[tmkx3]

I have 125g w/125lbs of lr. My tank has been set-up for 18months. I waited to get my mandrin until my tank matured, but know I am reading that my mandrin will deplete my tank of pods in about three months. I don't have a refugium or a sump. What I do have is a hob filter and a hob protien skimmer. They both have compartments fpr fber fill. Can I grow pods there? I have also heard about pod piles. Can I use these 2 things to grow my pods?

[Reefland]

With that size tank and that much liverock, I wouldn't hesitate trying a Mandarin Dragonette.

[leebca]

Thanks for posting, tmkx3. No one should count upon a pod population in the display tank to feed any fish, Mandarins included.

You see, not only is the tank pod population limited in numbers, but the diversity isn't there that dependent marine fishes find in their natural habitat. I can't believe how many people think their aquarium is comparable to the ocean in this respect. There is no pod population in the aquarium that can match the diversity in the ocean. Fishes that depend upon pods will slowly die in our display tanks, even if the display tanks have plenty of pods. BUT, we still keep pod-eaters quite successfully.

The sometimes difficult Copperband Butterflyfish is a pod-eater and they will live quite well in our aquariums BUT, this takes some planning, patience, and effort on the part of the aquarist. From what you wrote, it sounds like you have patience.

First, I am very glad to hear that you have allowed the tank to mature. Only mature marine systems should house any fish, IMHO. So kudos for that!

Next, setup a quarantine tank (QT). When it is ready, then put the newly acquired Mandarin into the QT and go through the quarantine process. All the details are here for that:
A Fish Quarantine Process

In my post of how to present foods, I specially covered on how to train the Mandarin to eat prepared foods. PLEASE read and follow this advice:
Food Presentation

These are articles on some other ideas on Mandarins eating other foods:
Mandarin Diner by Marc Levenson - Reefkeeping.com
Melevsreef.com - Melev's Mandarin Diner
Don’t ever believe a mandarin is not possible to quarantine; don’t ever believe that a mandarin is totally impervious to Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans).

It is very important to train the Mandarin before it gets into the display. Once in the display the Mandarin will fall back on its natural habits of finding and eating available pods (and slowly die). As explained above, those pods and not diverse enough, even IF they were in big numbers.

Good luck!