What eats copepods?

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.

George Patterson wrote:
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.


Pretty much anything small and carnivorous/and or omnivorous will eat
pods from time to time (I have seen my ocelaris eat them, and I even had
a yellow tang come out and start gobbling once when I poured a bottle of
tiger pods in to my tank!)

Cleaner shrimp definitely COULD do it, But a firefish would be more
likely. They do like zooplankton. Same for Chromis. They ominvorous, and
will eat zooplankton when available. Even the court jester goby could be
the culprit - they eat small arthropods as well as algae.

I am doubting the main problem is that your pods are getting all eaten,
however. Something may be competeting with them for food in your tank,
thus preventing them from renewing or increasing their population.

Do you have much in the way of small bristle worms, or an overly
aggressive cleanup crew? You need to have a fair amount of deritus
present in the tank for the pods to thrive. Adding supplemental algae
will help as well.

You may want to try culturing pods - 1 single mandarin can clean out a
whole tank quite easily. I used to do this by having a 10 gal with some
small rocks in it which cycled, then added tiger pods to. I'd feed it a
pich or two of spirtulina flakes every other day, and a drop or two of
phytofeast daily. The pods took over in that tank. I'd simply swap small
rocks between that tank and my main tank to feed my dragonettes. (then
again, some of you may recall my dragonette STILL managed to die anyway
- but it certainly was not form lack of pods!)

Yep, and/or set up a refugium.

I like the fish eggs idea that Kurt suggested. You
might want to give that a try.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


Add Homonym wrote on 2/26/2007 3:09 PM:
George Patterson wrote:
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.


Pretty much anything small and carnivorous/and or omnivorous will eat
pods from time to time (I have seen my ocelaris eat them, and I even had
a yellow tang come out and start gobbling once when I poured a bottle of
tiger pods in to my tank!)

Cleaner shrimp definitely COULD do it, But a firefish would be more
likely. They do like zooplankton. Same for Chromis. They ominvorous, and
will eat zooplankton when available. Even the court jester goby could be
the culprit - they eat small arthropods as well as algae.

I am doubting the main problem is that your pods are getting all eaten,
however. Something may be competeting with them for food in your tank,
thus preventing them from renewing or increasing their population.

Do you have much in the way of small bristle worms, or an overly
aggressive cleanup crew? You need to have a fair amount of deritus
present in the tank for the pods to thrive. Adding supplemental algae
will help as well.

You may want to try culturing pods - 1 single mandarin can clean out a
whole tank quite easily. I used to do this by having a 10 gal with some
small rocks in it which cycled, then added tiger pods to. I'd feed it a
pich or two of spirtulina flakes every other day, and a drop or two of
phytofeast daily. The pods took over in that tank. I'd simply swap small
rocks between that tank and my main tank to feed my dragonettes. (then
again, some of you may recall my dragonette STILL managed to die anyway
- but it certainly was not form lack of pods!)

Add Homonym wrote:

Do you have much in the way of small bristle worms, or an overly
aggressive cleanup crew? You need to have a fair amount of deritus
present in the tank for the pods to thrive. Adding supplemental algae
will help as well.

I've got quite a few bristle worms. I also have several blue-legged hermit crabs
and one large electric blue hermit. A bunch of little starfish and some sort of
small snail arrived as hitchhikers. I have lots of algae since I upgraded my
lighting; I'm using a phosphate reactor to try to cut it down some.

You may want to try culturing pods - 1 single mandarin can clean out a
whole tank quite easily. I used to do this by having a 10 gal with some
small rocks in it which cycled, then added tiger pods to.

I'll look into that. I have a 10 gallon with a pair of goldfish in it
downstairs. Once it warms up enough to sneak those into someone's pond, that'll
give me something for pods. A 'fuge is way down the road right now.

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

"George Patterson" wrote in message newsgZEh.2521$QI4.1557@trnddc01...
Add Homonym wrote:

Do you have much in the way of small bristle worms, or an overly aggressive cleanup crew? You need to have a fair amount of
deritus present in the tank for the pods to thrive. Adding supplemental algae will help as well.

I've got quite a few bristle worms. I also have several blue-legged hermit crabs and one large electric blue hermit. A bunch of
little starfish and some sort of small snail arrived as hitchhikers. I have lots of algae since I upgraded my lighting; I'm using
a phosphate reactor to try to cut it down some.

You may want to try culturing pods - 1 single mandarin can clean out a whole tank quite easily. I used to do this by having a 10
gal with some small rocks in it which cycled, then added tiger pods to.

I'll look into that. I have a 10 gallon with a pair of goldfish in it downstairs. Once it warms up enough to sneak those into
someone's pond, that'll give me something for pods. A 'fuge is way down the road right now.

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

I think hermit crabs will decimate a pod population, since the crabs and pods are most active at night.

Yukon wrote:
I think hermit crabs will decimate a pod population, since the crabs and pods are most active at night.


Hm, hermit crabs were already on my bad list.

I did buy some blue legged hermits which seem much better behaved, and
haven't attacked any of my snails yet.

--Kurt

"KurtG" wrote in message ...
Yukon wrote:
I think hermit crabs will decimate a pod population, since the crabs and pods are most active at night.


Hm, hermit crabs were already on my bad list.

I did buy some blue legged hermits which seem much better behaved, and haven't attacked any of my snails yet.

--Kurt

I just think that since crabs are carnivores, and you see them reaching
and picking into rocks all the time, that they'd love pods.

I don't think that hermit crabs will have any effect
on pod populations. I think they are too hard for
the hermits to catch.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


Yukon wrote on 2/27/2007 1:50 PM:

I think hermit crabs will decimate a pod population, since the crabs and pods are most active at night.

"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message news
I don't think that hermit crabs will have any effect on pod populations. I think they are too hard for the hermits to catch.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


Yukon wrote on 2/27/2007 1:50 PM:

I think hermit crabs will decimate a pod population, since the crabs and pods are most active at night.

You could be right. I just thought that they could reach into some of the
nooks and cranies in the rock and pinch some out. It just seems that whenever
I have a higher crab population, the pods are much less noticible when the
lights come on. But it could just be that the pods hide more when they sense
more crabs around? Does that make any sense? Maybe I should just stop typing now.

"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