more goby talk...

[klg1824]

i have a mandarine goby...there is like a mucus type thing that follows him around....what is that? probably bad right?

 

[reefrunner69]

Tell us more about your tank.
Size
Type
lbs of LR
Filtration
Other tank inhabitants
how long have you had the mandarin

When a mandarin is stressed it will produce excess mucus, I have read (a very long time ago, and not since) that this mucus is toxic.

 

[nugrad2005]

Check out my profile. This is the tank she is talking about. The mandarin has been in for about a week i think.

-Dan

 

[reefrunner69]

Isn't this tank still cycling? This would be the reason for the stress that is causing the mandarin to produce excessive slime. I should also point out that your tank does not contain enough LR to support a Mandarin Dragonette. These fish rarely take to an alternate diet provided by the aquarist, they eat little critters off the LR. Manadarins are not recommended for any but mature tanks witk lots of LR or a mature refugium. The mandarin will decimate the pod population on new rock very quickly and then starve to death.

 

[Hara]

Is this the same tank that had the pakistani butterfly, koran angel and a host of others? Are those fish still in the tank? It is cycling...you CANNOT add more fish at this time unless you just like flushing your money down the toilet.

Also, your profile says you have a bunch of horseshoe crabs. They are not the best thing to have if you have a DSB, you may want to consider trading them back to the store. They do get quite large as well.

If you do your research on the mandarin, you will find that they are supposed to go into well established tanks only. Tanks that have enough pods on rocks to support a constant diet.

 

[klg1824]

we have a 150 galon tank w/ more than 150 lbs of live rock. everyone i have ever talked to except for you say that more than enough for one goby...we were told that one goby needs 75 lbs. we mae a mistake w/ the butterfly and the angel. we diced to go to a reef tank after we got them. and al the fish are doing wel, we are returning the butterfly and the angel today.

 

[Hara]

you are not understanding what is being said. it is not the number of pounds of liverock, but the amount of life living on the rock. It takes many months to get the copepods growing to the extent that when the goby eats them, there will still be more left.
it does not sounds as if the goby is doing well.

 

[reefrunner69]

Hmmm, sorry the last pic I saw of the full tank did not have the extra LR. I would say 100lbs of "mature" LR would support 1 madarin. The rock and DSB should be allowed at least 6-8 months to develop a good breeding population of pods for the mandarin to eat. Right now the population of food for the mandarin is very low and weak. The rock should ba allowed to mature free of predators such as the horseshoe crabs.

Try to understand, this fish is killed by more hobbyests every year than any other fish, simply because they do not know the requirements of this fish, they do not provide the requirements of this fish, or can't provide for the requirements of this fish. I have seen vats at the wholesaler filled with literally thousands of these fish, sell them all, then fill them up again. Because the fish is so beautiful, easy to catch and relatively cheap this will continue when the fact is this fish should be left in the ocean.

Again taking into consideration that the tank is cycling, all the fish should be removed from the tank.