ichiromariners
Member
since the mandarin gobies like to chill at the bottom and hermit crabs like to slaughter everything should i get a tank divider to keep them apart? and if so will it affect the pump and water if only one side has the pump?
mandrin goby vs. hermit crab
- Thread starter ichiromariners
- Start date
tombraider118
Member
have the hermit crabs killed anything yet?
ichiromariners
Member
ya i had two and one crab killed the other one.
fishy all the time
Member
How big is this crab?!?! My mom had one that was I guess about 4 inches across. She thought it was cool until it killed everything in the tank. Then she took it back to her LFS.
class clown
Member
Don't worry, the Mandarin will kill himself eventually anyway. Most of them only eat from live sand fauna. From what I've read around in this board, they are so hard to feed that they don't last very long unless they live in a massive tank with a rich DSB. Otherwise, they'll eat everything in the sand and eventually starve themselves to death.
demosthenes
Active Member
Class Clown, most of what you said was right, but as for a massive tank, that's untrue. I've seen Mandarins live for years in tanks as small as 20 gallons. What's needed to keep them alive is pods. The way to keep a Mandarin healthy, is to provide these pods. Some Mandarins will eat brine shrimp, but they too will eventually die. If you wish to keep a mandarin in a smaller tank, there are two suggestions I have. 1. Continually add microfauna to your tank, through Sand Activators, like at<a href="http://www.ipsf.com" target="_blank">IPSF.com</a>. 2. Dedicate a small tank to purely raising pods, and place some porous LR in it, and leave it for a day, and then transfer it to your display tank, with the mandarin, thus there is always a fresh supply of pods. You also need to provide a safe area for pods in the display tank, by making piles of LR rubble and such, sort of like a breeding ground for pods.
demosthenes
Active Member
Copepods, amphipods, and arthropods, etc.
cotton0627
Member
i thought i was the only one who had crabs that killed each other <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" />
claymore66
Member
I have had a mandarin in my tank for about a year now with 13 crabs and he is fine.Just provide the pods for him to eat as suggested above and you should have no problems.