Too bad you werent in Boston, I could have hooked you up with some seriously pod infested macro. Check around and see if you can get some chaeto from someone near you. Just throw the ball in your tank and leave it in there until you can get it eating other foods.
Scooter Blenny Question
- Thread starter Andy V
- Start date
Cardiak
Non-member
The problem is an entire bottle of pods is probably the equivalent to whats your mandarins daily food requirements. With out the right size tank and rock/refuge your pods just wont have the chance to reproduce before they die. Honestly I wouldnt recommend a scooter or mandarin unless its in a mature tank of at least 55g with alot of porus rocks and thats just for one of them. At night you should be able to see your sand crawling with critters and little white pods all over your walls in order to support these guys propperly.
Anyways if you are still going to try and support one I would try and stick with a scooter and not the mandarin as they are much more likely to eat prepared food down the line.
Anyways if you are still going to try and support one I would try and stick with a scooter and not the mandarin as they are much more likely to eat prepared food down the line.
Mandarins that wont eat frozen really are a pain unless you have a large enough tank or a refugium with macro. If you really want a mandarin but dont have space for a big tank you could have a smaller tank filled with macro that the mandarin lives in. I have a 20 with a caleurpa forest that supports a mandarin. Although he also eats some frozen. Problem is he hides a lot. The tank is basically just rock, a couple of caleurpa species, the mandarin, a goby and some urchins. I also had a larger tank with a pair of mandarins and a caleurpa forest.
Culturing pods alone is kind of a pain, but it can be done. I think the sellers of the tigger pods has info on it on their site. I dont think its worth the effort and I never had luck culturing the tiggers. Its much easier to get amphipods and copepods from someones tank via chaeto and start a refugium.
Scooters are MUCH easier than mandarins to get to eat frozen and flake foods. So that would probably be the way to go. The key is to find a nice fat one. THey shouldnt look bony in any way, but they almost always do. Look at the belly AND the back, the back should have meat on it, it shouldnt look like a bony plate. Most that you see in the stores are really skinny. The skinny ones dont always make it, Ive lost a few even in copepod filled tanks. I learned my lesson about ordering dragonets online, dont do it. But heres what Ive done and has worked with some really skinny scooters and mandarins. When I first get them I put them in their own SMALL tank with a ball of pod filled chaeto and rock. I feed black worms one day and freshly hatched brine the next. I alternate until they start putting on weight. Then I start feeding frozen mysis and frozen brine on alternating dates with no other food options besides the pods in the tank. I will not add the fish to the larger tank until it is fat and eating frozen on a regular basis. They should have a big rounded belly and you should be able to see that they have some meat along the dorsal spine.
Good luck
Culturing pods alone is kind of a pain, but it can be done. I think the sellers of the tigger pods has info on it on their site. I dont think its worth the effort and I never had luck culturing the tiggers. Its much easier to get amphipods and copepods from someones tank via chaeto and start a refugium.
Scooters are MUCH easier than mandarins to get to eat frozen and flake foods. So that would probably be the way to go. The key is to find a nice fat one. THey shouldnt look bony in any way, but they almost always do. Look at the belly AND the back, the back should have meat on it, it shouldnt look like a bony plate. Most that you see in the stores are really skinny. The skinny ones dont always make it, Ive lost a few even in copepod filled tanks. I learned my lesson about ordering dragonets online, dont do it. But heres what Ive done and has worked with some really skinny scooters and mandarins. When I first get them I put them in their own SMALL tank with a ball of pod filled chaeto and rock. I feed black worms one day and freshly hatched brine the next. I alternate until they start putting on weight. Then I start feeding frozen mysis and frozen brine on alternating dates with no other food options besides the pods in the tank. I will not add the fish to the larger tank until it is fat and eating frozen on a regular basis. They should have a big rounded belly and you should be able to see that they have some meat along the dorsal spine.
Good luck
So far, I have saved the mandarin. I created a little refugium with the "pod condo" and some algae and put in a bottle of tigger pods. The mandarin is in there and it's been two days and he is still alive. Let's see if he makes the weekend. The scooter mystery has been solved. I came home today and nothing but a clean little skeleton carcass in front of my pistol shrimps cave!!!
