Pod Cartridge: Another Hair-brained Idea

[NanoCrazed]

I've been obsessed with the idea of keeping a mandarin or ruby red dragonet in a 5 gallon nano reef. Ok, I know what conventional wisdom says about less than 75G for a mandarin with oodles of live rock. But, I think I can at least solve the food problem easily and cheaply to make this work.

(Btw, not a noob on mandarin keeping. Keeping multiples in a single tank so have a back up in case this fails in my 5G -- meaning I can move the mandarin to the larger tank...not a backup mandarin, of course )

So here goes the plan:

On assumption that a mandarin or ruby red would quickly go to town and annihilate the good pod citizens of a 5 G, I wanted an easy way to replenish the pod stock without paying a fortune in pod bottles.

So, started a pod farm using some materials from one of my tanks and came up with an easy and cheap pod hotel with a few parts from the had ware store. The idea would be to have a serious of these soaking in the pod farm and then rotate in and out of the 5G and back into the pod farm (hence calling it a "catridge").

I've had a lot of success with a light pod hotel filled with chaeto but since I will be rotating out often, I skipped the chaeto and decided to use loosely packed filter floss. Don't want melting chaeto fouling up the tank. Figured the pods won't be too discriminating in this department.

A 6" PVC pipe, a cap, and a reducer on top with a 1/4 inch opening for easy feeding or replenishing with water from pod farm on occassion... and voila!

When things gunk up, I can easily remove caps and replace the floss.

 

[Gustavo Martinez]

Sounds lime a plan.... So this would be full of pods? Then you'd have more than one switching them out ?

 

[NanoCrazed]

Sounds lime a plan.... So this would be full of pods? Then you'd have more than one switching them out ?

Yep. That's the idea...

Wanted a relatively self-sustaining tank, other the water changes. The 5G sits on my desk in the office. And wanted an easy way to transfer from pod farm.

So thinking I can swap out every one or two weeks. Or more if needed...

 

[ReefBeta]

Might be easier to just train it to frozen food then pellets. Key is start with bloodworm. I had 2 Mandarins, all take it within first week. One in 40G and the other in 18G. I think the red color is the key for it to take it as food. One of the Mandarin start taking pellets a year later, and the one it take at first is ON formula one, which is red. Now it eats the green formula 2 pellets too. The hard part of the training is actually find it a place for feeding, that have no flow, and not reachable by other fish. If you're only keeping a single Mandarin in the 5G, it may be as easy as turn off the pump and feed near it. Start the first in a acclimation/breeding box so that it's few place for it to find the food may help too. Also can start mix with frozen bloodworm and live brine shrimp. They're not that hard to train for frozen food if you give it time and space.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Not to be rude my friend. But I would like to keep a horse in my tiny 20x20 back yard. I could figure out how to not let it starve but what life is that for a horse.

 

[NanoCrazed]

Not to be rude my friend. But I would like to keep a horse in my tiny 20x20 back yard. I could figure out how to not let it starve but what life is that for a horse.

Not rude at all...

So from what I could research, tank space recommendations are based on providing enough LR to host pods to feed a mandarin. It's not about swim space.

Watching my mandarins in my main tank, they seem to just hang around a very small area for the most part. So, a 5G is adequate so as long as food is aplenty.

Lots of experience with mandarins...this is just pushing the bounds of conventional wisdom a bit in hopes of furthering the hobby.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Understood. I'm 8 years in with Mandy's. MiNe are all over the tank all day long.

I personally, dont see the point of bringing an animal from the reef to try to push the limits of the hobby at the animals expense.
I belive we would have more data on at this point from actual professional aquarists and biologists it if would work.

 

[NanoCrazed]

That's fair. .. unfortunately there just aren't any fruitful research. All I could find are comments and write ups about food supply. Nothing about swim space.

Granted, if I were to put a mandarin in my 5G, it would be the only fish. I wouldn't want to make it miserable but all my mandys just hang around the same rock or two all day long...which would represent a space of well less than 5G. So thought it would be worth a venture. All else fails, back into the main tank.

 

[NanoCrazed]

That being said, I'd like to create a more thoughtful personal research into mandarin husbandry and breeding (as time and travel obligations permit)

One of my favorite SW fish

 

[ReefBeta]

Understood. I'm 8 years in with Mandy's. MiNe are all over the tank all day long.

I personally, dont see the point of bringing an animal from the reef to try to push the limits of the hobby at the animals expense.
I belive we would have more data on at this point from actual professional aquarists and biologists it if would work.

Not to be rude, but I find it hard agree on this line of thinking that "don't take fish from reef to push limits of the hobby". Firstly, all those so called "rule of thumbs", are gotten from the expense of the animals. If not pushing limits is the rule of the hobby, we're not keeping any fish besides the several hardiest species. And those "rules" are just one of the ways that found works, not the "only" way that will ever work. Without discovery the hobby will never progress. Secondly, once fish are taken from reef, you will never be able to provide a big enough space for it. So there is no point to talk about tank size if the the space requirement doesn't translate to factors that actually matter to the health of the fish. There are always bigger tanks that's better. For mandarin, it needs far less swimming space than 75G. All the argument of this as minimal size is on food source. OP is giving a reasonable solution for the problem, as well as back up plan, if that's no point, I don't see what discovery will have points. Thirdly, discovery on the hobby and fish keeping is not the solely belongs to scientists or biologists. In fact, scientists learn lots of culture experience from hobbyists. You don't need to have a degree to qualify to do research and discovery.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Not to be rude, but I find it hard agree on this line of thinking that "don't take fish from reef to push limits of the hobby". Firstly, all those so called "rule of thumbs", are gotten from the expense of the animals. If not pushing limits is the rule of the hobby, we're not keeping any fish besides the several hardiest species. And those "rules" are just one of the ways that found works, not the "only" way that will ever work. Without discovery the hobby will never progress. Secondly, once fish are taken from reef, you will never be able to provide a big enough space for it. So there is no point to talk about tank size if the the space requirement doesn't translate to factors that actually matter to the health of the fish. There are always bigger tanks that's better. For mandarin, it needs far less swimming space than 75G. All the argument of this as minimal size is on food source. OP is giving a reasonable solution for the problem, as well as back up plan, if that's no point, I don't see what discovery will have points. Thirdly, discovery on the hobby and fish keeping is not the solely belongs to scientists or biologists. In fact, scientists learn lots of culture experience from hobbyists. You don't need to have a degree to qualify to do research and discovery.

True but why not put a tang in 5 gal and see how it goes. Or get a malamute in a a studio apartment.
People view animal lives differently I suppose.

I would also suggest a bit more reading on mandarins and other fish needs in places other than the Internet to see how thier needs were described before they came into the hobby.

Rules of thumb come from some basis in science. A mandarin is hardly a hardy species.

And again. Do you really thing this is the first person to try to stick a fish in a tank that's way too small and try to keep it fed? Really?

 

[ReefBeta]

And again. Do you really thing this is the first person to try to stick a fish in a tank that's way too small and try to keep it fed? Really?

No it's not, and that's my problem. Many people successfully keep fish fed in smaller aquarium than "rule of thumb". I keep a moorish idol in my 40G, well fed as ball, despite the recommend size of it is 125G. But that doesn't matter how happy it is or how it eats like pig, I'm still doing it wrong because I'm nobody and that's violation of the rule of thumb. Well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No it's not, and that's my problem. Many people successfully keep fish fed in smaller aquarium than "rule of thumb". I keep a moorish idol in my 40G, well fed as ball, despite the recommend size of it is 125G. But that doesn't matter how happy it is or how it eats like pig, I'm still doing it wrong because I'm nobody and that's violation of the rule of thumb. Well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's not my fish. Do what you want.
I've just had a lot of dragonetts for a pretty long time.
Eating may not be heath.

 

[Saltyanimals]

In all fairness the manny debate is equivalent to the tang in a small tank debate. Different schools of thought. However remember that Nano has a main tank back at home if this little experiment doesn't go well. I imagine like any fish keeper he's watching closely the health of the manny. Especially in a work environment where you might likely be sitting in a chair 8/hrs a day with a tank in front of you to glance at. How many of us get that much tank time daily? He'll likely be able to see if the manny is getting skinnier and going to the backup plan. I commend him for trying and bringing ideas to a community. Pod "pipe bombs" lol ? innovative. Keep reporting back and updating and sharing.

 

[NanoCrazed]

In all fairness the manny debate is equivalent to the tang in a small tank debate. Different schools of thought. However remember that Nano has a main tank back at home if this little experiment doesn't go well. I imagine like any fish keeper he's watching closely the health of the manny. Especially in a work environment where you might likely be sitting in a chair 8/hrs a day with a tank in front of you to glance at. How many of us get that much tank time daily? He'll likely be able to see if the manny is getting skinnier and going to the backup plan. I commend him for trying and bringing ideas to a community. Pod "pipe bombs" lol ? innovative. Keep reporting back and updating and sharing.

I did consider calling this a "pod pipe bomb" but figured it would be a bit too controversial .

But absolutely, I stare at the tank on my desk all day so at first sign of this not working out, fish comes home with me. And, I am starting out with on of my fattest mandys to gradually ramp up on the idea. Bigger buffer and easier to monitor for noticeable changes.

 

[Trevyn]

I did consider calling this a "pod pipe bomb" but figured it would be a bit too controversial .

But absolutely, I stare at the tank on my desk all day so at first sign of this not working out, fish comes home with me. And, I am starting out with on of my fattest mandys to gradually ramp up on the idea. Bigger buffer and easier to monitor for noticeable changes.

Did it work? ik its an old post but just wondering if the pod bombs worked lol