To Fish or Not To Fish

[marinelover]

I have been recently thinking about adding a Manderine goby(spelling?) to my reef for beauty and bristle worm removal reasons. Does anyone have experience with these fish? Will the addition be ok with current inhabitants? ( anenomes, urchin, 4 percs, brittle star, scallops, LR, 2 purple fire fish)
Anything unusual or difficult about these fish?

 

[gabbys125reef]

I have a mandarin goby and they are the coolest things. They don't bother anything they just swin around real slow and eat off of the rocks and sand. They get along with all of my fish and don't bother any of my coral. I have nothing bad to say about these fish and would recommend them to anyone.

 

[flydan]

Hey,
Manderin's are very specific feeders. You will need a lot of established lr to feed one. Tank should be set up for at least a year since it's diet is copepods and amphipods. It doesn't eat bristle worms to the best of my knowledge. I have heard rare instances of people getting theirs to eat brine shrimp, but they are very timid and wont get to eat much since your Perc and Fire fish are much more aggressive feeders. Bottom line is, if you don't have lots of 'pods, it will slowly starve to death.
BTW, if you want something colorful that eats bristle worms (Bristle worms are good for your reef unless they get huge.) I'd humbly suggest the 6-Line Wrasse. Non-aggressive, colorful, and it swims in and out of your lr all day AND it eats bristle worms.
HTH

 

[marinelover]

Fly Dan-
I have had the lr for over a year but dont know if there are "pods" on it. This may sound stupid but what do they look like? I would love to add the mandarin but want to make sure he is happy and healthy. If the lr is not established enough what can I do to ensure his health? Does it eat anything else?

 

[flydan]

Hey,
Pods will look like small white specks, on your tank glass usually. About this size: " . " If you shine a light on your tank glass at night you should see them. If you look really close on your lr, sometimes you can see real tiny things moving around. Most people that have an established tank with a refugium have a good population of pods.
As far as eating other things, like I stated earlier some people have been able to get them to eat brine shrimp, but with 4 Perc's and 2 Fire fish a Mandarin wont get to the food in time since they aren't aggressive feeders.
I'm not saying you can't successfully keep one; I'm just letting you know that most die within a few months due to starvation. (Or some desease caused by low immunity due to lack of a proper diet.)
Good luck.

 

[burnnspy]

Mandarines are dragonnets not gobies for one.
If when the lights are out you dont see a large amount of shrimpilike creatures running on the glass hten you do not have a good pod population.
Maintaing a Mandarin boils down to luck if your tank doesnt have pods and that IMO is a lack of responsibility.
BurnNSpy

 

[big dave]

IMO, Mandarins are for very large established reef systems (200+) or the South PAcific. These are the only two places these should be seen. If you want something for bristle worm control, I agree with FlyDan in that 6-line wrasses are excellent for the control of them as are arrow crabs ans sally-lightfoot crabs. These are the only organisims that I personally know of that are good for bristle worm control.-Big Dave

 

[nm reef]

Got to disagree with big dave on his 200+gal system or ocean comment....but at the same time support the statements that they are food specific and need mature healthy pod populations...
I've got a manderian in a 55 gal...he is healthy and doing just fine...but there is 110+lbs of mature lr...30 gal gravity return refugium...a very established pod population...and all steps were taken to insure his food supply prior to ever adding him...they can certainly be kept and kept happy and healthy but they do have specific needs that must be met to give them the chance to thrive...and to date mine is thriving....

 

[car guy]

i disagree with reef and agree with dave most mandarins die in small tanks, you have to have large quantities of lr (200lbs. plus) in large tanks for a mandarin to survive more than a few months, and to thrive in the tank, it's just like stupid people buying moorish idols, for big tanks or little tanks, they shouldn't be in the aquarium trade, it also goes for physedelic dragonnets (manderin "gobys")

 

[marinelover]

Thanks for the advice, it looks like maybe I should wait on adding this to the tank. I would'nt want anything in the tank that is not going to be happy.