Who Gives A Fish Forums

Hey all,

So I've recently set up a separate tank for breeding copepods - 5 gallons, about half-filled with water from my main tank. I picked up a jar of Tiger Copepods from my LFS, along with some LIVE Phytoplankton, and added a small pile of rubble for them to hide in. Has anyone else tried this? What were your results? Will I see a huge increase in pods in a week or two?

The reason I'm doing this is for my mandarin in my 75-gallon reef tank - he's getting really skinny, which tells me he's not finding enough pods to eat. I did add a bottle of Tiger pods to the main tank a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't seen any since. I've also been trying to feed him Cyclopeez, but he won't touch them.

That setup for the pods should work out fine, I think. Adding some macro algae like mcora to the pod tank would also be a good idea. Since mandarins mainly feed on pods, any you put in will get eaten quickly. Connecting the pod tank to your display tank would be beneficial too - it'd help some pods find their way into the main tank, and you'd also get the side benefit of having a refugium.

Another option could be to add a brine shrimp breeder to the tank, so you'd have a constant supply of brine shrimp for your mandarin. Alternatively, you could raise them separately and add them to the tank as needed.