Mandarine-How much is enough?

[dmschiff]

How do you know if you have enough pods to support a mandarine?
Yes, I'm a newbie, but our tank has what I believe to be a lot of pods. The tank is 5 months, 36lbs. lr, 50lbs crushed coral (hope to switch or atleast add ls soon). 1 perc, 1 recently added royal gramma.
Pods are on the glass day and night if i don't keep it spotless. The big ones (about the size of my feeder krill) come out at night. I saw a few cute, cute, cute little mandarines at the lfs with not a pod in sight in their tank and felt like I should rescue one.
Am I crazy?

 

[earlybird]

I have 45-50 lbs of LR in a 29g and wouldn't consider having one. Don't think I have enough LR to support a large enough pod population in my tank. Not all pods are visible during the day and come out in larger numbers at night (I think I read that somewhere).

 

[ice4ice]

Mandarin fish need extremely mature tanks to survive - up to a year at most.
As much as you say you'd like to rescue one, don't do it due to your tank's age. A 5-month old tank with the amount of pods you have may not be enough for a mandarin fish to survive.

 

[larryndana]

Yeah, i'd say your tanks is to young and not enough live rock.
With that said, if you can get them to eat prepaired foods you will not have a problem. Unfortantly, this doesn't happen often.

 

[dmschiff]

I know everything I've read states that a mature tank is required and I will definitely wait. I just wondered if my tank was unusally populated with an abundance of pods at an early stage. My hubby is actually a little annoyed with the amount that are on the glass all the time and wondered if we were doing something wrong or if they would bother the fish.
What is a good rule of thumb as far as live rock, size, amount of pods need to support a mandarine? Also, what other fish will consume the pods and compete with the mandarines need for them?.

 

[renogaw]

plus they may eat prepared foods for just a short while then stop.
I have over 100lbs of rock, plus tons of pods in my fuge, but almost never see any on myrock, but i'm still not convinced i can support a mandarin. If you buy the mandarin from the store, they will just replace it. then there's 2 mandarins starving instead of just one.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by dmschiff
I know everything I've read states that a mature tank is required and I will definitely wait. I just wondered if my tank was unusally populated with an abundance of pods at an early stage. My hubby is actually a little annoyed with the amount that are on the glass all the time and wondered if we were doing something wrong or if they would bother the fish.
What is a good rule of thumb as far as live rock, size, amount of pods need to support a mandarine? Also, what other fish will consume the pods and compete with the mandarines need for them?.

pretty much any fish will snack on a pod if they get the chance. my shrimpgoby used to eat a ton of them, but also scooter blennies will eat a pod population. The problem also comes if you don't have a fuge for them to breed without getting eaten.

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by dmschiff
What is a good rule of thumb as far as live rock, size, amount of pods need to support a mandarine? Also, what other fish will consume the pods and compete with the mandarines need for them?.
Most fish will eat pods I believe. Problem is with a new tank your populations haven't leveled out yet. You may have tons of pods one day and the next very little. Your system after time will dictate your pod population. A lot of lr is needed for the pods to reproduce and hide away from predators. Don't know the guidelines but it would have to be a mature tank with a lot of live rock.

 

[joojoo]

I agree with everything said above. While you may presently have a kagillion billion pods running around. In a matter of weeks, a Mandarin will eat all of them. If a HUGE amount of LR and/or large fuge is not available, the pods just cannot repopulate themselves with such a voracious predator.

 

[texanangel]

My thoughts on dragonets: be careful. I love all dragonets, anything related to gobies or blennies, and the whole reason (as a child) I wanted a saltwater aquarium was for fish just like them. I now have an adorable scooter blenny, however he came from a local lady who had to get rid of her many tanks. So, I ended up with another tank and a scooter blenny that eats brine shrimp, and even flakes! He'll eat other foods as well. She spot fed him for over a year, about six times a day (she also had a refug attached), and eventually he started eating what came down the turkey baster instead of pods. He's about two years old. And now he chases the food all over the tank, but because he's slow I always put some on the live sand (in a low place so the water won't move it too fast) next to him.
If you really want one, wait, and do your homework on the individual fish you encounter. Ask to see it eat, for as long as a time as you can, like everyday or so for 2-4 weeks in the store. Then, don't get one until you do have either a year's supply of pods on hand or a refugium, because the fish may change its mind and only eat pods. Just hope for a lazy one like I got, and I didn't have to spend the year spot feeding him all day.

 

[dcoyle11]

i lived and learned you need a big tank with a lot of live rock. mine just died after 6 weeks.

i bought before i read

 

[larryndana]

you also have to watch out when your buying....sometimes they are starving at the lfs.

 

[yacn]

I thought the LFS sells live pods in a bottle that you can dump in your tank to feed such fish...I've seen it in the store. Won't this work?

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by dmschiff
How do you know if you have enough pods to support a mandarine?
Yes, I'm a newbie, but our tank has what I believe to be a lot of pods. The tank is 5 months, 36lbs. lr, 50lbs crushed coral (hope to switch or atleast add ls soon). 1 perc, 1 recently added royal gramma.
Pods are on the glass day and night if i don't keep it spotless. The big ones (about the size of my feeder krill) come out at night. I saw a few cute, cute, cute little mandarines at the lfs with not a pod in sight in their tank and felt like I should rescue one.
Am I crazy?
MOst tanks go through population bursts in the beggining, where the poulation jump then decreases then jumps eventually stabilizing. if your tank has stabilized with a lot of pods with only 36 poubnds of LR a mandarine will have them decimated in three weeks. then it will start starving.

 

[larryndana]

Originally Posted by yacn
I thought the LFS sells live pods in a bottle that you can dump in your tank to feed such fish...I've seen it in the store. Won't this work?
i believe they would be to expensive to keep buying. one site sells them for 75 dollars for 2000. they sell them here, 200 for 11.99
since they eat all day long, no telling how fast they could go thru 200.

 

[geoj]

I have a 50gl w/40 live rock and 20 live sand
My Spotted Mandarin I added to the tank after three months in 12/13/05
And I have not fed him at all he is nice and fat
I don’t have any knowledge of the Green Mandarin but it is bigger and may not do as well or at all.
Marine Fish & Reef USA mag. 2005 had good info on Mandarin fish
the Mandarin in my tank has no competition for pods!!!
16 months and going

 

[sepulatian]

Mandarines require 100+lbs of rock matured over 8 months. You can buy pods, but they get rather expensive. Mandarines can be trained to accept frozen mysis, but that will not sustain them. They need live pods. A refuge is a huge plus. You would be surprised at how many pods a small mandarine can eat. Please note that it can take 6-8 months or more for these fish to die from malnutrition.