Mandarin Fish, Refugium

fishy4thomas

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Hey everyone!
So as you dont know, the mandarin dragonette is my absolute favorite fish. Im aware about the copepod keeping, but I was wondering if I absolutely needed to get a refugium. If so, how big and could I get some more details on that? This would all be for a 15th birthday present, so the cost might be more flexible.
Cant I just put the copepods from the bottle straight into the tank?
Thats it and thanks, Thomas
 

DungSl1nger

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Your options are refuge, pod hotel and bottle dump. I have a refuge and made a small pod hotel by gluing rocks together with holes that the mandarin can’t get into but will still allow some flow And a safe space. I also culture Pods to dump at night.
 

William Mumford

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Hey everyone!
So as you dont know, the mandarin dragonette is my absolute favorite fish. Im aware about the copepod keeping, but I was wondering if I absolutely needed to get a refugium. If so, how big and could I get some more details on that? This would all be for a 15th birthday present, so the cost might be more flexible.
Cant I just put the copepods from the bottle straight into the tank?
Thats it and thanks, Thomas

Do you have a tank yet to is this starting from scratch?
 
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fishy4thomas

fishy4thomas

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Your options are refuge, pod hotel and bottle dump. I have a refuge and made a small pod hotel by gluing rocks together with holes that the mandarin can’t get into but will still allow some flow And a safe space. I also culture Pods to dump at night.
And you do this in your tank? Or in a separate one?
 

William Mumford

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No I have one set up already. It has 2 clownfish, 1 emerald crab, 4 hermits and 4 trochus snails. This project would be happening during the summer (august about)

How many gallon tank? You can get more pods by culturing your own in a separate tank. little bit of work involved with culturing but awsome thing to learn (read a ton about cultures) and when you start to produce you can sell some. The reason it is good to have a sump is because it is a place the fish cant hunt the pods. So if you have somewhere that is part of your system but is safe from the fish like maybe in the back of an all in one system that would be better than right into the display tank . Pods are as much fun for the fish as they are nutritious. Sumps almost always provide a safe place for them to reproduce and then seed the tank regularly by getting pushed through the pumps into the display. In a separate culture you will have a huge population HUGE because nothing is eating them provided you give them the right environment not hard just have to read about culturing to be familiar with what you are trying to do.
 

DungSl1nger

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And you do this in your tank? Or in a separate one?


I culture in a separate system. I started with a DIY culture system. Then bought something more visually appealing and easier to clean. Pods need to be fed so I culture Phyto too. Buying pods And phyto gets really expensive and even though I seeded the tank before putting her in there, I still bought pods to support the tank until I had a sustainable well growing culture.
 
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fishy4thomas

fishy4thomas

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I culture in a separate system. I started with a DIY culture system. Then bought something more visually appealing and easier to clean. Pods need to be fed so I culture Phyto too. Buying pods And phyto gets really expensive and even though I seeded the tank before putting her in there, I still bought pods to support the tank until I had a sustainable well growing culture.
Interesting
 

Sleeping Giant

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Just dump them in, try to use a Turkey baster and place some at the base of rocks..if not all of them.
I did this, took about a month, not my tank is crawling, I've never been so happy to see bugs, lol
 

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Hey everyone!
So as you dont know, the mandarin dragonette is my absolute favorite fish. Im aware about the copepod keeping, but I was wondering if I absolutely needed to get a refugium. If so, how big and could I get some more details on that? This would all be for a 15th birthday present, so the cost might be more flexible.
Cant I just put the copepods from the bottle straight into the tank?
Thats it and thanks, Thomas
One of my favorite fish as well and one i want to eventually get so thank you for this post. very educational already!
 

Bpfor3

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interesting topic. i have a 20 gallon refugium connected to my 150 display. tank about a year old. i don't think a mandarin would fair well in my display due to aggressive pod eaters already (Melanarus wrasse, six line wrasse and long nose hawk), but always thought about keeping on in the fuge. its got a bunch of rubble rock and pods and macro algae in it, but i think the mandarin would eat them all pretty easily. anyone with thoughts on that idea.
 

William Mumford

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interesting topic. i have a 20 gallon refugium connected to my 150 display. tank about a year old. i don't think a mandarin would fair well in my display due to aggressive pod eaters already (Melanarus wrasse, six line wrasse and long nose hawk), but always thought about keeping on in the fuge. its got a bunch of rubble rock and pods and macro algae in it, but i think the mandarin would eat them all pretty easily. anyone with thoughts on that idea.

I know people that send them to the fuge to fatten them for a bit and then switch them back to the display. It works for both the pods and the fish.
 

DungSl1nger

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interesting topic. i have a 20 gallon refugium connected to my 150 display. tank about a year old. i don't think a mandarin would fair well in my display due to aggressive pod eaters already (Melanarus wrasse, six line wrasse and long nose hawk), but always thought about keeping on in the fuge. its got a bunch of rubble rock and pods and macro algae in it, but i think the mandarin would eat them all pretty easily. anyone with thoughts on that idea.

Some people believe that mandarins eat about 1000 pods a day. That is about one Algebarn 5280 pods container every six days. If you had a decent pod hotel and It well seeded it may work. May still require reseeding every once in a while.
 

boacvh

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I trained mine to eat frozen following great directions on a few threads here. I also culture pods using the Poseidon system and feed them baby brine using PaulB's feeder. They are fat!
 
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fishy4thomas

fishy4thomas

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Just dump them in, try to use a Turkey baster and place some at the base of rocks..if not all of them.
I did this, took about a month, not my tank is crawling, I've never been so happy to see bugs, lol
This seems like the simplest, cheapest and smartest idea. Ill most likely do that. But I also need bottled phytoplantkon to feed them right?
 

Uncle99

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A 40g or larger with lots of 6 month mature rock and no other exclusive POD eaters, can support 1 wild caught mandarin forever. Couple of initial seeds is very helpful.
8F1EC9AB-FEF9-43DF-88A3-AE5CF7F1EDA2.jpeg
 
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fishy4thomas

fishy4thomas

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A 40g or larger with lots of 6 month mature rock and no other exclusive POD eaters, can support 1 wild caught mandarin forever. Couple of initial seeds is very helpful.
8F1EC9AB-FEF9-43DF-88A3-AE5CF7F1EDA2.jpeg
He or she looks beautiful! Yeah once i go to buy the pods im gonna get some more live rock so i can build an enclosed pod hotel and give the mandarin more rock to hunt on. But im totally torn between getting a spotted mandarin or green mandarin
 

Jose Berry

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He or she looks beautiful! Yeah once i go to buy the pods im gonna get some more live rock so i can build an enclosed pod hotel and give the mandarin more rock to hunt on. But im totally torn between getting a spotted mandarin or green mandarin
0A2C6C57-F6FF-47E4-B9E1-C637773F4A01.jpeg

I have a 225g tank that’s been up for a little over a year, I have a male and female. I’ll be honest here I’ve never bought pods...I seeded the tank on start up and I let them over populate before I added them to the tank. Also I don’t have a refugium. They are healthy and are always swimming around and pods are always still thriving.
 
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