mandarin goby (wrassecal)

[cmpowell]

I would like to put a mandarin goby in our 55 gal tank I was wondering if someone could tell me if they are easy to take care of or is there another goby that may be recommended for our new dsb? Thanks!

 

[lnarobbins]

I love my mandarin. make sure you have plenty of live rock at least 50lbs and your tank is well established. mandarins eat pods that come from the rock and will starve with out them you might get lucky and get one that eats other stuff but dont count on it.
hope this helps
alan

 

[lexatomic]

Mine eats live brine, as well as LR inhabitants. I've seen him eat water fleas or something off my sponge filter. They aren't that hard to maintain, just need to have a LFS that is willing to share their feeding regimen with you.

 

[ruaround]

Mandarin Dragonettes are hit and miss! They, for the most part, are very picky eaters. They will, unless you are lucky, only eat copods or amphipods that inhabit LS and LR. Some will eat frozen brine, not many. If you get one make sure it looks healthy, no "sunken chest" and that it has eaten at the LFS. Ask your LFS if it has eaten anything other than copods or amphipods sincs theyve had it. If they say yes...ask em to feed it while youre there . Good Luck! They are very beautiful fish and make a nice addition to the tank!

 

[cmpowell]

how do you know if you have copods and amphipods and if not how would you get them started

 

[jacksonpt]

pods come in on LR... if your pod poulation is very strong, sometimes you can see them on the glass when you first turn your lights on. They are very small, white critters, about the size of the tip of a ball point pen, maybe a little smaller.
If you don't have pods in your tank, or don't have a strong pod population, you can buy a kit that comes with, among other things, pods... but I'm drawing a blank on the name of the thing... it's pretty common, especially with people running refugiums... someone will let you know what it is.

 

[mouie2003]

just walk in half way through the night and if you see things trying to get to the bottom of the tank that look like white insects than you have pods. they are pretty distinct the way they look and swim. they don't have fins so they use the little legs underneith them to move by moving them really quickly. hope this helps.

 

[wrassecal]

Hi - my mandarin is doing well staying fat and growing. All of the above advise is good. If you can find one that will eat other food have the lfs feed it in front of you. Mine will not eat anything except pods and the brine we hatch and feed twice a week. About pods, did you have a stage where you saw little white specks on the glass of your tank? That would have been the pods starting up. I also added a pile of rubble from the bottom of my lfs's curing tank and will add more. cost me $1.50 for a pound and a half. I will do this every couple months - cheap way to bring in more pods and give them a place to hide from the mandarin and go through life stages, re-populate etc. I have 75 lbs of live rock and my fairly new dsb. Also, I did not add the mandarin until my tank was 6 months old. I hope it works out for you, they are so cool!

 

[cmpowell]

Thanks everyone for the help.I did notice one time that a snail had died right next to the front of the tank and was covered by several little white things as described.Could this have been pods possibly or something else?

 

[clarkiiboi]

Another way to see if you got copods is wait till its time to turn the light off and get a flahlight. About 1/2 hour or so after lights are off shine the flashlight in the tank at the rocks, if you see gray flea like creatures on the rocks you got copods--be patient, I thought I had none and the all of the sudden there was alot "running" around. HTH

 

[mixmaster]

One thing you can also do (If you have a prefilter sponge on your tank output to your sump) is when you clean the sponge, wring the water out into a container, then strain it through a fine net (brine net). You'll more than likely see quite a few copepods in the net. Rinse them well with clean tank water, and return them to the bottom of your tank, close to a rock where they can hide. During your lights out cycle, they'll likely reproduce (The ones your mandarin doesn't eat). This is a great way to keep the population up in your tank. You can also add a small power compact to your sump tank and toss a few pounds of live rock in there. Then set it to the opposite light schedule your tank is on. Make sure the rock is in the clean side of your sump so that the skimmer doesn't get the pods. The reverse light cycle will also help keep your PH in check. COOL HUH??? Then just agitate the rocks once in a while and those little suckers will get sucked up right into your intake and repopulate the rock in your tank, and that means more food for your mandarin! Mine's over a year old and he's fat and happy. GOOD LUCK!
Mike

 

[karlas]

they mostly come out at night take a flashlight with some type of red plastic film and take a look you might be surprised what u can see
heres some pics of pods

 

[lnarobbins]

cool pics Karla I always thought that pods were microscopic and you couldnt see them
alan

 

[lexatomic]

do hermits eat copes and amphs? cause my mandarin doesn't need any competition!