tank in ship shape?

i noticed today that i have had my first sign of a nice copepod outbreak. all my water parameters are perfect or very close to it so im assuming this is a good thing. i was wondering when i could add a dragonette to my tank. the pods are still very small, how quickly do they mature and reproduce? ive heard the mandarins prefer a mature reef and mine is quite young but since i have these little pods swimmin around, does that mean i might be able to add the mandarin sooner?

 

nope i would not recomend it,

I tried the same thing after adding 2 bottles of copepods into my tank and within 4 days it had died from starvation, after waiting a month after adding the pods.

You should wait 6 months to a year or get a refugium, you could get a hang on the back one

 

i was thinking doin a fuge in one of my filter chambers eventually. i guess i'll get that established before hand. thanks for the heads up.

 

Filter fuge will not cut it for a mandarin.
What sized tank?

 

biocube 14, the fuge would be tiny but ive heard others have had success. he'd be in there with 2 clowns and a decent size janitorial staff.

 

Not going to be able to keep a mandarin in there, well too small of a tank.

 

could manual feedings remedy this?

 

Manual feedings of pods? Sure, if your willing to buy a lot of a thousand or so every two weeks. But then your looking at over $500 a year just for mandarin food The other thing that might be an option is to set up a separate system to breed your own pods. I would say a 20 gallon or so tank would cut it.

 

my wallet fainted when it read that. well i am gonna be running a seperate 10g but that would be housing a peppermint shrimp, some snails, and a small damsel which i dont think is gonna be great for pod breeding. i'm gonna have to see what i can figure out here. if i dont get my girlfriend a mandarin she'll most likely kill me. if you manage to think of any clever ideas let me know.

 

a 5 gallon bucket with some rubble, air stone and heater will work for pods too