Just Traded my Koran Angel for a Mandarin, pointers?

[Squado]

I just went to the LFS and traded my juvenille Koran Anglen for a mandarin. I hated to see him go but he was terrorizing my coarls to death. Anyway, I know that mandarins are difficult to feed and require a lot of lr to eat, but are there any more pointers for this fish? I have about 40-45 pounds of lr in a 29 gallon, should this be enough to produce pods or should I buy some to maybe repopulate the tank if there is no enough lr? TIA.......

 

[Hara]

I would be ordering a bunch of pods to get your tank well seeded with pods. You may have to do this every so often.

 

[Squado]

Which one of these two products do you feel would be better for the mandarin (hes about 1.5 - 2 inches big):

http://www.reed-mariculture.com/copepod/

http://www.reed-mariculture.com/copepod/arctipods/

Or do you have a brand name that you trust or would be more beneficiary. TIA.......

 

[Hara]

I would go with the copepods that are smaller if your fish is small. The tiggerpods seem to be pretty large. Maybe give the folks a call and talk to them on recommendations. I like the ones I listed below for the propagation factor.

Mixed Males / Females
~250-500 microns in size
A small/medium copepod that will propagate nicely in an aquarium or refugium

That same place had an article on the left side on feeding mandarins.

 

[Squado]

Does it matter if they are alive or not? And do any of you guys have a site that you use to order th pods? TIA..........

 

[Hara]

yes, they need to be alive...dead ones don't propagate very well. That site you were at was a good one.

 

[ckmn101]

I just added this link in a reply to a post similar to this one. "The Mandarin Diner" it is a great idea, but I would surely buy pods too.
http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

 

[Squado]

I just ordered the 2,000 Misc Harpacticoids. If I were to culture them what size tank do you think would be appropriate and what would I need? I plan on doing a refuge but im probably gonna wait a lit bit to start it. TIA...........