How hard are mandarins??

[If_Only]

So If had my tank for about 2 and a half months and everything I have  added has been doing great, even the sps that snuck its way in on the rock one of my leathers was on. I have already dosed my tank with trigger pods twice; once a month, just because I think there beneficial, but the first time the "boss of the house" saw a mandarin dragnet she said that I need that (she's already let me have 4 tanks, and she's never liked a fish so much, besides my wrasse) I have a 45 cube (24x24x18ish) with a 10 gallon sump, but I don't have a fuge. I do see quite healthy ones at my LFS, and I would have it with a Lubbock's fairy wrasse, and a clown goby, and possibly down the line a clownfish pair. Im pretty sure none of these fish would compete for the pods? Im willing to pay for the pods, and im pretty good at getting fish to eat prepared, I taught my freshwater puffer to eat pellets, and my freshwater pipefish too eat flakes (I know freshwater ughhh). Thoughts? I really like this fish and would love to have one in my reef.

 

FYI its a mixed reef with a eshopps 120 and about 45 LBS of rock (maybe) Photos below (photos are from a month ago I got more corals now).

 

Any opinions and experiences much appreciated! 😉

 

 

[Joevember]

If you have a matured enough system, then it can be the easiest fish you can get. It is an obligate predator of pods, so if you feel like you can support a population to feed him, then you can definitely get one. It is always good to have somewhere the pods can breed though, so think about adding some kind of fuge.

 

It would be amazing to get it to eat frozen foods. If you don't want to worry about training it, you can pick up an ORA dragonet which are already raised on prepared food.

[pgrVII]

Look up the Biota Dragonets. Capative bred so they will take to prepared diets easier than wild caught. I have no experience with these myself,just read about them, however there are alot of folks with them that will be alot of help for you.

[jservedio]

In a tank that young, I'd definitely want a fuge and not run any filter socks or floss to build a healthy population. Until you have a big population of pods and have them established enough to be breeding, I wouldn't put one in a nano.

 

I had a "trained" one for about two years in my 20g (it was about 3 years old, so starting to mature) and frozen food is really just a supplement to the pods. They constantly eat. They can't just be eating once or twice a day. I'd never keep one in another nano without a really good huge.

[Tamberav]

Even if they eat prepared, you have to feed often so you need to be up to the task to be able to do so. 

 

if you go on vacations are you willing to pay for someone to come feed the fish? Maybe more than once a day?

 

is your filtration up to it?

 

Buying pods to reseed is okay but totally not feasable imo as a soul source of food. You could culture your own but that means more 5g buckets/tanks going. 

 

Personally I would add a fuge to make life a little easier. Also plan on having a 'dirtier' type tank. 

 

I find most all fish eat pods to some extent. 

 

They are beautiful, and I used to keep several but keeping these fish in a nano was a lot more work than a fish should be 😛

 

 

[If_Only]

3 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Even if they eat prepared, you have to feed often so you need to be up to the task to be able to do so. 

 

if you go on vacations are you willing to pay for someone to come feed the fish? Maybe more than once a day?

 

is your filtration up to it?

 

Buying pods to reseed is okay but totally not feasable imo as a soul source of food. You could culture your own but that means more 5g buckets/tanks going. 

 

Personally I would add a fuge to make life a little easier. Also plan on having a 'dirtier' type tank. 

 

I find most all fish eat pods to some extent. 

 

They are beautiful, and I used to keep several but keeping these fish in a nano was a lot more work than a fish should be 😛

 

 

I think if the only other fish I add are clowns my filtration could take it, I also do my water changes religiously. And now could I just put rock in the sump, or do the pods need light and algae? I could set up a small hang on huge with a Fiji cube or an aquaclear 110 or 70 as a fuge. I would love to have a mandarin, and im not bad at training fish to eat different food, but its a huge hassle.

 

4 hours ago, Joevember said:

If you have a matured enough system, then it can be the easiest fish you can get. It is an obligate predator of pods, so if you feel like you can support a population to feed him, then you can definitely get one. It is always good to have somewhere the pods can breed though, so think about adding some kind of fuge.

 

It would be amazing to get it to eat frozen foods. If you don't want to worry about training it, you can pick up an ORA dragonet which are already raised on prepared food.

Ive heard that everything but there diet is great. But the problem with the ORA is there never in stock, ive been stocking the site everyday for like a month and nothing... And my friends who have been looking for months haven't seen many pop up. My LFS also usually has a good selection so I can get a healthy one, thats nice and plump.

[Tamberav]

45 minutes ago, If_Only said:

I think if the only other fish I add are clowns my filtration could take it, I also do my water changes religiously. And now could I just put rock in the sump, or do the pods need light and algae? I could set up a small hang on huge with a Fiji cube or an aquaclear 110 or 70 as a fuge. I would love to have a mandarin, and im not bad at training fish to eat different food, but its a huge hassle.

 

Ive heard that everything but there diet is great. But the problem with the ORA is there never in stock, ive been stocking the site everyday for like a month and nothing... And my friends who have been looking for months haven't seen many pop up. My LFS also usually has a good selection so I can get a healthy one, thats nice and plump.

I don't mean filtration on number of fish, I meant the feeding habits of the mandarin alone. They hunt for pods almost constantly and have a short digestive tract needing food with lots of lipids/fatty acids (what copepods have). You may need to feed several times a day if you don't have enough pods in between. They should be FAT with plump bellies, little sausages. Having more pods means less feeding/maintenance. 

 

Pods do not need light but they need food. The # of pods just depends on how much food they have, there numbers will regulate naturally to what is available in the tank. Heavily feeding a mandarin tends to help feed pods as well. Some people dose phyto but I have never done that. 

 

Training them to a mandarin feeder dish is also something to look into to make feeding easier/less messy. 

 

Planting macro algae in your DT will help too! Especially if you don't have a fuge, there are many beautiful kinds, blue hypnea and flame algae are my fav's.

 

If you want a fuge, you can put one that works with gravity too. It doesn't have to be below the tank. A pump pumps DT water into a resivior which is slightly higher and behind/next to the tank that has a spout that pours the pods right back into the tank.

 

There are many options 🙂

 

ORA no longer breeds them. Biota sells captive bred ones. They are almost always in stock but are ultra tiny so flow and tank mates should be taken into consideration. 

 

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1500+5142+5146&pcatid=5146

 

 

I am not trying to discourage you, I am mostly saying to make a plan and prep the tank before buying one. If you can get a good pod population going and sustained and some macro growing, it will increase your changes of keeping a mandarin not just months or a year but YEARS. 

 

Also... they are my husbands fav fish as well... and why I had 6 at one point... I don't have any now but sometimes I think about setting up a specific tank for them... for him. They are pretty but I can live without the maintenance lol 🙂

[If_Only]

16 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I don't mean filtration on number of fish, I meant the feeding habits of the mandarin alone. They hunt for pods almost constantly and have a short digestive tract needing food with lots of lipids/fatty acids (what copepods have). You may need to feed several times a day if you don't have enough pods in between. They should be FAT with plump bellies, little sausages. Having more pods means less feeding/maintenance. 

 

Pods do not need light but they need food. The # of pods just depends on how much food they have, there numbers will regulate naturally to what is available in the tank. Heavily feeding a mandarin tends to help feed pods as well. Some people dose phyto but I have never done that. 

 

Training them to a mandarin feeder dish is also something to look into to make feeding easier/less messy. 

 

Planting macro algae in your DT will help too! Especially if you don't have a fuge, there are many beautiful kinds, blue hypnea and flame algae are my fav's.

 

If you want a fuge, you can put one that works with gravity too. It doesn't have to be below the tank. A pump pumps DT water into a resivior which is slightly higher and behind/next to the tank that has a spout that pours the pods right back into the tank.

 

There are many options 🙂

 

ORA no longer breeds them. Biota sells captive bred ones. They are almost always in stock but are ultra tiny so flow and tank mates should be taken into consideration. 

 

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1500+5142+5146&pcatid=5146

 

 

I am not trying to discourage you, I am mostly saying to make a plan and prep the tank before buying one. If you can get a good pod population going and sustained and some macro growing, it will increase your changes of keeping a mandarin not just months or a year but YEARS. 

 

Also... they are my husbands fav fish as well... and why I had 6 at one point... I don't have any now but sometimes I think about setting up a specific tank for them... for him. They are pretty but I can live without the maintenance lol 🙂

I might try one, but I just spilled a thing of chemi pure in my tank and im pissed.... I might try a dragonet, I just want to hear peoples success story, im also just gonna add 10 gallons of rock to the sump (it was lying around) so maybe I can see what happens.