Mandarin Gody Dragonette?

How would a Mandarin Goby do in a 12 gal nano with 14lbs LR?? I was about to buy one the other day but i didnt know if i had enough live rock. any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

It will not survive unless you can train them to eat other food other than pods.

well to put it simply, no. There isn't enuff Live Rock. These Guys eat Pods, you need like 30 gallons per mandrain to keep them alive. and the tank has to be WELL established. However, it is posible to get Mandrains to go for Brine shrimp, but it's hard to do.

thats what i thought just was hoping, oh well. thanks

Plus, there isn't that much nutritional value in brine shrimp. A refugium is almost a necessity for these guys unless the tank is very well established..

Mandarin Goby Dragonette (Synchiropus splendidus) won't eat the food you offer it. It'll eat living organisms from the LR!

The only thing you should do is change a piece of LR once in a while or add Mysis (very small shrimp living between the LR) to the tank. They will live in your LR and the Mandarin can hunt for it.

Your tank must be well established because the organisms in and around the LR must have great numbers ...

If it's used to other food, what I don't believe, you should do this too, just to make sure it won't starve to death.

If you can make sure there's plenty of 'natural-food' to go around, it is a very hardy fish.

How often would you need to put in mysis, are they quick eaters, is that all they do??

I know 3 people who have them but they all keep them different but in a settled tank!

Person #1: Doesn't feed at all, checks every evening if he can see organisms walk over the LR. (Tank is running 3 years now)

Person #2: Feeds the extra mysis twice a month. (Tank is running 4 years now)

Person #3: Changed his rock by fresh rock once in a long run (not following something ... mostly once in 6 moths and than 1 or 2 stones). (Tank is running 3 years now)

That's how they do it. I think you should follow the way you think it's best, or a combination of it.

Good luck

alrighty thanks man

they do best in a species tank, they're very slow and not too good at hunting, if you've got quicker fish, they'll snap up the food before the manderin has even seen it.

if you do want to keep them a VERY mature tank is needed. a fine layer of coral gravel or similar coarse substrate might help as this will collect a small amount of detrius that the micro organisms can feed and multiply on so the manderin's got plenty of food.

they dont need much space, so if you really want to keep them healthy, set up a tank, coarse gravel substrate, perhaps no protein skimmer, plenty of algae and plenty of live rock, slow current, infrequent water changes to allow the algae to bloom and give the pods a chance

ok guys he got it, lets stop beating the poor guy up. He just asked:)

And we just gave an answer

Experiance comes with mistakes and succes

i've got so many pods in my tank the tank walls look like they have ich, if i didn't already have 2 fish in there i would get a mandarin for mine, if i can have this success with the pods in my 29 like i have in the 10 i will deff get one i love those guys