Pods
 

I have a Mandrin Goby, and he is doing well so far and eating frozen shrimp, but I read on another clubs board that many of them starve if there are not enough pods to eat, and that frozen brine shrimp are low food value. Is there a good way in increase the number of pods in the tank. It is not well established yet and I know there are very few right now, I saw a link to a company in Ontario that sells live pods. They were kind of pricey, is this the best rout, or is there another way to encourage them? I am feeding bio plankton three times a week, and I am supplementing calcium and minerals with balance blocks from HBH.

How much yummy live rock do you have? (By yummy I mean cured and mature.) You can make what are called "pod piles" with LR rubble, a place for them to live and multiply in relative safety. Clumps of macro-algae often serve the same purpose, you can see communities of bugs inside.

Do you run a refugium? This is a remote tank feeding the main tank, incorporating the elements listed above in a predator-free environment.

A good substitute for frozen brine is frozen PE Mysis shrimp, shaved into tiny bits... if your Mandarin is already taking frozen, you can hope that it switches to the much healthier mysis right away.

What about turning a hang-on filter into a small refugium? Is it possible and if so what is the best way?

Mandarins are iffy, and you need to get one into your tank before it has had a chance to starve at you favorite LFS. I got one months ago, and keep it in my 33G cube tank. The tank has a fairly healthy population of pods that started on their own as Alan says. My little guy was only about an inch long when I got him, and has doubled in size. He is very fond of PE Mysis, which is all I feed except for daily feedings of OSI flakes which I don't think he eats. :mrgreen:

I have a green Mandarin that was in Mike's sump for awhile ( banished there for scrapping with his other Mandarin ) ... when I got him he was a little scrawny but now he is so fat he can hardly swim :eek: :cool:

pod piles or macro work great ... my tank has so many pods it is a little scary to look in there day or night :mrgreen: