Newbie Experience on Green Spotted Mandarins

[evenings]

Another Newbie Mistake - for other newbies. Please believe everyone when they say it is not advisable to purchase a Mandarin fish unless your tank is old and stable. They will die of starvation in newly established tanks. Yes they will survive but only long enough for you to forget how much u paid for them.

Nevertheless, as beautiful as these creatures are, let's leave them in our LFS until our tank is at least a year old and/or until a sufficient amount of goodies are have developed in your tank for them to feed on.

[acid_burn]

Its possible to keep a mandarin in a newer tank as long as there is enough food for it. My tank is about 6 months old now and I have had my mandarin for 3 of those 6 months and he is fatter than when I got it. As a matter of fact he has almost doubled in size. What makes it possible for me to keep one is that I purchased a fauna kit from Inland Aquatics and put it in my refuge and they reproduce like mad. He even competes with a flame angel for pods! If I ever notice my pod population depleting i'll just invest in another fauna kit.

By the way how do your three angels get along?? I want to add a coral beauty but I heard that smaller angels fight if put together. My flame angel even goes after my bartlett anthias from time to time.

Rich