Copepod farm in refugium??

[Reefer_Madness]

Aside from having a 43 year old tank like Paul, has anyone had success with the copepod/mandarin balance in their tank without feeding with bags of copepods?  I had a mandarin about 10 years ago.  This was before the internet told me they were a bad choice.  This was before I even knew what a copepod was.  I had him for about 3 years before he died during a cross country move, not from starvation.  He didn't have the internet either, so he didn't know any better and ate frozen food.  I would love to get another mandarin, but now I talked myself out of it from reading too much on forums.  I did see a pretty cool "copepod farm" that someone made. It made me have a crazy thought.  What if I made this "copepod farm" and put it in my refugium?  I could be over simplifying this, but it seems like if I took out all of the filters between the farm the return pump they would just be pumped up into the tank.  I may need to shake the farm every once in a while to get copepods loose.  If I wanted to get technical, I could plumb it or install a powerhead to blast water through the corrugated holes once a week to push copepods into the current and back to the tank.  I've never grown them on purpose, so I am not sure the plan above would work.

 

Thoughts anybody?

[YHSublime]

My thoughts are just wait until your aquarium has been established for at least a year before getting a mandarin. Maybe longer. But nobody wants to hear that!

[Reefer_Madness]

From what I am reading, having enough copepods is always a problem even in an establish tank. Is that not the case?

Edited January 28, 2015 by Reefer_Madness

[TrueTricia]

From what I am reading, having enough copepods is always a problem even in an establish tank. Is that not the case?

Some people have no problems with copepods.

[John Ford]

I noticed a decline in pods once i added a sixline. I would like to add one but i wont just because of that

[Reefer_Madness]

I'm not really concerned about the timing. I sit and watch rocks grow for Pete's sake. I have lots of patience. It's more about having a food source that is sustainable for a mandarin. It's interesting actually......to me

 

Balancing the ecosystem....

 

 

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Edited January 29, 2015 by Reefer_Madness

[Reefer_Madness]

Some people have no problems with copepods.

Huh.......sounds like I may be worrying about something that I don't need to worry about.

 

 

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[Squishie89]

I do not have a refugium and I keep enough pods for 1 mandarin and 1 pipefish (actually used to have 2). I do not dose pods regularly. You mostly just need to a dump a bag/bottle or 2, have no copepod predators, and let them populate (then you can add the predators). I check my population by how many are on the glass, if it wanes, I may try and feed some phyto/marine snow or I will buy more. There is also the route of culturing your own (I tried before, didn't work, may try again at some point).

[Reefer_Madness]

I do not have a refugium and I keep enough pods for 1 mandarin and 1 pipefish (actually used to have 2). I do not dose pods regularly. You mostly just need to a dump a bag/bottle or 2, have no copepod predators, and let them populate (then you can add the predators). I check my population by how many are on the glass, if it wanes, I may try and feed some phyto/marine snow or I will buy more. There is also the route of culturing your own (I tried before, didn't work, may try again at some point).

How many gallons is your tank? Do you have a lot of LR?

 

Keeping the predators down would be important. Sounds like the six-line wrasse eats them. I'll need to figure out what else does. I assume most omnivores and carnivores CAN eat them, but I need to see which fish depend on copepods in their primary diet.

[Squishie89]

How many gallons is your tank? Do you have a lot of LR?

 

Keeping the predators down would be important. Sounds like the six-line wrasse eats them. I'll need to figure out what else does. I assume most omnivores and carnivores CAN eat them, but I need to see which fish depend on copepods in their primary diet.

90g tank. ~75lbs of rock, and a giant piece of fake (resin/plastic) reef.

 

A good thing to do if you do buy a bag/bottle of pods is add it late at night, when everything is dark. If you add during the day even fish who don't search for pods like clownfish will eat them.

[gmerek2]

Pods don't live after getting pumped through a pump but that doesn't mean they won't eat a dead pod. They do wipe out a population and pods are beneficial to the mandarin and your tank. It will help to supplement with live brine and blackworms so make sure the LFS carries them

 

 

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[L8 2 RISE]

IMHO people think way too hard about mandarins... 

 

Let your tank establish itself with LIVE rock for at least a year or two, then add a healthy mandarin.  It will do fine.

 

IME ~30 lbs of porous LR is the minimum per mandarin.  If the rock you added was live, and you can look at night and see amphipods/copepods, then just let it be for around a year, then add your mandarin.  

 

It wouldn't hurt to add some live copepods every once in a while, but not necessary at all.

[scott711]

swap macro algae with someone else and that usually can beef up your pod population.

[Sharkey18]

I have almost no visible pods in my tank and my mandarin does fine. I have way too many pod predators to maintain a decent population.  I do feed live baby brine shrimp 3 or 4 times a month and all the fish really love it. 

[paul b]

 

Aside from having a 43 year old tank like Paul,

I never get to have any fun

[Reefer_Madness]

After reading all of the forums about mandarin deaths and such, I just assumed the mandarin I had years ago was an anomaly....just a lucky pick.  I never had problems with him.  It was a 65g with about 60 or so lbs of LR.  I had the tank for about 3 years or so before I introduced him.  That was back in 2002 or 03, so mandarins were rare in my area.  When I got him I had no idea what he ate, but he always seemed to be happy and well fed.  Thanks for all the feedback.  That is good news.  I always liked my mandarin.  Lots of personality. 

 

I'm just going to wait a while until my new reef is going well and try it again. 

 

Thanks again everyone. 

[Reefer_Madness]

Misinformation is actually one of the reasons I like to post questions on WAMAS.  I find answers to my questions all over the internet, but the answers are all over the map.  A lot of that information is just made up and it is hard to decipher what is good advice what is BS.  WAMAS members seem to have a little more ownership of the information they post. 

 

Thanks again everyone!