Mandarin Goby in a 14 gallon BioCube?

[Dnuts82]

What does everyone think about keeping a mandarin in a 14 BC? I picked one up today. I think that are enough copepods in the tank.....they are all over the glass.

[DCG1286]

He will destroy your supply of pods very quickly, then most likely starve unfortunately...Mandarins really should be kept in a, minimum 45G, with lots of Live Rock...14G is far too small...

 

 

Good Luck though!

 

-DCG

 

ps: Also with no refugium there is no place for the pods to reproduce...

[Dnuts82]

The pods seemed to be reproducing in the tank over the last month or so. Are you saying that he will eat them faster than they will reproduce? If so what if I regularly add them. I have a 90 gallon that I could put him in but i wanted to try it out and see if he would work in my 14. Thanks for the info!

[DCG1286]

He will eat them faster then they can reproduce exactly!

 

If you have the 90G stick him in.

 

I have a nice fat Scooter Dragonet in my 45G Reef with 10G fuge to keep supplying the tank, i was also able to get mine to eat brine shrimp...totally by coincidence...he came to the top of the tank one day saw the shrimp, and now eats with the rest of the fish.

 

 

 

I will be honest, i have never tried to just add pods from a bottle...so i don't really know...I have yet to meet someone that was able to keep a dragonet in a small tank...

[Dnuts82]

I suppose I will watch him closeley for the next week or so and see how he does....if he starts to looks skinny i'll transfer him over. Have you seen any set up that i can run a refugium on my cube?

[Jakesaw]

Dunno but mandarin Gobies are awesome looking fish.

 

I saw my first baby Mandarin this Thursday - and saw an adult Mandarin Gobie this weekend. Very cool fish. I look forward to getting one when I get a 50 gallon tank some day.

[Dnuts82]

They are deffinatley very vivid!

[jamesnmandy]

there is a guy on RC that instead of getting rid of the fish decided to buy live copepods to feed....he ended up spending hundreds if not thousands over a year or so just to keep it alive

 

mandarins are best reserved for large tanks with long established pod populations and "pod farms" where they can breed untouched

[Six]

awesome looking but boring to watch. plus they usually die and that sucks.

[jamesnmandy]

awesome looking but boring to watch. plus they usually die and that sucks.

 

 

usually die = not enough natural food

[Dnuts82]

do you know of a way to set up a refugium or something so that the copepods an reproduce? How fast do you think that a small mandarin can go through a 1000 copepods?

[jamesnmandy]

do you know of a way to set up a refugium or something so that the copepods an reproduce? How fast do you think that a small mandarin can go through a 1000 copepods?

 

 

i have no idea how many they eat, but i can tell you mine spends all his waking hours going *peck*, *peck*, *peck*.....they dont just swim around for hours and then decide to swoop in once in a while to eat, they peck constantly

 

my situation is a bit different, i have a well established 75 gallon tank with lots of rock, 20 gallon sump/fuge and enough pods to choke a cow before i even thought about buying a mandarin, he was the very last fish i bought and i made sure none of my other fish choices would be eating copepods regularly

 

as far as copepod sanctuary's....there are many creative methods, the most common would be a sump/refugium of course where the young copepods would randomly but regularly get sucked up into the display for consumption, this is the best method

 

but for one without a fuge, i would try the strawberry basket upside down over a pile of rock rubble method....

 

thing is, no matter which you choose, you need to have a teeming pod population before you ever introduce the mandarin....otherwise from what i have read you will spend all your time trying to keep him from dying of starvation

[joer3]

This guy has kept a Mandarin Goby alive in a 10 gallon tank for over three years and continues thriving. He did culture his own pods and dosed his tank with pods on a daily basis. Which I would imagine is the reason why it's doing so well.

 

http://joshday.com/mandaringoby.htm

[Dnuts82]

Well the pod population is fine for now....I wil add them regularly until i figure out what I am going to do. I'm trying to find a sleek hang on refugium for the back. What do you think about making the second chamber in the back into a refugium? I currently just have rubble back there. I saw a cool DIY thread about doing that but it was on a 28 gallon. My second chamber in my 14 is very small.

[Kraylen]

Don't even waste your time trying to keep up a pod population for one of these fish. I've read stories of people spending hundred to thousands of dollars dumping live pods in all the time.

 

You CAN train them too eat mysis shrimp, it will save you time, stress and money. Your best bet is to find a fat mandarin goby and start him on the mysis cycle. He'll get hungry sooner or later and eat the mysis like there is no difference.

[Dnuts82]

This guy has kept a Mandarin Goby alive in a 10 gallon tank for over three years and continues thriving. He did culture his own pods and dosed his tank with pods on a daily basis. Which I would imagine is the reason why it's doing so well.

 

http://joshday.com/mandaringoby.htm

 

This is a very good article....thanks for the post. I'm going to try and culture the pods in Mason jars like he did. In the mean time i will add them regularly. Does anyone know of a good HOB refugium that is inexpensive and will work with a BC 14?

[jamesnmandy]

when i feed brine shrimp (the frozen cube stuff) i turn off all my pumps and skimmer and let it just float down in the tank and the mandarin will eat them, might try that as a supplement

[Dnuts82]

After it settles to the bottom do you turn your pumps back on or do you wait awhile?

[DCG1286]

The story of the guy that kept the Mandarin in his 10G tank was very fascinating, however as stated before, he probably dumped more money into feeding that fish then anything else...is it worth it??? You can set up 55-65G for that kind of money...Or buy nicer fish

 

 

-DCG

[ocean_of_mirth]

I would definitely set up a refugium with chaeto and LR rubble to feed this guy.

 

I had a mandarin in a 30g Finnex M and a refugium in one of the back chamber, and my little mandarin stayed fat and happy for a few years (until the power went out while I was away)

 

 

a 14G tank with no refugium just sounds like trouble.

[fishtooth]

I have a scooter blenny which is wrongly named since it really is a dragonette. So I put him in my 6 gal nanocube and at first I said the same thing once I found out what his diet was I had tons of pods all over my glass. He went through the pods in a few days. I kept putting mysis shrimp in the tank and finally one day he chomped down on it and has been eating it every day since. I also have cyclops and he will eat those as well. What I do is turn off the tank pumps and put some cyclops and mysis shrimp right next to him and leave the pumps off for 15 mins. he starts to peck away at the cyclops so I know he's eating that. You might try the same. I heard of someone who had a mandarin and what they would do is take a hermit crab shell and freeze some cyclops in the shell and then put the shell in the tank in the same spot everyday and the mandarin would wander over and eat the cyclops as it dissolved. Good luck.

[121a]

For all those calling it a mandarin goby, YOUR WRONG. It is a dragonette. Take it back to the store as it will die either way.

[jamesnmandy]

After it settles to the bottom do you turn your pumps back on or do you wait awhile?

 

i let it sit for about 10-15 minutes so other critters have a chance to eat like the serpent star, nass snails, cleaner shrimp, etc.....the animals that are not as aggressive in eating and only get what they can find get a little chance to get some good food....then i turn the pumps back on, during this time my mandarin will grab some of the brine that has fallen to the bottom

 

i have a lot of flow in my tank and he cannot really swim out in the open at all, he stays in the rocks, so this also gives him a chance to "get out a bit" LOL

[SeeDemTails]

Here is the deal with Mandarins....

 

I have one....it is in my 37 gal tank, going on five months, and is so healthy is has back fat.

 

You have to train the fish to eat mysis or other prepared food like chopped shrimp and clam. Mine is trained, and I have trained several others, both green and spotted.

 

THIS IS VERY EASY........

 

The first step is to buy a healthy mandarin. You already have yours, so you need to get on the ball. This next statement may upset some, but IMO, no tank can support a mandarin on its own, unless it is several hundred gallons, even then you should feed it. I have seen mandarins starve in huge, years old tanks.

 

Once the mandarin is comfortable, and feeding on pods, you then need to get it to recognize that a clear tube means food. The easiest way to do this is to use the mandarins reaction to small movements, using brine shirmp. It will see them inside the tube and attempt to eat the through the tube. Then squirt them out of the end, one at a time, teaching the mandarin that the end of the tube is where the food comes out. They are very smart, and quick learners, you just have to teach them.

 

After you feed brine a few times, the mandarin will get that the tube means food. You can go strait to mysis at this point. I have had a couple picky ones, that you had to mix the mysis 50/50 with live brine the first couple times, but they still figured it out pretty quick.

 

I have found feeding my mandarin is easier at the top of the water, with the pumps off. The fish knows when the pumps turn off, to come to the top of the tank, and he gets fed on top of a powerhead. They are quick learners like I said.

 

I feed mine every other day, and give him about 15 full mysis shrimp. He chows down, I have to stop him or he would keep on going till he popped.

 

Now I want to address somethings

 

ps: Also with no refugium there is no place for the pods to reproduce...

 

I understand your logic, but even as great of hunters as mandarins are, there will be pleanty of places inside your LR and soft corals for pods to hide, grow, and reproduce. I have a 37g tank, no sump or refugium, and my pod population has had no decrease since the addition of the mandarin. I think they do eat a lot of pods, but some of the pods in our tank may be faster than the type they prefer, and thus harder, or larger in the case of some amphipods, than the mandarin wants to target. This is why supplimental feeding is so important. Without it, your fish will die.

 

I love reading the storys about people spending $100's of dollars on pods to feed thier fish. I respect peoples intentions, but the fact is all they are doing is wasting money, falsifying the information people read on the internet when studying what it takes to keep one, and slowly killing their fish. Unless you are catching the pods and maunally feeding them to the fish, there is no way to know that is is getting enough to eat from the added pods. And those things arent designed to be a repeating food source, they are simpy designed to start a pod population in your tank, which if you have LR, last time I check you already did. Pods are part of the fishes food supply, and an important one, but not one you can rely on alone for success!

 

A lot of people will say, dont buy them...take it back....ect ect. I respect their thoughts, but the fact is most LFS's arent going to feed it right, and 90% of the ones you see in LFS's die. I think that if you are willing to take the time to train the fish, and understand what it takes to keep a tank healthy, that the fish really does have a better chance of survival in your tank, but this statement only holds true if you are commited.

 

The basic rules for keeping a mandarin in a nano(or any tank for that matter) are IMO

 

1. Supplimental feeding! You have to train the fish. No matter how much you spent on pods, or how big your fuge is, you have to feed!!!!!

 

2. For a nano, no fish that will out compete the mandarin for pods....I.E. Dottybacks, Wrasses

 

3. Be commited, you have to be fully ready to take on the responsabilitys that come with dragonettes, these arent regular fish!

 

Here are a few pics of mine getting fed.

 

 

[joer3]

The story of the guy that kept the Mandarin in his 10G tank was very fascinating, however as stated before, he probably dumped more money into feeding that fish then anything else...is it worth it??? You can set up 55-65G for that kind of money...Or buy nicer fish

 

 

-DCG

Possibly so, but from the looks of it, it seems he only spent money on the jars, pumps, sponge, and one bottle of pods. From that point he cultured them over a number of mason jars. In practice, if you can keep the pods alive and culture them correctly, I would imagine this would be an efficient way to produce pods to keep your mandarin healthy.