What exactly is a refugium?

[jones1483]

Can someone please help me with this? I want a green mandarin and it sounds like a refugium would be needed to let the copepods reproduce. not sure exactly what it does or how it works though.

 

[Blakskall]

a refugium is basically a safe haven for fish/pods/inverts to protect them from anything in your tank that might agitate or pester them. Hang on the back refugiums are common, but you can also have a refugium section in a sump. Growing pods in a refugium is a must when owning a mandarin. But i would suggest asking your LFS if the mandarin are eating cods well, or even better if they actually managed to get them to eat mysis shrimp or pellets.

 

[jones1483]

Are the hang on back kind good enough?

 

[Blakskall]

if its big enough yes, but the tank has to have a large amount of live rock so your mandarins can graze on populations of copepods. 30 gallons is good if there eating frozen food, 75 gallons is suggested if there eating pods

 

[jones1483]

I have a 75 here are a few pics

 

[Blakskall]

looks pretty good, just make sure you have a good supply of pods, these guys are vacuums, and notorious for starving.. like i said, if you could get a mandarin goby that eats brine shrimp and mysis, that would be great. But its easier said then done