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kurtyboh

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
Messages
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Location
Okinawa, Japan
doesnt everyone love the psychedelic gobies? they are amazingly colorful fun to watch and definitely get comments whenever anyone sees your tank. They are hard to keep because of their strict diet and so many reefers find it hard to keep them fed for long periods of time. so why does reefstogo have them listed as care level: moderately easy? this is one of the most commonly mismanaged fish in the business, I for one am quite bothered by this. Anyone else?

link if anyones interested.
Live Saltwater Fish Mandarin Goby- Green | Reefs2go.com
 
I agree with you and sending them an email right now to change their care level.
Don't know if this will do any good but maybe others should do the same and just maybe they will get the hint to change it.
 
They are great fish, but certainly not as easy as they make it sound.

I've never really looked at their site, but just saw several other things that were interesting and make me wonder...they have "Foxface tangs"...dwarf angels are ok in a 30g, same as Pygmy angels? Hippo tangs are ok in a 50g and Yellow tangs in a 60g? Some other care levels are questionable.

Not trying to start a debate, just pointing out that, IMO, they have some questionable info/recommendations.
 
I bought my mandarin as a tank raised ORA. I paid the price haha but he eats frozen all day and will even nibble on seaweed. Very easy when they are guaranteed to eat prepared food
 
Mandarin fish have been captive bred and raised on man made food so they can be slightly easy to care for but it is true that you need a good refugium to raise them
 
Mandarin fish have been captive bred and raised on man made food so they can be slightly easy to care for but it is true that you need a good refugium to raise them

Oh yeah I'm not saying they don't still need pods. I'm just saying my first madarin didn't make it and I have tons and tons of pods. He wiped it clean quickly. I'd say in a months time I couldn't find the first pod. But with my ORA I can keep him full on mysis and brine so the pods aren't eaten before they can reproduce. And by tons I mean I added 1000 pods 6 different times and the tank looked like it had ants on the rocks at night and he wiped them out almost completely.
 
Quite a few of the guaranteed to eat prepared ones waste away, you are able to get a free replacement, that doesn't help those that perish because they are a difficult fish.
 
My ORA mandarin didn't eat frozen or pellets when i got him. He ate every single pod during a months time and finally came around to frozen after being target fed approximately 12 different frozen foods to find stuff he would eat. he started with cyclops, then baby brine, then brine and finally bloodworms. About 6 months or so after he ate frozen he started eating pellets. Now he will mainly eat the pellets and nibble on the bloodworms. Alot of people will say you can't get an active feeding response from a mandarin, but when I go over to the tank with the NLS jar he immediately stops what he is doing and waits for me to drop in the pellets. LOL
Luckily I had enough pods in my biocube which had a fuge to sustain him for the month it took him to eat prepared. I have no doubt he would have died like so many others do.
I think the ORA raising helped but it's no guarantee. I paid like $50 for mine and a wild one is $20 or less now, so guess what people will buy 99% of the time? Yep, the cheaper one which half the time OR MORE is a death sentence for the fish.

Not sure I would take such a risk again, but a couple years later and my Mandy is happy, kinda fat and beautiful!

 
@carey, I know you put a lot of time and effort into that fatty! You also ouline my last point perfectly, ora guaranteed, still didn't eat prepared for a long time; but they woukld ave replaced the fish... not exactly a conscientious move imo.
 
@carey, I know you put a lot of time and effort into that fatty! You also ouline my last point perfectly, ora guaranteed, still didn't eat prepared for a long time; but they woukld ave replaced the fish... not exactly a conscientious move imo.

Everything is a chance in saltwater water. No one is saying have no pods and buy an ORA mandarin. I'm just saying, MY mandarin will eat almost anything, besides pellets, I offer. ORA states that they will eat one or more of the following prepared food...blah blah....etc. so it's still up to you to find what it wants.
 
Depends if they have been weaned onto frozen foods (Mysis etc).My LFS will not sell any Manderin species until it is feeding well on frozen foods and small flake regularly.
 
Andv when you take them home the get stressed and may go off of prepared. I am not saying that these fish cannot be kept, just that they are not an easy fish
 
Obviously my mandarin WAS eating the ora prepared foods as he was alive LOL. But once I got him home it was another story. Some make it and some don't, it's just the luck of the fish and the determination of the owner, at least in my opinion.
 
Wow, that price is an absolute steal.

I paid $50 for my ORA and it never skipped out on a prepared food meal. He sees my foxface and clowns getting excited and he knows exactly where the flow is going to drop his mysis in his mouth. So lazy he doesn't even chase the food just waits for them to come to him. Then off to the rocks he goes to perch until the next feed.
 
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