More than one mandarin??

jp0379

Member
Anyone have more than one mandarin? I have a scooter blenny and a green mandarin goby, and would like another mandarin. Any personal experiences? Thanks!
 
first of all for the love of all that is good dont say you have a mandarin in a 20 or 29 gallon tank they need like 100 to 150 pounds of well established live rock with a large population of pods to live long term also would not recommend two in the same tank unless a mated pair
 

ryebread

Active Member
Hope we don't sound as if we are coming on too strong here, but your system(s) will not house a Mandarin or a Scooter for any extended period of time........they will slowly starve to death.
Do you have any type of refugium that you are raising pods in? Even then it still wouldn't be enough with only a 20-30g tank.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
jp- how long have you had your mandarin and scooter?
What are you feeding them now?
They are, as stated, very picky eaters. Why not wait and see how succesful you are with these two before getting another one? Success IMO would be to keep one at least a year. Do you have perhaps a pod breeding tank of some kind?
Thomas
 

jp0379

Member
Sorry guys, but I forgot to change the size of the aquariums on my profile!!!! I've had the scooter for about 8 months, and the mandarin about 4. I'm fairly new to this board, not to saltwater tanks.
And as I was originally asking, has anyone actually HAD two blenny's or gobies?
 

bdhough

Active Member
How big are the tanks? Yes you can mate them in pairs. Sometimes they can bicker sometimes not. As far as how to go about mating them i couldn't tell you. My guess is they are usually known pairs.
 

jp0379

Member
BD, what kind of mandarins or blennies have you had in pairs? Did (or do) they get along from the getgo?
 

polarpooch

Active Member
Do you means in terms of food competition, or in terms of territoriality?
I only know about my two scooters. The food competition was hard on one of them, and get started getting thin, so I took him back to the LFS.
I just didn't trust the pod population in my tank, and took the other one back about a month later.
BTW, I have about 165lbs of LR and a refugium. I can't seem to figure out dragonets, though. Maybe you've had better luck.
 

jp0379

Member
I meant as far as territorial.............my scooter and mandarin eat live brine shrimp in addition to the usual stuff, but I was worried about them fighting and causing stress. Thanks very much for the info!
 
D

daniel411

Guest
Wow Bang! Thats impressive!
Regarding the question. Depends on how large your tank is. I'm not sure of any known ranges they're known to have. However I know a place that has some roughly 1500 gallon tanks with easily a few thousand pounds of live rock that have dozens of mandarins in them. Thats a bit bigger than most of us have though.
 

jp0379

Member
LOL, Daniel......yeah, thats a BIT bigger than mine.......LOL. Without getting in the usual "you need at least a 200 gallon tank for your one zebra damsel" crowd, the mandarins don't need lots of space, they need lots of stuff to eat. Lots of people don't know that mandarins,in addition to the usual reef supply, eat live brine shrimp just as much. Mine eats it like he's crazy, which I'm glad, because that way I don't have to worry TOO much about my reef food supply for him getting too low.
NOW, if I ever DO get a 1500 gallon tank, there will still be the usual people saying "Your tank is not big enough"......LOL.
 

the claw

Active Member
Hey Bang, quite the CUTE COUPLE! Are they married, and do you play mood music for all of your fish or something?
 

bdhough

Active Member
I knew someone had a mated pair. Its possible i just usually see them in single. I've read they are territorial. You need such a large tank for one anyways I guess you could try two and see what happens. Bang Guy you have those two breeding and the fry surviving?
 

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by bdhough
Bang Guy you have those two breeding and the fry surviving?

Nope. I've been able to capture the eggs and hatch them but the fry never live more than a few days.
Someday when I have more time I might attempt to improve that, right now Banggai are keeping me more than busy and this weekend I'm going to give True Percs a try (They should hatch Sunday).
 
S

slofish

Guest

Originally posted by jp0379
Lots of people don't know that mandarins,in addition to the usual reef supply, eat live brine shrimp just as much.

Will they also eat frozen brine?
 

swaquarim

Member
Scooter blennies should be no problem to put more than one in a tank.The Manderines can only be put together if they are a M/F and the --- can be determined by the long fin on the back of the mail in front of the dorsal,the female does not have this long fin
 
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