Red Mandarin Dragonet

[stanlalee]

Originally Posted by connor
you need at LEAST 100 lbs of live rock an a very mature system 8 months plus and a min tank size of 75 gals. i would return the fish immeadeatly

thats just a general recommendation. Thats more of a recommendation for people who arent going to do anything in particular to increase their pod population. In fact you can follow those recommendations or better and still have an insufficient pod supply depending on what else is in the tank and how its fed/kept. I've seen them maintained in a 30g with 40lbs of liverock. You need to do three things. 1) Set up a heavily populated fuge and 2)manually export pods from the fuge to display tank from time to time 3) dont buy other pod eaters like most small wrasses. even too many hermits can decimate pod population or at least keep them from coming out as much. I would much rather rely on a fuge then hoping to naturally build an acceptable in tank population. Oh yeah you need a mandarin that will eat.

 

[alyssia]

Originally Posted by 37g Joe
I had a spotted mandran for quite some time in my 37 gallon with far less than 100lbs of live rock he ate mysis shrimp and even flake food. it is true that they are pickier but it does not taqke to much to get them to eat more than pods. as long as he watches the mandarin goby closly and tries differetn foods to see what the mandarin perfers and give him that then mix other foods with what he like you can get them to eat alot of variety you just need alot of patience. my mandarin finally died when I had an out break of ich and had to use malachite green and it had an adverse affect on the mandarin and he died.

Not true. Mandarins are picky eaters. Most of them will NOT accept foods.

 

[alyssia]

Originally Posted by connor
you need at LEAST 100 lbs of live rock an a very mature system 8 months plus and a min tank size of 75 gals. i would return the fish immeadeatly

 

[nm reef]

The origionator of this thread reported that he/she felt the responses were inappropiate/childish/and not what he/she expected from these forums. To a certain extent I agree....critisism may be warrented but personall attacks are simply not acceptable. Members that turned this issue into a flame may need to reconsider their actions and at the same time anybody that posts seeking conformation for what may be considered poor judgement need to understand that you will not always recieve confirmation for your choices and if you expect confirmation each time then you may need to consider accepting the often times experienced and knowledgeable advice members here will offer. I stand by my position that as a topic for the photography forum the photos are representative of those many members post and as such are appreciated....I also stand by my position that the provided conditions may not be acceptable or adaquate for a manderian.......that is my opinion based on experience....the choice however is entirely yours....but simply because you make that choice do not expect experiencied hobbyists to either agree or accept it.
thread closed......it'll go now where from here.