It's well publicized that live copepods are the only thing that Mandarins will
reliably eat. Well, I have a starving Mandarin in a 125 gallon tank with
established live rock. Prior to getting the Mandarin, I had several diatom
blooms, but not since he arrived. I also used to have quite a few isopods and
can't recall the last time I saw one. I've bought two shipments of copepods so
far to try to stock the tank. The Mandarin just gets thinner.

So, I'm looking at the other inhabitants of the tank. I have some Chromis, a
Firefish, a Court Jester goby, three cleaner shrimp, and a couple of feather
dusters. The dusters are also doing poorly and may have died. Are the shrimp
hunting the pods to extinction?

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.