Anyone successfully keep a blue mandarin

[tizzite]

I was thinking of getting one for a 20g nano reef, with no other tankmates aside from a cleaner shrimp. I know generally care requirements are 30g, but it seems like mandarins are not active swimmers, and if there were no tank mates it'd have a monopoly on the tiggerpods.

 

Has anyone successfully cared for one of these? I would get some tiggerpods and let them loose in the tank, and have some on 2 live rocks in my sump. Then when it looked like there weren't a lot left in the display tank, switch out one of the live rocks in the sump for the display tank.

 

Any advice?

[Tamberav]

I had one for 5 years...6 total dragonets at one point all in 20 gallons of space. They all ate frozen...lots of frozen and I bred pods like crazy by feeding the crap out of the tank and running a carbon source. (Vodka... Vinegar...biopellets).

 

I had the tank heavily planted with macros.

 

Captive bred wasn't available back then. I would suggest you try one of those to start out to make training to frozen easier.

 

I don't think the swapping rocks is enough. I would go for a healthy sustainable population using food and macroalgae that breeds right in the tank. 

 

There is an article from coral magazine that had breeding pairs in a 29 biocube and that's what I used as a source to build my system off of. 

 

It's certainly doable but more fail then succeed as most try to keep them in too clean of tanks.

 

Pods like debris and leftover foods to breed.

[tizzite]

Ah so tons of Chaeto? Any other macros you liked?

 

Why did you stop? Had enough of the tiggerpod nonsense?

[banasophia]

I have a mandarin in my 16 gallon Biocube... I’ve had him nearly two years now. He is a captive bred biota mandarin from Live Aquaria. Raising him has been a huge investment in time and money, and I really built my tank around keeping him... it’s very high maintenance. I think the size is enough swimming room... I think it’s mainly recommended to keep them in a larger tank because a smaller tank cannot sustain a pod population naturally... but my little guy eats pellets, frozen, and fresh hatched baby brine shrimp in addition to pods. I have a rubble pile, and in the beginning I cultured pods and added them weekly.
 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I have a mandarin in my 16 gallon Biocube... I’ve had him nearly two years now. He is a captive bred biota mandarin from Live Aquaria. Raising him has been a huge investment in time and money, and I really built my tank around keeping him... it’s very high maintenance. I think the size is enough swimming room... I think it’s mainly recommended to keep them in a larger tank because a smaller tank cannot sustain a pod population naturally... but my little guy eats pellets, frozen, and fresh hatched baby brine shrimp in addition to pods. I have a rubble pile, and in the beginning I cultured pods and added them weekly.
 

 

I was actually thinking of tagging you in this thread but got sidetracked with something else for a bit. Glad to see you drop by though! (Also, beautiful mandy! 🙂 )

[Snow_Phoenix]

9 minutes ago, tizzite said:

Ah so tons of Chaeto? Any other macros you liked?

 

Why did you stop? Had enough of the tiggerpod nonsense?

Get as much macro as you can - build your environment *around the fish, meaning create as ideal an environment for it as possible. Tamberav & Banasophia are both very experienced Mandarin keepers - and they offer good pointers. 

 

Also, don't forget to wean your mandy onto frozen as soon as you can. Pods alone won't be enough - best to get it on mysis as well. But do offer it live food like BBS/live pods etc. If you don't mind forking out $$$ monthly, you can technically keep your Mandy on a pod-only diet, but it's honestly very expensive in the long run. Best to train it. 

[Tamberav]

10 minutes ago, tizzite said:

Ah so tons of Chaeto? Any other macros you liked?

 

Why did you stop? Had enough of the tiggerpod nonsense?

Decorative macros like red titan...blue otchedos...codium... Caulperla and so on.

 

It's expensive and exhausting to keep them in prime shape. They are high maintenance. I got rid of a bunch of fish when I moved and not sure I want a fish that takes so much work.

 

[banasophia]

12 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I was actually thinking of tagging you in this thread but got sidetracked with something else for a bit. Glad to see you drop by though! (Also, beautiful mandy! 🙂 )

Ah thanks. 🤗 He’s so beautiful, but so much work!!
 

Someone commented the other day that my mandarin would make short work of the evil parasitic copepods in my new tank and I mentioned it in passing to my hubs... hubs actually freaked out a little bit and replied, “No way! You can’t risk Finnick’s life like that, moving him to the other tank, even if it’s temporary... he’s like your other kid!” So now I have an azure damsel in the new tank haha... so much less work than a mandarin! 😅

[tizzite]

Ok, thanks for all the info, I don't think I'm ready for this fish- I wanted to see if how easy it was to keep a self sustaining colony of tiggerpods, and it looks like more work than I'm capable of. I gotta say, it's a remarkable fish and may be worth it some day. Maybe if my corals wipe and i just wanna go macros hahaha

[Nthanhalan]

Thank for the info. Think about getting one too