Neptune Aquatics

I want to grow pods, someone school me...

HiFidelity

HiFidelity

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I saw youtube videos and a couple of websites but it seems everyone has their own "magical method" ie; how much air to pump, grow your own phyto or not? thus I want to hear about your favorite method and so on.

For so many years now I've wanted a Mandarin & though many fish have come & gone the mandarin stays on the "I'll get to that one day list" so I'm fed up and I think I should once & for all do this so I can feed the rest of my fish better food anyway so it's a win/win...
 
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it's Gresham right? (pardon me if I butchered it)

I did think of you but I figured it would be in bad taste to inquire about sharing with me your trade practices rather than a purchase inquiry ;)

Do you personally receive the emails on the other end of that address?
 
One member who lived in SF, basically kept a 10g tank with existing pods outside his house, some weedy macro algae in there, and every now and then he squirted in Phyto-feast I think, and that was the extent of him growing pods and they grew pretty damn well considering.
 
Check out the mandarins at T&T Aquarium in San Jose.

I bought my green mandarin there and he eats frozen brine/mysis all day long. Doesn't eat pellets though but I haven't really tried training him.

There were three green mandarins and they all ate frozen brine shrimp. Ask the guy to feed them for you. I think he gives 10% if you review him on yelp. Also theres a 20% off sale right now because of Christmas.
 
HiFidelity said:
it's Gresham right? (pardon me if I butchered it)

I did think of you but I figured it would be in bad taste to inquire about sharing with me your trade practices rather than a purchase inquiry ;)

Do you personally receive the emails on the other end of that address?
Click to expand...

You nailed it!

We sell them as a starter culture so we want you to be as successful as you can. We have an amazing tech support team, I'm one of them but I would not be the one answering this question... that would be Chad Clayton, our Live Feeds Supervisor. We support all our products, and most the time it seems, we support quite a few other companies products that lack a tech support team that can give good advice :D

FWIW he's got a great presentation if the club is looking for a speaker.

We give basic instructions on the website, but Chad can give you more detailed ones, and help you through the process.
 
well the Mandarin isn't my only motivation behind this, I'd like to add live food to the buffet of fish foot my fish get already :)

my dog gets fresh home cooked whole non-processed, non-dehydrated and non-byproduct dog food, so I figure why not treat the fishes to the same level of quality?
 
So the Mandarin arrived early and he is in the tank now, I see him nipping at my rocks so I'm assuming there are pods for him to eat already. To be safe I'm going to start a culture ASAP and buy all my phyto for now rather than culture it so I can focus on making sure my pod cultures grow nicely.

I need to buy pods, lots & lots of pods. The person that I picked up the Mandarin from seemed more concerned with his time and prior engagements once the transaction was over so I couldn't really capitalize on his pod population that he initially promised to provide with the fish, fortunately I don't have to deal with that person again (I can't stand people who are more concerned about their R.O.I when parting out a tank than the well being of their animals).

Anyone selling pods locally? I'd like to dump as much as possible in my fuge and use some to start as large a culture as I have empty bottles for, hopefully someone can point me in the right direction?
Starting with calling the closest LFS' to see what they have.

Good news; this bad boy is a male, he looks awesome and fat, looking to keep him that way :)

IMG_20141221_205616.jpg
 
He's probably going to decimate your pod population in a matter of days. I'd suggest trying to train him onto some frozen foods immediately if you want to keep him fat. I had a mandarin in my nano a few years ago and built a diner for her. check out melev's reef directions: http://melevsreef.com/node/720

I think these are the bare minimums for keeping a mandarin in a smaller tank:
Nothing else that eats pods or will out compete the mandarin (no wrasses, no shrimp)
Feed variety of foods multiple times a day.
Feed frozen with all pumps off, mandarins are deliberate eaters (ie: slow).

Cyclopeeze was what my mandarin preferred. She also ate mysis and pellets. In the end I felt she wasn't really thriving and I couldn't really feed three times a day all the time, so I gave her away to someone with a more appropriate home (way larger tank).
 
Enderturtle said:
Check out the mandarins at T&T Aquarium in San Jose.

I bought my green mandarin there and he eats frozen brine/mysis all day long. Doesn't eat pellets though but I haven't really tried training him.

There were three green mandarins and they all ate frozen brine shrimp. Ask the guy to feed them for you. I think he gives 10% if you review him on yelp. Also theres a 20% off sale right now because of Christmas.
Click to expand...

Healthy Mandarin from above:
fat_orange_mandarin2.jpg


Your Mandarin from above:
fungia-2-jpg.1592


Ender: From the one pic that's here of your mandarin, I'm concerned enough that she is too skinny that I thought it warranted mentioning. You shouldn't be able to see any indents on her (usually shows up low behind the pectoral fin) and the skin should bunch up like a shar pei when they turn. If you can see any indentations or the skin is tight, then they aren't getting enough nutrition. Again, maybe a different angle would tell a different story, but she looks skinny. I'd increase feeding to 3-4 times a day. They really need more variety than just mysis and it's really best if they can have access to food at all times so that they can graze. See post in my comment above from Melev about his mandarin.
 
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I have copepods in my tank for now, Mandarin is constantly nipping at my rockwork but I'm trying to get ahead of this fish before it eats all the pods in my tank, so I'm prepared to go & buy them weekly and continue dumping them in my fuge until I'm either growing pods at home or I get a massive fuge going, it's not the size of the tank that matters once you have a large enough fuge because no large population is going to thrive unless isolated from DT otherwise every fish in the tank will work tirelessly till all the pods are gone.

In regards to them eating frozen, I've known more individuals who say their Mandarin stopped eating frozen some time after it was in their tank than I have actually seen frozen feeding Mandarins to account for so while it's great to try to feed the thing frozen food I'm not going to stop looking for live food. The whole Mandarins eating frozen food is a case of lottery, plenty have bought tank bred Mandarins who for some reason or another stopped eating frozen, it's not their natural source of food and shouldn't replace live pods entirely.

So back to the matter at hand.

Any local source for pods? I'm ordering a ton tonight online if I don't find one, or and this is a great idea, anyone here who has a pod infestation willing to keep this guy for me for now?
 
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Thank you oh so much kind sir :)
Exactly the info I needed, oh & I spent a few minutes today studying this Mandarin and I can confirm that he's a male (pointy and long first dorsal spine) he appears to be young because he's quite small at <2" and he does not look thin, I looked where you told me to and there are no indentations, he's plump & round all the way through.
Rest assured I'll be back at the LFS like a crack head at his dealer's place if needed to make sure he stays well fed, hopefully I'll get enough pods in the tank/fuge to keep him happy until my larger fuge is ready and/or I get some cultures going.

How much volume in pod cultures would you say I should start with? I was thinking a couple of 1 gal jugs or 2 liter bottles! probably not enough still but I'd like to cover all basis as to maximize my supply of pods for the little guy. Space is no issue, my tank has slowly began to take over my whole garage :D

No other fish in my tank except for the flameback angel nip at rocks which is still quite rare, they pretty much are spoiled & wait for feeding time, so through simple observation it appears that he's the only one capitalizing on the pods already in my tank.
Furthermore I'd like to eventually feed less frozen/dry foods and increase live food population because I tend to be heavy on feeding and algae is a touch & go kind of thing in my tank likely because of my habits, but I love these fish so I'd rather deal and fight with unpleasant algae than to underfeed. Parameters are solid though, no high nitrates or phosphates, in fact I'm starting to believe I've stripped the tank of all nitrates but that's whole other thread ;)
 
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