2 clowns and a mandarin

[barterking85]

ok guys i want to get a couple clowns and a mandarin what is the smallest tank i can get cause i want to start off small as this will be my first salt water tank and what will i need for them? will a 33 gallon work cause i already have one?

 

[joy13]

A mandarin needs pods so the larger the tank the better. Most mandarins starve to death since they don't see prepared food as something they should eat. If

 

[thincat]

Since you are new to SW you should read up on cycling the fishless way. and you will find out that a pair of clowns is about all you can get for a 33g. You could do 2 clowns and a goby or something small that hangs out on the bottom. Mandarins are difficult to keep as joy stated, Even the ORA ones are proving hard to keep.

 

[barterking85]

yeah for sure i did a fishless cycle on all my other tanks and thats cool but a mandarin is a goby so what type of goby do you mean? what could i keep with clowns in a 33 gallon as i dont want to do live rock and coral yet cause iam new to SW?

 

[Purevil21]

A mandarin is not a goby, it is a dragonet. That is a common misconception, many stores label them incorrectly. What you aren't understanding is the level of care required for one. They need a very mature tank with tons of live rock and pods or they will starve. As the others have mentioned, there are tank raised mandarins, but sometimes they revert back to eating pods. There is no way your tank could support it if that happened. You should really consider another more hardy fish.

 

[barterking85]

i have two in my mothers tank she just wants me to take them back they both eat frozen shrimp but she also has live rock and copepods ok so i will leave them at her house what can i keep with 2 clowns or 1 clown? 33 gallon and what will i need for them only fish that dont need coral or anything like that i guess its called a fish only sw

 

[Purevil21]

I had a 35 gallon hexagon tank, I kept a pair of clowns and some inverts. There really aren't many options, you could keep a couple of neon goby fish, they are very colorful and have a low bioload.

 

[DA fisherman]

A mandarin is not a goby, it is a dragonet. That is a common misconception, many stores label them incorrectly. What you aren't understanding is the level of care required for one. They need a very mature tank with tons of live rock and pods or they will starve. As the others have mentioned, there are tank raised mandarins, but sometimes they revert back to eating pods. There is no way your tank could support it if that happened. You should really consider another more hardy fish.

+1

 

[barterking85]

ok great can i keep 3 clowns and nothing else? plus what will i need for them can i do gravel or do i need sand and what filter and stuff like that?

 

[Purevil21]

You could keep a couple neon goby in addition to a pair of clowns and be fine.

 

[barterking85]

ok i will just do 2 clowns for now. what will i need for them can i do gravel or do i need sand and what filter,heater and stuff like that?

 

[Purevil21]

No on 3 clowns, they will fight. A pair both being the same species. I would suggest a pair and some small bottom feeders, like the neon goby. You could keep two or three neon goby fish, they have a very small bioload and nice color.

 

[Purevil21]

You could make a decent fowlr tank, maybe keep a chocolate chip star and some snails and hermits. A cleaner shrimp would probably work too.

 

[Purevil21]

What kind of lighting do you have in this 33 gallon, and what kind of filtration?

 

[barterking85]

awesome iam set for stocking ideas iam just gonna research these fish first but what will i need for them can i do gravel or do i need sand and what filter,heater and stuff like that?

 

[Purevil21]

Well, lighting depends entirely on what you intend to keep. If you are going with a fowlr then a high efficiency t5 strip with two bulbs would be cheap, cheap to maintain and best of all sufficient for just fish. If you want corals then you will need some stronger lights. Ideally you would set up a sump for the.tank, but with smaller tanks it isn't always feasible. I had a magnum250 canister on my first tank, but the nitrates stayed high so I wouldnt recommend it. You may wanna look into some hob systems.

 

[barterking85]

fish only

 

[Purevil21]

Substrate is strictly personal, but I like sand, it looks natural. Sw tanks with gravel tend to look like fw tanks.

 

[Purevil21]

I would look into a hang on system, post a question in the forum separate from this asking about filtration for a 30 gallon fowlr because I couldn't help you with that as I haven't kept them. I have a wet dry sump now and I kept a canister. I wouldn't recommend the canister for sw.

 

[Purevil21]

I am assuming this tank is not drilled though, I wouldn't imagine it is being a 33 gallon. You can create a sump for it that could be concealed in the stand and hang the inlet on the back.