Culturing brine shrimp in a reef tank?

[jason604]

What's a good and easy way of feeding my mandarin? Since I can't find any1 with pods in the area and JL sell them at rip off prices

[monocus]

there are many people with pods in their sumps.some filter floss in anyone's sump could get a starter culture of pods.rotifers can enrich brine shrimp for feeding as they are microscopic,but they are only as nutritious as their last meal.that's why i feed my rotifers various phyto.also check with anybody that has filter socks.you could get pods from there as well

[rayjay]

Rotifers are too large to feed to brine nauplii. Brine nauplii are looking for food in the up to 50 micron range whereas L strain rotifers run 200 to 350 micron range.
Even if you could find the S strain, they run at 150 and up.
Try the brine nauplii first to see if it will take them. You will almost certainly have to turn off the sump return pump, and anything else that will damage them or blow them around. You can put a light source at the bottom of the tank to see if they will gather there for the mandarin to find and feed on.
It's possible sometimes that a mandarin will only go for the brine in a particular size range so you may have to grow them out to a bit larger size.
Full sized ones haven't appeared to be of any interest to the mandarin I had, but juveniles were accepted.
For this trial stage, you don't have to bother with the enrichment because all you want to do is find out if it will be seen as food.
If so, then you can follow up with enriched nauplii.
You probably have mysid shrimp in your tank so putting a pile of small rubble on the tank bottom will help to provide higher mysid density.

[jason604]

Last night I noticed the first trail 2 turkey bladders of live baby brine that I squirted into my chaeto and DT were floating around in my DT dead.

[rayjay]

Originally Posted by jason604

first trail 2 turkey bladders of live baby brine that I squirted into my chaeto and DT were floating around in my DT dead.

I don't know what trail 2 turkey bladders are.
If you are expecting the brine to survive in a tank, forget it.
First off, they don't live where predation exists, and, any pumps/ powerheads will kill them off fairly quickly. Also, there is nothing in the tanks for them to feed on anyway and they quickly loose their nutrition other than protein.

[jason604]

Originally Posted by rayjay

I don't know what trail 2 turkey bladders are.
If you are expecting the brine to survive in a tank, forget it.
First off, they don't live where predation exists, and, any pumps/ powerheads will kill them off fairly quickly. Also, there is nothing in the tanks for them to feed on anyway and they quickly loose their nutrition other than protein.

lol damn iphone auto correct.. 2 turkey blasters* anyways i fed it some frozen mysis and i saw him pecking it at it a few times then spit a tiny bit out.. did it a few times. Is this a good sign? i tried feedin him the live brine shrimp babies but it doesnt seem to see it

[rayjay]

Yes, unless the mandarin is very small, it probably isn't interested in brine shrimp nauplii. You would have to grow them out to juvenile and try again.

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by jason604

What's a good and easy way of feeding my mandarin? Since I can't find any1 with pods in the area and JL sell them at rip off prices

Might have been a question to ask before you got the mandarin.