mandarin

[Dave1993]

can they be kept without a refuge in a 90 gallon my plan is buy a crap ton of pods wait like a year buy a mandarin could this work or will they just drain the pods too fast

 

[Cacopepo]

They are constantly eating the pods so without a fuge is hard to say, I had one on a 90 gallon with a 40 gallon breeder as a fuge and I was able to keep its food demand, luckily for me after 6 months or so he started eating flakes and pellets and sometime mysis, so that kept me more at ease.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

can they be kept without a refuge in a 90 gallon my plan is buy a crap ton of pods wait like a year buy a mandarin could this work or will they just drain the pods too fast

You can buy captive bred ones that eat frozen/prepared foods...

 

[wcreef21]

They are constantly eating the pods so without a fuge is hard to say, I had one on a 90 gallon with a 40 gallon breeder as a fuge and I was able to keep its food demand, luckily for me after 6 months or so he started eating flakes and pellets and sometime mysis, so that kept me more at ease.

Did you have to train it to eat flakes and pellets or did it just start doing it on its own?

 

[Cacopepo]

Did you have to train it to eat flakes and pellets or did it just start doing it on its own?

On its own, while feeding the rest he will come half way up and start to eat

 

[wcreef21]

On its own, while feeding the rest he will come half way up and start to eat

Someone recommended for me to make a DYI copepod hotel. I ended up making one and added a small light which I leave on at might so the copepods can hang out and breed in the chaeto placed inside.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

can they be kept without a refuge in a 90 gallon my plan is buy a crap ton of pods wait like a year buy a mandarin could this work or will they just drain the pods too fast

A Mature 90g with a lot of live rock, that you have seeded with pods and are dosing phyto to could support a mandy , depending on what other wrasse you have in there picking at them also. Waiting a year is good for maturity, waiting a year after seeding pods is a waste imo. You'll spend more on phyto in that year than the pods and fish.

 

[Cacopepo]

Someone recommended for me to make a DYI copepod hotel. I ended up making one and added a small light which I leave on at might so the copepods can hang out and breed in the chaeto placed inside.

There’s no harm in trying. I did have around 120 lbs of rock in the display and another 50 lbs or so in the fuge with tons of chateo and they were thriving.

 

[blaxsun]

If you can ween them onto frozen, there’s a good chance that would be enough.

 

[Dave1993]

You can buy captive bred ones that eat frozen/prepared foods...

Don't have access to captive bred ones in UK the unfortunately or atleast never seen any

 

[Reef and Dive]

They eat a LOT of pods! That said, if you have a lot of hiding places for pods in your display and the tank is running for about a year that might be enough. To assure that you can offer live artemia nauplii every 2 days.

 

[MohrReefs]

can they be kept without a refuge in a 90 gallon my plan is buy a crap ton of pods wait like a year buy a mandarin could this work or will they just drain the pods too fast

I'm convinced you need a fuge. I have a 44 gal with s 10 gal sump with chaeto loaded with amphipods and copepods and my target mandarin is fat. I also trained it to eat frozen.

Blood worms and fosh eggs were the ticket to me getting it to eat frozen then when she realized the pipe means food she would eat other stuff.

Totally doable but you will probably want the fuge, I had trouble keeping her weight on until I got that.