Breeding pods

sen5241b

sen5241b

Reef enthusiast
I'd really like to get a Mandarin Goby (tank almost 6 months now) and yes I've got severals kinds of copepods, amphipods and now new black pods of some sort. After I got rid of my blue damsel the pods were everywhere. My new royal dottyback seems to have eaten a lot of them. How do you breed pods? A fuge is important but is there something you can feed them?
 
I serious believe a 29g. will ever be big enough to support a mandarin.Even worst is your dottyback is competing for the same food.My best advice is try to find one already taking to frozen will help but in all my years never did I find one at the LFS that took to frozen foods.Even if you do find one,they are very slow eaters so other fish will out compete them for food.

Rock rubble and crumbled pieces,macro algae like chaeto and even the small holes and pores of live rock all make safe haven for copepods to reproduce.They feed on detritus and micro/film algae so no feeding is necessary.
 
i heard if u make a pile out of rubble from live rock and such that pods will breed in the pile. i plan on trying this in my new tank when i set it up. just my 2 cents
 
I'm already putting phytoplankton concentrate in and also already have a pile of smaller LR pieces in the back. At any rate, I'm not getting the mandarin until I've done some planning and research on this. Its very easy to get new fish fever: you're in the LFS, you see that cool fish and you just grab him without knowing what your getting into.
 
I have a 30g tank with a zillion copepods. I don't like Mandarin fish, but if I did, I'm sure I could keep it alive on just pods. Nothing else eats them. I have several hundred amphipods that are 1/2" long.
 
If you see a mandarin at your LFS, ask them to feed it some frozen food. If it eats, you're good to go. If it doesn't, pass on that fish. In a tank that size, I would not even try to keep one unless I know for sure it can eat frozen.

There are things you can do to increase your pod population, like others have said adding phyto and building rock rubble areas for them works, but in a tank that size with two fish competing for the same food source, I think they'll get eaten faster than they reproduce no matter what you try to do.
 
Thats a great video. The mandarins can eat in peace and all the tangs can do is wait for a scrap or two to drift out of the bottle.
 
I am sorry but I do have to disagree that a mandrin cant live in that 29 gallon. I have a 30 gallon and I have a mandrin in it and it is doing just fine. As far as I know it does not eat frozen food at all, I did try to find one but all the ones that I looked at didnt want to eat it. Mine has been living off the pods in my tank for 7 months. Very fat and happy. My suggestion for the tank is to get a whole bunch of little LR and make a layer with it across the back of the tank, You can hide it with bigger rock if you dont like the way that it looks. I didnt like the way that it looked so I put bigger rocks around the layer so that you couldnt see it. That layer of rock will serve as a breeding ground for the pods. The common amount off rock is 1 lb per gallon just make sure that you have every bit of that in the tank and maybe a little more. It is possible to do it. If you ever get scared that there arent enough in the tank then you can always try to find a LFS that sells them or order them online to put in the tank.


Whatever you do good luck to you and I hope that it all works out.
 
It isnt the fact that a mandarin can/cannot survive in a 29gal. Its the fact that he doesnt have enough pods to support two pod eating fishes.
 
In general the odds of keeping a Mandarin Gobi alive in any size typical tank is small. There are ways to improve the odds, but it is usually best to discourage their being purchased unless a person is first aware and then willing to go the extra lengths necessary to increase the Mandarins chances of survival. Not sharing a tank with another pod eater is another one of those sacrifices a person should be willing to make to keep a mandarin. Providing breeding/hiding places for the pods is another, as is feeding the pods and regularly innoculating with new pod cultures.
 
Mtrueblood said:
I am sorry but I do have to disagree that a mandrin cant live in that 29 gallon. I have a 30 gallon and I have a mandrin in it and it is doing just fine. As far as I know it does not eat frozen food at all, I did try to find one but all the ones that I looked at didnt want to eat it. Mine has been living off the pods in my tank for 7 months. Very fat and happy. My suggestion for the tank is to get a whole bunch of little LR and make a layer with it across the back of the tank, You can hide it with bigger rock if you dont like the way that it looks. I didnt like the way that it looked so I put bigger rocks around the layer so that you couldnt see it. That layer of rock will serve as a breeding ground for the pods. The common amount off rock is 1 lb per gallon just make sure that you have every bit of that in the tank and maybe a little more. It is possible to do it. If you ever get scared that there arent enough in the tank then you can always try to find a LFS that sells them or order them online to put in the tank.


Whatever you do good luck to you and I hope that it all works out.
Click to expand...

So, do you have anything in your 30G competing for the pods?
 
No I dont, but that is why I gave the suggestion that I did. If you have enough LR for the pods to hide in and to breed in then it will be possible to keep plenty of pods in the tank. The main key is hidding places in the rock for them to breed. If you think that you wont have enough I know that you can go and buy some at the LFS or you can order them online. I think that it is possible to keep them both in the tank IMO but then again that is me. As I said before Good Luck to you with this issue.
 
I have been reading about this Royal Dottyback for the last hour and a half and I havent been able to find anywhere that they will or do eat copods. It did say that it will eat smaller shrimp and stuff like that. I have seen in my tank that amphipods are abundant and the mandrin does not touch those. Is you dottyback eatting those? As far as I can tell from what I have read that Royal Dottybacks dont eat copods. Please anyone correct me on that if I am wronge. I dont have one so I dont know much about them.
 
Mtrueblood said:
I have been reading about this Royal Dottyback for the last hour and a half and I havent been able to find anywhere that they will or do eat copods. It did say that it will eat smaller shrimp and stuff like that. I have seen in my tank that amphipods are abundant and the mandrin does not touch those. Is you dottyback eatting those? As far as I can tell from what I have read that Royal Dottybacks dont eat copods. Please anyone correct me on that if I am wronge. I dont have one so I dont know much about them.
Click to expand...

I assumed the dottyback eats pods cause after I gave away my blue damsel the pods reproduced like nuts --they were everywhere. Then I put the dottyback in and he nips at the rock all the time and now the pods are no where to be seen. No, I have not actually seen him swallow a pod. They probably do eat pods, see this:

note family ...

family eats small inverts
 
Live Aquaria-Pseudochromis feed on plankton, small crustaceans, worms and will accept most prepared foods.
My opiniom:
My experiences:
Yes, they eat pods, by choice when they are available. Pods usually are not available for very long when a Pseudochromis is housed in a small tank with them.
 
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Ok then here is a question is there a difference between copods and amphipods cause as far as I can tell they are not the same thing and the amphipods are the only thing that I have found that says that a royal dottyback will eat. It is bigger and is a small bug looking specimen.

If anyone is taking this offensively I am sorry I am just trying to figure this out. I have amphipods for sure in my tank and the mandrin does not touch those. But he has to be eatting something cause he doesnt eat frozen either and he is very fat and happy.
 
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