LF: copepod culture

[Nano]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Sorry I might have mixed up but someone with "nano" in their username used herbtana to cure ich successfully I was just trying to present an example of debate :P

Yes herbtana is 100% safe though, I wouldn't call it snake oil, I think your thinking of the time i steered you away from using kordon ich attack which is a whole nother thing.

If you are going to seed your tank monthly will most likely not keep up with the mandarins eating habits. Remember your other fish eat them too, though it is not their sole dietary need. I would be going weekly in a smaller tank, as they will get cleaned up faster then they will reproduce

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Nano

Yes herbtana is 100% safe though, I wouldn't call it snake oil, I think your thinking of the time i steered you away from using kordon ich attack which is a whole nother thing.

If you are going to seed your tank monthly will most likely not keep up with the mandarins eating habits. Remember your other fish eat them too, though it is not their sole dietary need. I would be going weekly in a smaller tank, as they will get cleaned up faster then they will reproduce

Yah herbtana is a great product. My fishes actually recovered automatically so didn't buy that. But there are people who call those "snake oil". I clearly remember some in that post

Anyway back to the topic; I feel like I don't have any pod eating inhabitant. I got a pair of clown, a banggai and a firefish. I will using the fuge as breeding ground. Currently, its the breeding ground for amphipod and trust me, there's LOT of them! Don't you think 6oz bottle will be good enough for the breeding cycle for a month?

[Reefgoat]

From what I understand Mandarins graze pretty much constantly. What you consider a lot will probably be mostly gone in the first week. If you want to have one you will probably need to culture pods in other containers and add them to the tank or it will slowly starve to death. Make sure to get Tisbe copepods as opposed to Tigriopus (Tigger) pods.

As an alternative you could get an ORA captive bred target Mandarin. They raise them to eat pellets and frozen food. ORA may have Blue Mandarins available now again as well, but not last time I checked.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Reefgoat

From what I understand Mandarins graze pretty much constantly. What you consider a lot will probably be mostly gone in the first week. If you want to have one you will probably need to culture pods in other containers and add them to the tank or it will slowly starve to death. Make sure to get Tisbe copepods as opposed to Tigriopus (Tigger) pods.

As an alternative you could get an ORA captive bred target Mandarin. They raise them to eat pellets and frozen food.

Thanks

I am actually going to try to train it at first and if not, I will keep on adding pods manually, depending on the need. Now I need to find pod :P

BTW any specific reason you are not suggesting tigger pods? Because online, I found people use tigger pods since that's more likely to be available.

[Reefgoat]

From what I understand Tisbe pods are Benthic and hide a lot so they aren't all immediately eaten. Tigger pods are primarily Pelagic and don't tend to hide. They will swim in the open and quickly be eaten by all your fish. Tisbe pods are a little more difficult to culture as they are tolerant of a relatively narrow range of temperature, salinity, and water quality whereas Tigger pods are much more hardy. Also this is not from personal experience, I have just been reading up on it as I have been planning to get a Mandarin for quite some time and want to be prepared.

I remember seeing a sponsor in Edmonton or Calgary who sells cultures of various live foods. If you do a search in the forums you could probably find it. I think it was Calgary.

[Kevany]

Mrhasan, last time I was at Blue World Edmonton they had copepods, and I'm pretty sure he ships as well. When I first got my mandarin I was worried about the pod population in my tank as well, so I bought a white worm culture from Blue World to suppliment feeding, and my mandarin loved them. What I did, is throw a few white worms in my tank along with a pinch of NLS pellets, and now after a few months my mandarin is trained to eat pellets as well.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Kevany

Mrhasan, last time I was at Blue World Edmonton they had copepods, and I'm pretty sure he ships as well. When I first got my mandarin I was worried about the pod population in my tank as well, so I bought a white worm culture from Blue World to suppliment feeding, and my mandarin loved them. What I did, is throw a few white worms in my tank along with a pinch of NLS pellets, and now after a few months my mandarin is trained to eat pellets as well.

Awesome. Thanks for the positive heads up