New fish questions!

[BMahura]

I've always loved mandarins and now that my yank only has a few fish due to a crash in my tank I'm looking at getting some new fish. I was interested in a mandarin but have herd alot of mixed opinions on keeping them. Currently I have a lawnmower blenny. Diamond goby. Pair of clowns juvenile hippo tang and a cardinal fish. I'm running a 55 gallon system. If I buy a mandarin that eats dead brine would it thrive in my tank or are the tank mates to aggressive. As well ive hers people have success in keeping copperbands in smaller tanks but is 55 to small?
Thanks guys

Brett

[Bblinks]

Keeping mandarin fish alive in a 50 gallon is not an easy task, I had a 55 gallon deep tank with lots of LR, yellow tang, 2 clown fish, a dwarf angel, and 2 yellow tail damsel fish along with my mandrain. I ran a sump with 2 coralife 65 gallon skimmer and a refugium. I managed to keep it nice and health for over 5 years. It finally passed away six month after I moved it into a 210 gallon tank. I know for a fact the refugium in the sump had a lot to do with providing sufficient food for the little guy, so if you are going to keep one make sure you have a fuge which can provide ample amount of food and lots of rock work so it can hide out during day time.
I know a lot of people will try to discourage you from getting this magnificent little fish, but if u think you can provide good source of food then i say go for it.
Btw depends on how the tang reacts to food, even if the mandarin is eating frozen food, it will never be able to out compete a hungry hippo tang.
Good luck.

[mike31154]

My sumpless 77 gal has two mandarins, both males. Thought the second was female when I purchased it 2 years after adding the first, but was wrong, dumb mistake. In any case, I can't catch either of them and they're both healthy. There's an obvious size difference (new one much smaller) and other than a few daily chase episodes they stay out of each other's way. I've seen the older one take bits of granular food that settles on the sandbed, cyclopeeze granules and formula pellets. Haven't seen the smaller one take dry food yet, but he's been in there for at least a year, growing & staying plump so obviously finding enough to eat in the system. I'll add that I probably keep what might be considered a higher nutrient system and since I have no sump I keep a clump of chaeto floating near the surface of the display tank. I have a fair bit of sand on the bottom and allow the back glass to become overgrown with not only coralline, but also hair algae. They both graze these areas regularly and I can see them pecking away, so I know there's live food to be had there. These relatively unclean areas appear to help keep the pod population where it needs to be to sustain both fish without a problem.

As far as tank mates go, I don't see an issue with aggression based on what you have in there now, maybe the goby if it's fairly similar in shape & colour to the mandarin, but unlikely. I have Yellow Tang, breeding Maroon Clownfish pair in BTA, Singapore Angel, Yellowtail Damsel and there are no issues with aggression. Also used to have a Lawnmower and like the others, basically ignored the Mandarins. Last week the smaller Mandarin did get a little too close to the Maroon Clownfish egg clutch and the female simply gave him a good push to get him out of there, no harm done. Mandarins are reported to have a distasteful slime coat that repels most any fish that gets too close and tries to do a number on them.

Provided you have plenty of rock, a good sandbed you should be ok for a Mandarin. I'd think twice about a Copperband though, they don't have a good reputation in captivity, most of them starve. I made that mistake as a newb and won't take the chance to watch another one of these beautiful fish starve to death. If you do get one that's taking prepared or thawed frozen food, be prepared to be tied to your system with daily, multiple feedings to keep it healthy.

[daniella3d]

A mandarin cannot survive on "brine". Its not nutritious at all, not even the live ones.

If you can get your hands on a live white worms culture and start a good culture or two of these then you may have a chance.

Obviously though with 2 hippo that's a disaster in the making. Even one hippo in a 55 gallons is a disaster in perspective. One mandarin need around 70lbs of live rock to survive and lots of pods. Those pods need phyto plankton to survive. YOu might be able to get the pod population up if you use a refugium and feed your tank DT live phyto.

The live white worms are very rich and cannot be given to any fish as the only food source.

I've always loved mandarins and now that my yank only has a few fish due to a crash in my tank I'm looking at getting some new fish. I was interested in a mandarin but have herd alot of mixed opinions on keeping them. Currently I have a lawnmower blenny. Diamond goby. Pair of clowns juvenile hippo tang and a cardinal fish. I'm running a 55 gallon system. If I buy a mandarin that eats dead brine would it thrive in my tank or are the tank mates to aggressive. As well ive hers people have success in keeping copperbands in smaller tanks but is 55 to small?
Thanks guys

Brett

[rastaangel]

If its weaned on to prepared food then yes its possible...
I have a mated pair of dragonets that spawn regularly in a homemade 15g tank with a spawning pair of black clowns... with no sand and less then a pound of rock...

[MMAX]

A mandarin cannot survive on "brine". Its not nutritious at all, not even the live ones.

If you can get your hands on a live white worms culture and start a good culture or two of these then you may have a chance.

Obviously though with 2 hippo that's a disaster in the making. Even one hippo in a 55 gallons is a disaster in perspective. One mandarin need around 70lbs of live rock to survive and lots of pods. Those pods need phyto plankton to survive. YOu might be able to get the pod population up if you use a refugium and feed your tank DT live phyto.

The live white worms are very rich and cannot be given to any fish as the only food source.

Where did the second hippo come from? I think you must have misread his post.

[daniella3d]

I missed the clowns in his sentence "pair of clowns juvenile hippo"

Obviously.

Where did the second hippo come from? I think you must have misread his post.