mandarin Goby 120 gallon Reef
 

Looking at adding a Pair of this to my tank. With nothing else requiring the copepods. And addint a bottle of 5280 first month then another the 2nd month. Adding mandarins in the second month what kind of cycle should i expect on the mandarins eating and or requiring more 5280 in the coming months or will the be enough to multiply on their own at that point. Obviously ill be adding Mysis attempting the Wean off challenge; however, looking at worst case scenario they say screw you to frozen food :P

I think if your tank is stable and population pods continues to cycle you might be ok, just keep an eye on their tummy to make sure they are not getting too skinny, plus u probably wont be able to tell for 6 months or longer, i had a pair in a 110g, was good for 1.5 yrs then the male just disappeared, not sure if my serpant starfish ate it....but the female still going strong. I never added pods in mine...

It's doable, I'd just make sure to have a good size fuge so you can provide pods.

If you find their stomachs getting small you can always do a bribe feeder. Mine was skeletal from saying screw you to prepared foods for over 6 weeks. (I was providing other things but quarantine has limitations). I remembered my feeder and now she slim but going the better direction.

The feeder is easy to make. Search Paul's feeder. The pain is hatching brine but if you decapsulate it really isn't too bad. The feeder is a small container with the opening at the top covered in panty hose. You put the brine in and they slowly come out my mandarin took about a day to figure it out. Now she sits on top and sucks them through. You can make things more convenient and/ or more hidden. I made mine with a squat mason jar so the weight holds it down. My hubby dremeled the lid so I don't have to use rubber bands. I've got a tube that runs up above the surface with a small funnel for filling it up without having to take it out. I have it in the back of some rock work of an open cave. You can't see it that well just looking at the tank but if you look in the cave you'll see my mandarin and her dragon pipefish friends loving their free style feeder. And my seahorses help clean up the escapees. I dose my tank with Copepods and amphipods but I have so many eaters of those things that I really love the piece of mind the feeder brings. My pipefish eat frozen mysis but they love hunting down the baby brine.