food for psychedelic mandarins

[woodward]

I have a 4 month old tank with 4 month old rock (was not live before i added it) and old enough live rock (about 50/50 new to old). My other 70 gallon tank has been over run by death and uncontrolled algea growth and I am extracting the fish in order to deal with the problem( i might turn it into an agressive tank with a small lionfish afterwards). I have a psychedelic mandrin that has been doing very well in the old tank. I want to move him into this newer tank(30 gallons). I have a clarkii clownfish, a marine betta, and a large anemone in the newer tank. They once lived together for a long period of time with no incidents. my aragonite substrate is only 6ish months old. it's remained very white and looks very new which concerns me. I've read up on "pods" and i havn't been able to see any. but then again, i havn't been able to see any in the older tank or another tank i have with a mandrin fish( which is doing incredible, great fish to have). I'm concerned that if I add my psychedelic to the newer tank( 30 gallons) that there will not be enough food for him. I really have no other option. I'd like your opinion on whether or not the tank is sutable for a the psychedelic and if aquarium stores have in stoke any type of "pod" to either use for food until the tank catches up or as a treat. I have a frozen food that is very fine that i was told to feed but the legistics of feeding a frozen cube to a skidish fish is near impossible. any advice or help would be greatly appreciated!! thank you!

 

[ezjp]

I would not put the mandarin in until you have a stable population of pods first. Do you have a fuge?

 

[tim_12]

You'll have a hard time keeping a mandarin alive in a 30 gallon tank. You just cant really get enough rock in there for the pods to be able to reproduce as fast as the mandarin is eating them. Try soaking a variety of foods in fresh garlic and see if it will eat that.
Can you go into detail about your problems with your 70? Maybe we can trouble shoot that.

 

[woodward]

What is a fuge??
well my 70 had tons of red algae growth. The sump was set up incorrectly by the previous owner which caused the water to bypass the bulk of the carbon. fish got everything from hole in the head to ulcers to mysteriously disapearing. all thats left in the tank is the mandrin and blue star fish (i'd like to put the blue star fish in the 30 gallon as my other stable saltwater already had an urchin). i'm just taking my loses and trying to save what fish i have left. I know i can't have two mandrin in the same tank and theres nothing i can do but move the mandrin from my 70 gallon. how would i feed the mandrin the frozen food? put it at the end of a stick and hope he bites??

 

[tim_12]

A fuge, or refuge, is a place where things that would normally be eaten in a display tank can take cover, and breed or grow without anything to stop them. They're used so plants can grow wild and deal with nitrates, and as a place for pods to breed and be fed to fish. There are some HOB fuge's you can get if you're short of space, or you can set up another tank and connect them. You're going to need to do something like this if you plan to keep the mandarin in a small tank for long.

 

[woodward]

how large does this refuge have to be?? I could section off a part with a large piece of live rock and fill the void with smaller live rocks. would that help??

 

[woodward]

So if I added a HOB filter to the back of the aquarium, what media would i need to support the growth, and how would the pods get from there to the tank where the mandrin can eat them??

 

[tim_12]

Not a HOB filter, a HOB refuge. Basicly a small tank that hangs off the back of your existing tank. However, to support a mandarin in a 30 gallon tank, you'd need a refuge that is about 20 - 30 gallons itself and pack it full of live rock. The best way to set up this type of refuge would be to have it higher than your display tank and have the water pumped up to it and have it gravity drain back down to your display tank. This way some of your pods will get sucked down the drain into your display tank. The other way would be to have the refuge lower than your display tank and have the water gravity drain from the display to the refuge, and pumped back up. The only disadvantage to this is that some of the pods may not survive the trip through the pump. For a refuge with a primary purpose of providing live pods, you wont need any light or filter media. If you want to add some live plants to the fuge as well to combat nitrates, you'd need some lower end lights. Normal output or Power compact would work.

 

[woodward]

If i pack full a 10 gallon tank with live rock and put in underneath the 30 gallon and rig up a pumping system, would that be adequate?? it would probably have just as much rock as i had in the 70 gallon tank. what do you think? I know i'm not doing the right think which is giving the mandrin what it needs, but with the fuge and feeding it food, would it be adequate for now?

 

[tim_12]

It would probably work if you have the same amount of rock, but I'd try to get it back in that 70 asap. what else is in the tank with it?
Make sur you leave enough room in the 10 gallon tank for extra water in the event of a power outage.

 

[tim_12]

Take a look at the Archives & FAQ forum. You'll find a lot of info on setting up stuff like that. Also, read up on anything there that you dont know yet, so you dont have a repeat of what happened to your 70.