brine shrimp as main food source for mandarin?

[bawla47]

i have a 55 gallon tank, and was wanting to get a mandarin goby in the future

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...ot_parent_id=4

a phychedelic goby

I only have about 50 lbs live rock and i think my copepod population would be insufficient for him.

i wanted to purchase this -
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...&N=2004+113814

seems like a really inexpensive way, and automatic for brine shrimp feeding.

Would that be suffice for the goby?

Thanks in advnance for your opinion

Jay D

[RLG2182]

I would say nay. I read that brine shrimp is like junk food... little nutritional value. Mandarins will eat Amphipods, tiny creatures that grow in established tanks. Check out: www.ipsf.com for Pod breeding kits.

Also, some mandarins have learned to eat prepared food, but when buying from a LFS, make SURE that you see it eat prepared foods at least twice to make sure that what you feed it at home will keep it alive.

You don't want your little mandarin to starve itself to death.

[oyf709]

the funny thing is the food they suppose eat is actrually free----pods.
with only 50 lbs of lr you are pusing the limit.
Maybe let us know how old is your tank?

[bawla47]

its only about a month old, wanted to get one in the next few months, and i know 50 lbs is pushing it i was hoping to try and find an alternate source of food for him. ive got about 6-7 fish stores within 5-10 mile radius, so im gonna ask around about the prepared food eating, that sounds good, i hope i can find a store thats doing it.! I really dont want him to starve.

[oyf709]

not sureif you can find alt food source for mandarin, they are quite picky on what they eat.One solution you can try is start a refugium and pput some LR in it see if you can get pods start to grow, it could be benefit to your mandarin also to the whole system (bigger water volume).However, you might want to wait for 5-7 months till you really buying the manadarin, cuz doesn't matter they accept prepared food or not, a mature reef system is a must for them.

[JPloman]

It is a general rule of thumb not to add a Madrine Dragonet until your tank is at least 6 months old. Make sure you have plenty of pods for food. Not very many of them will eat prepared foods.

I recommend having a refuge as well, this way you will never run out of pods in your main tank.

[badfish]

does the same go for a scotter blenny, i also wanted a mandarin, but was told i should start with a scooter blenny, after my tank has been up for six months. Do scooter blennys only eat pods as well?

[gooyferret]

Yes the scooter will require the same amount of attention as the dragonet. I would just wait and hold off on the dragonet until your tank is more established.

[quarryshark]

Do scooter blennys only eat pods as well?

I've had pretty good luck with scotter eating prepared food, but its a crap shoot. They can starve themselves in short order.
I would recommend getting some LR and allowing the pods to populate for 6-8 months before adding a dragonette. Much better chance of success.

[oyf709]

actruall scooter is way easier than mandarin, they do eat frozen food, i baught a male one then 2 weeks later baught a female one.I was being a newby when i add them,the tank was only 2 months old, silly me =p
however they last till now, eat every frozen food i provide and they even dance every night, its quite a show tbh.