Can you have too many Copepods ?

sh2000

Member
I have a 80 gal. RT with 125 lb of LR (established for a while)...I recently bought a green Mandarin and 600 Copepods. I poured them all in this morning into my DT. Can you have too many pods in your tank ?I plan on adding some more.
 

apos

Member
It's hard to ever get enough: your mandarin will gobble them all up super fast. An established tank is great for this fish, but a solid fuge is a long-term must for keeping their populations up high enough in your tank. You can also very cheaply set up your own pod offline farm so that you don't need to keep buying pods.
 

scopus tang

Active Member
Originally Posted by SH2000
http:///forum/post/2450929
I have a 80 gal. RT with 125 lb of LR (established for a while)...I recently bought a green Mandarin and 600 Copepods. I poured them all in this morning into my DT. Can you have too many pods in your tank ?I plan on adding some more.
SH2000 where did you purchase your cocepods from? I'm interested in adding them, micro brittlestars, and amphipods to my system. Curious if anyone knows a good site to find these things?
 

rs1831

Active Member
Originally Posted by Apos
http:///forum/post/2451062
It's hard to ever get enough: your mandarin will gobble them all up super fast. An established tank is great for this fish, but a solid fuge is a long-term must for keeping their populations up high enough in your tank. You can also very cheaply set up your own pod offline farm so that you don't need to keep buying pods.
What would you do to set something like this up?
 

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Scopus Tang
http:///forum/post/2451198
SH2000 where did you purchase your cocepods from? I'm interested in adding them, micro brittlestars, and amphipods to my system. Curious if anyone knows a good site to find these things?

Out of respect for SWF and it's owners, please do not ask for info on where to buy SWF related products.
 

natclanwy

Active Member
I got tons of micro brittle stars by getting some sand from established tanks whenever I got the chance I would be willing to give you a couple of cups of mine. Let me know if your interested.
 

sh2000

Member
The copepods came in water I couldn't see them I poured it in but I hope they reproduce enough for the mandarin. I've seen some whitish thin wormy like objects hanging off LR are those pods ?
 

apos

Member
I can't link to some of the plans (search), but the basic idea is that you get a small tank, only fill it up to 3 or 4 inches with water, seed it with pods, and keep it very green (i.e. lots of plankton), and have just an air line bubbling away for oxygenation (no powerhead). Keep salinty and temp same as you would a regular tank. You can also include a little chaeto, sand, and a light if you want. If you want to split the culture into bottles, each with an airline and fed by drops of phyto every so often, you can do that as well. You can siphon up the little buggers into bottles to grow some more before adding to your DT to reseed their population.
The point of the offline system is both to be a complete refugium (i.e. no predation or transfer to any DT while growing) as well as being able to keep things greener than you would want in a DT.
 

sh2000

Member
Originally Posted by natclanwy
http:///forum/post/2452020
I got tons of micro brittle stars by getting some sand from established tanks whenever I got the chance I would be willing to give you a couple of cups of mine. Let me know if your interested.
I'm intrested if it wouldn't harm the parameters of my DT. Thanks
 

sh2000

Member
If you intriduce a Mandarin to an established aquarium with a 3 inch SB and an abundant supply of LR and dropped in 600 Pods..will that be anough to sustain the Mandarins diet ? or must you drop in more pods every month ? It's wierd because I bought the Mandarin for $20 and spent so far $27 on pods...help!!
 

natclanwy

Active Member
Originally Posted by SH2000
http:///forum/post/2454981
I'm intrested if it wouldn't harm the parameters of my DT. Thanks

Sorry I meant to quote Scopus Tang the offer was to him. I don't have enough time to ship sand, plus it is too cold here to ship anything. Scopus Tang lives locally, but you should be able to find someone local to you I visit every LFS that I can when I travel and usually try to get some of their sand or rubble out of their tanks. I also trade with anyone local.
Won't affect any of the parameters of your tank negitively it is basically like adding live rock and the more tanks you can obtain sand/rubble from the greater the biodiversity you will have in your tank.
 
Top