Mandarin Goby

[mantowashisname]

So I was recently ill advised by someone at my LFS who I never have dealt with before. Usually the person at the store I deal with is very helpful and informative. Long story short I ended up purchasing a mandarin goby with no idea what I was getting into. I admit a lack of research on my part led to this impulse purchase. When I checked liveaquaria under care all I saw was "difficult" I asked the store employee about this and he mentioned the pods and said they would need about a bottle once a month and that was why they were considered "difficult" knowing what I now know I find this absolutely hysterical. Regardless I have already begun the breeding process of pods to attempt to supply this fish with the food source it needs. Although some may consider this already too late. I have already attempted to return the fish to the store which they were obviously unwilling to do for me. When the person at the LFS spoke to me about the feeding difficulty with this fish he never mentioned anything about being this fish being trained to eat frozen food. I just fed my blue spotted puffer (frozen mysis) and watched as I usually do. I noticed that as the mysis began to break into pieces in the tank the mandarin began swimming toward the floating particles and ate them. I was absolutely shocked and amazed as I have now learned how difficult it is to train them to eat frozen foods. I also would think that the person at the lfs would have told me if it had been trained to eat frozen foods when discussing the diet of this fish. I was wondering if anyone had heard of anything like this happening before, or what their thoughts might be regarding this. I am obviously very pleased but by no means plan to make any changes with what I have already started in supplying a large enough pod population for this guy to munch on.

 

[nelix10]

I was lucky as well mine began eating frozen mysis off of coral after about 2 weeks! I still keep a pod population going and add them to my display tank and refugium weekly!
You will have to feed the pods regularity to keep them breeding

 

[Holygral]

Keep in mind if he is eating then thats good, but they eat every 20 seconds, so he will still need spot fed 5-6 times a day, they don't have a regular stomach to store food, they only have like a throat and they are like humming birds burning up calories at an amazing rate. I had my 125 set up for 5 years before I got one, and he eats pods and mysis and I still buy 2000 pods a month.

 

[bribo12]

I don't understand where this no stomach rumor came from...they have one, it's just tiny.

 

[Holygral]

I don't understand where this no stomach rumor came from...they have one, it's just tiny.

Hum, Ill have to see where I read that, I did a lot of research on them before I got one due to the low survival rate, even with a 5 year old 125 with more than 100 pounds of LR., I think you still have to keep supplementing your pod population.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

They have stomachs, there just not like the average fishes stomach. They need to eat small amounts pretty much continuously through out the day.

 

[bribo12]

I agree that they eat a ton in a day. If you could find where you heard that I'd be interested. They do have a really high metabolic rate like hummingbirds though

 

[Mebbid]

The big problem is that pods offer terrible nutritional value so they need to eat thousands of them to keep sustained. Adding 2000 pods to the tank isn't going to do squat (sorry) your best bet is to buy a pack of them and get your own culture going.

 

[navaljonf]

Try other foods too. Live worms and others may work better than pods.

 

[54seaweed]

mandarins can eat 25% there body weight a hour so they say
as fast it goes in it comes out the other end but its true

 

[Mebbid]

mandarins can eat 25% there body weight a hour so they say
as fast it goes in it comes out the other end but its true

Where did you see that figure?

 

[Gregcoyote]

Some folks have established systems that crank out enough pods to sustain one with no competition from any other pod eating species, like wrasses. Most don't. There is an extremely high mortality rate with these beautiful fish as a result of starvation. Pods have little nutritional value and a single mandarins can eat hundreds, maybe more, a day. Constantly. Finding a supplemental food they can be spot feed is really important in my view. Among those foods, pellets and brine shrimp would be at the end of the list. Live white worms are easy to raise and acceptable to most mandarins, as well as certain frozen fish roe, like prawn and flying fish eggs, available on line or at Chinese food stores. Both of these are loaded with proteins.