Mandarins???

[PaulKreider]

I don't think a 29g will ever be able to support a large enough pod population. My 55gal couldn't and training to eat frozen takes a lot of time and effort. If your going for the living off a "sustainable" pod population youd need a much larger reef. Or else youl be spending $30 a week on adding in new pods. Copepods are small animals... it takes quite a lot of pods to feed a mandarin that's average size. I found an article a while ago that pretty much sums it up. Long but worth the read, itl tell you everything you need to know and some. Coral - November/December 2011

 

[Liquid360]

Yeah I'm always worried about there being enough food (pods). Just found a great, yet disgusting way to check pod population.... Scoop out a large cup of your sand. Stir it up well as pods are light and will rise above the sand line. Then pour the water through a coffee filter leaving sand in the cup. They look like maggots. Ewww. I discovered I had a MUCH larger population than I'd ever imagined. Many thousands. And one last time, Ewww.
http://youtu.be/rIP7OzHNeFY

Oooooooh. Must take advantage of that. Thanks so much for the link!

I'm pretty sure my guy's eating the other food I put in (NLS Small Fish Pellets, Frozen Mysis Shrimp, etc,) but he's been so skittish lately it's been impossible to know for absolute certain....so I still buy him pods. Probably good for him to still have those anyway.

 

[Liquid360]

I understand why you'd think so but it's not true. With a good sand-bed they burrow and multiply in profoundly large numbers. A 30g is just fine. I've been keeping a 30g as a pod farm... take occasional samples now to monitor health/pop of colony.
http://youtu.be/rIP7OzHNeFY

I don't think a 29g will ever be able to support a large enough pod population. My 55gal couldn't and training to eat frozen takes a lot of time and effort. If your going for the living off a "sustainable" pod population youd need a much larger reef. Or else youl be spending $30 a week on adding in new pods. Copepods are small animals... it takes quite a lot of pods to feed a mandarin that's average size. I found an article a while ago that pretty much sums it up. Long but worth the read, itl tell you everything you need to know and some. Coral - November/December 2011

 

[PaulKreider]

Read the article.

 

[Liquid360]

Read it before. Care to be specific? And BTW it's not tank size so much as water volume that's important here. I'm going to attempt to ask this without sounding like a **** but I won't succeed. Do you look to magazines for "rules" to follow?

 

[Salty-Noob]

How to Setup a Refugium by Daniel S., MarineDepot.com Reef Squad

Thanks for the link very helpful

 

[PaulKreider]

Copepods spend more time clinging to things ie rocks rather than free swimming in the water column. So unless your water volume is majority of rocks then the larger tank would be more relevant than water volume. And yes I'd rather be more persuaded by sombody who did their research and got an article published than by somone rambling on a forum.

 

[Liquid360]

Yeah I suspected you'd take it personally. My copepods reside in the sandbed as well as on rocks. Nice chat Paul. Also the eggs/young do in fact reside in the water column but this is dependent upon species. Rambling Paul?

Copepods spend more time clinging to things ie rocks rather than free swimming in the water column. So unless your water volume is majority of rocks then the larger tank would be more relevant than water volume. And yes I'd rather be more persuaded by sombody who did their research and got an article published than by somone rambling on a forum.