copepods, amphipods, crabs, and arghhh!!!

[LittleParr]

My tank is going to have 2 perc clowns, a yellow watchman, a green mandarin, and a royal gramma. I'd like to have some crabs, shrimp, and snails, and add extra amphipods and copepods for the yellow watch goby and mandarin, but some have told me that the crabs and shrimp will eat all the copepods and amphipods...can they all achieve a balance together?

 

[lando]

What size tank? How much LR?

 

[LittleParr]

33g with as much lr as possible

 

[tripper]

I don't believe you will have enough LR to sustain a mandarin. Unless you can find one that is eating frozen food (very rare), I believe he would die a slow death. A general rule is 1 mandarin per 100 lbs of LR . . . and that only counts if you don't have other fish that feed off of pods as well.

 

[canyon15]

That sounds like a little too many fish for a tank that size.

 

[revhtree]

I think lando meant how much LR do you have now?

The mandarin will not do well in the tank.

I have crabs and shrimp, and about a million pods. Have you ever thought about setting up a refugium to breed pods? Do you have a sump?

 

[lando]

I agree, a 33gal is just too small to keep a manderin.