So the husband and I went to our LFS the other day to get some fish food. They happened to have 2 green mandarin dragonets and a red dragonet in quarantine. We had no intention on buying a fish, really. Well, I was talking to one of the employees about the preparations we had been making for a mandarin and he said he would sell us one considering we knew what we were getting into. We went and looked and found one of them to be a chubby little bugger and a male so we snagged him. He's been eating copepods for the past 48 hours and literally sleeping with the other fish. So far, he's been a great addition. We dosed some tisbe pods as well when we put him in. Thinking about using our fish empty 29g to cultivate them.
Finally Did It
- Thread starter Jinxs
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jaws789832
Active Member
Beautiful little guy. I might suggest getting some Nutramar OVA and start trying to feed him some of that as well for just in case. My 2 love that stuff. Mine pick at pods all day then at feeding time for the rest of the fish they are there waiting to get their little blast of prawn eggs. My tank is loaded with pods and I monthly restock the fuge just to keep it that way, but I wanted a fallback in case I ever needed to hospitalize or QT them or move them to a different tank because of compatibility issues.
We have some tiger pods just in case. How do you train them to eat prepared foods? Or target feed in general. We've never had to do that so I'm not sure on how to. Thanks for the input! We want our new little guy to be happy so anything that helps.
jaws789832
Active Member
I first tried using a clam shell as a little feeder cup for them but I found the circulation just blew the food all over anyways so I just started squirting a little of the OVA in their general area and they took to it pretty fast. Now whenever they see the feeding tube come in they come running so I squirt it in an area that doesn't get a lot of flow and they leisurely can eat it off the sand or rock.. I use this to feed them the Ova https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/skimz-coral-feeder-2-pack.html . Its a little gentler than most feeding tubes so it doesn't just blow the food all over the place.
jaws789832
Active Member
Also I think Tigger pods are not the best for them as those pods generally stay in the water column (pelagic I believe is the term) then get eaten by the other fish or go over the overflow (not sure if you have either of those). A better choice would be tisbee and other pods like that that remain in the sand and on the rockwork (benthic I believe is the term)
Reef Nutrition
We Feed Your Reef
I culture Tigriopus californicus, aka Tigger-Pods, for Reef Nutrition. This species is found in the supralittoral zone. Definition: "The supralittoral zone, also known as the splash zone, spray zone or the supratidal zone, is the area above the spring high tide line, on coastlines and estuaries, that is regularly splashed, but not submerged by ocean water. Seawater penetrates these elevated areas only during storms with high tides.[1]" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supralittoral_zone).
This species lives most of its life on the bottom of the splash pools, so you could say they are benthic. Under the right conditions, this animal will populate a refugium or DT. Many people culture them in a bucket. Tisbe sp. can be cultured in a similar way. Both are very hardy, with Tigriopus californicus as the larger of the two.
For the most part, Harpacticoids and Cyclopoids are the most ideal copepods to add to a reef tank in an effort to increase zooplankton diversity.
Chad
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Daniel@R2R
Living the Reef Life
Good luck with the little guy!
