pods?

[tynmissy]

i am researching building a refugium so i can get a mandarin and not have it starve, but i was having trouble figuring out if i put it under my tank won't the pods have a hard time getting up the return line or worse yet chopped up in the impeller? TIA for any info

[cabin]

The ideal scenario is to have the refugium above the tank and drain into it without use of pump. However, most of us don't have the ability to do that, and put it below the tank and use a pump. It's not that the pods as adults travel through the system via the pump, but that they breed in the refugium and some of the tiny offspring travel to the tank, to grow in some nook or cranny until eaten, or be eaten at once.

[bunsenburner]

Top is best but the bottom is better than none at all. I believe that some of the larval stages survive the trip up very well. Culturing and enriching brine shrimp is also an option. It is also possible to train them to eat frozen mysis. Jsaon also showed us that live mysids can be collected in the ocean, but there is some risk of bringing something into your tank by feeding live ocean caught mysids, espcially during times of red tides. I'd try it if it looks thin though.

[Hedonist]

If a pod was going thru a pump, I could see it possiblyygetting chopped up more easily as opposed to very tiny microscopic critters such as their off spring and the other small stuff ...I think there is a name for the stuff that grows around tand on the macro algaes and sea grasses, I want to so epithelia... or somethin like that , they help to sustain the zoo planktons etc...??? In the end, it is not really an issue, they are really pretty small, not like a fish going thru a turbine ....

Mandarins sometime do take mysids, blood worms, brine shrimps etc... I would not rely on a refugium to supply all the food, unless it was like 3x the size of your tank, and even then I am not sure that would keep up with the mandarin and everything else that eats all that comes out of a refugium...

Denise

[HIDDENREEF]

In addition to the ref. you could add a good sized clump of chaeto into the tank. The macro algae is pretty dense where the pods can reproduce and act as a decent food source. There is plenty around!

[tynmissy]

i originally wanted to make a HOB fuge but am having a hard time coming up with a good looking plan on paper so i might end up just building one for under the tank, does anyone have any ideas or plans for one they have built? i have a full shop to build wooden cabinets in so i would think that i have any tools needed. i also bought some weld-on 4 and an applicator, already have some 1/4'' acrylic

[tynmissy]

good idea HR, anyone in the portland area have any chaeto i could buy?

[smtarr]

I'm not in the Portland area but I have LOTS of chaeto. The rest of the club can attest to that as most of them have been recipients at one time or another. My ideal is to have an upstream refugium on my 265g hidden by the cabinet at the end. Seems like I have seen advertised pods for sale? Anyone have any, Anna, Becky, Pauline, etc. Or able to get any? Let me know if you have or can. Sue

[tynmissy]

sue i know you can get a bottle of pods from www.oceanpods.com don't know how bad shipping is but they do offer 2 day so i wouldn't think it would be to bad

[bunsenburner]

I'd go with Chaeto since it will have pods in it as well as provide great habitat. I've some for sale but so do the LFS at reasonable prices.

[smtarr]

I have lots of chaeto in my main display tank but I still worry about providing enough food for my Mandarins. When I set up my 265g I plan to 'seed' the sump with chaeto and an order of pods to get things started. Sue

[T1adler]

Here is a past article in Reef Keeping Magazine that talks about feeding a mandarin Formula One out of a jar at the bottom of the tank. I wonder how often they can be trained to do this?
Mandarin Diner (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-02/nftt/index.php)

[RLMainers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6911784#post6911784 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by T1adler
Here is a past article in Reef Keeping Magazine that talks about feeding a mandarin Formula One out of a jar at the bottom of the tank. I wonder how often they can be trained to do this?
Mandarin Diner (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-02/nftt/index.php)

Everyone should check this story out. It is really neat. And the video is a riot.