copopods
- Thread starter ygrowup
- Start date
wrassecal
Active Member
You can't really. All depends on what size tank and setup you have. IMO it takes at least 100lbs of lr to have enough area for some of the pods to hide and reproduce. I have my mandarin in a 55 gal w/ a little over 100lbs lr and I still add fresh hatched live brine once a week just to be sure. You also have to take into account if you have any other pod eating competitors in the tank.
broncofish
Active Member
Flash light at night with a red lense cover, if your room is pitch black and you can see those little clear guys. At least this is what I have been told, I have not tried this yet, could be a load of garbage.
wrassecal
Active Member
broncofish you are right, sort of. The flashlight method can give you a good idea about your CURRENT pod population, but a mandarin can eat pods up pretty quickly. You would not want to add a mandarin unless you had a substantial pod population which you can verify by flashlight method. The real problem comes in when you try to figure if you can SUSTAIN enough of a pod population to keep the mandarin healthy, so ygrowup, first check as broncofish suggested then figure if you have the right environment to sustain it.......
IMO/E
IMO/E
ravenhawk
Member
Will a mandarin and a scooter live together happily? I have a scooter and they never even told me he would eat the pods (which I originally thought were little shrimp). The other morning I turned on my kitchen light which allows me to sort of see inot the tank and there were probably 50 or more pods running around the bottom of my tank i was worried my file fish would eat them all up. Is it going to be to hard to keep all 3 fed if I get teh mandarin as well?
flamingkingofhe
Active Member
i have always been told your tank needs to be set up for two years and needs to have 100 lbs of the lr in it for two years
katara
Member
Ravenhawk...your scooter blenny will compete w/ a mandarin for pods and unfortunatley, you do not have enough lr to sustain enough pods for a mandarin.
Even if you do have plenty of lr, a mandarin can wipe out your pods in a couple of weeks..I feed mine zoe/zoecon enriched brine..giving the pods a chance to "regroup"...and so far,so good.
HTH
Even if you do have plenty of lr, a mandarin can wipe out your pods in a couple of weeks..I feed mine zoe/zoecon enriched brine..giving the pods a chance to "regroup"...and so far,so good.
HTH
broncofish
Active Member
O.K. I took a flashlight to my tank and fuge...and holy crap I have a ton of pods.
rsd
Member
My tank cycles it's pod population. It actually seems to be on a monthly basis. You really should check it out at the same time for around a month or so to get a good calc. of how many you have. Also it desn't take much to depleate the pod pop. I had 2 systems for pod growth and one night one crashed and wuit circulating water for 2 days. I removed the stagnent water w/o contaminating my tank but my pod pop dropped substantially. My clown goby and 6 line put a big dent in my pod pop. with only 75 lbs of LR and a fuge working.
I had a manderin after 2 years....I kept it for almost a year before selling it to a guy with a bigger tank. She just kept wiping out the pods and ignoring what I tried to add. IMHO I'd stick with the 100 lbs + and add a refugium if you don't have one.
Then, if you have no other major competitors add the manderin.
I had a manderin after 2 years....I kept it for almost a year before selling it to a guy with a bigger tank. She just kept wiping out the pods and ignoring what I tried to add. IMHO I'd stick with the 100 lbs + and add a refugium if you don't have one.
Then, if you have no other major competitors add the manderin.
ravenhawk
Member
Katara
Thanks for the info. The lfs I visit doesnt even have a mandarin in at the moment I just think they are cool looking fish. As for the lr I know I dont have near enough in my tank. I am just in the process of switch from FO to reef and with the price of lr i can only do a little at a time
Thanks for the info. The lfs I visit doesnt even have a mandarin in at the moment I just think they are cool looking fish. As for the lr I know I dont have near enough in my tank. I am just in the process of switch from FO to reef and with the price of lr i can only do a little at a time
ravenhawk
Member
Well so far my scooter is doing quite well although I havent even had him for a full week yet. He seems to be happy. I have seen him eat flake food that has fallen to the bottom as well as frozen shrimp and squid and my copepods seem to be reproducing quite well and of course I think that will improve once I add more lr. As for the mandarin the owner of the lfs told me they can be difficult to keep so maybe I will just admire them at the store when he has them in. thanks all for the input