Advice on growing chaeto

[MrsPeet15]

Hi everyone.

 

I have made adjustments to the rear chamber of my Aquaone Nano 60 so that the 5 rear chambers are now 3 bigger ones.

I intend to grow chaeto in the middle largest chamber mostly to house a big Copepod population (our long term holy grail fish is a mandarin).

My question is, will the water movement in the rear chambers be suffice to keep the chaeto happy, or would I benefit from adding a tiny pump to keep the chaeto ‘moving’ so to speak? 

Any advice or experience would be gladly accepted.

thanks 🙂

[straydog]

The flow shouldn't be a problem, cheato  just needs nutrients and proper light spectrum to grow. But if you're long term is for a mandarin have you checked out the, diy pod condos. 

[MrsPeet15]

1 hour ago, straydog said:

The flow shouldn't be a problem, cheato  just needs nutrients and proper light spectrum to grow. But if you're long term is for a mandarin have you checked out the, diy pod condos. 

I have indeed I’ve done a lot of research recently and these look really cool, however I figured it couldn’t hurt to try and get a good population going in the tank for a year first. I’m hoping to buy one that’s feeding on flake/mysis but I’ve also heard they can feed on anything in the LFS and then decide they don’t like anything but pods once in a tank?

Thanks for confirming on the flow, I read somewhere months ago a guy had problems keeping his alive when it wasn’t moving around a bit in his fuge.

[straydog]

It seems to have different growth patterns in different types of flow and light intensity.

 Check with the store and see if they carry tank raised mandarins , and see how there customers are doing with them. Ora was offering tank raised and people were doing great with there red dragonets a while ago.

[MrsPeet15]

10 minutes ago, straydog said:

It seems to have different growth patterns in different types of flow and light intensity.

 Check with the store and see if they carry tank raised mandarins , and see how there customers are doing with them. Ora was offering tank raised and people were doing great with there red dragonets a while ago.

Thanks for the advice! My LFS is so much local but very reputable and well worth the drive - I’ll ask them if they ever stock them when I pop across my CUC next week. It’ll be a while before we can get one but never hurts to put feelers out IMO

[Clown79]

I'd do a hang on refugium to produce more pods.

 

The more chaeto, more pods.

 

Mandarins eat 24/7 and even with multiple daily supplement feedings, they still will go through a lot of pods.

[banasophia]

Do a search for Steven Parker copepods on Facebook - that guy has got it going on! 

[MrsPeet15]

4 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I'd do a hang on refugium to produce more pods.

 

The more chaeto, more pods.

 

Mandarins eat 24/7 and even with multiple daily supplement feedings, they still will go through a lot of pods.

I’d love to but I don’t really have room without rearranging my entire house! I mean if the chamber idea doesn’t work I guess I could try the old bottle on the windowsill full of phyto method?

4 hours ago, banasophia said:

Do a search for Steven Parker copepods on Facebook - that guy has got it going on! 

Thanks I’ll have a look now! 

Edit - just had a look, turns out we have a mutual friend!

[banasophia]

7 hours ago, MrsPeet15 said:

I’d love to but I don’t really have room without rearranging my entire house! I mean if the chamber idea doesn’t work I guess I could try the old bottle on the windowsill full of phyto method?

Thanks I’ll have a look now! 

Edit - just had a look, turns out we have a mutual friend!

Wow, that’s nuts! Well hopefully he can give you some good tips!!!

[MrsPeet15]

9 hours ago, banasophia said:

Wow, that’s nuts! Well hopefully he can give you some good tips!!!

Yeah a guy called Paul Underwood who runs a Facebook marine group haha. Small world right? 😅