Housing a pair of mandarin gobys?

[Giants13]

Has anyone ever housed a pair of mandarin gobys? Im gonna be taking on this battle soon. Im just letting the copepods build as much as possible.

 

[billdogg]

Can it be done? Sure. In a very large, well established sytem a mated pair would be really cool to have. I'm guessing that a refugium equal in size to the DT is just about mandatory to grow enough pods to keep them from starving.

 

[Sk8r]

You need about 100-150 gallons of tank with a lot of rockwork, and a productive fuge, or you need constant attention to specialized feeders, which is more work over the life of the fish than most people will spend.

 

[MondoBongo]

check out some of the posts and threads by PaulB, he not only keeps a pair, they spawn.

keep in mind that for long term success, outside of the obvious tank size restrictions, you'll want a male and a female. two of the same sex are very likely to fight, resulting in the death of at least one of them.

a prominent dorsal spike is a good indicator of a male, however lack of one does not always necessarily mean a female. i have heard tales of unscrupulous suppliers removing the dorsal spikes, or of dragonets losing them from damage sustained during capture/shipping/general life events.

 

[Giants13]

i have a 150 DT tank, the wife said i can get a tank but under one condition, i put a psychedelic mandarin goby i said that shouldn't be hard just get the tank established with pods, now she wants 2 i just don't know about 2, we have a 75 gal sump and the refug section is about 35 gal. I will probably have to dump pods in the tank twice a week?

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

I have a pair in my 75,soon to be upgraded to 180.If you get lucky and they start eating frozen foods it makes it a lot easier.I have had them for about 2 years now and have watched the mateing ritual several times.My tank was up and running for about a year before getting the first mandy.

 

[MondoBongo]

if your fuge is productive and you have a heavy amount of rock you shouldn't need to dose them that often. the key is waiting a while for the population to establish itself, 6 - 12 months is usually my recommendation, since their populations tend to go through boom and bust cycles.

i recently migrated my 75 gallon to a 150 gallon. i'm rock heavy, i was running about 125 pounds in my 75, and added quite a bit of additional for my new tank. i moved over all the old rock, and large doses of the sand over a period of two months.

i was also dosing phyto and ghost feeding to help give them something to eat.

then i seeded with a half gallon of pods from Algae Barn, just to help boostrap the populations.

the rock from my previous tank was about 4 years old.

i have more or less the same condition with my girlfriend. she doesn't complain about the tank as long as her mandarin is happy and healthy.

likely you would be best to add the mandys at the same time, and like i said a male/female pair is your best bet for success.

i'm not sure how familiar you are with the fish outside of their feeding requirements, but picking out good specimens is as crucial as the tank configuration in helping to ensure success.

 

[laga77]

Two days ago I purchased a pair from a on-line vendor. This will be my second pair. They are in my QT tank which has been seeded with pods from one of my fuges. Along with the pods I have been feeding BBS. Today I fed them black worms which both of them gobbled up. I will give them a couple of more days in the QT and then if they are still eating worms they will go into the display. I believe the short QT time is OK with Mandarins. Other fish get longer QT.

 

[Paul B]

I keep a spawning pair of those and a spawning pair of ruby red dragonettes along with spawning bluestripe pipefish in a 100 gallon tank so I need to feed them by means of a feeder I designed. I feed them every day with live newborn brine shrimp