Mandarin Goby question

[MyR6Rocks]

I'm thinking about making a mandarin goby my next fish in my reef tank. The Internet says that they will pretty much only eat copepods. I feed a combination of frozen mysis, pellets, and algae/sea weed strips. I do have 100lb. of lr, just don't know my copepod population. Does anyone have one of these that' eats frozen/pellet food?

[Sniperhank]

The ora ones can eat frozen/pellet if given to them from a feeding station, but this doesn't mean that they won't revert back to eating only pods. I have one in my tank and stock the tank with pods pretty constantly to keep it fat.

[Pwnsaw]

My understanding is that it's not necessarily that they cannot or won't eat prepared foods. They lack a traditional stomach and they must constantly feed throughout the day. Normal feeding schedules would leave them malnourished. That is why a copepod population that constantly repopulates in a refugium is the recommended method. I may be wrong though, I don't have one. My insight is purely through the research that I have done because they are rad looking fish and I want one some day when my tank has matured.

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Mine was tank raised and eating frozen in the LFS, but ended up going back to the LFS due to malnutrition. Would not eat frozen free floating or spot fed. Very frustrating... I'll never get another despite how much I would love to. Sorry if this was discouraging, just wanted to share my experience...

[mr_X]

If you have 100 pounds of live rock and an established tank, you should be ok keeping one, providing you don't have something else eating the pods already, like a wrasse.

[LaWoWee]

I watched mine eat frozen brine at the LFS before buying. I have never replenished pods in my 40g and im pretty sure there is none because i have a wrasse too. But she eats frozen mysis everyday and and seems to be doing well. If she is malnourished, she sure doesnt look like it.

[MyR6Rocks]

Originally Posted by mr_X

If you have 100 pounds of live rock and an established tank, you should be ok keeping one, providing you don't have something else eating the pods already, like a wrasse.

The tank is 8 months old & I have a refugium that's a little more than a month old. The stock in the tank includes a yellow tang, tp clown, royal gramma, coral beauty dwarf angel, sand shifting star. Cuc is handful of snails/crabs, $ a purple urchin.

[mr_X]

The Gramma might be a concern, but I would give it a shot.

[SaltwaterNuB]

I have a green spot mandarin and I bought a bottle of Copepods when I first purchased him 4 months ago. I started target feeding using a turkey baster. I haven't added anymore Copepods, and when feeing time comes around he's right there with everyone else. Good luck, if I could do it, anyone can do it.

[Ronin77]

I think a lot just depends on the fish, I had one in my 12g that loved frozen for years. But I also got one for my 54g, it only ate the pods!

[MahiMahi]

I heard that bottled copepods is junk .

[54seaweed]

getting a mandarin to eat frozen or pellets is hit or miss
it took time to train mine but he eats them now
but I also raise pods/mysiss/brine just to be sure he always has a good food source all my fish eat them even the fresh water fish love them , there a good source of nutrition
I add around a 1000 pods a
week to my main tank same with the brine and feed mysiss as a treat my mandarin goes nuts over live baby mysiss along with brine and pods but so do all the other fish
but yes he also eats the frozen and pellets but theres always that chance he wont

[54seaweed]

Originally Posted by MahiMahi

I heard that bottled copepods is junk .

bottles of pods
total waist of money never last more than a day if your lucky

your better off getting them from R2G there big juicy and plump
there on sale right now $24.99 buy 1 get one per 1000
they multiply fast if you keep them at lower temps around 74*/76* in a small tank salinity at 1.021 works best

[Breakthecycle2]

Just for my own knowledge, why are bottle pods junk? I dumped a whole bottle in my fuge. I see tons, but they are very small. I also did buy the reefs2go ones and they are huge and plump and I see a ton in my tank and my fuge.

[54seaweed]

90% of the time the ones in the bottle are already dead

[Daniel Fishy]

I buy dr gs pods delivered weekly to lfs. Just hold them up and see if their moving if so there alive and good.

[biss444]

i have a spotted mandarin two reds, which i am trying to breed, and none of them eat prepared foods , just copepods which my system is full of , they are producing more copepods then they can eat , so i don.t worry about them eating food

[Daniel Fishy]

That's awesome good luck with them.

[MyR6Rocks]

I do have a known pod population in my fuge, so i think what I'll do is wait a bit till I know they've made their way to the dt. Thanks everyone for the info