Culturing Pods

[SJSobczyk]

I am going to be setting up a seperate 10 gallon tank to culture some pods for my mandarin. I have read thru many topics on this and i think i have everything down. Now if i fed the tank zooplankton do you think this would cause any problems? Or should i get myself some phyto?

Also, does anyone have some extra pods they want to donate? Or know of any places i can buy some from in the city?

Thanks

Steve

[midgetwaiter]

I've been looking at doing this myself, from what I can see phyto would be the way to go.

Vivid Reef is supposed to start selling live pods soon, that's where I was going to get my starter, Wayne is trying to get them for Riverfront. I'll let you knwo if they ever turn up, we could split a bottle or something.

[SJSobczyk]

Ya if you could let me know that would be great!

Steve

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by SJSobczyk

I am going to be setting up a seperate 10 gallon tank to culture some pods for my mandarin. I have read thru many topics on this and i think i have everything down. Now if i fed the tank zooplankton do you think this would cause any problems? Or should i get myself some phyto?

Also, does anyone have some extra pods they want to donate? Or know of any places i can buy some from in the city?

Thanks

Steve

After doing a little research since the 'mandarin in a nano' thread, I found out that most mandarins generally eat the pod eggs and larvae, not the adult pods. In my tank I can see them eating but can't actually see their food, now I know why. They only eat adult pods when trained to do so, it is not their natural diet.

[SJSobczyk]

Originally Posted by Snappy

After doing a little research since the 'mandarin in a nano' thread, I found out that most mandarins generally eat the pod eggs and larvae, not the adult pods. In my tank I can see them eating but can't actually see their food, now I know why. They only eat adult pods when trained to do so, it is not their natural diet.

Thats interesting, thanks snappy. I would still interested in culturing though. I also am going to try the mandarin diner, just to see if it works at all.

Steve

[i have crabs]

the best way ive seen is hooking up a small canister filter full of liverock and just never clean it,i had one once and the whole instide of the canister was full of pods and other goodies

[Funky_Fish14]

Originally Posted by Snappy

After doing a little research since the 'mandarin in a nano' thread, I found out that most mandarins generally eat the pod eggs and larvae, not the adult pods. In my tank I can see them eating but can't actually see their food, now I know why. They only eat adult pods when trained to do so, it is not their natural diet.

I've observed this myself in my tank. I have a 23g fuge, packed full of pods, which flow gently down into the main tank, and I never see the mandarin eat adult animals, it always seems to be larvae, which I see crawling around the tank alot, but they are extremely small, and too hard to find just before the mandarin catches one.

Chris