Mandarin Rescue Attempt

[twentyleagues]

How do you keep the pod population up? I've never had good success, I used to breed and feed every other week, but my mandarins always kicked the bucket

Large tank, large refugium. While a large system with the standard set up will work a refugium that drains into the display would work best. Before I left the hobby I had mandarin, scooter blennies and wrasses in my two reef tanks that were on the same sump system. I had a large display fuge 75g and an overhead fuge on both display tanks. The fuges were absolutely crawling with pods but you would never see any on the glass of the displays. All the obligate pod eaters were fat and happy though.

 

[Hallowhead]

Large tank, large refugium. While a large system with the standard set up will work a refugium that drains into the display would work best. Before I left the hobby I had mandarin, scooter blennies and wrasses in my two reef tanks that were on the same sump system. I had a large display fuge 75g and an overhead fuge on both display tanks. The fuges were absolutely crawling with pods but you would never see any on the glass of the displays. All the obligate pod eaters were fat and happy though.

My sump has a fuge setup and has pods littered throughout however, it pumps up to the display so the pods never really make there way into the display.

I constantly add more cultures to the display but just never seems to be enough

 

[litsoh]

My sump has a fuge setup and has pods littered throughout however, it pumps up to the display so the pods never really make there way into the display.

I constantly add more cultures to the display but just never seems to be enough

Maybe add some pod hotels or rubble piles to the display so that they can have a foothold of sorts

 

[twentyleagues]

My sump has a fuge setup and has pods littered throughout however, it pumps up to the display so the pods never really make there way into the display.

I constantly add more cultures to the display but just never seems to be enough

They do, just not in the numbers that will make the difference in life or death of an obligate predator. Which is why I said the fuge needs to drain into the display. Why leave somewhere that has everything you need if you have to go through a "gauntlet" to get there. With the overhead fuge the water flow will naturally allow more to traverse between fuge and display without barriers and pumps to deter.

 

[twentyleagues]

I added the overhead fuges after talking to someone that had become a friend that was a marine biologist whos area of study was sea horses and pipe fish. I added these in 2004 and had great luck for the next 8 years with these fish. My leopard wrasses were fat and happy, as were my 6 scooters and mandarins. I also tried culturing pods and phyto it was a lot more work then I had time for, but that would be another route to success. You dont need to do this it just helped and allowed me to have the fish I wanted. I know one mandarin was fine in my system before the overheads. Once I added more pod predators I needed to make changes and this worked.

 

[homer1475]

How do you keep the pod population up? I've never had good success, I used to breed and feed every other week, but my mandarins always kicked the bucket

Feed LIVE phytoplankton.

You have to feed the pods in order for them to reproduce in any large numbers.

 

[Hallowhead]

Feed LIVE phytoplankton.

You have to feed the pods in order for them to reproduce in any large numbers.

But they eat algae and such too, no?

 

[twentyleagues]

But they eat algae and such too, no?

Seems like I had good luck keeping populations going with feeding algae based fish foods. I have always dosed phyto in my tanks as well but not regularly. If you drop an algae wafer in a container with pods they go right to work on it.

 

[litsoh]

Not too much of an update, but no news is good news. That front dorsal is a lot more noticeable now as well

 

[litsoh]

One week in and he's doing fine, there's a clam shell in the acclimation box that I drop pellets into for him to eat/to attract pods during feedings and he uses it like a feeding dish. Belly is looking fine and he hunts throughout the box all day.

I'm still unsure on whether or not I should let him out of the box into the system just yet though, he's still so small and my clowns are going through a nasty streak right now. They may bully him a little bit before they realize he's not to be messed with and I don't wanna cause that stress.

 

[twentyleagues]

One week in and he's doing fine, there's a clam shell in the acclimation box that I drop pellets into for him to eat/to attract pods during feedings and he uses it like a feeding dish. Belly is looking fine and he hunts throughout the box all day.

I'm still unsure on whether or not I should let him out of the box into the system just yet though, he's still so small and my clowns are going through a nasty streak right now. They may bully him a little bit before they realize he's not to be messed with and I don't wanna cause that stress.

do any of the other fish see him currently? if they can do the mess with him through the acclimation box?

 

[litsoh]

do any of the other fish see him currently? if they can do the mess with him through the acclimation box?

He's on the opposite side of the tank to where the clowns planted their flag, so they don't see him much. Everyone comes to the middle during feeding though so they may be aware of his presence? The viewing angle is a little tough though, the acclimation box is just below the water level. My Threadfin and the Banggais have definitely seen him though, possibly the McCoskers too

 

[twentyleagues]

He's on the opposite side of the tank to where the clowns planted their flag, so they don't see him much. Everyone comes to the middle during feeding though so they may be aware of his presence? The viewing angle is a little tough though, the acclimation box is just below the water level. My Threadfin and the Banggais have definitely seen him though, possibly the McCoskers too

Have you seen any aggression toward him? The clowns may be an issue if hes hunting in their area but I doubt they will pursue him far.

 

[litsoh]

Have you seen any aggression toward him? The clowns may be an issue if hes hunting in their area but I doubt they will pursue him far.

No aggression towards him so far. But that's just in regards to everything else but the clowns.

 

[twentyleagues]

No aggression towards him so far. But that's just in regards to everything else but the clowns.

When you release him I would do it at night. I might try moving the acclimation box to a slightly more populated area and see if there is any aggression to him. Most fish wont bother mandarins unless they share the same areas or food source.

 

[litsoh]

When you release him I would do it at night. I might try moving the acclimation box to a slightly more populated area and see if there is any aggression to him. Most fish wont bother mandarins unless they share the same areas or food source.

I'll try to move the box over towards their area later on tonight

 

[litsoh]

He’s definitely looking a lot more plump now and the bone along its side is much less noticeable now. It’s also been a lot easier getting him to feed on some pellets so long as they drop in front of him. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to try my luck with mysis yet since the current packs I have are sized a little too big but he’s more than content enough grazing off of the pods.

 

[OrionN]

Update now that he is a month in your tank please.

 

[litsoh]

Update now that he is a month in your tank please.

Unfortunately the little guy passed while I was away on vacation. My tank came down with ich right before I was leaving so I scrambled to get it to hypo in order to attempt to treat it. I'm not sure if it was either the stress from hypo or some other factor that did him in, but prior to that I would like to say that he was thriving in the tank. I released him into the main tank shortly after that last update and he had no trouble grazing on the pods within the rockwork.