Mandarin Goby-Anyone have one?

[Koresample]

I think i should be good to go as i have almost 50 lbs of well aged LR in my tank, and at night the critters are crawling everywhere. There have been no fish in the tank for the past two weeks and i am now seeing pods etc crawling around even during the day. I am going to add a refugium and swap rock back and forth in my tank. A couple of guys have mentioned buying bottles of pods to stock the fuge with, does anyone in the lower mainland sell this stuff and what exactly is it called? What is chaeto and what does it do? can you get it at J&L?

[naesco]

You can buy the tiny pods, they are expensive and IME don't replicate.
Your mandarin will easily polish off the pods in a 40 than will not have anything to eat.
Wait until you upgrade to a larger tank which you no doubt will in the future.
Don't purchase the mandarin now.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by Koresample

I think i should be good to go as i have almost 50 lbs of well aged LR in my tank, and at night the critters are crawling everywhere. There have been no fish in the tank for the past two weeks and i am now seeing pods etc crawling around even during the day. I am going to add a refugium and swap rock back and forth in my tank. A couple of guys have mentioned buying bottles of pods to stock the fuge with, does anyone in the lower mainland sell this stuff and what exactly is it called? What is chaeto and what does it do? can you get it at J&L?

You can buy Tigger pods at J&L or Ocean Aquatics. They're not cheap though ($20). I"ve had my mandarin for nearly a year now, and he seldom eats anything but pods. Now and then I'll see him take a bloodworm. I buy a bottle of Tigger Pods every other month and dump half into the tank and half into the fuge to replenish the stock.

[Cameron]

I have mine eating pellet and frozen mysis.

[Koresample]

And you have yours in a 45g Cameron? Was it always eating that, or did you have to wean it?

[Cameron]

Originally Posted by Koresample

And you have yours in a 45g Cameron? Was it always eating that, or did you have to wean it?

Not sure what they fed him at the store, was looking a little thin when I got her about 18 months ago. Just turned all the flow off and squirted some mysis in front of her and she ate it. Has only started to eat pellets within the last 6 months.

I will post up a pic, she is FAT.

[TheRealBigAL]

you don't need to keep buying bottles of pods and putting them in your tank. You just need a protected area the pods can reproduce (refugium/sump) so that the dragonets don't fully deplete the population. Tiggers pods do reproduce if you give them the right home. Buying bottles of pods and dumping them in your tank gets pricey (trust me). Its worth it to buy one of these if you want to keep dragonets in a system under 75G http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/AQ...+-++Small.html. Sure it seems a bit pricey at first but i have easily spent $200 (maybe more) on pods. By having a HOB refugium you can be assured your dragonets will eat well and live heathy.