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lgreen's Mandarin FAQ


lgreen

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lgreen's Mandarin FAQ

 

Synchiropus picturatus

 

Common names: Yellow Target Mandarin Goby, Spotted Mandarin Goby, SEXY RAINBOW BEAST

 

Your common names classification wasnt entirely complete. I have updated it for you in order to better reflect the accuracy of said organism. :D

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  • 2 months later...

I am going to assume the answer is not only 'no' but HECK no BUT ...

 

 

I have an 8 gallon Nano, with a fair amount of live rock. It's been cycling for 2-3 weeks now with just LR and a few blue legged crabs. I dosed with red copepods a while back.

 

If I got an ORA dragonet, and fed him 5 days a week, would he be able to survive without being fed on the weekends? This is for an office tank.

 

I'm thinking they eat so much, probably not.

 

Thoughts?

 

== John ==

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altolamprologus
I am going to assume the answer is not only 'no' but HECK no BUT ...

 

 

I have an 8 gallon Nano, with a fair amount of live rock. It's been cycling for 2-3 weeks now with just LR and a few blue legged crabs. I dosed with red copepods a while back.

 

If I got an ORA dragonet, and fed him 5 days a week, would he be able to survive without being fed on the weekends? This is for an office tank.

 

I'm thinking they eat so much, probably not.

 

Thoughts?

 

== John ==

Sorry, but no. Eight gallons is incredibly small, not only because of food, but also because of bioload. Mandarins eat a lot and have fast metabolisms so they have a higher bioload than other comparatively sized fish. An office tank wouldn't get the twice weekly water changes needed to support that. If you could get past the bioload issue, there's still the feeding issue. Mandarins are like hummingbirds and it's a huge deal when they miss a day of food. Two days of fasting every week could be a real danger. The red pods you added are tigger pods huh? Those are pelagic copepods and are eaten by other fish or taken out by filtration within a day. Mandarins only eat benthic pods and it would take extensive cultures to produce enough to feed one mandarin.

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I just purchased a mandarin for my 3 yr old Solana. I feel like my tank being as mature as it is, currently has a good supply of pods for her, but I have also started a TISBE pod tank in my 12g nanocube.

 

two questions: I notice that she currently hangs out in just a couple of places and continually pecks the glass and rock. Does this mean that she is finding enough pods in those areas as of now? My assumption would be that if she wasnt finding food, she would be moving?

 

Second, the Tisbe tank, bare bottom, about 10lbs of live rock, added an airstone for some movement. Added a bottles of Tisbe pods from live aquaria, and a bottle of phytoplankton. What next....?

 

Once its time to harvest, can I take one of the smaller live rocks and just shake it off in my Solana? Or should I siphon?

 

thanks for your help!

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I had success in a 29G tall but it was quite a while before I put one in. I bought those "reef pod" stuff and poured that in every so often but I hear mixed reviews on them.

 

I waited at least a year before I got a mandarin Goby. At times I fed my tank LIVE Brine in which the Goby did eat that as well. I did the mix of live brine and frozen food always and saw the Goby start to eat frozen.

 

I found it best to use a turkey baster to "gently" shoot (or target) frozen brine or Mysis shrimp towards the goby. They are not fast movers so they are not going to go chase frozen food like the other fish.

 

But the key is patience in letting your tank "seed" buy those reef pods or copepods if you wish (again, ive heard good and bad about them) and try live brine as well.

 

Oh yes, quick note. I added drops of selcon (you can use any food additive) to my live brine

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  • 5 weeks later...
loyalhero90

Has anyone read the article by JoshDay about keeping a mandarin goby in a 5-20 gallon. I don't hear people quoting from him a lot so is his work discredited or are people just not fond of him?I'm not trying to say that a mandarin in a 10 gallon is a piece of cake since it would still require multiple feedings and probably a good refugium and mandarin diner for the ones that eat prepared/frozen food. However, if someone followed his regiment would it be possible to hold a happy mandarin in a 10 gallon if attached to a lively refugium and also had a nice diner to go to every night? Not trying to start an argument but from a noob's perspective the topic is very controversial especially when bringing in ORA mandarins.

The reason is that I have been slowly thinking about getting one (or a blue stripe pipefish) for a new shallow lagoon build. I have a small 5 gallon with no filter- only mangroves/macroalgae and even with my multiple feedings for my corals and fish my nitrates are pretty much undetectable along with phosphates. The biomass sometimes gets pretty heavy but nothing really happens (in terms of nitrates, algae growth or strange deaths). So I wonder if with a good refugium, a diner and a tank that could take heavy biomass (which- correct me if I'm wrong of course) might be slim since the main foods would be in a jar so the it would be controlled?

PS. There is also that article by Matt Pedersen in the Coral magazine that give some interesting stuff about mandarins in smaller tanks. From what I can understand smaller tanks actually dedicated to Mandarins can provide a higher success rate because they will be properly fed via target feedings rather than throwing them in larger systems with the hopes that the pods population can keep up. The title is Rethinking Dragonettes.

Edited by loyalhero90
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  • 6 months later...
xerophyte_nyc

Does anyone know or care to offer a guess: If a mandarin in a tank is relying 100% on the pod population for feeding, how long until that pod population is decimated? How/ when can you tell if the pod population is sustainable? One week? One month? Three months?

 

This week marks one month for my situation. I have a 39G tank with a sump. I do not target feed my mandarin, he enjoys plentiful pods. There are still pods everywhere. I feed phytoplankton regularly, slowly, and liberally. I also use an algae scrubber which is reported to supply copious copepods. When can I claim success? Would I not start seeing trouble by now?

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  • 3 months later...
SantaMonica

Pods live mostly in the periphyton in and behind the rocks. They re-populate quickly enough to supply a stead-state amount to mandarins.

 

Key is to not move your rocks, or change flow or lighting. The periphyton develops on the rocks based on food particle supply, and light. If you move anything you will cut off the food supply, and large sections of periphyton will die off, reducing pods.

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  • 2 months later...
Fishkeeper23

I would also like to add that I have a fish store and we absolutely dont sell mandarins until they are eating frozen mysis shrimp. I feel as though its becoming easier to keep these beautiful fish as time goes by. I recall years ago, hobbiests claiming them to be impossible yo keep. Good luck to all that attempts to house these fish and remember, if they won't feed it and let you watch, don't buy it!

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I would also like to add that I have a fish store and we absolutely dont sell mandarins until they are eating frozen mysis shrimp. I feel as though its becoming easier to keep these beautiful fish as time goes by. I recall years ago, hobbiests claiming them to be impossible yo keep. Good luck to all that attempts to house these fish and remember, if they won't feed it and let you watch, don't buy it!

 

Can you move to Duluth, MN please :)

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Theoretical question here. If one had a 10 gallon tank attached to a sump or refugium... what size/ conditions would the sump/ refugium need to be to support copepod production for a single mandarin? And has anyone tried something like that?

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Snow_Phoenix

Theoretical question here. If one had a 10 gallon tank attached to a sump or refugium... what size/ conditions would the sump/ refugium need to be to support copepod production for a single mandarin? And has anyone tried something like that?

 

I'd do a 30G sump for a 10G tank. At least 15G of the sump should be a fuge. Minimum. And the fuge must be packed with as much macro as possible. It might work, but only for a little while. Mandarins possess heavy bioloads though, so if you're doing a Mandy in a tank that small, let it be your only fish. You have to eventually try to wean it onto frozen though, unless you enjoy spending money to dump pods in your tank every twice or thrice a week. (Yes, they eat that much).

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I love the idea of a mandarin. Same time they intimidate me enough not to try it (yet):-0 The ORA mandarin weaned to pellets sound interesting. I'm sure demand for these far outstrip supply and imagine there are risks even with this route.

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Head on over to the Mandarin thread, the trials and tribulations of mandarin keepers is pretty varied. A 10G is very small for a fish of this bioload. A tank should be up and running for at least a year before attempting a mandarin, they decimate pod populations in no time. Getting a fish that already eats prepared foods is the best thing, however even those can stop feeding due to stress in shipping etc.

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Snow_Phoenix

Head on over to the Mandarin thread, the trials and tribulations of mandarin keepers is pretty varied. A 10G is very small for a fish of this bioload. A tank should be up and running for at least a year before attempting a mandarin, they decimate pod populations in no time. Getting a fish that already eats prepared foods is the best thing, however even those can stop feeding due to stress in shipping etc.

 

I agree with Kat. Mine was allegedly trained but went back to pod eating when he was dropped off my doorstep - or rather passed on to my dad. I had to retrain him in a 12G macro tank before shifting him to my 30G which had a 16G sump + refugium combo. Thankfully he still has a fascination for brine and mysis, so feeding him isn't too big of an issue.

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  • 6 months later...
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msparklym13

Has anyone found a place that will ship already trained for frozen food? Guessing captive bred but when I google it I haven't found much- The best source I found was around 2009- As for LFS they get them in regularly but I feel confident none have been trained.

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  • 10 months later...
GregEmmitte

I found this thread before I joined and after I lost my first mandarin.

 

because of this thread for four months I added 25,000 live pods from AlgaeBarn and feed my 32biocube with live phytoplankton 3 times a week. I've had the current mandarin over 6 months. 

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  • 1 year later...

@Ladytank, I think this is a really good thread on mandarins, so I thought it would be a good one for us to revive to talk about your questions about preparing to possibly getting a mandarin. 

 

As I mentioned, I have a captive bred Biota mandarin in my Biocube 16; I’ve had him since 4/2/18 so it’s not a long time, but he is doing well so far. 

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  • 4 months later...
On 6/26/2016 at 12:45 AM, msparklym13 said:

Has anyone found a place that will ship already trained for frozen food? Guessing captive bred but when I google it I haven't found much- The best source I found was around 2009- As for LFS they get them in regularly but I feel confident none have been trained.

I know your post is a little old but I read this whole thread yesterday and happen to run across what you were looking for today. Little pricey. 

https://aquariumcarecenter.com/product/captive-bred-psychedelic-mandarin/

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