Breeder box for copepods

[Arys]

Hey,

 

I was just looking for opinions on whether a small breeder box inside my tank, filled with rock rubble, would serve as a sort of breeding grounds for copepods and copepods only.

 

My plan is to eventually get a captive-bred mandarin, and I already see copepods all along the glass. Additionally, there’s a small rock rubble pile in the corner (it seems to be filled with amphipods,) but I feel like the amphipod population will just keep eating the copepods. The question is, if I set up a breeder box at the top of my tank, where amphipods wouldn’t go near, and pour a bottle of copepods in there, would they sustain a population for a mandarin? The tank is a 30” L x 12” W x 18” H, 29 gallon.

[Snow_Phoenix]

20 minutes ago, Arys said:

...would they sustain a population for a mandarin?

Short-term yes, long-term no.

 

Best to wean your mandarin onto frozen, and you'll have to dose the tank fairly regularly with pods for it to have continuous access to live food. Might want to consider setting up a proper refugium, and scaping the tank according to the needs of the fish (adding a lot of macro in the DT, for example), and also not include any pod-eaters like wrasses in your stocking list. (Technically, all fish have a tendency to eat pods, but wrasses more so than any others). 

[Clown79]

For a mandarin, you'll need a refugium where they can reproduce regularly and safe from predators.

 

Mandarins eat 24/7, so you will need to add pods regularly and train the fish to eat prepared foods multiple times a day.

 

Mandarins are a fish that need a lot of extra work.

[Arys]

21 hours ago, Clown79 said:

For a mandarin, you'll need a refugium where they can reproduce regularly and safe from predators.

 

Mandarins eat 24/7, so you will need to add pods regularly and train the fish to eat prepared foods multiple times a day.

 

Mandarins are a fish that need a lot of extra work.

Would something like this work in supplying pods in the long run?

 

 

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, Arys said:

Would something like this work in supplying pods in the long run?

 

 

 

No, it's not large enough. You can buy a captive bred mandarin and then feed it several times a day. 

 

Could also add a large fuge/sump, say 20-30g filled with macro.

 

Also could heavily plant the tank with macro/run it dirty. 

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, Arys said:

Would something like this work in supplying pods in the long run?

 

 

No, you need a refugium thats much larger than that.

[Arys]

On 5/4/2021 at 4:23 PM, Clown79 said:

No, you need a refugium thats much larger than that.

Would a Fluval HOB breeder box filled with rubble/chaeto be sufficient?

[DaJMasta]

More volume is good, but it is still certainly small for fully supplying a fish's nutritional needs.

That said, if you are buying captive bred, don't they all eat prepared foods?  If you pick up from an LFS you can get them to feed a little bit to see, but if you can feed it daily (or twice a day) with some frozen or dried zooplankton or similar, you should be able to take care of its nutritional requirements with a lot fewer pods (though it will still eat the ones it finds and if you want to maintain much of any population, you will need a space for them to breed where it can't go).

Take a look around at some of the threads with people keeping mandarins in nanos and see what the ones using captive bred or ones trained to eat prepared foods use for a feeding schedule and what other sorts of spaces they have in their tank.  The baseline recommendation I see is something like a 70 or 80 gallon well established tank, but in that case there are basically enough pods and enough pod growth to support them nutritionally with no extra direct input, so if you can get one that is eating prepared foods regularly, that size requirement can come down quite a bit.

Basically, if you have a plan and you are committed to regular feedings (with a fish that will take them), you can definitely make it work, but some of the specifics may require consistent feedings, so make sure you can commit to that.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, DaJMasta said:

More volume is good, but it is still certainly small for fully supplying a fish's nutritional needs.

That said, if you are buying captive bred, don't they all eat prepared foods?  If you pick up from an LFS you can get them to feed a little bit to see, but if you can feed it daily (or twice a day) with some frozen or dried zooplankton or similar, you should be able to take care of its nutritional requirements with a lot fewer pods (though it will still eat the ones it finds and if you want to maintain much of any population, you will need a space for them to breed where it can't go).

Take a look around at some of the threads with people keeping mandarins in nanos and see what the ones using captive bred or ones trained to eat prepared foods use for a feeding schedule and what other sorts of spaces they have in their tank.  The baseline recommendation I see is something like a 70 or 80 gallon well established tank, but in that case there are basically enough pods and enough pod growth to support them nutritionally with no extra direct input, so if you can get one that is eating prepared foods regularly, that size requirement can come down quite a bit.

Basically, if you have a plan and you are committed to regular feedings (with a fish that will take them), you can definitely make it work, but some of the specifics may require consistent feedings, so make sure you can commit to that.

Mandarins need more than twice a day feeding. Their digestive system is different than other fish.

 

They need constant food supply.

2 hours ago, Arys said:

Would a Fluval HOB breeder box filled with rubble/chaeto be sufficient?

I would highly recommend you read the sticky threads on keeping a mandarin.