Green Hairs on my live rock? and Mandarin Goby?

[ace1uno_00]

I purchased my first live rock about a week ago. when i bought it, it had red and green spots all over it. Now (a week later) the red has turned purple and the green has grown out like hair. Is this a type of algae? Is it bad?
And also I was going to purchase a mandarin goby today but the guy at petco told me not to buy it. He told me it wouldnt do good in a 12 gallon Nano tank. Is this true? Its full length is 3.5 inches, i mean, it wouldnt outgrow my tank. why would he tell me not to get it?
He also stated that i should have a lot of copepods or capopods or something? what? im confused?

thanks guys.

 

[seve1]

Mandarins need @ 100lbs of LR per fish in order to support enough copepods (small crustaceans) to supply a natural food source for the fish.

 

[ace1uno_00]

8O
WHAT?!?!?!
They can't eat anything else?!?
lol
and what are those purple spots and green hair stuff on my LR??

 

[Fluff]

No, 99% of the time they won't eat anything else and will starve to death if the pods are not plentiful. A mandarin is a bad choice for a nano tank since you can't fit enough lr in there to support an adequate pod population.
The spots on your live rock sound like what you think it is. The purple spots probably coralline algae and the green, sounds like hair algae. Water changes will help remove the phosphates it's feeding off of. Also, the addition of some macro, like chaeto, should help by out competing the hair algae for food.

 

[localhost]

The only thing I've heard different about the Mandarins are that some LFS have gotten their stocks to eat frozen foods. You of course need to make sure that the fish actually will by witnessing this. Also, I don't know if they will get the proper nutrition that they need from frozen foods. Just what I've heard, but Fluff knows a whole lot more than me.

 

[seaham358]

Holy cow!!! a PetCo store that has someone working there that knows what their doing 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O

 

[ace1uno_00]

lol The PetCo out here is great.
so now im discouraged. i dont know what to do with my 12 gallon Nano.
I guess. some hard corals and clowns?........

 

[Brenden]

I have been eyeing a mandarin for a while now. I have put it off until I figure out a way to QT it. My LFS sells about 5 a week. He told me he has had maybe 1 out of 500 to eat prepared food.

 

[ace1uno_00]

Yeah. i can believe that. It's not my choice anymore. i guess i'll hve to figure out what to do next. for now all i have in my Nano is a Niger Trigger (that im going to have to get rid of soon) and my Leapord puffer that i acclimated to full marine. im going to sell them soon. or give them away. i dunno.
But i want my Nano to be complete reef with some small critters in it.

 

[lando]

so now im discouraged. i dont know what to do with my 2 gallon Nano.

Why, there are plenty of other fish to choose from. How about a yellow clown goby, or a purple firefish? An ocellaris clown? In a 12gal is would not stock more then 2 small fish however.

 

[ace1uno_00]

Yeah. I saw all the gobys they had on liveaquaria.com i was thinking about some of those.
Would 2 fish and a bunch of coral and critters be okay?
like crabs and snails and shrimp?