Mandarin compatible fish stocking help?

[Doc_Sid]

Hi guys I just setup a new 260g system. 140g cube display tank with 60g sump and a remote 60g refugium. Sps dominant tank.. hopefully.

I want to add a pair of mandarins eventually when the system matures. Can you suggest any wrasses that I can keep which won't compete with them for food by eating the pods... and other fish which you think will look good and won't compete with them..

My current planned stock list :

True percula clown pair
Goby shrimp pair
Purple fire fish
Orchid dottyback(compatible?)
Any blenny
Clown goby
Yellow or one spot fox face
Blue throat trigger

After 6 months maybe..
A pair of mandarin dragonets

Later..
Regal angel (compatible? Will they eat pods?)
Flame or a cherub angel (compatible?)

And finally..
Purple tang
Any dwarf bristle tooth tang
Powder blue tang

Which wrasse/ wrasses can I add? Any suggestions?

 

[collegereefs]

Most of the fish you have selected do not, to my knowledge, feed heavily on pods. However, shrimp gobies are known to sift sand; eating the various living organisms in the sand. In a 260g system I think you would be okay with the goby and mandarins.

I believe that tangs and angels primarily graze on algae, the angels less so. They probably won't have a large impact on the pod population. I would get a second opinion. As always the angels are reef safe with cation.

I'm not very familiar with the different species of wrasses.

 

[Doc_Sid]

Most of the fish you have selected do not, to my knowledge, feed heavily on pods. However, shrimp gobies are known to sift sand; eating the various living organisms in the sand. In a 260g system I think you would be okay with the goby and mandarins.

I believe that tangs and angels primarily graze on algae, the angels less so. They probably won't have a large impact on the pod population. I would get a second opinion. As always the angels are reef safe with cation.

I'm not very familiar with the different species of wrasses.

Thank you [emoji4]
I won't be adding the goby then...
I've been reading on wrasses. Flasher and fairy wrasses are pelagic feeders.. eating zooplankton mostly and spend most of their time in the water column. So these will be compatible[emoji4]

Any other goby I can keep which won't sift sand? Like the clown goby?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Fairy and flasher wrasses are an excellent choice and won't outcompete a mandarin.

Watchman gobies don't sift, so would also be fine with a mandarin.

 

[ThRoewer]

I have a pair of mandarins in a 25 gallon cube with a pair of orchid dottybacks and a pair of shrimp gobies (S. nematodes). Further there is a single blue stripe pipefish male and a 3 inch regal angel with them. Previously I also had a pair of percula in that tank but rehomed them after they needed treatment against a bacterial infection.
None of the above ever even paid much attention to the mandarins, let alone do them harm.

The one fish I would never again place with a mandarin is a sixline wrasse or any of its closely related species. The few times I did the sixlines picked the mandarins to death over a short period of time.

Also, shrimp gobies are highly stationary and won't deplete pods out of reach of their burrow as long as you keep them with pistol shrimp. And I have never seen true shrimp gobies sifting sand - they rather go after plankton that floats by.

 

[ginpang]

I think the blue throat trigger eats copepods... And even though it's one of the cooler triggers it may attack some of your gobies and fire fish as it gets bigger.

 

[Coelli]

I have a mandarin in my 65g tall (before the mandarin police come for me, I also have 22"x 30" of live rock wall plus a fuge, he's fine, pods are plentiful, and he eats mysis as well). My yellow watchman does a little sifting but not too much, and my yasha/randall's pistol pair don't disturb things too much either. I don't see the mandarin pay too much attention to the sand, he's usually picking at the rocks.

 

[MondoBongo]

i've successfully kept a carpenter's flasher wrasse (Paracheilinus carpenteri) and lawnmower blenny (Salarias fasciatus) with my mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) and had no issues. likewise i've also kept a rainford's goby (Koumansetta rainfordi) with my scooter blenny (Synchiropus ocellatus) with no problems.

i had a bluethroat trigger on my list for a long time, but was warned it could at some point kill the mandarin. didn't want to risk it, so i dropped it from my stock list. instead added a copperband butterfly (Chelmon rostratus) and planning on a Genicanthus angle pair instead.

i'm also debating a Halichoeres sp. or Macropharyngodon sp. wrasse at some point in the future as well. even though they would be competition, i think in a larger system it might work.

 

[Naiad]

Trigger would be a potential threat. Sixline is the devil. In that large of a tank you should be fine with another pod eater as long as you are patient and let the pods establish themselves. I kept a pair of mandarins and leopard wrasse in a 120.

 

[ThRoewer]

I would recommend to add at least one box of freshly imported live rock, ideally the porous kind where plenty of critters can survive. I also would go fishing at my LFS's sump to score some Mysis and the like.