could use instead of an over-flow for my piggy-back.

 

[WRASSER]

:? OH yea, and what size pump should i use, if i can use it as a refugium :?

 

[ChrisRD]

I take it you're talking about a DIY version of something like this:
http://www.cpraquatic.com/products/aquafuge.html

CPR's version comes with a small feed powerhead - I don't recall what size though. For a DIY project, personally, I would probably go with something like a MJ 400 (about 100 or so GPH) to keep the flow fairly low.

If you have a sump setup with a return pump, you might even be able to split off a small feed from that so you don't have to add another powerhead into the system.

 

[WRASSER]

will the piggy back help denitrify the tank?

 

[ChrisRD]

If you've got live sand and/or rock and/or growing macros in it, yeah, it should provide some denitrification benefits. Of course, how much will depend on how large the hang-on fuge is in relation to the main tank thereby determining how much rock/sand/macro can actually be in it.

Something else to consider if you're having nitrate issues. A good skimmer will help the situation by removing much of the wastes BEFORE they break down and create excess nitrates. OTOH, use of traditional canister filtration, wet/drys, etc. generally make the situation worse.

HTH