Mandarin Goby-Anyone have one?

[Whatigot]

Originally Posted by TheRealBigAL

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. Once they had gotten nice and fat I found good homes for them (thanks seahorsefanatic). My secret is my 4.7 gallon hang on back refugium that is filled with cheato. I added about 4 bottles of tigger pods when I first put it on my tank(about 5 months ago). Now it grosses me out how many pods I have . When I trim the cheato pods are literally running up the scissors and onto my hands. IMO The #1secret to having Dragonets is pods and lots of em!!!!!!! Now my dragonets eat anything Mysis, Brine, even pellets but I have to turn off all of the flow in my tank and allow the food to fall to the sand bed. It took about 6 months for them to adjust to non live food.

Hey Al, remember when you were putting in like 2 bottles of tigger pods a week before you got your fuge?...

I have seen all of Als mandarins, they are really fat and healthy and I would definitely consider him a good resource for how to keep them successfully.
2 very happy, healthy ones in a 50 gallon tank that is not a species tank is a great accomplishment IMO.

[my2rotties]

I have had my Mandarin since Nov/07. He was one of the first fish I had bought for the 44g that came with my house. I knew nothing of fish and loved this little guy. I was very lucky he ate mysis and such back then since I had no live rock in the tank that was set up in the house. When I learned more about how tanks should be set up I bought some wonderful old live rock from a Canreef person. It was FULL of pods and my little goby is now in the 260g and is fat and healthy to this day. I have billions in my fuge now in the cheato and swap live rock back and forth to my display to keep the pods bountiful.

I was very fortunate that the LFS I bought him from had him of frozen foods since I would have lost him for sure. When you see some good old live rock come up for sale on Canreef buy some, it is so beneficial in the end. When I bring rocks back and forth to my display, the little pail has dozens of pods on the bottom.

[naesco]

There are two requirements.
Like many difficult fish mandarins require a seasoned tank. Has your tank going for at least 6 months?
The reason for the larger tank requirement is that your mandarin will spend the whole day doing nothing but searching for and eating the pods. A smaller tank cannot replenish the pods and the mandarin starves to death.
If you do not meet the above requirements pass on the fish until your tank is large enough and old enough to ensure success please.

[Koresample]

I think i should be good to go as i have almost 50 lbs of well aged LR in my tank, and at night the critters are crawling everywhere. There have been no fish in the tank for the past two weeks and i am now seeing pods etc crawling around even during the day. I am going to add a refugium and swap rock back and forth in my tank. A couple of guys have mentioned buying bottles of pods to stock the fuge with, does anyone in the lower mainland sell this stuff and what exactly is it called? What is chaeto and what does it do? can you get it at J&L?

[naesco]

You can buy the tiny pods, they are expensive and IME don't replicate.
Your mandarin will easily polish off the pods in a 40 than will not have anything to eat.
Wait until you upgrade to a larger tank which you no doubt will in the future.
Don't purchase the mandarin now.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by Koresample

I think i should be good to go as i have almost 50 lbs of well aged LR in my tank, and at night the critters are crawling everywhere. There have been no fish in the tank for the past two weeks and i am now seeing pods etc crawling around even during the day. I am going to add a refugium and swap rock back and forth in my tank. A couple of guys have mentioned buying bottles of pods to stock the fuge with, does anyone in the lower mainland sell this stuff and what exactly is it called? What is chaeto and what does it do? can you get it at J&L?

You can buy Tigger pods at J&L or Ocean Aquatics. They're not cheap though ($20). I"ve had my mandarin for nearly a year now, and he seldom eats anything but pods. Now and then I'll see him take a bloodworm. I buy a bottle of Tigger Pods every other month and dump half into the tank and half into the fuge to replenish the stock.

[Cameron]

I have mine eating pellet and frozen mysis.

[Koresample]

And you have yours in a 45g Cameron? Was it always eating that, or did you have to wean it?

[TheRealBigAL]

you don't need to keep buying bottles of pods and putting them in your tank. You just need a protected area the pods can reproduce (refugium/sump) so that the dragonets don't fully deplete the population. Tiggers pods do reproduce if you give them the right home. Buying bottles of pods and dumping them in your tank gets pricey (trust me). Its worth it to buy one of these if you want to keep dragonets in a system under 75G http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/AQ...+-++Small.html. Sure it seems a bit pricey at first but i have easily spent $200 (maybe more) on pods. By having a HOB refugium you can be assured your dragonets will eat well and live heathy.