Small tank setup for mandarin goby food

[Kes1221]

Hello.

We recently purchased a mandarin goby and want to set up a small tank to grow its food. Anyone have a small setup (5 gallons or smaller) they want to get rid of (or a better way to do this) let me know please!

Thanks!

[acepumping]

go out and buy some of the live pods and throw them in your tank, thats the best and let them live in there. thats all i did

[Enigma]

It would be better to use smaller containers, and have several cultures going: to ensure that if one crashes, you still have some left.

What is it that you want to culture?

[soapy]

How big is your display tank? What other fish do you have? Is the mandarin eating frozen by any chance?

[Kes1221]

We bought some live pods last night but we want to be able to cut out that middle man and give them a place to live as well so we have more of a supply when we need it.

We haven't dug too deep into what we want as of yet but from what we can find on the internet we want to try and culture copepods. As that is what we are told they want to eat.

Our tank is 40 gallons, with a couple crushed rock piles in the corners. We know the mandarin will feed from there but we were told they would probably eat what we might have in the thank in a day or so.
Right now she is the only fish with a couple shrirmps, crabs, corals and snails.

We havent tried the frozen food approach yet (we did buy Mysis as well) as she has been shy and hiding behind and under some rock for the most part... :(

[Northernseacorals]

Before you invest in shipping pods around the globe, you should try the frozen food as soon as possible, you will either confirm or rule it out; then you should set to work acquiring pods.

As Enigma already said; I would use the method of running some cultures in smaller containers; fail safe will be best for the fish :)

http://www.oceanpods.com/faq.html#culture

Check the above link for a little motivation and help.

[subman]

I know lots of people had great success with culturing white worms. I know Ken at blueworld was selling white worm cultures.

[monocus]

pods take 30 days to reproduce,and you should have a good supply of phyto to feed them

[acepumping]

yea but once they reproduce that one time, you will be covered in them like i am, what i do is watch ym rocks at night with a flash light, if you see tons of movment, it will be ok. that way you wont need the middle man once they re rpoduce

[Myka]

Since the Mandarin is the only fish in the tank you could just train it to eat frozen foods. Put a small dish or plastic lid near the Mandarin's favorite hangout spot. Add 2-3 frozen Brine Shrimp to the dish in the morning, at night siphon them out. Move your powerheads so they don't blow the Brine Shrimp out of the dish if needed. I find using a garlic drop on the food helps too. Keep this up everyday and eventually the Mandarin will taste the food. You know the Mandarin is trained when s/he starts to sit in the dish in the morning waiting for food. They eat a lot once trained, like 10-20 pieces per day!

I have had Mandarins weaned onto frozen food with this method within a week, but have had some take up to 3 weeks. Once the Mandarin is weaned to Brine Shrimp, start introducing it onto Mysis too. Then you can mix it up. Mysis is much more nutritious than Brine Shrimp (which are mostly shell), but Mysis is very fatty so you don't want to feed it exclusively. Brine Shrimp tend to be more enticing for weaning though.

[Ginu]

Since the Mandarin is the only fish in the tank you could just train it to eat frozen foods. Put a small dish or plastic lid near the Mandarin's favorite hangout spot. Add 2-3 frozen Brine Shrimp to the dish in the morning, at night siphon them out. Move your powerheads so they don't blow the Brine Shrimp out of the dish if needed. I find using a garlic drop on the food helps too. Keep this up everyday and eventually the Mandarin will taste the food. You know the Mandarin is trained when s/he starts to sit in the dish in the morning waiting for food. They eat a lot once trained, like 10-20 pieces per day!

I have had Mandarins weaned onto frozen food with this method within a week, but have had some take up to 3 weeks. Once the Mandarin is weaned to Brine Shrimp, start introducing it onto Mysis too. Then you can mix it up. Mysis is much more nutritious than Brine Shrimp (which are mostly shell), but Mysis is very fatty so you don't want to feed it exclusively. Brine Shrimp tend to be more enticing for weaning though.


I like this method and I will try it once I feel confident my tank can at least take care of one mandarin, but I gotta ask, what kind of lid did you use to train the fishy?
I did the same with my one African dwarf frog and I keep feeding him in a dish so the other fish don't frequent that very often and the bugger is doing quite well.

[Myka]

I actually use a dish-type thing, not a lid. I've seen other people use lids, but I can't find any that are heavy enough to sink. The dish I use I have no idea what it is for or where I got it, but it is about 2" cube, flat sides, open one side, and glass. I lay it on its side and prop the open end up a bit so the food sinks down to the back of the dish. It works well.