Copepods and mandarin dragonet

[TheBackAndForth]

My 80 gallon tank with maybe 80 pounds of porous live rock got wiped by velvet.. my fault.

Two weeks out and my glass is covered by copepods maybe 1/4 cm long at the largest (no more wrasse and angels, I guess).

Long story short, I've always wanted a mandarin dragonet. Could this environment (without other copepod eaters) support one of these guys after I finish my fallow period? Could I seed my tank with larger pods too?

Thanks y'all.

 

[Brad Miller]

My mandarin now eats mostly pieces of white fish, clams and other stuff on the bottom like a cuc member
And boy, is he fat now

 

[TheBackAndForth]

Should I do it?

I'm kinda leaning towards a low maintenance low bioload stock list that will let me minimize water changes and focus on growing out hard corals, not worrying about algae etc

 

[Brad Miller]

You can train MOST mandarins to eat other things besides copepods, some report that they were never able to do that, but I think your odds are pretty good...if I can do it, anyone can
I purposefully over feed my mixture so cuc and mandarins eat of the bottom

 

[TheBackAndForth]

sweet thanks. Im gonna try. probably order a couple. I've loved them for years and years

 

[TheBackAndForth]

I still remember when I was a kid in a fish store with my first SW tank in the early 2000s, and a good employee told me that only people with large tanks should buy these fish

 

[Brad Miller]

That is a true statement if those rely on only copepods to eat, the dominant ones will eat them all while the others starve because they werent taught to eat anything else.

My one male was soooo skinny but eventually he learned to eat what I gave him or he would end up meeting his maker

Maybe only get two...male and female, the same size, introduce them together and watch them eat.
I put meaty foods in bottles up against the glass so hermits and others wouldn’t get to it so quick and watched all the time as the mandarins got accustomed to it.

There are some good threads on how to do it.

 

[TheBackAndForth]

That is a true statement if those rely on only copepods to eat, the dominant ones will eat them all while the others starve because they werent taught to eat anything else.

My one male was soooo skinny but eventually he learned to eat what I gave him or he would end up meeting his maker

Maybe only get two...male and female, the same size, introduce them together and watch them eat.
I put meaty foods in bottles up against the glass so hermits and others wouldn’t get to it so quick and watched all the time as the mandarins got accustomed to it.

There are some good threads on how to do it.

Fantastic idea. TY

 

[nereefpat]

Probably be fine in 80 gallons with 80#s of rock.

Do you have a sump or fuge? If so, "probably" will change to "definitely."

 

[TheBackAndForth]

Probably be fine in 80 gallons with 80#s of rock.

Do you have a sump or fuge? If so, "probably" will change to "definitely."

yes, But it's just a spare tank that I use for extra volumne, skimming, dosing, top off. Very basic.

maybe I'll throw some rock down there.

 

[nereefpat]

yes, But it's just a spare tank that I use for extra volumne, skimming, dosing, top off. Very basic.

maybe I'll throw some rock down there.

Yep, throw a little rubble down there.