Mandarin Goby

[jonw59]

so Ive been wanting to add a mandarian for a while now. Ive had my 30 gallon tank up for about 4 months now, the rock I started with has been cultured for over 2 years and now my tank is crawling with what I believe to be copepods and amphipods. by crawling I mean I see them when I first turn on the lights, they are all over the sand and rock. do you think I am able to get one? will I have to add any more copepods to my tank or do they appear to be populate themselves enough to keep up with a mandarian?

 

[geridoc]

A 30 gallon system may not be able to keep up with the consumption of pods by a mandarin. You might consider an ORA mandarin - many of those will eat prepared foods so are easier to keep.

 

[jonw59]

sorry what Is an ORA mandarin? thanks for the reply,

 

[bang guy]

ORA (Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums ) is a popular aquaculture facility. Mandarin Dragonets from ORA are tank bred and not taken from the wild. The advantage is that they have been raised on dead food so they acclimate quickly to a hobbiest tank.

 

[geridoc]

Bang Guy is right, but don't think that an ORA mandarin is an easy undertaking. Mine only eats frozen prawn roe, which means that I have to shut off all of the pumps, wait until there is no current int he tank, then deliver a dose of roe in a small pile in front of the mandarin. It then considers whether to honor me by eating, then ingests some, spits some out, over and over again (if you have never seen a mandarin eat, it is a time consuming process). My opinion - a royal pain, but worth it for such a fascinating fish. But then, I think root canal is an interesting procedure, too.

 

[jonw59]

O man that kinda sounds terrible. Are they all this picky of eaters? Would it be possible to keep if I occasionally added pods to my current population. Also I guess I should make sure it would be okay with an ocellaris clownfish, yellow tail damsel (not aggressive), and a lawnmower blennie

 

[geridoc]

My mandarin shares his 40 gallon tank (+20 gallon sump) with an ocellaris, and they get along fine. If I feed the clown first, then he just lurks near where the roe is and eats whatever gets suspended in the water. If he is hungry he will dive into the roe pile and gulp that.

 

[jonw59]

I'm a little nervous about getting this fish, any other advice would be great. thanks for your replies they were helpful

 

[geridoc]

It is a fascinating fish. Be sure you see it eat in the store, but don't automatically assume that it will do so at home - you may have to train it to take prepared foods. I have often thought about starting my own pod culture for the fish.

 

[reefr]

mandarins are very difficult to sustain over an extended period of time because of their feeding habits.
I do not believe you should keep one in a 30 gallon, even if it is "crawling" with copepods. people don't undrstand that they require tanks that have been setup for 1+years, with AT LEAST 100 lbs of well-established LR, peaceful tankmates, and a whole lot of food (copepods). A healthy mandarin will eat a copepod ONCE EVERY 5 SECONDS. Do the math to find out the number of pods they eat in a day. in a month. in a year. not easy to sustain and I believe they should not be taken out of the ocean to die a slow, painful death of starvation in a small, un-established aquarium. your 30g that is "crawling" will NOT be crawling for long if you got a mandarin.
NOTE* I am not trying to derail you, or your aquarium husbandry, but simply lay the facts about this animal, since I dont like them being taken from the endless ocean to live a short life in aquaria.

 

[jonw59]

thanks for all the help, I completely agree that I don't want to see a fish die. I think its in my best interest to hold off on this fish till I gain some more experience and upgrade my tank. I appreciate all the responses they were extremely helpful.