Lose pods in move?

I'm about to move and somehow in the process of moving decided i needed a bigger tank so i'll be transferring all of my fish and corals over from my 50 gallon tank, into a 29 gallon tank for a few days while i set up my 135 gallon tank and then in a week or so i'll have everything go into the new 135. One thing i was wondering about is copepods. I have a mandarin dragonet and he's been happy and swimming around for a couple months, but i'm wondering if i'm going to lose all his food in the move. i'm planning on bucketing and transferring as much of the water as i can, as well as all my old rock, but i'm not keeping the sand bed.

Is it looking pretty bleak for the mandarin or does he have a chance?

 

Most will transfer with the rock. If you're worried about it, buy a bottle of live pods to supplement his diet until the population builds back up

 

i didn't know i could do that, any advice on websites to order from? i'm pretty sure my lfs do not carry pods.

 

There's a bunch of places live copepods - Google Search

 

john maloney at ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Home carries them.

 

It can take a long time for a mandarin to starve unless every pod somehow dies in the move. I would second supplementing the pod population during the move though. Just make sure you get the right kind of copepods and make sure they are alive. There is a huge variety of pods out there and I think some will probably be better for feeding a mandarin than others.