Possible copepod chamber?

I was wondering if anyonr had sucess keeping a good amount of copepods in chamber 1 of oceanic biocube 29 gallons? If i were to keep a few pieces of live rock at the very bottom of chamber 1?

 

Hard to truly measure this, however some chaeto/LR in chamber 1 will harbor copepods.

 

Basically anywhere you have live rock/ rubble that is "out of the way" or in a place fish cant hunt for them, will be a haven for pods.

 

Copepods eat Phytoplankton.

 

Thanks guys for the quick reply!

The reason im asking is that i want to know that if i only put live rock in chamber 1 half way, and add copepods would this be a good place for them to breed and will they be able to feed my mandrin?

 

they will but they will not come out of there enough to properly feed him. a Mandrin will eat 200 pods a day and unless you have a huge tank /pod population itll run through them quick. I might suggest making a new of these, its called a pod condo http://www.livingreefs.com/threads/diy-pod-condos.43447/

Keep them in your LR sections and take one out and place it in the display every 2-3 days. you can train your mandrin quickly to eat from them and it'll keep him busy.

 

You will need to dose phytoplankton in order to have copepods "grow" in your tank. Many have tried Mandys in small systems.Few if any survive for very long.

 

That sounds like a great idea!!!

Ok then here is my idea and based on everyone experience, please let me know what are the probabilities of the mandarins surviving:

In chamber one of my bio cube I’m going to put a small (size of tennis ball) live rock all the way at the bottom of the chamber.





then I’m going to make a copepod condo and sit it on top of the live rock in chamber one and then pour copepods from a bottle ( any ideas of a good brand to buy ??) and I will supplement chamber one with plankton once a week with the pump off for 10 mins. and make another condo and place it in my display towards the back of the tank where there is an opening towards the bottom (there are 2 opening for water to flow inside CHAMBER 1 on the top and at the bottom so I guess copepods can travel from the display tank and back to chamber one thru the bottom part. )






and once a week I switch the condos?



Let me give you an inside on the tank

My tank has been cycling for the last 5 weeks, everything is zero and calcium is at 460, Temp Morning is 74 thru out the day its 79



In my tank I currently have 6 peppermint shrimp, 2 Mexican turbo snails and 10 margarita snails( they love eating the diatoms I had lol) I don’t have any fish or coral at the moment, I wanted to introduce the mandarin first once I have copepods already in the tank.

I’m planning on adding 2 clownfish and a watchman goby in the future which I’m going to be feeding NLS plus , frozen Mysis shrimp & brine shrimp ( live and frozen)...in hoping that the mandarin will also eat the variety diet, even if it’s a few scraps

What is everyone’s input?

 

http://www.3reef.com/threads/mandarin-dragonette-fotm-may-08.47991/
http://www.3reef.com/threads/how-long-should-i-wait-to-get-a-mandarin.113142/
http://www.3reef.com/threads/mandarin-dragonet-feeding.117256/
Heres someone who attempted what you are trying.The main problem is your water volume is very suseptible to waste accumulation.Mandarins can practically wipeout your tank population in a matter of days.
http://www.3reef.com/threads/keeping-mandarins-in-nanos-2.134633/

 

I guess i shouldnt add a mandrin to my tank from what it seems.... unless i order a ORA Mandrin and not even that is guarantee...... thank you everyone for your replies