How long to breed copepods in 125G display tank for a mandarin?

[Fresh2Salt95]

So I put over 65,000 copepods of varying species in my 125G tank in March, and they're literally everywhere. All over the glass, the filter, the refugium, the skimmer, and I have to assume the rocks and the sediment. I can see them moving.

So do you guys think this had been enough of a breeding cycle that it's a sustainable population for one Mandarin?

 

[Screwgunner]

If you have substrate and alot of rock. Rafugium, or ats you will be ok

 

[Fresh2Salt95]

If you have substrate and alot of rock. Rafugium, or ats you will be ok

I have quite a lot of rock, and it's all live rock. I believe there's at least 300lbs of live rock in there and several hundred pounds of sand.

 

[damsels are not mean]

So do you guys think this had been enough of a breeding cycle that it's a sustainable population for one Mandarin?

yes

 

[LordofCinder]

50 copepods would have been enough to breed and populate the tank within a few weeks. But they will only breed if you feed them.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

I'd say your ready to roll lol . Just feed them every so often

 

[DaJMasta]

Normally some measure of tank maturity is good too, but between adding them, seeing them, the large size, and the few months minimum it's been running - you should be fine.

 

[Hermie]

yes and u can continue to feed the tank some phytoplankton if you want to ensure the population

 

[G Santana]

You should be fine, I have a BB 130 gallon that I seeded with a ball of Chaeto, I never added any more to the tank. At the 1 month mark I added the Mandarin and he's been fine for over a year with no added pods.

 

[Dinkins Aquatic Gardens]

Be sure to dose phyto to keep your population healthy and growing, but you should be good!

(Pods absolutely do eat detritus, but I always like to add phyto in order to give them the most varied possible diet and increase their growth/breeding rate.)