Mandarins in Picos

[LJR]

I'm asking about a touchy subject I realize, but I am curious as to if anyone has ever kept Mandarin in a tank smaller than 10 gallons for a substantial amount of time. By substantial I mean greater than say, ~6 months (not "oh, mine was great for two months and then dropped dead for some reason"). Just curious as to if this has ever been done. If you did do it, please feel free to share your wizard powers ?

[Boggers]

nope, had one that wasn't eating well so I put it in my 7.5G tank as it was crawling with pods and no other fish so I could be sure it ate...all pods were gone after 2 days. I held it there a little to get some frozen it it, but back to my display shortly after.

Good news is it actively eats again so I was glad it got over its' hunger strike.

[LJR]

Glad you got it back eating, that would stink to lose it after trying so hard. How large is your display, and how large was this fish before and after?

[Simulated Fish]

I have never heard of success in any nano unless they work actually ADDING pods Almost daily. That is a rich man's option too. Lol I have thought about one in my 45g but even that I feel is to small with the six line i have also eating pods.

[LJR]

1 minute ago, Hippieheadshot said:

I have never heard of success in any nano unless they work actually ADDING pods Almost daily. That is a rich man's option too. Lol I have thought about one in my 45g but even that I feel is to small with the six line i have also eating pods.

Yikes, you have a sixline and a mandarin? How do you even manage, lol!

[Veng]

I've successfully kept a couple different mandys for over a year in my 20Gallon over the years.  The long story short is as long as you can train it to eat frozen or pellets, you'll have no trouble keeping one in a pico.  However, you'll never be able to feed enough without other problems on a pico to sustain a pod population to then sustain the mandy.  

[Simulated Fish]

@LJR I thought about it because it's hard to resist them, but I didn't get one because I knew it wouldn't be happy or feed enough.

 

But man are they so pretty  

One day!

[Boggers]

7 minutes ago, LJR said:

Glad you got it back eating, that would stink to lose it after trying so hard. How large is your display, and how large was this fish before and after?

It is an adult Target Mandarin that was already eating frozen prior to me getting it. My display is a 60G cube with a fuge in my sump.

I do have a 6 line wrasse and a blue-stripe pipefish as well in there.

I buy a bottle of pods ever other month, but they all eat frozen. I just feed a bunch at a time so they have time to go pecking at it for a bit. 

[LJR]

16 minutes ago, Hippieheadshot said:

@LJR I thought about it because it's hard to resist them, but I didn't get one because I knew it wouldn't be happy or feed enough.

 

But man are they so pretty  

One day!

Oh, pardon, I misread your post, I thought you one already. I'd also love to have one, falling in love with one at a fish store in Ronkonkoma Long Island is probably what got me into this hobby in the first place, when I was a kid. 

17 minutes ago, Veng said:

I've successfully kept a couple different mandys for over a year in my 20Gallon over the years.  The long story short is as long as you can train it to eat frozen or pellets, you'll have no trouble keeping one in a pico.  However, you'll never be able to feed enough without other problems on a pico to sustain a pod population to then sustain the mandy.  

So, are you saying that you could keep a mandarin well fed in a pico, but at the cost of other things (water quality)?

9 minutes ago, Boggers said:

It is an adult Target Mandarin that was already eating frozen prior to me getting it. My display is a 60G cube with a fuge in my sump.

I do have a 6 line wrasse and a blue-stripe pipefish as well in there.

I buy a bottle of pods ever other month, but they all eat frozen. I just feed a bunch at a time so they have time to go pecking at it for a bit. 

How did you get the Pipefish to eat frozen? Was it a stroke of luck, or do you have a technique (or maybe both ?)?

[Simulated Fish]

The issue I have seen is that they can stop eating frozen for no reason and then you have to retrain. I keep a lion for a year that did this.

[Boggers]

More luck, but I feed frozen every day. They are bound to try it as it floats by. You just have to keep them eating and fed long enough that they make the transition.

 

Mandy's don't have what you would consider a stomach. They have to eat constantly. So in a pico they have to be fed 4X+ a day frozen/pellets OR pods constantly.

with that much food in the system the waste is going to be nuts.

 

[Simulated Fish]

Just now, Boggers said:

More luck, but I feed frozen every day. They are bound to try it as it floats by. You just have to keep them eating and fed long enough that they make the transition.

 

Mandy's don't have what you would consider a stomach. They have to eat constantly. So in a pico they have to be fed 4X+ a day frozen/pellets OR pods constantly.

with that much food in the system the waste is going to be nuts.

 

5g tank, 40 gallon sump with 200g rated skimmer lol 

[Veng]

11 minutes ago, LJR said:

So, are you saying that you could keep a mandarin well fed in a pico, but at the cost of other things (water quality)?

Pretty much.  When people talk about 100 gallon tanks being able to support them, it's because people feed 10 times or more to a 100 gallon tank vs a 10 gallon tank.  

[LJR]

47 minutes ago, Hippieheadshot said:

5g tank, 40 gallon sump with 200g rated skimmer lol 

Or a 10g tank with a 500g skimmer, lol!

42 minutes ago, Veng said:

Pretty much.  When people talk about 100 gallon tanks being able to support them, it's because people feed 10 times or more to a 100 gallon tank vs a 10 gallon tank.  

Hmm, that makes sense. If all the food added were to be eat (in theory, but I suppose in a small tank this may be more likely) would there still be large nutrient levels due to large amounts of animal waste, or would it be diminutive.  

51 minutes ago, Boggers said:

More luck, but I feed frozen every day. They are bound to try it as it floats by. You just have to keep them eating and fed long enough that they make the transition.

 

Mandy's don't have what you would consider a stomach. They have to eat constantly. So in a pico they have to be fed 4X+ a day frozen/pellets OR pods constantly.

with that much food in the system the waste is going to be nuts.

 

I believe other fish, such as seahorses, or more commonly, goldfish, are similar....they are also dirty fish. That makes sense

[Clown79]

As long as you add food there will be waste.

 

The mandarin needs to void and thats waste.

 

Foods themselves often cause waste, thats why many rinse their frozen food before feeding.

 

A mandarin really shouldn't be kept in a pico. The size alone isn't enough for it. 

 

In pico's you are looking at tailspot blenny, small watchman goby, clown goby- these are much smaller species.