Psychedelic Mandarin...
 

K peeeeple. I am looking for opinions and/or experiences here. I am wondering what the minimum size tank is for housing a psychedelic mandarin... How much live rock... How long tank should be up and running... etc.

I read on liveaquaria.com that minimum tank size is 30G but was told today at a LFS that it's more like 70G and at least a year of operation.

What do you guys think?

Id agree with the lfs for most dragonets. most wont take frozens and will just feed on copepods and such. and they will eat LOTS of them each day. so obviously yuo would need an established large tank, preferably with a fuge (which i highyl recommend) to keep up with a dragonet's demand of live food. If you have tankmates that will compete with the dragonet for the live food then you have to take that into consideration as well.

of course if you do manage to find a healthy dragonet that does eat frozen (and be SURE of it), snatch it up fast because they arent that common. for these few cases, tank volume can be much less than for one that wont take frozen.

I believe i read somewhere that a pair of mandarins grazes over a couple of acres, I had a friend in the US who decided she wanted to breed mandarins with her husband (poor wording there excuse my elementary grasp of the english language) they were somewhat successful but not succseful enough for a business venture. They now do everything else marine related. Back to the point they had 12 foot long 5 foot wide 3 feet high industrial tanks they used for the mandarins (they had an equal size tank that would be best described as a refugium) specifically to feed the mandarins. They told me in their experience not many hobbyists can keep mandarins without monthly supplemental feedings of live pods (which it seems at least in canada is hard to come by reliably) This is however only their opinion, but I personally trust them. Even if they still sold them to people who probably couldn't look after them. A side not they stated that somewhere in the neighbnorhood of 2-3 out of every 10 would eat mysis and pellets. The few they managed to breed ate everything including flake food, so hoopefgully mandarins become another species that is bred in captivity for the trade, then we can leave the live ones alone.

As to your question I emailed my friend and she said you "can" do a 30g if you supplement live pods twice a Month. But a 4 foot tank is recomendended simply because mandarins will eat still they depletes...meaning they are constantly hungry and hunting and a 30g just doesn't have the places to hide. She also suggested putting a couple of those plastic flower/strawberry containers with a couple little holes/notches cut out of it upside down filled with chaeto and liverock rubble and specifically seed the pods to it. They will be able to multiply a bit that way. If you have a sump, then she suggested making as many of these "pod" homes that will fit in your sump. Or a gravity return refugium (sorry i am not sure what she meant, i have an idea but i will get her to clarify)



Just to point out how people have their facts wrong about this fish take a look at

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/green...agonettes.html
Notice they say minimum 20 gallon tank THEN down the page they say 75 with a refugium. At least they corrected their error. :)

Hope i helped a tad.

Only problem was they were both Cantonese. badoom boom!:wink:

That actually dosent make a difference becuase i think i saw an article in the paper about that strange and un-natural union..... humans and fish apparently can breed... easier than clownfish:lol:

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...5/untitled.jpg

Nixon Fish?

I've kept mandarins for four years max. I also read that the pod thing isn't correct, that there are many worms and other life forms important in their nutrition. I never saw a mandarin eat a copepod.

They eat any living little bug/worm/creature on the ocean floor really. copepods are just the main source of food the hobbyist can supply them. I am surprised you've never seen them eat a pod before though...wow

I have my mandarin eating frozen mysis

There are many "pods": amphipods, isopods, copypods, ostrapods.
And they all differ in size Mandarin will eat the smallest first.

I will buy it from you when you are ready to sell !
or trade for a coral

yep, most definitely

I've read that it's easy possible to get them eating pellets and frozen food. You just need to set up a mandarin feeding area with a small glass container, similar to a long skinny shot glass. Put the food in and lay it down.

I think it was on Melv's reef or wet web media.

sure is..
 

-ya i read an article about feeding mandarins on melevsreef, and here it is
>http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

Yea, i have seen it too.
However dumping a teespoon of food in the tank every day is kinda too much for any tank less then 250 gal in size.

http://oceanaquatics.com/store/produ...rcti-Pods-6oz/

Here is somthing i got from OA and will try to feed a mandarin as soon as J&L gets them in stock. I already tryed feeding 3 kinds of pipe fish in J&L last week and even though store staff indicated that some of them are "eating" none of the pipe fish ate any of that, i will let you guys know when i will try to feed the mandarines.
It says on the bottle "Excellent success rate with mandarin gobies" will see how it goes.
The bugs look greate! and all my fish likes it.

EmilyB
 

Hey EmilyB....I am curious what you fed/feed your mandarins, did they eat pellets? I want to get one as well, but I am in the process of setting up a new 60G, and I think even with a fuge/pods, I will have to wait a while...agreed?

My mandarin eats blood worms like it going out of style!!! Blood worms are over looked a lot in saltwater because they are mainly freshwater food but everyone in my tank loves them :mrgreen:

while bloodworms and other FW food might make a nice treat once in a while for SW creatures, it would make a terrible staple food. FW stuff lacks the proper nutritional values needed for SW organisms and will cause fatty liver disease in many SW organisms.

I feed my fish a vaired diet of about 7 different types of food. With food of low nutritional values I soak them in vitamin supliments & of course garlic to ensure that all my fish stay healthy but its never the same meal twice in a row, unless Im just to lazy!!! I do not use blood worms as a staple food & I agree with justinl, my mandarin has enough to eat in my system. I only sugested that when you have a stubborn fish that wont eat & by trying diffrent things you could get them to eat something & hopefully with time eat something good :mrgreen: . I also should have said that a mandarin needs to be in a established system first of at least a year to be safe. Just tying to help :smile: