i need big copepods. not the little 1mm things. i mean the near-centimeter-long beasts. a. I like them. b. Mandarin Gourmet needs them. my fish are named Sharkbait, Sashimi, Jean Claude Van Damsel, and Mandarin Gourmet. The first 3 are fine. the last is hungry.
where can i get the big copepods?
- Thread starter kimichan
- Start date
I think you're talking of amphipods. Indo Pacific Sea Farms (www.ipsf.com) sells 12 of them for $10 a pop plus shipping....hardly an economic way to feed your Synchiropus picturatus. There may be some other cheaper methods in the long term. I know that amphipods will thrive in a 10 gallon, nutrient rich tank with abundant algae.
I won't say I told you so. :twisted:
I won't say I told you so. :twisted:
Hey Daniel, is that the size of the ones your ordered last week? If so, Id like to actually order some as well because that is the size I need in the Mini75 and RB. Do you have any tiny segmented worms of any size or is it just all crustaceans? Also, how much was the total order and shipping time...
Thanks
Brandon M.
Thanks
Brandon M.
kimi,
you might want to try concurrently feeding frozen mysis, wean them to accept both.
another thought is mariculturetechnology.com for their live foods. their marine shrimp are both big and small, being bulk sales items, but i've found my predators (i.e. fish) able to slowly hunt them down and feed (just like in the wild i'd guess).
you might want to try concurrently feeding frozen mysis, wean them to accept both.
another thought is mariculturetechnology.com for their live foods. their marine shrimp are both big and small, being bulk sales items, but i've found my predators (i.e. fish) able to slowly hunt them down and feed (just like in the wild i'd guess).
Daniel,
PetCetera here in town receives a shipment of adult live brine every Wednesday... I'm sure your mandarin would take that. You could even gutload them or whatever they call it with some Selcon for extra nutrition. PetCetera is on the corner of 4th and E right across the street from B of A.
-AM-
PetCetera here in town receives a shipment of adult live brine every Wednesday... I'm sure your mandarin would take that. You could even gutload them or whatever they call it with some Selcon for extra nutrition. PetCetera is on the corner of 4th and E right across the street from B of A.
-AM-
Dude, I hate to tell you this, but a mandarin eating "huge copepods",(amphipods?) is not going to do the trick. Part of the problem with mandarins, (aside from them being hugely imported for the aquarium industry only to die a slow and starving death in countless inadequate setups at the hands of conscienceless aquarists, that is), is the fact that they suffer from "big fish, little mouth syndrome." This means that this animal has evolved to be able to eat copious amounts of very SMALL animals, not LARGE "copepods"(?). I guess this will be a hard lesson learned.
Joey
Joey
Putting a mandarin in a nano, in my opinion, is a death sentence. I would love to see a case, any case, where a mandarin is placed into a small tank, (under 20 at least), and it survived for longer than a year, under any circumstances... additional copepod feeding, weening onto mysid, brine, anything. The animal is just not going to get enough food. Period. In what situation has this ever worked? Does anyone here have valid proof of a mandarin surviving in a small tank even short term (meaning one year?) To think that this is a good idea is just plain bad husbandry. I typically keep my mouth shut on these sorts of thing, but come on. I get tired of seeing the words "mandarin" and "nano" in the same sentence.
Joey
Joey
Joey, i've got about two months left to go... i'm running a 25 gal. no refugium for additional harvesting... feeding enriched brine and mysis when the LFS gets it in.
Thom
so would this count? i mean i'm running about the same amount of rock and everything in my tank as is in my 15gal,
Thom
so would this count? i mean i'm running about the same amount of rock and everything in my tank as is in my 15gal,
As has been stated by many in the field, it takes about that long for a healthy mandarin to starve to death. I hope that yours is fat and happy, but let's be realistic. Your situation is about average, and there are exceptions to every rule. If the concept of a mandarin in a nano were not a touchy/ dismal one, we would not be here discussing sources for "large copepods" to feed them in a teeny tank. By the way, one year is not long for a mandarin in captivity, they live substantially longer in the wild, yet hardly thrive in captivity, even up to this point. I do not think this can be considered a victory. BTW your 25 is about 4 times the size of this guy's tank. I sincerely hope that your creature does well. I think that the mortality rate due to poor or just plain neglectful husbandry of mandarins, in proportion to their massive importation, is sickening.
Joey
Joey
warloc,
I'm glad to hear your mandarin is doing well. I believe the source of Joey's frustration is that your situation is a rare one. The fact is that the majority of mandarins do not accept flake/frozen/substitute foods, or if they do are not fed often enough. What makes the situation even more frustrating is that we KNOW the husbandry requirements of mandarin dragonets. All they need is an abundant supply of mature live rock/sand, and peaceful tankmates and they'll do fine. It's not like Goniopora or Dendronephthya corals, where they are perishing after 12-18 months and we (or the PhDs) don't have a clue why.
I think the important thing is that now that kimichan has the mandarin he's trying his best to solve it's feeding issues, and asking for advice. At the very least, hopefully anyone reading this thread will think twice about putting one in a tiny tank in the future.
Daniel, has it eaten the stuff you bought?
I'm glad to hear your mandarin is doing well. I believe the source of Joey's frustration is that your situation is a rare one. The fact is that the majority of mandarins do not accept flake/frozen/substitute foods, or if they do are not fed often enough. What makes the situation even more frustrating is that we KNOW the husbandry requirements of mandarin dragonets. All they need is an abundant supply of mature live rock/sand, and peaceful tankmates and they'll do fine. It's not like Goniopora or Dendronephthya corals, where they are perishing after 12-18 months and we (or the PhDs) don't have a clue why.
I think the important thing is that now that kimichan has the mandarin he's trying his best to solve it's feeding issues, and asking for advice. At the very least, hopefully anyone reading this thread will think twice about putting one in a tiny tank in the future.
Daniel, has it eaten the stuff you bought?
Matt_Wandell,
I agree with your post, however I think that I will attack the situation from a different perspective. How often is it that someone says, "I have a powder blue tang in a 10 gallon, he is scratching and has white spots. What should I do?" The educated, conscientious aquarist does not say, "Make sure you feed lots of garlic, so it doesn't get ich." The educated, conscientious aquarist says " Dude, for the life of this animal which you owe a debt of, at the very least, keep alive, get him into a bigger tank. This environment is not suited for him." Why should a dragonet not get the same treatment as a tang?
Joey
I agree with your post, however I think that I will attack the situation from a different perspective. How often is it that someone says, "I have a powder blue tang in a 10 gallon, he is scratching and has white spots. What should I do?" The educated, conscientious aquarist does not say, "Make sure you feed lots of garlic, so it doesn't get ich." The educated, conscientious aquarist says " Dude, for the life of this animal which you owe a debt of, at the very least, keep alive, get him into a bigger tank. This environment is not suited for him." Why should a dragonet not get the same treatment as a tang?
Joey
he eats frozen brine shrimp, formula one, formula two, and tetra flake food. he's fine, and he'll be more fine in the 27 with the sump. he was already eating this type of food at the fish store where i got him, where he was in a one gallon tank. plus, i'm way overfeeding the tank and doing extra frequent water changes to compensate. if there are any signs of trouble, i won't hesitate to do the right thing and bring him back. i feed him 2x per day, and he's doing fine.
Keep in that Daniel got a larger tank specifically for this mandarin, and he's buying live foods to get it to feed. He's definitely going out of his way to at least TRY and provide for its needs, and he's asking for advice and researching his purchase. (Although researching it a bit late, I might add :wink: :wink: :wink: ) These are the attributes of what I consider a conscientious aquarist.
yeah 
new tank: $202
powerheads: 50
skimmer: 50
plumbing supply: 70
plexiglass for over the tank and for overflow box: 30
live rock: 100
live sand: 30
lights: 200
pods: 30
paint(yup, paint):10
this is all out of the pocket of a guy who has no money. i appreciate all of your advice, but i just want to say that i'm not trying to destroy all aspects of reefkeeping. i'm merely doing things i think are right, and then finding out otherwise. and the "tough rocks, cause the mandarin will have to cope" was a play on words (get it, rocks [live rock], and cope [copepod]) my girlfriend says i'm not funny, but i still think i am.
new tank: $202
powerheads: 50
skimmer: 50
plumbing supply: 70
plexiglass for over the tank and for overflow box: 30
live rock: 100
live sand: 30
lights: 200
pods: 30
paint(yup, paint):10
this is all out of the pocket of a guy who has no money. i appreciate all of your advice, but i just want to say that i'm not trying to destroy all aspects of reefkeeping. i'm merely doing things i think are right, and then finding out otherwise. and the "tough rocks, cause the mandarin will have to cope" was a play on words (get it, rocks [live rock], and cope [copepod]) my girlfriend says i'm not funny, but i still think i am.
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