20 gallon mandarin goby pair tank

[Sh0velman]

Could work, as well as trying to get the mandarins in the store on frozen while in shop or at least drop some mysis when I pick out the mandarins can take whichever one picks/eats at it.

 

[guarda]

Might be easier with live mysid. I started with live brine, to frozen brine, to frozen mysis. Took me about a month.

 

[Sh0velman]

I guess it's trial based and just all around depends. Training will come when the tank is ready for the mandarin

 

[JaneG]

Thanks for the info! Since I work at the store I already know what the mandarins are being fed as well as which ones might be male/female and also If I saw correctly there were 2 mandarins that were keeping pretty close to each other last time I looked in their 10g display tank

It might not be that simple unfortunately. My 2 were "inseparable" for the first week or so - then the female chased the male for a good 3 months and then one day the roles switched - the male would chase and literally latch onto the female for the next 3 months. Do keep in mind that during my research, I found that mandarins generally don't truly "pair up" like clownfish would - I've heard of them following each other during the day only once or twice, but the norm seems to be ignoring or chasing until spawning at night.

Aggression aside, I don't know if it's possible to get a pod population large enough, even with a humongous fuge because not too many will make their way out to the display tank when you consider how fast they get eaten up in time. If you manage to find 2 who are eating, again, you're probably going to run into nutrient problems: my mandarin is one of the big reasons I'm upgrading to a large tank because I have to feed her so often to keep her weight up. It really is a pain after a while - even though she will eat pellets, she have a very obvious preference for Nutramar Ova which has to be thawed, etc. and can be expensive. For the record, I tried feeding once per day for ~a month and she starting losing weight noticeably. Meanwhile, I'm keeping up with the feeding with vodka dosing, protein skimming, a large sump/fuge, a filter sock, chaeto, GFO and I removed my sandbed - and my nitrates are still much too high because I slacked a while ago. I said it before but I would really reconsider...if you're going to, be prepared for the upkeep. Don't take this delicately: after trying for so long with my beautiful male mandarin and finally giving up on him, I felt horrible.

 

[nanoreefer1000]

Since you work in a pet shop, I would skip the fuge, hob, sump, etc and just setup your rockwork with a corner or hole and swap a ball of pod filled chaeto from your store with yours every other week.

:lolspin:
Oh wait your serious

 

[Sh0velman]

Well thanks guys and gals! I'll cinsider the advice but something just came up..... I found a 44g acrylic tank that is on my bucket list before the whole mandarin shebang as this 44g will be for a larger Mantis shrimp species!!! Eeeeeeh I'm so excited! Hopefully when I try the mandarin idea In the future pods will be more readily accessible. But mantis' come before mandarins :b I'd encourage you all to join the dark side if your looking for a truly interesting animal to keep....not just fish that swim around and around. Also, we have cookies.

 

[Sh0velman]

Well thanks guys and gals! I'll consider the advice but something just came up..... I found a 44g acrylic tank that is on my bucket list before the whole mandarin shebang as this 44g will be for a larger Mantis shrimp species!!! Eeeeeeh I'm so excited! Hopefully when I try the mandarin idea In the future pods will be more readily accessible. But mantis' come before mandarins :b I'd encourage you all to join the dark side if your looking for a truly interesting animal to keep....not just fish that swim around and around. Also, we have cookies.