I need Copepods; Any locals have a culture they'd share?

S

scottjua

Hi everyone, I'm new to the board and this is my first post and plea for help.

I have a hungry Mandarin that needs more copepods that what he's getting out of my tank lately. The tank has gone through some changes and I think I've not helped my pod poulation in the process ( a 6 line wrasse who is now gone probably helped deplete the food source as well) and I really want him to do well again.

Does anyone in the area have a culture of Copepods that is large/healthy enough, that they'd like to share with me? Have a price in mind? My tank is a 29G and the Mandarin is the only pod eater now so I imagine I wouldn't need a whole lot.

Thanks in advance guys, and I've been lurking for a while and listening to Marc's reefcast with much joy!
 
Houston... we have a problem. I'm sure you realize that a 29g tank is woefully inadequate for keeping a mandarin, unless it is eating something else or you have a adequately sized, predator free fuge where you are raising pods. Even with a adequate sized tank/fuge, it still takes about 8-12 months to build up a good enough pod population to maintain one if these. You may want to consider finding a new home for your mandarin if you want it to survive long term. Good luck with you search.

Cheers :!:
 
Welll....what Ron said, yes.

I know that I can go to one of my LFS here, Fish Paradise, and get a bag of grape caulerpra for $5. It's usualy also got 'pods, and those tiny brittle stars in it, and the asterina stars.

I don't know if your LFS does this, but it is worth checking out.
 
Thanks so far everyone. I do realize that 29G is quite small for him, and we are considering a tank upgrade. However, he has been eating quite well up until recently and although he's still eating I can tell he's getting slim.

I have some caulerpa in the tank already and until a few days ago could see the pods actually hanging out in certain sections of the tank when I used a magnifying glass.

Not as an excuse, but this fish purchase was one that I did little research on in that the two other fish I bought at the same time were not researched. I trusted what I was being told by a LFS that has a good rep on this board. I've had a huge pod population for some time in my tank so I had figured that it was enough to sustain him until we get a larger tank. The catch is that the LFS that is named in this thread, where I bought three fish from... the owner told me that the following fish would be ok in my tank with my conditions/size,etc: Mandarin, Scooter Blenny, and 6 line wrasse. When asked if there would be a food shortage I was assured that they should be ok. Naturally come to find out after I got them all into the tank I started reading and found that they all eat pretty much the same thing, although the wrasse would eat prepared food as well. Long story short; the wrasse went back after I witnessed him actually tearing polyp and xenia tentacles off, and the scooter dissapeared.

So now I'm back to having just the mandarin and based off of my observations of him being the slowest of the trio, and how aggressive the wrasse was, I can see why he's got little food left.

I need a boost until I can get a tank and refuge set up that is adequate. I don't want to kill him and try to get him out, as I pretty much had to break the tank down completely to get the wrasse out. I'd hate to lose him but I definitely don't want to harm more in the tank to save just him either... sooo....

not sure what to do.. I can always try some more macro and buying some locals pods, but I'd trust members here more than the LFS here in plano now.
 
I would definitely try the method Marc used successfully. If that does not work, in my opinion I don’t think that you will be able boost the food supply enough to feed him and to continue the pod population growth.
 
I hate to say it, but your best bet may be to sell the manderin and try again later, especially if you are considering setting up a larger tank. IMO it is not worth the trouble/expense to set up a fuge to satisfy the needs of only 1 fish, especially considering he may starve before everything is good to go anyway.
If you look at my tank info I have a manderin in a 30 cube, but I have spent an awful lot of time and money keeping him feed. I would not do it all again.

If you want keep it anyway good luck to you and there is a link to the place were I bought my many, many bottles of trigger pods - http://www.reed-mariculture.com/copepod/

Also - if you are buying pods from a LFS check the date on the bottle. If it is more than 2 weeks old they are most likely all dead.
 
I have a young mandarin that will eat frozen brineshrimp with enriched with spirinella. Now he shows up at dinnertime with the rest of the fish.
 
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