Just brought home a manderin goby

Poseidon Johnson · Sep 17, 2023

Has anyone purchased these copepods? Amazon seller has mixed reviews with 30% DOA based on reviews.

KrisReef · Sep 17, 2023

I have, they are fairly large pods and very visible to the eye. I bought them at a LFS where I could see they were still swimming.
I would also like to
recommend another option.

Seller/sponsor on here sent 2 bottles that I dumped into my fish tank & reef, just for biodiversity. He has a few different ads for pods, algae, and other stuff. You actually raised a question I don't know the anwer to, "What size (range) pods are best for feeding a Mandrine goby?" I have a sand sifter that is happy and I may get a Mandrine some day. I have a lot of tiny planktonic inverts that cruise around in both systems.

Poseidon Johnson · Sep 17, 2023

KrisReef said:
I have, they are fairly large pods and very visible to the eye. I bought them at a LFS where I could see they were still swimming.
I would also like to
recommend another option.

Seller/sponsor on here sent 2 bottles that I dumped into my fish tank & reef, just for biodiversity. He has a few different ads for pods, algae, and other stuff. You actually raised a question I don't know the anwer to, "What size (range) pods are best for feeding a Mandrine goby?" I have a sand sifter that is happy and I may get a Mandrine some day. I have a lot of tiny planktonic inverts that cruise around in both systems.

I'll look for the add thanks, my tank has some copepods so I'm not in a huge hurry I'll try frozen brine and Miases in hopes that my new manderin will leave some of my algae controllers to keep the tank clean. Either way I plan on adding plenty more copepods to the system. Thanks again

Lavey29 · Sep 17, 2023

Has your tank been up and running a year or more. Mandarins consume thousands of pods daily so you will need weekly pod dosing until you can get him to try other foods.

littlefoxx · Sep 17, 2023

Poseidon Johnson said:
Has anyone purchased these copepods? Amazon seller has mixed reviews with 30% DOA based on reviews.

My target spot mandarin loves those!

Poseidon Johnson · Sep 17, 2023

Lavey29 said:
Has your tank been up and running a year or more. Mandarins consume thousands of pods daily so you will need weekly pod dosing until you can get him to try other foods.

Yes and I have frozen pods, I figure if I mix the pods with miases/ brine and pellets eventually I can get the goby to take a more wide variety. Hopefully

Rugops · Sep 17, 2023

I would like to ask about your rock work layout and how much rock you have? Do you know if the specimen is wild caught or captive raised?

Lavey29 · Sep 17, 2023

Poseidon Johnson said:
Yes and I have frozen pods, I figure if I mix the pods with miases/ brine and pellets eventually I can get the goby to take a more wide variety. Hopefully

The Tigger pods are good. I use them every week or so.

Poseidon Johnson · Sep 17, 2023

Rugops said:
I would like to ask about your rock work layout and how much rock you have? Do you know if the specimen is wild caught or captive raised?

Wild caught unfortunately, roughly 20lbs of rock.

Rugops · Sep 17, 2023

Poseidon Johnson said:
Wild caught unfortunately, roughly 20lbs of rock.

Do you have pics of your current tank?

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Sep 17, 2023

Poseidon Johnson said:
Has anyone purchased these copepods? Amazon seller has mixed reviews with 30% DOA based on reviews.

Tigger pods are more of a "treat" for your tank and generally don't provide long term food... they don't breed as well as others. I strongly recommend Tisbe pods.

I also highly recommend Dinkins Aquatic Gardens' pods and phytoplankton. Never had a doa, always get amazing product, and the customer service is the best!

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Sep 17, 2023

KrisReef said:
You actually raised a question I don't know the anwer to, "What size (range) pods are best for feeding a Mandrine goby?" I have a sand sifter that is happy and I may get a Mandrine some day. I have a lot of tiny planktonic inverts that cruise around in both systems.

I can answer that - Tisbe

Poseidon Johnson · Sep 17, 2023

Rugops said:
Do you have pics of your current tank?

Yes but they're all focused I'll take a few pics of it in its entirety

Lavey29 · Sep 17, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Tigger pods are more of a "treat" for your tank and generally don't provide long term food... they don't breed as well as others. I strongly recommend Tisbe pods.

I also highly recommend Dinkins Aquatic Gardens' pods and phytoplankton. Never had a doa, always get amazing product, and the customer service is the best!

Been wanting to try Dinkens. Tigger pods are nice because lots of LFS carry them and they ship well.

Poseidon Johnson · Sep 17, 2023

Rugops said:
Do you have pics of your current tank?

Rugops · Sep 17, 2023

Since it is a wild caught specimen and we really don't know if it is going to eat in the tank - regardless of whether it has pods or not.

The good way to start training it to eat is to get a breeder net:

In the net, you can put the pods in there with a mix of whatever foods you plan to feed it. Make sure it gets a good flow but not too strong that everything is flying everywhere.

Poseidon Johnson · Sep 17, 2023

Rugops said:
Since it is a wild caught specimen and we really don't know if it is going to eat in the tank - regardless of whether it has pods or not.

The good way to start training it to eat is to get a breeder net:

In the net, you can put the pods in there with a mix of whatever foods you plan to feed it. Make sure it gets a good flow but not too strong that everything is flying everywhere.

Keep the goby in the net with the food? It went after a huge pod that was trying to drag a pellet into its cave. When I say huge I mean for a pod lol almost the size of a grain of rice, the pellet was 3x larger than the pod. The goby pecked the pellet when the pod darted away. I plan on trying the frozen mysiss tomorrow the goby did also peck at the frozen pods when they sank to the sand and rock so I'm thinking I got lucky with this one. The female clown went after the manderin when I introduced it to the tank, I was worried about the clown being poisoned from biting the goby. Goby shrugged it off like nothing was happening like I'm from the wild B I swim with shark's.