Mandarin good in a reef ?
- Thread starter tomelvis
- Start date
miaheatlvr
Active Member
Originally Posted by TOMELVIS
Love the looks of the Mandarin , wondering about its heartiness and how it will do in a reef tan. Anyone have one ?
Do a search and put in MANDARINS, you will see peoples successes and failures, and specific diet requirements for some people who fail to get them off thier all POD diets,
Love the looks of the Mandarin , wondering about its heartiness and how it will do in a reef tan. Anyone have one ?
Do a search and put in MANDARINS, you will see peoples successes and failures, and specific diet requirements for some people who fail to get them off thier all POD diets,
miaheatlvr
Active Member
Originally Posted by TOMELVIS
My tank is not that mature , but has about 100 lbs or live rock and 40lbs of live sand. 90 gallon.
You will have to wait at least a year before your LR starts to mature and develop "PODS" if your MANDARIN is a POD only eating fish. If he doesnt acclimate to other foods, he will suffer and slowly die a painful death im affraid.
My tank is not that mature , but has about 100 lbs or live rock and 40lbs of live sand. 90 gallon.
You will have to wait at least a year before your LR starts to mature and develop "PODS" if your MANDARIN is a POD only eating fish. If he doesnt acclimate to other foods, he will suffer and slowly die a painful death im affraid.
dieselndix
Member
here comes the opposition
I have a 55g with 80+lbs of LR
I also have a 18gal sump and 18gal fuge with a DSB and LR
I added a mandarin about 2 months after my tank cycled, and he is my favorite fish to date. I have had him for 6 months now, he is very healthy looking and I can see him eating out of the holes in my LR all the time. I think it has to do with your ability to house and breed pods...my fuge is absolutely perfect for pods, there are a bazillion pods in my fuge.
I have a 55g with 80+lbs of LR
I also have a 18gal sump and 18gal fuge with a DSB and LR
I added a mandarin about 2 months after my tank cycled, and he is my favorite fish to date. I have had him for 6 months now, he is very healthy looking and I can see him eating out of the holes in my LR all the time. I think it has to do with your ability to house and breed pods...my fuge is absolutely perfect for pods, there are a bazillion pods in my fuge.
my way
Active Member
Where are you guys getting the 1 year mark from? My tank was crawling with pods in 5 month's, to the point where you could not look at 1 square inch of rock without seeing a few of them. Maybe I'm the exception to the rule, but it seems people tend to just regurgitate info they have read or heard with nothing to back it up.
bonebrake
Active Member
My tank was swimming with pods long before a year as well, but I tried a mandarin with 50 lbs. of rock after my tank was up for about four months and he decimated every pod in my tank within two weeks. I had thousands of pods, but they were all gone. I even had a good refugium he could not get too, but that only kept him alive for another four months. He slowly withered away. Granted, mine was in bad shape when I got him, but you won't find too many fat ones in stores. Most are already on their way to starvation: their bellies are already deeply sunken in.
I speak from experience and what I have heard.
A friend of mine, whom I know personally, has a 180 gallon tank with 250 lbs. of live rock and his died after about nine months. He introduced it when the tank was six months old. His was a fat four inch mandarin when he got him and it died from starvation as well; its fat belly slowly got skinnier and skinnier until it was completely sunken and one day he died.
I speak from experience and what I have heard.
A friend of mine, whom I know personally, has a 180 gallon tank with 250 lbs. of live rock and his died after about nine months. He introduced it when the tank was six months old. His was a fat four inch mandarin when he got him and it died from starvation as well; its fat belly slowly got skinnier and skinnier until it was completely sunken and one day he died.
fishieness
Active Member
mine was swarming with them before it had finished cycled. like to a rediculous amount.... the live rock you bring in, as well as your nutrient levels will determine how quickly your tank seeds with pods, but paople say 6 months to a year jsut to be safe. i got mine when my tank was about a year old. However, you coudl do it quicker than that as long as you have a cery large and stable pod population.
lubeck
Active Member
My experience with the Mandrin Dragonett was and is good. I have a 110gal. added the mandrin, which was very small when i bought him, about 5 months in with a bout 60lbs of live rock.
Reading all the info before hand i went for it and bought it. being a little perinoid that "mandy" would not survive, although looking healthy, i bought the 4 bottles of copepods online for 80 bucks. And the rest is history...
Alot more upgrades since then, well over a year old now. Mandy is fat and happy.
I am not saying what i did was right, but i believe i did not starve the fish at any point. even though i bought when my tank was 5 months old. However i did take measures to ensure it would mature to a healthy adult
Added 100lbs of live rock
75gal fuge
4 bottles of copepods
How old is your tank? I would wait at least 6months and definitaley buy pods before hand so they have time to populate. You don't need to buy and more live rock for the sake of the mandrin. I say go for it.
Reading all the info before hand i went for it and bought it. being a little perinoid that "mandy" would not survive, although looking healthy, i bought the 4 bottles of copepods online for 80 bucks. And the rest is history...
Alot more upgrades since then, well over a year old now. Mandy is fat and happy.
I am not saying what i did was right, but i believe i did not starve the fish at any point. even though i bought when my tank was 5 months old. However i did take measures to ensure it would mature to a healthy adult
Added 100lbs of live rock
75gal fuge
4 bottles of copepods
How old is your tank? I would wait at least 6months and definitaley buy pods before hand so they have time to populate. You don't need to buy and more live rock for the sake of the mandrin. I say go for it.
nasovlam
Member
My experience with mandarins is that they are actually pretty tough little fish IF you have sufficient pods for them. I would go along with at least 6 months before adding one, and then only if you have had a large stable pod population for a few months. A 90 should do, I have heard of them doing OK in smaller tanks. I personally have a 90 with about 165 lb LR (if I recall correctly) and a DIY sump/refugium of maybe 20 gallons and I had a mandarin for years in it. Great little fish, colorful, lots of personality but make sure you can support it with pods. There are some postings on this site that claim that they will take frozen food or even dry food but some never eat anything but live pods.
sharkbait9
Active Member
mine eats water fleas (daphnia) and cyclop. I defrost one cube for all three tanks and drop it in. My mandarin fly’s all over the rocks and back and forth eating like a pig when the daph or cyclop hit’s the water. I do feel I’m lucky with my mandarin.
I think the problem with dragonet fish is they are such veracious and glutens due to the fact that wholesalers and LFS don’t have the food they need. By the time the fish makes it to your tank its starving and just pounds down food till the tank can not keep up with its food source.
I think the problem with dragonet fish is they are such veracious and glutens due to the fact that wholesalers and LFS don’t have the food they need. By the time the fish makes it to your tank its starving and just pounds down food till the tank can not keep up with its food source.
