tHEcONCH Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 So, if I ignore common sense and actually have a crack at this, are any local reef-keepers willing to let me collect pods etc from their sumps for the next few months? I guess this would involve sticking coarse sponges into your sump and collecting them every so often. Mr Pedersen and Witt are also keen to see if Mandarins can be hatched and raised using pods etc sieved from temperate (cf tropical) seas, so another option might be collecting seawater and filtering greeblies out. Is anyone keen on getting involved with this project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fmxmatt Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 I dont have a sump but I do have the filterbox in my tank, and I often find dead pods in my skimmer, which skims out from the filterbox. If u wanna try a sponge in there ur more than welcome to. I've just chucked a few clumps of liverock in there so it should end up as a pod breeding ground. Theres always tons of little shrimp type things running around on my substrate during the night. If you can think of a method of catching em I'll give that a try aswel? (Would the coke bottle trick with food work, or would I just catch myself a brittlestar?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted March 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Thanks Matt Video of the mandarins gett'n jiggy widdit... http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/ee22 ... I_1209.flv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fmxmatt Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Thats pretty cool! Similar to what my clowns do, although I dont think they have any idea what they're doing the silly little monkeys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 wish i could help out conch but i think my mandarin and sixline are pretty much decimating my pod population at the mo.. have you had any luck with raising pods in your external aquarium? if its been successful then perhaps i could try doing it too with a spare tank and help out that way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted March 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 wish i could help out conch but i think my mandarin and sixline are pretty much decimating my pod population at the mo.. have you had any luck with raising pods in your external aquarium? if its been successful then perhaps i could try doing it too with a spare tank and help out that way Yep, they grow quite well in there - but judging from what I've found out, I'll need a ton of them. I can't really harvest enough from my tanks - Witt was actually getting all of his by filtering NSW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camnbron Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Come on you Christchurchians! Get in behind tHEcONCH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Collecting wild copepods (same as Witt) would be the best approach IMO. I have a link at home to purchase some Sieves for doing just that. I will post it when I get home. I will prob order myself some soon as I have now acquired my B&W clowns for breeding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 im keen to help where i can no sump tho and my sixline eats most of mine i could help with the sea water thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted March 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 im keen to help where i can no sump tho and my sixline eats most of mine i could help with the sea water thing Yea, that might be the way to go I think. I'll have to find out more about how to do that, but it would be great if we could contribute to the understanding of what they require. Quite apart from breeding, it would be good to know more about how people can feed adults in otherwise unsuitable tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 mpederson keeps his in basically pod-less tanks. I think he may culture pods occasionally, but he feeds his mandarins large amounts of food multiple times a day to keep them alive and healthy. His breed so he is doing ok. I think its 4 feedings/day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sapphire Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 I'd be keen to get involved too. am just organising set up of a pod tank now. However I like the collecting idea - how and where is best in Chch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Just build a zooplankton net (google for instructions) and goto a local wharf/dock and drop it over the edge and pull it up Enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 how fine should the netting be (how big are the holes) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Why do you need pods? Pods are hard to raise and a alternative would be roitifers and brine shrimp when they get bigger. Some micro alage species are also available since the Auckland university got it approved some time ago. However found it unnecessary if breeding clown fish and banggai cardinals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 edit post removed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 how fine should the netting be (how big are the holes) 200micron is fine. Just use stockings. Why do you need pods? Pods are hard to raise and a alternative would be roitifers and brine shrimp when they get bigger. Rotifers have no nutritional value at all, brine shrimp have none when they are larger. So you have to gutload both of these. Copepods are fairly easy to breed and catch and are highly nutritious. Mandarin fry have been unsuccessfully raised on either of these methods and new methods are suggesting copepod nauplii is going to be the best bet for this. If we could get SS rotifers over here they might be a go, but Copepod nauplii seems to be our best bet. It can also be used in other breeding as Witt has proven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Rotifers have no nutritional value at all, brine shrimp have none when they are larger That does not really matter as gutloading these is what breeders have been doing for a long time. we have many foods available to gut load them. In fact i have never gut loaded them for baby banggais as i keep the brine shrimp for only a few days. I found that if you have a tank with no fish you will end up with millions of copods. I am finding that since using Miracle mud my sump i have thousands of copods Feeding coral food like reef booster and reef roids helps as they like the very small foods floating in the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 how are frozen rotifers? or do they need to be live? i've seen them for sale at the old critter kingdom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Very true. Although keeping rotifers can be a PITA at times. Having to feed them every couple of days when he water clears, when Copepods will happily feed themselves for weeks. If you feed your baby bangaiis just BBS then you should be aware: Offspring fed solely newly hatched brine shrimp are prone to Sudden Fright Syndrome, so enriching HUFAs is key in the rearing process. Vitamin Enrichment is also beneficial. So Gutloading them is going to be very beneficial to your fry. Anyways back on topic. Mandarin fry are too small and their mouths are not big enough to eat rotifers. This has been a unique challenge as Rotifers have been a staple first food for many fish (esp Clownfish). Since there has been only a couple of people in the world who have raised a mandarin the methods are not known on how to do this successfully and repeatably. Copepod Nauplii has become a recent hot-topic as it is smaller than Rotifers and is something that is likely to be a natural food source for these fish in the wild. I am keenly watching the progress of Witt (author of the illustrated guide to marine fish breeding) on his first attempt (and so far highly successful) at raising mandarin fry. After consulting briefly with him I am going to be building a zooplankton net to see what species/family's of pods I can catch in NZL. He believes local zooplankton (pods) should be ideal for raising marine fry so I am keen to give it ago. That withstanding, I am not going to stop culturing rotifers, as they are also highly beneficial and easy to use. Hope this info is useful for some people. To make a Zooplankton net just google "zooplankton net" and you can goto a local wharf/dock and drop it off the side to the bottom and pull it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 hmm could be interesting to see what you catch you could get alot of things out there that fry of different species might eat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camnbron Posted May 20, 2008 Report Share Posted May 20, 2008 Here is some useful information about mandarins.Breeding the Green Mandarin I might have to get a breeders basket and try and catch my mandarin now!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted May 20, 2008 Report Share Posted May 20, 2008 Yea, you can find Matthew L. Wittenrich's log on www.marinebreeder.org I have been following it since he started. A bummer he used unidentified wild zooplankton instead of rotifers. In the article he says he added Rotifers, but his log says the wild plankton was what they ate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted May 20, 2008 Report Share Posted May 20, 2008 I was hoping to buy a mate for my mandarin off trademe last night but the price went a bit too high :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted May 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2008 I'm a little suspicious of some of those pictures - the seller seemed a littlw unsure of whether the Mandarin was male or female, so probably not the best one to be bidding on anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.