![]() |
#1
|
||||
|
||||
![]() I want to put a mandarin in my tank and it will be the first fish in. Anyone have one now that can pass on any tips on their care and unique needs? From what i have read they generally just eat pods, not much prepared food. My tank has a ton of pods and i am putting a 'fuge in now to cultivate more. I have read that they generally don't do well in tanks under 75 gallons and mine is 41. What other fish do they get along with? I was planning on adding one clown and one bi colored blennie with the rest of the other animals just being corals.
thanks!
__________________
Fluval Osaka 41g sumpless tank, 250w MH + 130W PC , DIY HOB refugium, Tunze 9002, Koralia 2, Koralia Nano Toad Stool Colt Coral Purple Shrooms Red Shrooms Candy Cane Coral Hammer Coral Moon Coral Copper Banded Shrimp..and growing |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
![]() Don't have one yet (I actually have a pair on hold right now) but have been doing a fair bit of reading on them. Like you found they do suggest at least 75 gal. or more for a mandarin. It is also recomended to have a tank that has been established at least 6 months to a year to ensure a stable pod population. Pods tend to come and go in the first few months of setup. You also want to avoid other species that will compete for food so wrasses and some of the gobies are out. They certainly aren't recommended for beginners, but are sold all the time by LFS anyway
![]() What I am gewtting ready to do is try to train my mandarins on prepared foods based on write-ups from Matt Wittenrich who has succesfully bred them in captivity. He ensures all his stock feed on prepared foods. What he does is keep the fish in a net type breeder trap (found at your LFS) and feeds them live adult brine shrimp enriched with Selcon. Once feeding on those he starts introducing frozen brine. Once they start on those he immediately stops the live and feeds exclusively frozen. He then starts additions of other foods like frozen mysid and pellets as brine shrimp alone are not that great nutritionally. This is the approach I will be trying as although I have lots of pods in my system, I don't want to count on them alone to keep mandarins alive. Just some thoughts, others that actually have them will certainly chime in. |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
![]() I read the exact same articles! My tank is new (2 months) but the rock was from another established tank of 2 years. My pod population is so high i see them out scurrying around the rocks during the day. I dont believe that the clown will compete or the bi-colored blennie, but i could be wrong.
__________________
Fluval Osaka 41g sumpless tank, 250w MH + 130W PC , DIY HOB refugium, Tunze 9002, Koralia 2, Koralia Nano Toad Stool Colt Coral Purple Shrooms Red Shrooms Candy Cane Coral Hammer Coral Moon Coral Copper Banded Shrimp..and growing |
#4
|
|||||
|
|||||
![]() Quote:
__________________
260g mixed reef, 105g sump, water blaster 7000 return, Bubble King SM 300 skimmer, Aqua Controller Jr, 4 radions, 3 Tunze 6055s,1 tunze 6065, 2 Vortech MP40s, Vortech MP20, Tunze ATO, GHL SA2 doser, 2 TLF reactors (1 carbon, 1 rowa). http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=50034 . Tank Video here http://www.vimeo.com/2304609 and here http://www.vimeo.com/16591694 |
#5
|
||||
|
||||
![]() I QT'ed a pair in a 20g tank for about 10 days, they were eating my DIY Frozen food and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs before I added them to my DT (180g with 65g sump and 40g frag tank with over 300lbs of LR in total).
|
#6
|
||||
|
||||
![]() i have one in a 45 gallon, with 2 clowns and 2 wrasse, bared and canary.
|
#7
|
||||
|
||||
![]() have a pair of mandarins in tank that eat pods all day and slurp up blood worms but won't touch mysis. not sure why but these fat and sassy fish have been with me for last 2 years. never tried training them to go on frozen diet but these guys just took to bloodworms like natural born worm hunters..
|
#8
|
|||||
|
|||||
![]() try feeding sushi roe
|
#9
|
|||||
|
|||||
![]() I have a 50 gallon display with a striped male and female dragonet. At one time I had 4 dragonets in the tank. My striped Male&Female and 2 other spotted females that I got from the the LFS because they were so skinny and I couldn't leave them
![]() ![]()
__________________
Reefer |
#10
|
|||||
|
|||||
![]() I've got a male in a 90 gallon who chows down on frozen mysis and other prepaired foods. Every month or so I also add some pods to the tank because between the Mandarin and the Copper Banded Butterfly the pod population diminishes quickly
__________________
75 gallon with 20 gallon sump in the works. R. Bacchiega. Tattooer I didn't smack you, I simply High Fived your face. I've got so much glue on my pants it looks like a Friday night gone horribly wrong. |