Got a mandarin

Swine · Jan 8, 2013

Connie said:
You can buy big bags of copepods on line to get a good population started. I buy a couple of thousand every 3 - 6 months. Put half in your sump and the other half in your tank after lights out. It's a lot cheaper than the bottles. Mine will eat the small NewLife Pellets, but I don't think that is normal...lol

Where do you get your pods from? I'm trying to start a big population in my tank and the bottles are expensive!

Connie · Jan 8, 2013

Swine said:
Where do you get your pods from? I'm trying to start a big population in my tank and the bottles are expensive!

I use Aquaculture Nursery and Sachs System Aquaculture. You can google live copepods for sale and will get a pretty good list to choose from.

NJHC · Jan 8, 2013

Cyclop-eez

I feed mine CYCLOP-EEZ and he loved them, if he [FONT=arial, sans-serif]doesn't[/FONT] eat [FONT=arial, sans-serif]you'll[/FONT] know by his weight and they way hell act, I still think live pods are the way to go for everything including Corals :gossip:

NJHC · Jan 8, 2013

all you need is one bottle make sure to acclimate them and they will populate, feeding your coral for ffrreeeeeee

Swine · Jan 8, 2013

Connie said:
I use Aquaculture Nursery and Sachs System Aquaculture. You can google live copepods for sale and will get a pretty good list to choose from.

Thanks very much! I saw a spotted mandarin in a tank and the goal of having one of them is what got me started on my SW tank. I plan on training mine to eat pellets but I need a big colony just in case that doesnt work!

Swine · Jan 8, 2013

NJHC said:
all you need is one bottle make sure to acclimate them and they will populate, feeding your coral for ffrreeeeeee

If that would work I probably rather do that. Shipping is going to make the costs skyrocket I feel

Connie · Jan 8, 2013

Swine said:
If that would work I probably rather do that. Shipping is going to make the costs skyrocket I feel

Free shipping usually. Three months ago I bought 3,000 or so. By putting half of them in the sump with no predators, I have pods out the wazoo! I probably won't have to buy anymore for a good long while, if ever.

Swine · Jan 9, 2013

Connie said:
Free shipping usually. Three months ago I bought 3,000 or so. By putting half of them in the sump with no predators, I have pods out the wazoo! I probably won't have to buy anymore for a good long while, if ever.

Nice! If I got 1 Liter (suggested for 100 gallons or less) for my 55 gallon tank I think that would start a VERY healthy population. Has anyone heard anything about have too big of a population for a mandarin and negative effects it might have on the tank other than not being able to see anything. At some point there wouldnt be enough food for the pods and they would die.. What sort of spike would a bunch of dead pods cause? potentially ammonia?

Connie · Jan 9, 2013

Swine said:
Nice! If I got 1 Liter (suggested for 100 gallons or less) for my 55 gallon tank I think that would start a VERY healthy population. Has anyone heard anything about have too big of a population for a mandarin and negative effects it might have on the tank other than not being able to see anything. At some point there wouldnt be enough food for the pods and they would die.. What sort of spike would a bunch of dead pods cause? potentially ammonia?

Swine...Pods are cannibalistic, so if some start dying off, they would be food for the survivors. I don't think it would be possible to overpopulate, or I've never heard of it being a problem.