Adding second mandarin to 40 Breeder

[NeonRabbit221B]

My first mandarin is fat and happy and I love her and was thinking about getting a second. I got the first captive bred and would likely do the same for the second. I do have a copepod culture going and hatch brine shrimp 4 times per week along with some pellet food. I do have a double refugium and chaeto reactor for additional pods. Would this be pushing my luck too far?

 

[fryman]

Some captive-bred mandarins can be trained to eat pellets, does yours?

In a refugium you aren't likely growing many pods, so I wouldn't consider that a significant food source. But if you are willing to put in the effort to culture pods/artemia seperately then sure.

You didn't really say how big your culture(s) are but you can hatch alot of artemia with very little space so that's an option.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I hatch 1/2 teaspoon of bbs with traditional hatchery and with the black dish alternating. For pods right now its a 5 gallon bucket and a few 2L of phyto going. Trying to logic my way into how I can go on vacation and leave tanks with delicate fish. Just wanted a sanity check that I wasn't pushing things too far.

 

[fryman]

Up to a week I think no prob, split phyto just before leaving. You can sieve pod cultures and fill bucket with live phyto, it would probably last a couple weeks? Well fed mandarins won't starve in a week.

But yeah if away much more than a week there could be problems. Maybe set something up with dosers?

 

[secret_reefer337]

I used to have a pair of adult wild caught mandarin in my 40B. Can’t say they are happy but I know they are fat! I have never seeded my tank with pods and I don’t feed frozen, only pellets. They have learned how to eat pellets while in my tank.

 

[Gup]

I had a Blue Mandarin 4 decades ago and he thrived on live brine with direct feeding. Now that I'm 4 months back in, I want to buy my 1st Blue Mandarin, but I would like to add a Ruby Red along with him. And I'm still planning on using live brine

 

[Gup]

I used to have a pair of adult wild caught mandarin in my 40B. Can’t say they are happy but I know they are fat! I have never seeded my tank with pods and I don’t feed frozen, only pellets. They have learned how to eat pellets while in my tank.

That's good for me to know