Mandarins : copepods and amphipods

ThRoewer · Sep 23, 2020

Clownfish_Boy said:
$60 to seed a tank with pods ? That is what it costs to do it with pods and phytoplankton from the Algae Barn - ridiculous ! It should not cost over $20. If you can find someone with Annelid Detritus Worms in a tank, you can get them to give you a culture of them and establish them in your tank for nothing. The population will reproduce at a fast enough rate to support a mandarin.

There is no need to seed a tank with Amphipods anyway. All you need a piece of rock or a hand full of gravel or a ball of chaeto from an established tank and you have them and a whole lot of other things.

Clownfish_Boy · Sep 23, 2020

GoingBroke88 said:
Yes, it's true that copepods will grow in the main tank as much as they will the sump or refugium. But the issue is that their populations can quickly be completely consumed by mandarins and other fish. That's why people talk about needing a large tank with a lot of live rock, plus limiting the number of copepod eating fish in the tank. With that approach, you're basically figuring that the mandarin can't get all of the pods and the ones that survive can continue to multiply.

The refugium/sump helps by providing a safe place for the pods to keep multiplying without predation while continually releasing some back into the main tank.

Some mandarins can be trained to eat other stuff as well. Search for some of the threads about people training mandarins. Reportedly the captive-bred Biota ones are brought up eating frozen food as well.

The ORA captive bred Mandarins are also conditioned to eat frozen foods.

hyeclass · Sep 23, 2020

Clownfish_Boy said:
$60 to seed a tank with pods ? That is what it costs to do it with pods and phytoplankton from the Algae Barn - ridiculous ! It should not cost over $20. If you can find someone with Annelid Detritus Worms in a tank, you can get them to give you a culture of them and establish them in your tank for nothing. The population will reproduce at a fast enough rate to support a mandarin.

Ridiculous you right not more then $20 I guess not alot of companies are making them

I been giving them small shrimps
Mandarin died when I bought am 3 days later he died not sure why I also bought a spotted mandarin his ok

hyeclass · Sep 23, 2020

boacvh said:
baby brine shrimp. And paulb's feeder. I use this one.

Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish

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www.bulkreefsupply.com

How long does it take the eggs to become shrimp i got this pH buffer i added with the water so it can hatch quicker

Clownfish_Boy · Sep 23, 2020

hyeclass said:
Ridiculous you right not more then $20 I guess not alot of companies are making them

I been giving them small shrimps
Mandarin died when I bought am 3 days later he died not sure why I also bought a spotted mandarin his ok

So sorry for your loss ! Hope your current one continues to do well !

living_tribunal · Sep 23, 2020

hyeclass said:
what comes to Mandarins, feeding copepods and amphipods, i don't have the supply anything else they can eat?

They don’t really eat amphipods, maybe the juvies but they focus more so on copepods. Starting 1-2 external cultures and you’ll be fine for the time being.