Yellow Coris vs. Mandarin (can't chose)

[kimberbee]

I was thinking of one of these two as my next fish in a few months when my tank hits 6 months old.

 

I'd like a yellow coris for it's color and activity level. My clowns and blenny stay in an upper corner most of the time, so he would have a lot of territory to swim in. I am a little worried about his size, though my BF says he would be ok in a 29 gaI. I do love my feather dusters and he would probably eat those, right? What about my hermits, would he bother those?

 

I'd like a mandarin because they are beautiful and would give me some movement at least along the sand. But I'm not sure that I have/will have a good enough pod population even in a few months, or that it would be happy with my scape. It seems that many people with mandarins have a lot of corals on the bottoms of their tank.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions? Other ideas?

[clownfitch]

Yellow coris wrasses are very pretty fish and model citizens. They are also very good at consuming micro fauna at a very fast rate. They spend the daylight hours scouring the sand bed and rock work for things like feather dusters, pods, etc.. If you put one in a 29 gallon tank he will likely be uneasy and spend a lot of time pacing the front of the tank which could lead to not only stressing himself but any other tank mates as well. He would not be happy in the long run. The need more ground to cover and forage over.

 

Mandarins and dragonets can be trained to eat frozen foods but you take a risk when purchasing one that it may not. If you add pods to the tank on a weekly basis and there are no other pod eaters in the tank AND you get it eating frozen then you can have success. I was lucky enough to get a Ruby Red Dragonet to eat frozen but still have to add pods weekly to keep him fat and happy.

 

The stock list in my 29 gallon biocube consists of: 1- snowflake clownfish, 1- Picasso clownfish (growing the designer clowns out to sell when they get to 2") , 1- yellow clown goby (every nano needs one of these guys), 1- springers damsel (model citizen), 1- firefish, 1- royal gramma,1- ruby red dragonet, 1 - blue striped pipefish. The tank is going on 2 years old. I perform weekly water changes of 5 gallons and add a bottle of pods every two weeks. Everyone is fat and happy.

 

I hope this helps.

[kimberbee]

Yellow coris wrasses are very pretty fish and model citizens. They are also very good at consuming micro fauna at a very fast rate. They spend the daylight hours scouring the sand bed and rock work for things like feather dusters, pods, etc.. If you put one in a 29 gallon tank he will likely be uneasy and spend a lot of time pacing the front of the tank which could lead to not only stressing himself but any other tank mates as well. He would not be happy in the long run. The need more ground to cover and forage over.

 

Mandarins and dragonets can be trained to eat frozen foods but you take a risk when purchasing one that it may not. If you add pods to the tank on a weekly basis and there are no other pod eaters in the tank AND you get it eating frozen then you can have success. I was lucky enough to get a Ruby Red Dragonet to eat frozen but still have to add pods weekly to keep him fat and happy.

 

The stock list in my 29 gallon biocube consists of: 1- snowflake clownfish, 1- Picasso clownfish (growing the designer clowns out to sell when they get to 2") , 1- yellow clown goby (every nano needs one of these guys), 1- springers damsel (model citizen), 1- firefish, 1- royal gramma,1- ruby red dragonet, 1 - blue striped pipefish. The tank is going on 2 years old. I perform weekly water changes of 5 gallons and add a bottle of pods every two weeks. Everyone is fat and happy.

 

I hope this helps.

 

This does help! I had a feeling about the yellow coris, but sometimes it takes another person's opinion, too.

 

How does your pipefish do? What's it's movement like? These are very cute fish that I have considered, but from what I understand they are pod eaters as well. Do you have him eating frozen?

[clownfitch]

This does help! I had a feeling about the yellow coris, but sometimes it takes another person's opinion, too.

 

How does your pipefish do? What's it's movement like? These are very cute fish that I have considered, but from what I understand they are pod eaters as well. Do you have him eating frozen?

 

He is an awesome little guy. I have had him for about 5 months now and he has shown good growth and over all health. I have the stock return pump running full out as well as a WP10 running on "else" so there is pretty good flow running through the tank and he has no problems swimming through it. He is constantly hunting pods but also goes does eat frozen Mysis and cyclopeez and has since I bought him from my LFS. I have 20 pounds of marco live rock in the tank along with various types of macro algae's so he has plenty of places to hunt and forage. If you do find one you would like to get you should ask the lfs person if they would mind feeding him so you can see if he will eat frozen.

[kimberbee]

Sounds like I need to work on my pod population a few more months, and then I can see what's available to me.

 

Thanks!!

[clownfitch]

Sounds like I need to work on my pod population a few more months, and then I can see what's available to me.

 

Thanks!!

 

Having a well established ecosystem definitely turns the odds more into your favor.

Good luck!

[peasofme]

i vote against a mandarin

[kimberbee]

i vote against a mandarin

But why?

[joy13]

One thing about a mandarin they can revert back to only eating live food. You might consider a candy hogfish they are similar to color to the yellow coris, Mine is in a 60 gallon cube and cruises constantly. In my 40 I have a yellow coris. I like the yellow coris because of her personality and she took care of my featherduster problem. My hogfish is more yellow than this guy http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+35+1157&pcatid=1157 it has a pink blush stripe down the middle where the coris doesn't.

[peasofme]

very difficult

[kimberbee]

One thing about a mandarin they can revert back to only eating live food. You might consider a candy hogfish they are similar to color to the yellow coris, Mine is in a 60 gallon cube and cruises constantly. In my 40 I have a yellow coris. I like the yellow coris because of her personality and she took care of my featherduster problem. My hogfish is more yellow than this guy http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+35+1157&pcatid=1157 it has a pink blush stripe down the middle where the coris doesn't.

 

That is a very cute fish! I'll look into it!

[1.0reef]

In a 29 biocube, a Yellow "Coris" would get far too active and large. But maintaining a Mandarin may be difficult if you don't have an established refugium and setup.

[Skuba]

+1 on the wrasse. Good insurance policy against nudis and mines very active always swimming around brightening up the tank. I think I have some pics in my signature thread

[joy13]

Just remember both the hogfish and wrasse are jumpers. Make sure you have a secure top.

[cuber14]

I had a yellow coris in my BC14 great fish traded him in after about 6 months ..couldn't keep any blue-legged hermits he ate them wouldn't touch the red legs but blues must be tastey. IF a snail falls on its back and the coris is around DINNER. All of this may have occured because in suck a small tank not much goes unnoticed by the inhabitants.

As far as a mandarin,love them currently I don't have one but I did and he was great just remember even if they eat frozen food they don't eat very fast and can be out-competed for food(a feeding station approach works well).

If your looking for movement along the sand bed how about a diamong sand-sifting goby?

[1.0reef]

I had a yellow coris in my BC14 great fish traded him in after about 6 months ..couldn't keep any blue-legged hermits he ate them wouldn't touch the red legs but blues must be tastey. IF a snail falls on its back and the coris is around DINNER. All of this may have occured because in suck a small tank not much goes unnoticed by the inhabitants.

As far as a mandarin,love them currently I don't have one but I did and he was great just remember even if they eat frozen food they don't eat very fast and can be out-competed for food(a feeding station approach works well).

If your looking for movement along the sand bed how about a diamong sand-sifting goby?

Sand sifting gobies may not take prepared, and they get too large for a nano.

A yellow wrasse would also get way to large for a nano.

[kimberbee]

Well, I will hold off on a yellow wrasse until I upgrade to a bigger tank.

 

In the meantime, I've now decided that I will likely get a pair of firefish sometime at the end of this month or in December.

 

In the spring, I'll check on my pod population and if all's well I'll try a mandarin/dragonet provided I find one that takes frozen well.

 

Other suggestions will be considered though.

 

Thanks!

[hwk7072]

+1 on the coris wrasse pacing. Recently put one in my IM Nuvo 30L and for a couple days it was in and among the rocks, poking around. Beautiful fish, really stands out from a distance. After a couple days it's done nothing but pace the front glass. Looking into it, it seems that they live in harems on the reef, which could be a big reason for the pacing. If female, she's looking for the big kahuna. If male, other way round. So it's going back, and hope it ends up in the right environment. I doubt it. I wish I had a bigger tank and I could provide the natural harem environment.