Mandarin goby

[Fishy212]

Hey fellas, i have two mandarin gobies, when i got them about amonth ago i also got tigger pods and amipods/copepods to supplement their diets. Do i need to continue supplementing them?

 

[thincat]

How large is your tank? It's pretty hard to keep the pods up with just one so I would think a supplement of pods would only help in your case.

 

[roka64]

I agree, how old is your tank and how big? What other critters do you have?

 

[Branew]

I am also interested in getting a Mandarin. From researching what I have read is that you should have at least 100g tank and should also have a fuge to breed pods. You also shouldn't have alot of other fish that eat pods so they dont complete with the Mandarin for them.

Also have a good amount of live rock to give the pods a good place to hide.

Let's have some of the other experts chime in on this.....

 

[melosu58]

Are your mandarins eating any other type foods?

 

[thincat]

Yes Mike that is a great point and a good reason to QT the Mandarins. In QT you a can watch the fish to see if it is eating and also train it to eat other foods in a setting with no competition. Google Melvinreef and see how he trains mandarins.

 

[CaptainAhab]

I'm guessing you mean www.melevsreef.com ?

http://melevsreef.com/mandarin_care.html

http://melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

 

[Fishy212]

I have a 75 gallon tank, plenty of live rock and sand just got reef bedding (crushed shells,shells,rocks)
2 baby blue hippos
2 false clownfish
2 damsels(1 yellowtail, 1 blue)
1 Maldives Lyretail anthia
1 pseudochromis
2 mandarin gobies
2 dozen snails
15 give or take hermits
4 turbos
giant starfish
8 emerald crabs
3 peppermint shrimp
anenome
also have a variety of zoo's

 

[Fishy212]

I do watch the mandarins when they come out. I cant see with my naked eye exactly what they are eating, but sometimes they eat the alage thats growing.

The tank has been together for about 31/2 months.

 

[melosu58]

My concern is two of them. You might if you have plenty of LR make it with one but two I dont see how.

 

[juice28]

I have a 47 gal tank and its a challenge for me to keep my mandarin fed, fortunately for me she has no comp for food and my live rock takes up about 3/4 of the tank. Ive had my mandarin for about 3 months and shes actually gotten a little fat so that means shes eating, a lot! she eats small brine and mysis shrimp(hope is spelled it right, y'all know what im talking about lol) when i toss them in every week or so but this is what i did i basically super over loaded the tank with pods i probably started off with close to 35,000 give or take from copepods to tigers and rotifers and ill just randomly buy some every few weeks its cheaper to feed the pods than the fish so far that has worked out great for me but i only have one with my anemones or anything really to compete with her for food (im building a little fuge to just breed them in but its not done yet) but yea like everyone has warned 2 mandarins is a lot of pods so your best bet if you want to keep them, id say would be to just buy a ridiculous amount of pods that way they will breed faster than they are eaten and it would benefit you to just breed them yourself to save on the money and trips to the store

P.S. i usually turn my emperor 400 off for about 5 to 10 minutes and open my pod containers as close to the bottom as possible so they don't get sucked up into my filters

 

[Fishy212]

I will get more copepods and maybe a hang in the take refug

 

[juice28]

that'll work, im using a water picture with a curved handle and some holes in. A few small Lr pieces and some Substraite. and some algar it it seems to be doing the trick (if i can rig it up without buying it and it works the same thats me lol)

 

[thincat]

I'm guessing you mean www.melevsreef.com ?

Melevsreef.com - Mandarin Care

Melevsreef.com - Melev's Mandarin Diner

HaHa! thanks Captain, That's what I meant!!!!

 

[CaptainAhab]

Just tryin to add value