Copepod Population

I have recently gotten my sal****er aquarium up and running. I have a 36
gallon tank with roughly 36 lbs of live rock, and a EcoSystem refugium. I
have noticed hundreds of copepods on the rock, in the water, and on the
sand. How fast will these reproduce? I am interested getting a
Manderin/Psychadelic fish and I have read that the cope's make up a sizeable
part of their diet. Will the population maintain high enough numbers on its
own with the amount of rock included? Thank you for any help.

"FornoW" wrote in message
news:VSaRd.55915$8a6.14386@trndny09...
|I have recently gotten my sal****er aquarium up and running. I have
a 36
| gallon tank with roughly 36 lbs of live rock, and a EcoSystem
refugium. I
| have noticed hundreds of copepods on the rock, in the water, and on
the
| sand. How fast will these reproduce? I am interested getting a
| Manderin/Psychadelic fish and I have read that the cope's make up a
sizeable
| part of their diet. Will the population maintain high enough
numbers on its
| own with the amount of rock included? Thank you for any help.
|

Perhaps, yes, althought *I'd* increase the LR in order to assure he
won't eventually reduce the population and starve. My spotted
mandarin will not eat anything other than 'pods, although I've heard
from mandarin owners whose fish will accept nearly anything.

Keep a piece of open cell foam like a piece of a pre filter in a refugium
and it will fill up with pods and you can squeeze them out into your tank
from time to time. Otherwise the pod population will be decimated if you
have any other pod eating fish in your main tank

Kevin

"Billy" wrote in message
...

"FornoW" wrote in message
news:VSaRd.55915$8a6.14386@trndny09...
|I have recently gotten my sal****er aquarium up and running. I have
a 36
| gallon tank with roughly 36 lbs of live rock, and a EcoSystem
refugium. I
| have noticed hundreds of copepods on the rock, in the water, and on
the
| sand. How fast will these reproduce? I am interested getting a
| Manderin/Psychadelic fish and I have read that the cope's make up a
sizeable
| part of their diet. Will the population maintain high enough
numbers on its
| own with the amount of rock included? Thank you for any help.
|

Perhaps, yes, althought *I'd* increase the LR in order to assure he
won't eventually reduce the population and starve. My spotted
mandarin will not eat anything other than 'pods, although I've heard
from mandarin owners whose fish will accept nearly anything.

I own a 4 year old reef tank with over 300lbs of LR. I have had a very
difficult time in keeping a mandarin goby for an extended period. IMHO
I think anything less than 75-100lbs of live rock may be too little to
insure adequate food. Of course I have not had success, and perhaps
there are others who have had long term success with small tanks.

FornoW wrote:
I have recently gotten my sal****er aquarium up and running. I have a 36
gallon tank with roughly 36 lbs of live rock, and a EcoSystem refugium. I
have noticed hundreds of copepods on the rock, in the water, and on the
sand. How fast will these reproduce? I am interested getting a
Manderin/Psychadelic fish and I have read that the cope's make up a sizeable
part of their diet. Will the population maintain high enough numbers on its
own with the amount of rock included? Thank you for any help.


A refugium will definitely help. When you choose your fish from the
LFS, try to get one that eats prepared foods. Call the LFS ahead of
time to find out when feeding time is and be there. Explain to them
that you want to make sure you get one that is eating prepared foods.
Also don't take one that is emaciated whether it is eating or not. If
it's sides are caved or sunken in at all. The fishes sides should be
very full and round. When the madarin turns its sides should almost
have fat bulges.

A must see site: http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_care.html

And be sure to see the link entitled "mandarin diner" at the bottom of
the page.

wrote on 18 Feb 2005 07:2:
I own a 4 year old reef tank with over 300lbs of LR. I have had a very
difficult time in keeping a mandarin goby for an extended period. IMHO
I think anything less than 75-100lbs of live rock may be too little to
insure adequate food. Of course I have not had success, and perhaps
there are others who have had long term success with small tanks.

But you haven't even had success with 300lbs of LR, so on what basis do you
conclude that 75lbs isn't enough?

I've got a 55gal tank with about 60lbs of live rock. I did lose a mandarin
that I added far too early, but after a year or so my tank was mature enough.
I've had my current mandarin for about a year and a half. It doesn't eat
anything that I feed into the tank, but it seems fat and happy just snacking
on the live pods it can find in the rocks.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
Vegetarian: "I object to KILLING animals for FOOD!"
Captain Ribman: "And I object to eating LIVE animals!"

The pod population in my 125 ebbs and grows.....a mandarin requires a
continuing supply and IMO, 36# is a 36 gallon might not sustain him
long...especially if other predators like starfish of the sand sifting
variety are present. I believe ISPF has a pod growing set-up that you can
order to cultivate them for fish like the mandarin...
Grunfeld in detroit
"FornoW" wrote in message
news:VSaRd.55915$8a6.14386@trndny09...
I have recently gotten my sal****er aquarium up and running. I have a 36
gallon tank with roughly 36 lbs of live rock, and a EcoSystem refugium. I
have noticed hundreds of copepods on the rock, in the water, and on the
sand. How fast will these reproduce? I am interested getting a
Manderin/Psychadelic fish and I have read that the cope's make up a
sizeable
part of their diet. Will the population maintain high enough numbers on
its
own with the amount of rock included? Thank you for any help.

Don Geddis wrote:
wrote on 18 Feb 2005 07:2:
I own a 4 year old reef tank with over 300lbs of LR. I have had a
very
difficult time in keeping a mandarin goby for an extended period.
IMHO
I think anything less than 75-100lbs of live rock may be too little
to
insure adequate food. Of course I have not had success, and
perhaps
there are others who have had long term success with small tanks.

But you haven't even had success with 300lbs of LR, so on what basis
do you
conclude that 75lbs isn't enough?

I've got a 55gal tank with about 60lbs of live rock. I did lose a
mandarin
that I added far too early, but after a year or so my tank was mature
enough.
I've had my current mandarin for about a year and a half. It doesn't
eat
anything that I feed into the tank, but it seems fat and happy just
snacking
on the live pods it can find in the rocks.

-- Don
__________________

__________________________________________________ ___________
Don Geddis
http://reef.geddis.org/
Vegetarian: "I object to KILLING animals for FOOD!"
Captain Ribman: "And I object to eating LIVE animals!"


My point is that Mandarin Gobies are known to be difficult fish to keep
long-term. Even when there should be more than adequate food supply
such as in the case of my tank with over 300lbs. 60 or 75 lbs may be
adequate, but I think many would agree that this is only adequate. Any
competing feeders such as a wrasse, and the food supply may quickly be
inadequate. The poster requested input from others, and I gave mine
for what it is worth. I applaud others who have had more success than
I, and hope to educate myself from others successes and failures.

wrote on 19 Feb 2005 16:1:
My point is that Mandarin Gobies are known to be difficult fish to keep
long-term.

Could be, although lots of people have had success as well. Perhaps it just
isn't well understood what they need.

Even when there should be more than adequate food supply such as in the
case of my tank with over 300lbs. 60 or 75 lbs may be adequate, but I
think many would agree that this is only adequate.

My question is mo you have 300lbs of live rock, but you _haven't_ been
able to keep a mandarin. So perhaps there is some crucial missing issue in
your tank that has nothing to do with rock at all? Maybe mandarins need
something else besides live rock, and you don't have it.

If all you're doing is repeating what you've heard from other people, that
mandarins need a lot of live rock, and 50-75lbs is probably the minimum, well
then ok. But it seems that you didn't learn any of that from your own
experience. You haven't been able to keep a mandarin even with more than
enough live rock, so clearly there's something else going on besides the rock.

(One possibility: the arrangement and shape of the rocks may matter. The pods
probably need a sheltered place to live and reproduce. If all your rock is
smooth and exposed, then perhaps the mandarin can hunt down everything. But
if the pods have a rubble pile that the mandarin can't get in to, then the
population has a chance to be self-sustaining.)

Any competing feeders such as a wrasse, and the food supply may quickly be
inadequate.

I agree that it probably gets much harder if you have competing predators.
75lbs LR may work if the lone mandarin is the _only_ predator eating pods in
the tank.

The poster requested input from others, and I gave mine for what it is
worth.

What I found odd is that you both told him that 100lbs (?) of LR was "not
enough" for a mandarin, but then also said that you failed with 300lbs.

Why not say that 300lbs is "not enough", since that's your experience?
Or else agree that there may be issues for keeping mandarins other than the
amount of live rock. In which case, I wonder how you picked a number that
was "not enough LR". (Other than what you heard someone else say, I guess.)

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/