Mandarin (Dragonete's)

[tmcpeek]

Hello, I just added a Mandarin Goby to my 225 gallon tank after a 4 week QT. For the first couple of days I would see it swimming along the bottom and hanging out in the caves/crevices of the live rock.

For the last 4 days I have not seen him and this morning I noticed my peppermint shrimp were tugging on a piece of somthing that was white. I saw a bone that looked like a backbone or something so I am thinking it is my goby. Would peps eat a mandarin or did it maybe just die and then got eaten.

The only things in my tank are:

1 Coral Banded Shrimp (very small and very timid)
1 Fire Shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Red Star
1 Jewel Star
1 Sallly Lightfoot Crab
2 sand sifting stars
couple of brittle stars
10 or so peppermints
3 blue/green chromis
Snails and Hermits

Any ideas?

Thanks and sorry for the long post

 

[austinsdad]

Mandarins (I think they're not gobies by the way) need a well established tank with plenty of amphipods or copepods to eat, otherwise they'll starve. How old is your tank? One year is the average tank age to even begin thinking about Mandarins.

I've seen others say they sustain them with prepared foods, Cyclopeeze being one I believe.

And yes peppermint shrimps along with any other shrimp or crabs will eat dead fish.

Didja have any copper in the QT? I'm not sure your mandarin would have fared well with that in his system. Even more, since there were probably no pods in the QT tank, he was probably on his way to starving before he got added to your main.

 

[revhtree]

Alot of people do not qt a mandarin due to it's picky eating habits. I did not qt mine for this reason. Normally they will just starve in a qt. Did you see it eat in qt?

 

[quarryshark]

Was he eating in qt?
Yes Ray is right, they are not Gobies they are Dragonete's. Hard fish to keep.
Anyhitchikers from your LR? I had a hitchiker crab take out my Scooter Dragonete.

 

[tmcpeek]

My live rock came from an established tank and there a a bunch if pods. I can 't even begin to count them when I shine a flashlight in the tank at night. I took 4 small pieces of live rock rubble from my main tank and put it in the QT. The QT is a brand new 25 gallon glass tank (my 40 qt is now my refugium) so there was no copper. I fed the mandarin mysis and brine in the qt and did see him eat once or twice. He was very active in the display for the first couple of days. I would see him in all areas of the tank. This is why i was wondering if something could have killed it.

I did a carbonated dip on them and removed only 2 crabs. I have not seen any in the tank since. I didn't think they were in the Goby family (according to my books) but the lfs store had it listed as Mandarin Goby. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

[steve r]

how did you acclimate? it sounds odd that a mandarin made it 4 weeks in QT but then died in a pod laiden 225g in 4 days. my guess would be it died and the shrimp were cleaning up. or i wouldnt be terribly suprised if he is just hanging out somewhere and you have not seen him. a few times i thought for sure animals were dead because i didnt see them for many days. then all of a sudden there they were. this is in a 29g, there is alot more realestate in 225g to hide

good luck
steve r

 

[tmcpeek]

I always drip acclimate. I put it in a bucket and dripped til water volume doubled. Then I removed half of the water and repeated. Whole process takes about 1.5 to 2 hours. Once it was doubled the second time I netted him and placed him in the tank.

 

[quarryshark]

but the lfs store had it listed as Mandarin Goby.

Its unreal that some of these store can't pick up a book.
tmcpeek, sorry for your loss. Hard to say what it could have been.

 

[tmcpeek]

Thanks Quarryshark.. I just added some turbo snails and the peppermints are all over them. Seems like the peppermints are pretty agressive and since I have allot of them I was wondering if they ganged up on the mandarin. I feed every day and they all come out at feeding time. I usually feed frozen brine or mysis cubes and some prime reef. How may of the cubes should I put in the tank each day. Could it be a case that the shrimp are hungry and opportunistic?

 

[steve r]

i am not doubting you, but are you sure they are peppermints and not camelback or humpback shrimp. i have seen these be much more aggressive. they look like a peppermint but with white striping and a humped back. my peepermints are rarely ever seen

steve r

 

[tmcpeek]

No I am not sure. I got them from liveaquaria.com and they were listed as peppermints. I see mine all the time they come out in bunches during feeding time

 

[quarryshark]

I have never noticed my peps to be aggressive. I think they were just cleaning up.

 

[tmcpeek]

I just looked at camelbacks and I am sure that what I have are peppermints. Maybe it just died and the shrimps were cleaning him up.

 

[X the Outsider]

My peppermint is peaceful, but he did go after a small snail. But I seriously doubt he would go after a fish. And one thing is Mandarin's are very disease resistant; so QT isn't important.

Most LFS will have Mandarin's listed as Gobie's. I haven't figured out why yet, but if they know what they are talking about then it doesn't really matter.

 

[tmcpeek]

Is a Mandarin poisonous when threatened? I just found a dead crab that I did not know I had. I thought it was my Sally Lightfoot but I just saw it roaming. Maybe this crab was the culprit? I was unable to get a great look at the crab and it fell behind my rock. It was brown with hairy legs, but that is all I was able to see.

 

[quarryshark]

Yes they secrete a poisonous mucus when threatened. Could have been the case. Or the dead crab you saw may have been a molt. Keep an eye out.

 

[tmcpeek]

Maybe the crab got him and the peps are just feeding on him. Hopefully this is the case. I will try again without a qt period and see how it goes.

Thanks for all the replies

 

[steve r]

good luck with your next mandarin tmcpeek.

on the topic of mis-naming, they also call scooter dragonet's blennies. could one family be anymore mislabeled?.............oh yeah, there are the wrasses to

steve r

 

[tmcpeek]

Thanks steve. I think I will wait to add a few fish in my tank before trying another. I just set up my fuge and will be adding about 50-60 lbs of live rock from my friends reef tank so that should help with the pod population.

Thanks everyone for the replies.