Number of copepods for a 36 gallon bow with a blue mandarin?

[Fresh2Salt95]

I have a 36 gallon bowfront tank and I have a male blue mandarin dragonet.

I ordered Ecopods from AlgaeBarn and they say it comes with over 7000 pods. They've been in the tank for about 4 days and I've been adding Seachem phytoplankton for them to eat.

Is this enough for one mandarin in this 36 gallon, or do I need to invest in more? I really want to have a reproducing population so I don't need to constantly purchase pods.

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

How big is your sump and Refugium? If you don’t have the same volume of water in safe space it will be a challenge to keep him fed. If he will accept mysis shrimp you should be ok, but I’d suggest an aquacultured one from ORA that has been raised on prepared food!

 

[Dorn and Victoria]

I’m trying to raise a batch weekly using a phyto/copapod system. My second harvest yesterday yielded a ton of them....

 

[Fresh2Salt95]

How big is your sump and Refugium? If you don’t have the same volume of water in safe space it will be a challenge to keep him fed. If he will accept mysis shrimp you should be ok, but I’d suggest an aquacultured one from ORA that has been raised on prepared food!

I don't actually have a sump or refugium, the room the tank is in is tight on space so I couldn't install one.

I've been feeding mysis shrimp every day to every other day but I can't tell if he's eating it.

I know sometimes it looks like he'll peck at leftover food, but it doesn't actually look like he's eating it.

I've read that copepods will eventually populate a HOB filter, which I have.

I'm just trying to figure out how many I need to buy to get them to start reproducing sustainably.

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

If I recall it’s a lot! Like with seahorse or pipefish around 10k a day so if you can’t see him eating mysis he probably isn’t. Culturing your own is probably your best option for long term success at this point!

 

[Fresh2Salt95]

I finally caught my mandarin appearing to eat mysis shrimp.

He took it in his mouth and spit it out, but then appeared to go looking for more.

I've seen other fish in the tank do this and they always end up eating the mysis shrimp, so I've got fingers crossed.

I ordered another jar of ecopods as well as some nano brine from AlgaeBarn.