mandarins
- Thread starter ckkihei
- Start date
ckkihei
Member
Thx for the quick response.....you probably just saved the life of a Mandarin. I'm heading to my LFS today and will pick something else. Right now I have a banded shrimp, scooter gobie, blue damsel, blue fin chromis, 2 sand stars and an anemone.....tank is 4 months old and the environment in great condition!!
ckkihei
Member
actually the LFS said that Mandarin needed LR, and said 5lbs or so would be plenty....half truths can be as damaging as no truth I guess. By the way have you ever heard of a blue damsel being so agressive that a yellow tang would die from the stress? My damsel is very active but doesn't seem to be agressive. I lost a tang last week.......all water parameters are excellent so the LFS said it may have been due to stress from the damsel. Any thoughts?
badkjb2
Member
you are getting a bunch of half truths. the lfs that told you they sit there and look pretty is right, as long as you have a pod population, or can get them to eat prepared food. they are a pretty hardy fish from what ive experienced so far, what ive read, and what ive been told. if you have plenty for them to eat, they are great. mine eats everything that is put into the tank, i just have to make sure to get the food down there for him.
chrismilano
Member
Ask your LFS to feed live brine to him. If you're lucky he'll eat live brine and you should be ok with him. I would still add 10 lbs live rock though...
gemini
Member
My lfs got some beautiful mandarins in a few weeks ago. I wanted one SOOOOOOOO bad but asked several times for them to feed them for me so I could see if they would eat the frozen food. They didn't eat it so I didn't buy one. My tank isn't established enough yet to have enough cope pods so I'll just have to wait. From what I've read, they need lots of cope pods and many other fish eat the cope pods as well. I would wait at least a year for a good crop of cope pods to establish in the lr and keep a minimum of fish in the tank if you want to get a mandarin. They're beautiful fish and it's heartbreaking that they won't eat what most other fish eat but that's life I guess. If nothing else, I'm learning patience from this hobby! 
jups1
New Member
You posted that you have a scooter gobie. Do you mean scooter blennie? These are also dragonettes (same as mandarine) and need c'pods to survive. Even if it eats brine, it can still starve, since brine doesn't have all the nutrients it needs to survive. By getting A LOT MORE live rock, it will help. Placing a blennie & mandarin together means certain death for at least 1 if not both fish. Don't listen to that lfs anymore. They either don't know what they're doing, or simply want to sell & sell & sell fish.
Re: the tang - it most likely died of stress. Tangs need a well-established tank (6 months or longer) with plenty of green algae growing and hiding places. A damsel aka blue devil, is a very aggressive fish. They have been known to kill fish much larger and the bigger they get the meaner they get.
Re: the tang - it most likely died of stress. Tangs need a well-established tank (6 months or longer) with plenty of green algae growing and hiding places. A damsel aka blue devil, is a very aggressive fish. They have been known to kill fish much larger and the bigger they get the meaner they get.
wrassecal
Active Member
I just got my mandarin yesterday and have 60lbs live rock in a 55 long. I wanted one so bad I started a stand alone 20 gal refugium tank just to raise pods and grow calerpa for my mandarin and yellow tang. I know even with what I have in main tank I won't be able to sustain mandarin very long. I'm hatching some brine tomorrow and hoping it will eat live brine but I'm prepared with my little pod farm if not.
nss11110
Member
no manderians need live rock to exsist. I got 45lbs of rock into a 20 high for my manderian. I got shelfs i built so the rock is at different levels. also i stock the tank every 6-8 months with more copepods/antropods i get from ipsf.com. mine is very healthy and plump. i dont want to lose my mandy!