Mandarin Goby-Anyone have one?

Alberta-newb · #1 02-23-2009, 02:45 AM

Don't have one yet (I actually have a pair on hold right now) but have been doing a fair bit of reading on them. Like you found they do suggest at least 75 gal. or more for a mandarin. It is also recomended to have a tank that has been established at least 6 months to a year to ensure a stable pod population. Pods tend to come and go in the first few months of setup. You also want to avoid other species that will compete for food so wrasses and some of the gobies are out. They certainly aren't recommended for beginners, but are sold all the time by LFS anyway

The latest issue of Freshwater and Marine Aquarium (FAMA) has an excellent article on Mandarins. Also read the "Mandarin Primer" thread on RC in the Reef Fishes forum (it's a "sticky" near the top).

What I am gewtting ready to do is try to train my mandarins on prepared foods based on write-ups from Matt Wittenrich who has succesfully bred them in captivity. He ensures all his stock feed on prepared foods. What he does is keep the fish in a net type breeder trap (found at your LFS) and feeds them live adult brine shrimp enriched with Selcon. Once feeding on those he starts introducing frozen brine. Once they start on those he immediately stops the live and feeds exclusively frozen. He then starts additions of other foods like frozen mysid and pellets as brine shrimp alone are not that great nutritionally. This is the approach I will be trying as although I have lots of pods in my system, I don't want to count on them alone to keep mandarins alive.

Just some thoughts, others that actually have them will certainly chime in.

Koresample · #2 02-23-2009, 02:50 AM

I read the exact same articles! My tank is new (2 months) but the rock was from another established tank of 2 years. My pod population is so high i see them out scurrying around the rocks during the day. I dont believe that the clown will compete or the bi-colored blennie, but i could be wrong.

fishytime · #3 02-23-2009, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alberta-newb

Don't have one yet (I actually have a pair on hold right now) but have been doing a fair bit of reading on them. Like you found they do suggest at least 75 gal. or more for a mandarin. It is also recomended to have a tank that has been established at least 6 months to a year to ensure a stable pod population. Pods tend to come and go in the first few months of setup. You also want to avoid other species that will compete for food so wrasses and some of the gobies are out. They certainly aren't recommended for beginners, but are sold all the time by LFS anyway

The latest issue of Freshwater and Marine Aquarium (FAMA) has an excellent article on Mandarins. Also read the "Mandarin Primer" thread on RC in the Reef Fishes forum (it's a "sticky" near the top).

What I am gewtting ready to do is try to train my mandarins on prepared foods based on write-ups from Matt Wittenrich who has succesfully bred them in captivity. He ensures all his stock feed on prepared foods. What he does is keep the fish in a net type breeder trap (found at your LFS) and feeds them live adult brine shrimp enriched with Selcon. Once feeding on those he starts introducing frozen brine. Once they start on those he immediately stops the live and feeds exclusively frozen. He then starts additions of other foods like frozen mysid and pellets as brine shrimp alone are not that great nutritionally. This is the approach I will be trying as although I have lots of pods in my system, I don't want to count on them alone to keep mandarins alive.

Just some thoughts, others that actually have them will certainly chime in.

Well said Francis. If not willing to "train" your mandarin, you should make darn sure it is eating prepared foods before you add it to a 40gish tank. If the fish is not eating prepared foods, 40g worth of live rock will simply not support enough pods to feed a mandarin. The fish will likely wither away over a period of a few months.

UnderTheSea · #4 02-23-2009, 03:03 AM

I QT'ed a pair in a 20g tank for about 10 days, they were eating my DIY Frozen food and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs before I added them to my DT (180g with 65g sump and 40g frag tank with over 300lbs of LR in total).