Valeria July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 I will be taking down my 55 gallon tank and moving everyone to the 125 within the next couple weeks. The 55 is about 7 months and the dragonet has been there about 5 months. My greatest fear is that the dragonet will not have enough pods to eat once she is moved into the 125. I just don
dhoch July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 Can you add a feeding station for him/her? A small bottle that you can put pellets in that he/she can go in and eat... it's a great way to supliment. My scooter blenny has one and loves it... I feed Danichi (sp?) baby pellets to him (containing cyclopeeze) and he loves it. Dave
Valeria July 31, 2006 Author July 31, 2006 Can you add a feeding station for him/her? A small bottle that you can put pellets in that he/she can go in and eat... it's a great way to supliment. My scooter blenny has one and loves it... I feed Danichi (sp?) baby pellets to him (containing cyclopeeze) and he loves it. Dave Dave, Will she eat pellets? I see her about twice per week, and is never around during feeding- even when I feed live brine.
Valeria July 31, 2006 Author July 31, 2006 Won't know until you try. So how should this be set up? small (water?) bottle inside the tank with some pellets? Danichi-- where did you purchase yours? Thanks Carla
dhoch July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 Carla, The food can be purchased at BRK (at least that's the only place I know to get it). What I did was take a small vase and put it in the tank... I put pellets in when I feed the fish... I can take a pic or two tonight when I get home if it'll help. Dave
Ne0eN July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 I'd be very surprised if the mandarin would accept pellet food. Most of them won't even eat live brine shrimp. (mine is trained to accept live brine - and that all he will eat - other than what he hunts himself) Pam's mandarin will not take live brine shrimp even if it hits him in the face. Go figure. Carla, if you feel like experimenting, try spot feeding live brine shrimp to your mandarin. Keep in mind that brine shrimp does not excactly provide full nutrition unless it's selcon enriched... You need to get your fuge going ASAP. -- Rob
Guest clownfish4 July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 If you can see them on the back wall of your 55 at night, why don't you just take a container and collect as many as you can and dump them into the 125g. If you get a few in there, a couple weeks later you should have a nice population. You can also build a little rubble pile and they will accumulate in there. Another great way to harvest pods is by taking a ball of chaeto and running it under RO water...pods drop like crazy out of it.
steveoutlaw July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 Have you thought about a HOB fuge? CPR makes some that work surprisingly well.
Valeria July 31, 2006 Author July 31, 2006 Let me take a picture of my sump, maybe it can be modified to fit a fuge. Currently I have water comes in (to the fuge) from the right, skimmer picks it up, goes tough heater (now off), Chaeto pump and back to tank. I was thinking... If I move the skimmer to the pump area I can use the skimmer compartment for a fuge? I guess my question is is there a certain order that the fuge needs to be in? Does the water need to be skimmed before going through the fuge? Also if the pods go through the pump they would be killed or stuck in the propeler? Which makes the HOB sound easier. And if I have a fuge I can't have the sterilizer since the pods would be cooked in the sterilizer right?
Guest clownfish4 July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 Any fuge that is below your tank won't do a thing for your copepod population, or your mandarin. Also, I wouldn't use a UV sterilizer anyway. Adding harvested copepods is the best way to go. Then just wait a couple weeks before adding the mandarin.
steveoutlaw July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 As far as the fuge, you want to make sure that the fuge is getting raw tank water (un-skimmed). I've seen a number of sumps that have the fuge on one side, the skimmer compartment on the other, and the return pump in the middle. Then you just split your overflow and divert a small percentage to the fuge with the rest going to the skimmer compartment.
Ne0eN July 31, 2006 July 31, 2006 As far as the fuge, you want to make sure that the fuge is getting raw tank water (un-skimmed). I've seen a number of sumps that have the fuge on one side, the skimmer compartment on the other, and the return pump in the middle. Then you just split your overflow and divert a small percentage to the fuge with the rest going to the skimmer compartment. The concept is to slow down the flow through the fuge, so that the pods can reproduce and grow in numbers. The pump will stun and kill most of them, but I think a lot of them do in fact survive. (they may be disoriented for a while -- ) UV will zap the living daylights out of most of them - depending on your flow rate and how often you clean the UV lamp sleeve. -- Rob
davelin315 August 1, 2006 August 1, 2006 Any fuge that is below your tank won't do a thing for your copepod population, or your mandarin. Also, I wouldn't use a UV sterilizer anyway. Adding harvested copepods is the best way to go. Then just wait a couple weeks before adding the mandarin. I don't think that this statement is necessarily true. While it's true that a pump will shred some of the pods, you have to remember how small they really are. A good number of them will still get through to your system since there are many that you really have to struggle to see. Also, one of the problems with a gravity refugium is that not as many pods will get sucked into your display tank. Of course, more will survive, but a pump that is actively sucking them in will get more pods and your population will still keep up. As far as the sterilizer, that's up to you. It will kill the pods that go through it, but sometimes if you have UV and actively use it, consider why you were using it in the first place. There are many people that run UV on reefs with a lot of success and many that do not. As far as harvesting them, it sounds like you haven't had a lot of success with that to begin with. Perhaps the better question to ask right now is what is your predator population in the larger tank? Maybe you're not seeing pods because they are being eaten by the existing life in there.
steveoutlaw August 1, 2006 August 1, 2006 ........also, won't the fish still eat the pod parts if they get shredded by the return pump? BTW - This is the sump design I will be using: The fuge is on the right hand side and the return chamber is in the middle. My overflow will be split to go to the sump and fuge, but the fuge supply will have a ball valve on it to control flow.
HowardofNOVA August 1, 2006 August 1, 2006 Add several small piles of LR Rubble around your tank to allow time for them to multiply. Especially near your base rocks as well. Also, trying feeding at least temporary Live Brine Shrimp and Black Worms. My past Mandarans would feed on both. I guess it depends on each individuals. I actually saw them numerous times grab a floating piece of flake food as well. Monitor the size of your fish, if they start to look skinny, you might want to transfer to an established tank for at least temporary, but don't believe you will have to at this point. NOTE: FWIW, Never put a Mandaran in a tank that is less than 6 months old, 2 months was just too quick.
dzekunoi August 1, 2006 August 1, 2006 I do not think UV sterilizer will kill pods. UV light kills single celled organizms by inflicting damage to DNA. As far as pods are multi-celled organizms and covered with chitin I'm pretty sure they will survive trip through the sterilizer. What I do for my Mandarins - I transfer small rocks and cheato (in a mesh bag) into main display once a week, then exchange on next batch etc. So far so good
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