Refuge methodology questions

[Scooterman]

We must be clear here in that by "pods" for your mandarinfish, you mean copepods (very hard to grow enough in refugia for one mandarinfish let alone three plus a voracious wrasse).

Amphipods o the other hand are easy to grow in quantity. unfortunately... over 90% of the mandarins diet is copepods.

I think I confused amphipods with copods in the old tank. I regret not trying to culture copods outside the tank, I thought It would work in the sump LR rubble I had but It seems I didn't have luck. I have seen people say they keep mandarins & feed them foods other than copods, I don't know how they could ever tell because it is so difficult to see them eat in the first place. Anyway, If you did somehow get them to eat something other that what they should be eating & supplement with copods, would that be ok to do in a situation where someone wants to keep more than one?

 

[jeffkeith_us]

To food farm or not to food farm; that is the question.

So my question is: would Concept 2; A) grow ‘pods, and B) grow enough for three Mandarins and a possible Six-line? Or is there another solution that I’m overlooking or someone far more brilliant has come up with? I was also thinking that I could drop the Six-line which I would think would be far more effective by eliminating the competitive pressures than getting only one Mandarin and one wrasse.

Hi
If you put two female Mandarinfish in the same aquarium I think that all you'll get is one dead one. Regardless in order to keep 2 or 3 Mandarinfish (which do don't compete with other species very well for pods) you'll need to food farm, even with nice size aquaria like you're talking about; not just a little food farming either. Dr. Ron Shimek has the good info on Refugium size and so on.