Mandarin in nano?

[00pflint]

I know this question has more or less been discussed a variety of times but it didn't seem to quite answer my question about specifics of culturing copepods. I have a 20 gallon with 20lbs of live rock a deep sandbed and plans to add copepod hotels. From what I've read you at a minimum (if even this) need 50 lbs of live rock to potentially not need to dose additional copepods. I'm culturing phytoplankton and copepods for about a month or 2 and it seems successful albeit it's not as sophisticated as other methods I've read with a refugium in sump with rocks and macroalgae that people recommend, I don't really have the space for that system. I culture phytoplankton in a pretty usual way that seems to work well for me but my copepod cultures are just in Mason jars. The populations seem to be thriving, but I was wondering if I have enough of these mason jar cultures could I feasibly keep a mandarin alive? Is it more or less plainly a no go for my tank? If it's possible would dumping one a day and restarting that culture on a rotation of 7 or 8 jars potentially sustain a mandarin? Is there any other way I can approach this to sustain enough of a culture to feed it? What are those other options? Just to be clear I'm leaning towards not getting one as I don't want to starve it but like many other people they are so stunning that I feel like I can't not entertain the possibility. I've heard of training it to eat other foods with limited success so I would of course attempt to do that but I don't want to rely on that

 

[Macropharyngodon]

I know this question has more or less been discussed a variety of times but it didn't seem to quite answer my question about specifics of culturing copepods. I have a 20 gallon with 20lbs of live rock a deep sandbed and plans to add copepod hotels. From what I've read you at a minimum (if even this) need 50 lbs of live rock to potentially not need to dose additional copepods. I'm culturing phytoplankton and copepods for about a month or 2 and it seems successful albeit it's not as sophisticated as other methods I've read with a refugium in sump with rocks and macroalgae that people recommend, I don't really have the space for that system. I culture phytoplankton in a pretty usual way that seems to work well for me but my copepod cultures are just in Mason jars. The populations seem to be thriving, but I was wondering if I have enough of these mason jar cultures could I feasibly keep a mandarin alive? Is it more or less plainly a no go for my tank? If it's possible would dumping one a day and restarting that culture on a rotation of 7 or 8 jars potentially sustain a mandarin? Is there any other way I can approach this to sustain enough of a culture to feed it? What are those other options? Just to be clear I'm leaning towards not getting one as I don't want to starve it but like many other people they are so stunning that I feel like I can't not entertain the possibility. I've heard of training it to eat other foods with limited success so I would of course attempt to do that but I don't want to rely on that

I have seen some people culture and breed pods in larger tanks, and then move them to the display for the dragonet to eat. Maybe that could work? (That was one anecdote though, so I would recommend getting some more insight.)

 

[ReggieStarks]

I have a blue mandarin in my 13.5 Fluval Evo.

Check out biota.com, for mandarins that are tank bred and should be eating pellets.

I ordered all the fry pellets, but he's picking at my daily frozen cubes (includes baby brine shrimp, copepods, etc.), which I DO try and target feed in his area.

They are tiny, but he seems to be doing great, and has already grown a little.

If you have a LFS that sells pods and are willing to go every so often, maybe that could work (this will get expensive)?

I think it is going to be tough to cultivate a permanent pod population to sustain a mandarin who only eats pods, but I could be wrong.

 

[00pflint]

How often do you feed him? I currently do 2 times a day and am not sure if that's often enough

 

[viceversabrd]

I have a wild caught mandarin in a 34 gallon cube. I kind of ignored the wisdom on here and put him in while the tank was relatively new. But, I do culture copepods two separate 5 gallon tanks. I was culturing phytoplankton for the pods as well but the phytoplankton was kind of annoying so switched to feeding the pod cultures spirulina and reef roids. I also feed live baby brine shrimp to the display tank everyday. The mandarin seems to love these and I think that, that's what kept him healthy and growing the most and honestly think he could subsist on the live baby brine shrimp alone but ill keep culturing the pods since its easy.

 

[00pflint]

I have a wild caught mandarin in a 34 gallon cube. I kind of ignored the wisdom on here and put him in while the tank was relatively new. But, I do culture copepods two separate 5 gallon tanks. I was culturing phytoplankton for the pods as well but the phytoplankton was kind of annoying so switched to feeding the pod cultures spirulina and reef roids. I also feed live baby brine shrimp to the display tank everyday. The mandarin seems to love these and I think that, that's what kept him healthy and growing the most and honestly think he could subsist on the live baby brine shrimp alone but ill keep culturing the pods since its easy.

How often do you add live bring shrimp? And do they get eaten quickly or do they longer throughout the day?

 

[00pflint]

I have a blue mandarin in my 13.5 Fluval Evo.

Check out biota.com, for mandarins that are tank bred and should be eating pellets.

I ordered all the fry pellets, but he's picking at my daily frozen cubes (includes baby brine shrimp, copepods, etc.), which I DO try and target feed in his area.

They are tiny, but he seems to be doing great, and has already grown a little.

If you have a LFS that sells pods and are willing to go every so often, maybe that could work (this will get expensive)?

I think it is going to be tough to cultivate a permanent pod population to sustain a mandarin who only eats pods, but I could be wrong.

How often do you target feed him a day?

 

[viceversabrd]

Yeah so my schedule is to turkey baste a bunch of the live BBS (baby brine shrimp) into his area everyday around 5pm everyday. The whole tank eats the BBS as they quickly flood/spread around the tank. I can see all the fish including the mandarin eating them for about an hour after I baste them in. However, I feel like the mandarin then hunts the stragglers until lights out at 9pm as it seems like he's kind of chilling when I get home from work at 5 and thens he's zooming around the tank post BBS feeding for the rest of the night. I believe the BBS can stay alive in the tank for quite awhile so this checks out. I arrived at this method because this was the only way to feed him during QT as I Qted him in a sterile tank for 30 days. I was originally just dosing pods into the QT tank but $ wise that wasn't feasible so switched to flooding the QT with BBS and he loved them. In the display I was going to try a Paul B style mandarin feeder that you load with the BBS but didn't really like the look of having it in my tank and just seemed easier to flood the display tank with BBS haha. Downside is Im hatching new BBS every 48 hours as they're really only nutritious for the first 36 hours of their life. I can show you the method I use if you're interested its super primitive but works for me.

 

[viceversabrd]

I will say if I could go back though I may try to get a Biota mandarin just makes sense as this wild caught mandarin literally hated my guts for the first 6 months I had him he's a bit better now but I'm jealous of some of the videos I see if the biota mandarins not really caring if people are around, as mine would literally dart for cover whenever I entered the room the tank was in for months and months. Also, would be nice to feed him pellets or mysis every once in a while as I do constantly have to know where you are in the BBS culture cycle I am, remembering to feed the pods remembering when I last harvested the pods, water changed the pod culture etc etc

 

[00pflint]

Yeah so my schedule is to turkey baste a bunch of the live BBS (baby brine shrimp) into his area everyday around 5pm everyday. The whole tank eats the BBS as they quickly flood/spread around the tank. I can see all the fish including the mandarin eating them for about an hour after I baste them in. However, I feel like the mandarin then hunts the stragglers until lights out at 9pm as it seems like he's kind of chilling when I get home from work at 5 and thens he's zooming around the tank post BBS feeding for the rest of the night. I believe the BBS can stay alive in the tank for quite awhile so this checks out. I arrived at this method because this was the only way to feed him during QT as I Qted him in a sterile tank for 30 days. I was originally just dosing pods into the QT tank but $ wise that wasn't feasible so switched to flooding the QT with BBS and he loved them. In the display I was going to try a Paul B style mandarin feeder that you load with the BBS but didn't really like the look of having it in my tank and just seemed easier to flood the display tank with BBS haha. Downside is Im hatching new BBS every 48 hours as they're really only nutritious for the first 36 hours of their life. I can show you the method I use if you're interested its super primitive but works for me.

I'm curious about your method of breeding them, the more primitive the better for me lmaoo. I'll look into biota mandarins

 

[X-37B]

I use this when I want to feed brine. Simple and easy to use.

 

[viceversabrd]

I use this when I want to feed brine. Simple and easy to use.

See I wanted to get one of those but all my unhatched eggs and hatched egg shells settle to the bottom rather than float to the top so Im not sure how I would use it

 

[X-37B]

See I wanted to get one of those but all my unhatched eggs and hatched egg shells settle to the bottom rather than float to the top so Im not sure how I would use it

Start at 1 teaspoon of brine not tablespoon like they recommend.
3tsp in a tablespoon.
This works well. Light at bottom
I have only ran the brine shrimp salt.