"George Patterson" wrote in message news:gmGEh.1830$JB2.1365@trnddc07...
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.

When the main lights come on in my tanks, I see the same thing every morning - pods
scurrying and fish eating them. The fish know this is prime pod time. Have you tried
Mark's idea? I might give it a try. http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html