Got a spotted mandarin is my tank enough?

jfingers088

Member
I got a spotted mandarin 4 days ago. I have a 90 gallon tank with 95lbs. of live rock. My tank is 13 months old. I have a little fuge in my sump with 5 lbs. of live sand and 5 lbs. of rubble rock. I seeded my tank with 400 pods yesterday. Will he be ok or do i have to do more?
 

m0nk

Active Member
Originally Posted by jfingers088
I got a spotted mandarin 4 days ago. I have a 90 gallon tank with 95lbs. of live rock. My tank is 13 months old. I have a little fuge in my sump with 5 lbs. of live sand and 5 lbs. of rubble rock. I seeded my tank with 400 pods yesterday. Will he be ok or do i have to do more?
Sounds like a good start, but the fuge might be a little small. Did you seed the fuge with any of those pods?
 

reefstar22

Member
He should be fine, worst case you can always add more pods. - But from the sounds of it you should be fine. - Do you see pods in your sand/fuge?
 

renogaw

Active Member
i agree, the more room for the pods to grow, the better.
i'll bet a lot of people are thinking the same thing i am though, and please don't be offended, but i'd ask next time BEFORE buying the fish :)
 

aquaknight

Active Member
You should be good. Your tank is a better home then, I'd say 90% of what most mandarins go to anyways.
If there's room add some piles of rubble rock into the display (can be out of sight, doesn't matter) so the pods have a place to 'retreat' from the mandarin. Also add a sponge to the refugium, great home for the pods as well.
 

jfingers088

Member
i put both bottles into the display tank at night when i know the mandarin was sleeping but if its really that important i will add a bottle to the fuge.
 

mcbdz

Active Member
I would add a bottle to the fuge too. it surely won't hurt. And if you can add more liverock to your dt.
 

anonome

Active Member
I do not run a sump, so I have a hob refugium made by CPR on my 125. I would imagine that you could if you have room for it. My green spotted mandarins are fat and happy since I have done this. I buy pods from a supplier that mails them in a filter fiber material. I add the filter to the refugium and let it be for about a month or so. When I take the filter out, I rinse it in a bucket of saltwater, then pour back into the refugium so as not to loose any critters. I have not seen an increase of nitrates from doing this. Only lots and lots of new pods. I have enclosed a pic of my refugium to see an old sponge. Look in the middle of the pic, and over to the right where the black snail is. I added my last batch about Dec 5th. And I just added 1000 more pods tonight, hence the new filter pads. My refugium is jambed packed with life.
I probably won't add anymore for a long while, I watch the refugium to see if the pods are still multiplying. I had to bump up my population after my tank move on Dec 1. A lot of them where lost....got too cold.
Hope this helps. Good luck. I would also add some more live rock if possible in the main tank. Never hurts to reseed your tank.
 

alex4286

Member
im in the same boat as you
but i added two bottles to my fuge first, then 1 to my display. its more important for them to breed in the rubble rock in the fuge then in the display (its safer & more will survive). But i have not bought the fish yet. the pods in the bottle i got (trigger pods) are SOOOOO TINEY and need to grow A LOT
 

ser_cyclops

Member
i have a sump and i have always wondered how the pods get from down in the sump up to the DT? they cant gow through the return pump cause im guessing it would kill them and plus it has a filter on the end and they cant go up the HOB overflow cause i would guess the current so how does this work? do you have to manually move them up?
 

alex4286

Member
Originally Posted by SeR_Cyclops
i have a sump and i have always wondered how the pods get from down in the sump up to the DT? they cant gow through the return pump cause im guessing it would kill them and plus it has a filter on the end and they cant go up the HOB overflow cause i would guess the current so how does this work? do you have to manually move them up?
well i have a hang on fuge, theres no filter pad blocking them
when theres too many, some poor out and into the DT. No effort needed.
 
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