Mandarins

[mandarindragonets]

Hey, I just got into the reef hobby about 9 months ago. I think the thing that drew me to it the most was the beauty of the mandarin dragonet!!:eek1: Mine was the first fish I bought, although the LFS I got him from was not too informative. They failed to mention how difficult a mandarin is to keep. Today he died. :( I have a 32 gallon cube tank with 30 lbs. of Live sand and about 45 lbs. of Fiji and tonga Live rock. It has been set up for about 9 mos. as I stated. I noticed about 3 months ago that he has been getting pretty thin. So I supplemented his diet with live brine. Well this seemed to work for a while but now he is dead and I am broken hearted:( :( So I guess my question is this. How can I jumpstart my reef with more of the cocapods and amiphods and such that my mandarin loved so much? and any thoughts and or tipps on keeping mandarins would be especially helpfull!!

[alkataz]

You should add a refugium to your setup. This will allow the pods to multiply undesturbed. Lots of lr is good but if the pods are constantly being preyed upon they can't reproduce fast enough to keep up with the demand being put on them.

If u don't want to add a fuge u might want to create a rubble pile inside your tank were the pods can breed. This is normally a pile of small rock chips and such where the pods can hide and multiply. The pile will need to maintained though to make sure that it stays intact so that it can continue to do its job.

[hammerhead]

You can also add some micro algea to the main tank just make sure you dont get the kind that goes sexual on ya. I use kelp on rock. It looks like grape algea but it's not. Its red with liitle balls on it.This will give all you pods a place to hide and also keep your nitrates under controll.

[Bolo]

Sorry for your loss, mandarins are the best! I have had no trouble in my tank with the supply of 'pods for my green mandarin. He's as healthy as anything in a tank can be :)

However I just ordered a amphipod breeding kit from Indo Pacific Sea Farms ( www.ipsf.com ) to seed another tank and a refugium to ensure a steady supply. Take a look there, very good people to deal with!

[mandarindragonets]

I just brought some red calurpa (i think) home, it looks kinda like red lettuce, is this the kind of macro algae that would be helpfull?

[hammerhead]

This is the stuff I have.


http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=26&pCatId=662

[dgin]

For the tank size you have, the only way you will be able to keep the mandarin healthy and fat is to add a good size refugium that will allow enough pods to breed and keep up with your mandarin's appetite.

Pod piles in the main tank will help as well.

Alternatively or in addition to the fuge, if you are lucky enough to get a mandarin that eats something like mysis shrimp that would definitely help.

Brine shrimp in itself really doesn't have much nutritional value (some equate it to us eating popcorn - filler basically), I add some zoecon to mine to enrich it a bit before feeding.

[mandarindragonets]

O.k. I didn't really want to add a refugium to my tank, but it seems a necessity to house a mandarin....sigh. But I do not know much about them, how would I set one up? What kind of lighting does it need? How big should it be???

[DaveJohnson]

Originally posted by mandarindragonets
O.k. I didn't really want to add a refugium to my tank, but it seems a necessity to house a mandarin....sigh. But I do not know much about them, how would I set one up? What kind of lighting does it need? How big should it be???
Here's some good info that will answer some of the above:
http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html

Cheers,
Dave Johnson

[pjmoore]

I am not an expert, I have not installed a sump or refugium yet, but I am doing research since I am planning to. If the point of the refugium is to cultivate macro algae for nutrient export, the setup described in that link will work. However, if you wish to provide copepods as a food source, I am not sure that is the best approach. The pods are not likely to survive the trip through the return pump. I think most people recommend a refugium above the main tank with a gravity drain for the purpose of sustaining an active pod population.

That is also the first time I have seen any reference to cycling the return pump. I wouldn't want to mess with trying that, everything I have read has discussed sizing the overflow box/drains and return pump so that they are of equal capacity. That way the pump can be operated continuously.

[rsk20695]

my pods and rots survive the trip from my refugium, which is below my tank, and through my inline pump's impeller. I have a bunch of fish that feed on them constantly.

[alkataz]

I must agree I have two mandarins with the fuge located under the stand next to the sump and I see live pods come through all the time. I do believe that it may be true that some die on the way, but whether the number that die is significant is up for debate.

[Scuba_Dave]

With a small tank like that you need a refugium. Deep sand bed, should be gravity fed to main tank, and a small pump to return water to tank. You will need a 30g or larger refigium - the more sand are (longer) the better.
I will be setting up a 180g, and will have a 55g refugium gravity feeding to the 180g. Once tank is setup for about a year (and I see a good supply of pods in borth tanks, then I'll think about getting a mandarin.
Low volume pump to refuge, above tanks means less pod death. They will make it thru pump, but some will die. Garvity feed is best.
Plus a refugium can be cool to watch also. Mine will have a pair of GB clowns, BTA, shrooms, rics, zoos, and server as a partial frag tank.

[lllosingit]

The pods will survive going thru the pump unharmed and I have proof.
I bought a couple black mollies to add to the main tank and within days the female had released her fry and they were in every part of my 3 tank system including the skimmer the sump and the fuge.
The fry were more than 1/4" long and to get to the fuge they had to go thru a little giant external pump and to get to inside the skimmer they had to go thru a Iwasaki pump and they were all alive and well with no torn fins.
If mollie fry can make the trip without harm then I'm positive the pods will make it.