How long does it take copepods to get established?

Northstar24

The Tang Herder
My wife really wants a madarin, and every time she sees one at the fish store I've told her that my tank isnt ready becasue I've yet to see more than one or two 'pods in the tank. (I've only seen a few larger ones that get caught in the sponge in the sump.

I've tried looking at night, both with and without a flashlight and I havent seen them crawling on the glass as I've read in many posts

I've got at least 200 pounds of rock (I've added some addtional rocks once in a while for my tangs/angels so I dont know the exact weight). While much of this was dry rock at the start, I've added a good 30-40 pounds of rock that was full of life.

My question is this, how long should it take for a sustainable population of pods to develop? My water tests are coming back good, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0. Nitrate 0 (with no detectable nuisance algae) SG 1.025

My tank has been up about 10 months (since August of '10) how long should the tank be running before a mandarin can be considered? The current stock list of my 180 is in my signature

Edit: I have a 40 gallon fuge in the stand that has live rock, chaeto and caulerpa
 
Well, the reason people say it's best to not put them in a tank that's not yet established is because if your pods just now started multiplying, that mandarin will wipe out your population in no time.

Also, you probably don't see any pods around yet because you have other fish (like your clowns) already eating them. I know in my 45, I saw no pods whatsoever. But when my firefish died, all of a sudden, within a week, the pods were everywhere on my glass, cuz no one was left to eat them. Plus I've seen my clownfish hovering around my above-tank-fuge return at the top of the tank...he figured out pods come out through there and would eat them before they sank to the bottom.

You can always just guy a bottle of pods. What you can also do is get some netting, put rubble in it, and put that in your tank...then cover that up with more rocks. That way, it gives your pods a nice safe place to breed, while offering a steady stream of pods.
 
Can you look for one that is eating frozen? Then the pod thing isnt as important.

+1 Wonton about the other fish already eating the pods present 'n stuff
 
Can you look for one that is eating frozen? Then the pod thing isnt as important.

+1 Wonton about the other fish already eating the pods present 'n stuff
 
Hannah, finding an ORA frozen eating mandarin would be great, I've been looking into it, but many have stoppedeating frozen after shipping / acclimation to a new tank
 
I dont think you need to find an ORA one, most of the mandarines i have seen trained to eat frozen havent been ORA anyways. Or you could set up a little tub and train your own.
 
I got mine to eat frozen by mixing live and frozen brine, and slowly increasing the frozen numbers. Takes a long time, but its worth it.
Unfortunately i sold my little fella, he just was taking abuse from my other fish, dont even know why. They just chased him off and bit him.
But dont let that down you! If your real patient and you wanna make it work, you'll be fine.
 
I think if you want to train one, you are going to need to set him up in a little mini tank until he is trained to a feeder or something. It would be too hard to do it in your 180
 
Back
Top