copepod farm

[hunt]

I was thinking about getting a blue mandarin but i read up on them and asked the FS and they all say it would probably die withen a month. I have a 30 gallon tank with 2 clown fish and a valentiini puffer. i also have about 25 pounds of live rock. anyways i was wondering if i could make a copepod farm or make them reproduce alot in my tank. Anyideas how o chould do this?

 

[olemiss]

In all honesty, wait until you have a larger tank.

 

[hunt]

yeah thats what i thought. im thinking about getting a 55g off craigslist

 

[spanko]

You can also create a hang on the tank refugium out of an AquaClear 110 filter.
Click here and then go to the first link.
http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&...r+110+fuge+mod

 

[hunt]

ive also herd of putting a dish scrubber in the tank and covering it with rocks so copepods can breed without fish eating them. would that work

 

[jstdv8]

you could start your copepod population now and when you get a bigger tank just transfer the contents including the copepods.
Copepods are best grown in a sump so that predators cant get to them. But my LFS guy has a 75 gallon with no sump and he has a really fat and happy mandarin in his tank and loads of copepods that go scurrying around when the lights come on.
I seeded my tank 3 months ago with a jar of DT's copepods and now I have a like a gazillion of them. they are all over the glass/rocks, everything.
started a sump/fuge recently and they got in there without even having to transfer them, i found them in my cheato allready so they should start going to town down there too.
they eat phytoplankton so its a good idea to dose some phyto (DT's also makes this) to give them something to eat

 

[crypt keeper]

Mandys really need over 100 pounds of live rock for grazing. The IMO you could set up a 30 Gallon fuge with a dsp and rock and cheato. This will grow pods crazy. It could work. But the mor elive rock the better and the bigger the fuge the better. a 30 gallon fuge would be great. I thought about getting one as well.

 

[halamaya]

if you can get a mandarin that eats brines shrimp or other frozen foods you would do better. I have a 55 gal reff with 50lbs live rock and a 2.5 gal hang on refugium. I have a fat and happy dragonet. I also have a Leopard Wrasse who is eating a ton of pods. I've added a couple containers of pods to the tank and refugium though.