Pods

[NYfan78]

Hey how do you know if i have pods in my tank? Seeing Jans post really inspires me to want a Mandrain(sp?) My tank is lil over a year old now.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Hey how do you know if i have pods in my tank? Seeing Jans post really inspires me to want a Mandrain(sp?) My tank is lil over a year old now.

 

Whether you have pods or not is irrelevant if you want a mandarin.

 

The key is to get them eating prepared foods.

 

I had extremely good luck with PE mysis. Here is what mine looked like after 3 years of eating PE.

 

[Fishie]

i just check at night and i have lots of stuff running around the sand bed , the rocks etc

 

i can see them in the day too but at night ...its really easy to spot them

 

I have had a mandrin for a month now...it was eating preparred foods when i got it...but i dont think eats them in my tank cuz its usually hanging out deeper in the rockwork hunting/chilling

 

2 days ago i found it on the ground...they are jumpers!...its still doing great after i tossed it back..colors look vibrant

 

i also found out that they like to hunt at night

[SunWyrm]

Take a flashlight at night and shine it in holes in your rockwork. You may even see some on the glass. They would be the smaller, white dot-looking guys.

 

I have a pair that only eats pods as far as I know, but they are in a large tank with no other pod eaters. They are both quite fat and happy.

 

Depending on your tank and refugium size, you may be able to keep one or a pair happily without weaning onto prepared foods. Though IMO you can get them onto prepared foods easily while they are in QT, you should still have a steady population of pods for them to forage on.

 

Extreme, your mandarin is ridiculously gorgeous.

[Huly]

Chris and I are worried about the same situation so we are looking into the ORA bred Mandrin's. Check out this link and this thread where a LFS can order them.

 

http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/52580-ora-order/

 

http://www.orafarm.com/products/fish/dragonets/

[Jan]

Mine sleep all night and hunt all day. I find them sleeping behind the rocks. they look dead. They get very pale.

 

i just check at night and i have lots of stuff running around the sand bed , the rocks etc

 

i can see them in the day too but at night ...its really easy to spot them

 

I have had a mandrin for a month now...it was eating preparred foods when i got it...but i dont think eats them in my tank cuz its usually hanging out deeper in the rockwork hunting/chilling

 

2 days ago i found it on the ground...they are jumpers!...its still doing great after i tossed it back..colors look vibrant

 

i also found out that they like to hunt at night

[onux20]

Mine sleep all night and hunt all day. I find them sleeping behind the rocks. they look dead. They get very pale.

+1

I used bottled Tiger Pods from BRK for a while to seed the tank. After I was successful with the first mandarin, I added another. I bought and added two bags of pods from reefcleaners.org about two weeks before adding the second. Both seem happy and healthy.

[NYfan78]

After doing that do the pods just keep reproducing?

[Origami]

After doing that do the pods just keep reproducing?

If they're not picked off by predators, they'll tend to reproduce. A rubble pile against a back wall or in the corner can help provide a safe place for them to reproduce while keeping larger predators out.

[jaddc]

FWIW I get my pods from pods2gocom (aka reefs2go) on ebay. They offer ~250 pods for $10 with free shipping.