feeding mandarins and cultivating pods

I had a mated pair of Mandrin gobies that dissappeared for some reason. I put in a scooter blenny, and thought they may not get along, but never saw any "fights" or anything. I NEVER feed phyto to my tank, and wonder if the 3 fish could have depleted the pod population enough to starve out the 2 mandrins? I have a 180 with about 240 to 280 lbs of live rock.
 
Oh, BTW, I do have a refugium that seems to have lots of pods running around in it as well. Just trying to figure out why I lost them, and debating getting another one.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6740845#post6740845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jaimwolfe
Oh, BTW, I do have a refugium that seems to have lots of pods running around in it as well. Just trying to figure out why I lost them, and debating getting another one.
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Thats good that they are reproducing in the fuge but you need to also check the tank to see how many you see running around in there as well.

Did you loose the scooter also? Or just the mandarins? If you lost all 3 then something may be getting them but if you still have the scooter and you are not seeing a lot of pods in the tank then your tank may just be able to support one pod eating fish. Or 2 at the most. how long did you have the mated pair before you got the scooter?

colleen
 
I had one mandrin, then added a second that was starving in my wife's classroom fishtank in. I have pictures of the "mating dance" thing where they would put their faces together and twirl towards the surface, then go back down and do it again. I guess they were in there for 2 months before I put in the scooter blenny. The blenny is still in there happy as can be.
 
just wondering if mandarins need to be sexed or will they change sex in the absence of a male or female as with some other fish?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6756270#post6756270 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by meschaefer
just wondering if mandarins need to be sexed or will they change sex in the absence of a male or female as with some other fish?
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Mandarins are born male or female, the male has a longer dorsal fin while the female has a little short stumpy one. 2 males in a tank will fight.
 
My 150 gal has 175lbs of rock when 1 month old picked up spotted purple mandarin. I was told would no survive, but now is healthy and very fat. I put 4 bottles of pods into live rock at night no lights and held bottle at bottom of tank to release. He is doing great and well worth the effort, he now eats almost any thing that floats by him. the Formula 1 Pellet small pellet is his favorite. I did not know you can have more then 1 per tank? And as for sex the males have a top dorsal fin and seem to pause in the fall when the tv is on and watch the football game with me.
 
one thing i have heard of people doing is using the screen plastic package for strawberries and putting it upside down with reef rubble in it or chaeto in thier tank it becomes a pod hangout and you will see your mandarin waiting next to it for pods to come out for it to eat... kinda like a seahorse feeding station only better
 
I have had a mandarin for over a year and I guess i have been lucky I have add nothing but trace elements ti the tank. But I do have about 80lbs of LR in a 72 gal tank.
 
I have had a spotted mandarin for over a year in my 55. I have about 50lbs of LR and no fuge. I didn't get the fish until my tank was a year old. I provide phyto every other day. It also eats frozen mysis and brime. Very fat.
 
I believe mandarins are similar to scooters, they keep their sex,
I have a matched pair of red scoots who every night do the dance to the surface.
He is twice as big as her and eats anything, she only eats what she can dig out of the rocks.
Typical female, sometimes he has to bully her to do the dance, maybe when she gets headaches??
 
my mandarin ate frozen blood worms it took a week or so but he did it! he was sold to me the same day as my tank (lol petco for you)
 
My scooter loves frozen blood worms, but wont eat anything else prepared. I give him some blood worms every other day or so, or just a couple of times a week if his stomach isnt sunken. I think the worms are closer to what they like to eat. Mine has been fine in a 20gal. tank for almost 4 months now, no phyto.
 
My striped Mandarin unfortunately perished after a about a year. When I bought him the pod population was incredible. At night you would see hundreds if not thousands running around. At some point the population crashed and you were hard pressed to find a few at night. I never noticed the Mandarin getting skinny though, he died fat it seems. Kind of took my by surprise, but I'm sure it was the lack of pods. Anyway, definitely the most beautiful fish by far. Shame.
 
i have a mandrin and luckly my lfs sells live brine shrimp and mine loves it you can also raise them yourself with low cost and almost all fish will eat them
 
I have been looking into increasing my pod population in my tank for some time in order to safely house a Mandarin.

My question: I have a ton of LR in the main tank, and a lot of Chaeto in my fuge. While I don't see too many pods in the main tank, I do see them in my Fuge. If I were to purchase some pods online, should I throw them into my fuge, or the main tank?

I was thinking about taking a few pieces of PVC, stuffing them with Chaeto, and hiding them in obscure places in the main tank. I would just need to trim the Chaeto as it started to outgrow the PVC.

Whadda you guys think?
 
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