breeding brine shrimp for a dragonet

[darklcd]

hey all

I am stilll concidering a dragonet for my nano reef but I know that with only 25 or 30 lbs of rock in it there is a good chance that I will run into problems with it starving to death and I don't want that. I have thought about breeding brine shrim as a good alternative to copa pods. I know that its not the ideal way to get one to suverive but this is a fish that I have wanted for years I just wanted to see what yuou all thought about doing something like this

thoughts please?

 

[burning2nd]

i have a dragonet in my 30, i have 35 lbs of rock.. and a sump I thought my podulation was geting smaller... but its not...

i think you will be fine... my dragon also eats the pellets that make it to the ground,

 

[darklcd]

I am only concerned that most of them will not eat pellets, I will not be able to have a sump and i will only have about 30 lbs of rock

I just want to make sure that the dragonet will eat brine shrimp and that I don't buy it just to watch it die

 

[burning2nd]

it will eat brine shrimp but thats is not a sufficent source of food.

 

[darklcd]

ok so what should I do if I want to get one and I only have 25 or 30 lbs of rock because I can't add any more the tank is just not big enough and getting a larger tank is nmot a option right now it took enough to get this one in my living room lol

 

[burning2nd]

way more details..

i cant really say weather you should get one or not...

i was told i couldnt, and i did.. i bread some brine a few times.. but then i saw him eating pellets... now he goes right to the corner i feed the fish at... when i feed them.
he eats the left overs. so im not worried anymore about it...

last night i saw a lot of pods.

 

[darklcd]

I am not sure either to tell ya the truth. By the time my tank is done I should be ok but I have never kept one that lasted. I had one when I was about 17 and the guy that sold it to me told me nothing about it at all so I didn't know and it died so this time IF I get one I want to make sure that it has a much better chance.

Fromw hat I hear you are part of the like 2 or 3 % of people that have a dragonet that will eat other then live food so I don;t know what to do at all

you were also sayin that the brine shrimp aren't a sufficent soure of food I am wondering if you mean the ammout food of whats in it and I was just wondering if you can clear that up for me

 

[inkmates]

I have one in a 29 I feed freshly hatched brine twice daily and she is doing just fine, nice and plump. Adult birne have almost no nutritional value but freshly hatched brine still carry the yolk for awhile thus making them more nutritional. Pods are a much better food stuff for the dragonet though and they can be purchased at some lfs and you can also get them on ebay. If you have a friend with a good supply they can also be harvested. The trick to keeping a self sustaining population is to give them a place to breed where the dragonet can't get at them. If you have any other questions feel free to pm me

 

[darklcd]

I haven't bread brine shrimp in a while but if I can do it to keep one alive I am more then willing to do it. Some peopel told me that the adults were better but I can understand the yournger ones working better.

 

[DonW]

Culturing pods in the same manor as you would brine would be a more suitable solution for a Mandarin. Even baby brine do not have the nutritional value. Culture pods and a brown algae to keep them fed and you be fine.

Don

 

[darklcd]

DonW I have never done pods before can you give me a little more info?

 

[DonW]

Have you ever done or seen phyto being cultured? If so pods are real close to the same except instead of feeding f/2 you feed the pods Isocrysis and nannochloropsis. The key to nutritional value is the Isocrysis.

Don

 

[darklcd]

never seen them before at all if you can send me a pm to talk about it some more because that would be perfect for my dragonet

 

[inkmates]

heres my brine hatching setup I had to pull it out from under my tank and put it on the counter to get a decent pic. Its pretty self explainitory small tank air pump for movement and a dim light. I add more eggs every other day or so to replace the ones I take out for food.

 

[BarrierTom]

you could set up a 10 gallon tank, put a 65k bulb from Lowe's over it and get some macro algae from your local fish store. i did that and within a week the 10 gallon was packed with pods! i called it a free standing fuge. i had a crab in there as well, and dumped fish food in once a week or so.

I used a turkey baster to take the pods from the algae and put them in front of Ms. Scooter who lived in my main tank. She got nice a chubby very fast. good luck