4 month old nano for mandarin ?

[tanan]

I have 4 month old 20 G nano reef with 25-30 lbs of LR.My scrubber is been running for a month and green algae has started to show up.
There is no other fish and the only coral at the moment is 100s of Zoas.
Scrubber as sole filtration,and is run in the tank(all water directly goes to tank).
So do you think that the pods produced are enough for supporting a mandarin ?

[SantaMonica]

Easily. Probably two or three mandarins.

[ChrisD]

SM - doesn't that comment need to be qualified by "depends on the size of the screen?"

Also, what territory do Mandarins need? I'm sure the space requirement of 55g typically is due to the pod population required - it may need a specialist to say how small you can go before territory is an issue.

[tanan]

The screen(not screen but Velcro) is single sided horizontal 4" wide and 17" long.
I m planning to keep just one.The other inhabitant ll either be a fire fish,or a clown or a cardinal.

[SantaMonica]

Any scrubber big enough to filter a 20gal will be releasing hundreds of thousands of baby copepods per day. No matter how much a mandarin eats, there will always be a constant swarm of these pods in the water, like a dust storm. I was not concerned with the size of the tank, just the scrubber.

[tanan]

Well I dont see any dust storm but the brown algae on my glass shows distinctive patches of algae eaten by pods.

[SantaMonica]

Maybe your circulation in the display is low. But it's just as well.... mandarins only eat pods from a surface, not from the water. I have three power heads pointed straight down, to keep stuff from settling on the bottom.

[tanan]

So thats why I dont see pods that much.
I ll increase flow in tank then.Thx SM
I always wondered why I cant see any pods.

[Gigaah]

I almost never see my the pods in my 55g. the only time I ever really see them is when I see spot or little girl(my male spotted and my female green mandarin) pick out one of the amphipods from my rocks. They generally eat copepods wich are VERY difficult to see with the naked eye. I usually have to use my digital camera in macro mode and focus on the glass..they are that small usually. A "pod pile" a pile of live rock rubble somehwere in the the display tank will allow them to grow breed and mature in the display tank easier in a place the mandarins cannot get to them.