Can i keep a mandarin?

[jfingers088]

I have a 90 gallon with a 20 gallon sump. I have a little mini fuge going on in my sump. I have a bowl with a little bit of cheato and a couple of pieces of rubble rock. I have about 95 lbs. of live rock. For fish i have 3 green chromis, 2 tru perc clownfish, algae blenny, yellow watchman goby, purple firefish, flame angel, royal gramma and a foxface. Remember my fuge is just a little bowl but its still something. Would i be able to keep a mandarin without a problem or no?

 

[renogaw]

age of tank, and do you see any pods living in your chaeto?

 

[jfingers088]

tank is only 5 months old but im going to wait till its a year before i consider whether to get one or not. I don't really see any pods but then again its so hard to see them they are so tiny.

 

[miaheatlvr]

Originally Posted by jfingers088
tank is only 5 months old but im going to wait till its a year before i consider whether to get one or not. I don't really see any pods but then again its so hard to see them they are so tiny.
No you can visable see pods clearly. They are not micrscopic.

 

[murph]

If you really want a mandarin you will need to food train it and then have a tank where it will receive little compatition for food.
Once the mandarin is taking frozen mysis, which is just a larger cousin of pods, you can place it in any size tank with appropriate tank mates.
The usual pat answer will be "100 gallon tank a year old and 100 pounds of LR" the mandarin will starve in this tank also if there is stiff competition for micro fauna and no attempt to food train was made before introduction.
IMO due to natural increases and decreases in micro fauna populations in the average size home aquariums it is impossible to rely solely on this to maintain a mandarin. Bottom line is it must be food trained or it is likely to die of starvation.
Your average down stream of display refugium wont be much help either. To be effective at provideing the display with micro fauna it would be necesarry for fuge to gravity feed to display. A rare setup.