Is my pod population ready for a mandarins?

[Saltybubbles288]

I seeded my 4 month old 150 gallon system with tisbe about a month ago, I understand they usually have a population boom which I definitely noticed, the fuge has chaeto and about 15 lbs of rock in and is absolutely swarming with them, there are thousands on the DTs glass alone. I expect there to be some die off, but could I consider the culture mature enough to support a juvinelle mandarin?

 

[cameronh]

I seeded my 4 month old 150 gallon system with tisbe about a month ago, I understand they usually have a population boom which I definitely noticed, the fuge has chaeto and about 15 lbs of rock in and is absolutely swarming with them, there are thousands on the DTs glass alone. I expect there to be some die off, but could I consider the culture mature enough to support a juvinelle mandarin?

I would say go for it my friend.
My 120 was seeded with them for only a month and my red mandarin (red right? Lol) did great for a full year until i took the tank down, it also ate with the other fish oddly and that was back in 2015 and he's currently still alive in my sisters 80 gallon and has been there for about a year now.
If you can see a bunch of them, then theres a whole lot more that youre not seeing lol. Go ahead and pull the trigger.

 

[Saltybubbles288]

Great news yeah I figured the plague on my glass was a good sign. I also see my chromis snag them out the water column all the time, in fact they camp out just under the fuges return.

 

[Saltybubbles288]

My DT needs to be cleaned lol, but here is a photo where you can even see them all over the glass (all the little white specks) and with my cellphone camera, I didn't ever think their population would be this noticeable.

 

[Saltybubbles288]

You can really see them in the snail trail on the overflow.