dragonets and blennies

[ivy2dw7]

I just thought of something. How are you supposed to quarantine a mandarin dragonet or a lawnmower blenny for 2-3 weeks if all they eat are copepods..? I'm not planning on getting one any time soon but that just popped into my head as I was looking at all the tiny critters coming out of the rocks (actinic only time). Another thing, what exactly do copepods look like?

 

[pontius]

I don't quarantine any fish at all, since my first two fish died in the QT from being too cramped. I had a mandarin and I didn't QT him either.
copepods are about the size of a bic ink pen tip. they are kind of white/transparent and look kind of like tiny insects with multiple legs and tiny antennae on their heads.

 

[55galgill]

ivy copopods are tiny little bugs there like the size of a pin head some bigger and some smaller than that.if you have live rock chances are youll have them. as for quarintine for a manderine? i beleive that there might be two ways about it
1.) First would be to have a 10 gallon that has never been treated with copper or any medicines for that matter.it would have to be full to the rim with live rock but have plenty of tunnels so the manderin could swim about.also it would have to be established for a month or two to get the pod count up, unless you can buy the pods from somewhere and just keep adding them to the tank. this would clearly just an observation tank . until you felt he was ready to be put in the main display.no medicine dosing at all.
2.)Second version would be a bare bones tank with just the manderin and some pvc fore hiding. now i would have another ten gallon setup with some pods and mysis shrimp i bought from(insert famous action site here) and feed that to the menderin.this way you could medicate the manderin tank but still have another tank with his food in it so it doesnt perish from the copper/medicines.
if nothing else manderins are a special fish with special needs and it doesnt surprise me that to qt one would be nothing short of difficult lol but if anyone has another idea how please share i'd be interested in hearing it

 

[slammy16]

go to
www.essentiallivefeeds.com
and read all about copepods.

 

[ivy2dw7]

The way you've described copepods sums up one thing for me: I have a TON. I always see these little tiny white-ish millipede looking things crawling around everywhere, only not as long and not as scary looking. I have a 37g and I originally put in about 15 lbs of live rock and another 15-ish of lace rock, this was back in january. Can too many copepods become a bad thing? And I know everyone says dragonets cannot survive w/anything less than 100 lbs of live rock, and I'm not trying to test that at all, just curious if just a well established tank with plenty of copepods would keep a dragonet/blenny satisfied and plump.

 

[pontius]

too many pods are not a bad thing because most fish will eat them.
I wouldn't try a dragonet in a tank that size. I have a 72 gallon with 140 pounds of live rock (and pods), and my dragonet wasted away in about a month.

 

[55galgill]

ivy a tank with that much rock will keep it alive and happy for a month or two but manderins have the nasty habit of wiping out their only food source. they can eradicate a tank of copopods in a month or two then they typically starve to death unless you get them to eat prepared foods which is a battle of its own your best bet if you realllllly want to keep one is to setup some sort of refugium.~gill~