Mandarin Competition

MMA

MMA

Member
I was thinking about getting a mandarin but am worried about competition for food. Wanted to get advise if it would be advisable.

I have a 240 gallon with a 60 gallon fuge and 20 gallon sump. Probably around 300+ pounds of live rock. This tank has been up and running for 13 years.

Problem is I have several wrasses that eat pods.

Livestock:
Wrasses: Lubbocks, Tamarin, Exquisite, Checkerboard, Bluesided Fairy.
Other: Powder Blue Tang, Bluejaw Trigger, Foxface, Rabbitfish, Coral Beauty, 2x Pajama Cardinal, Lantern Basslet, Kole Eye Tang, 2x Lyretail Anthias, 2x Maroon Clown, Royal Gramma, Algae Blenny, Flame Hawkfish.

I still see lots of pods with the current stock but I know a mandarin will eat a lot. Would it be ok or not a good idea.

Thanks.
 
that's a large system.

i'm not very familiar with the wrasses in question, however i would lean towards it being OK. if you're seeing pods, and have that large a fuge, that seems like a pretty solid setup.

my main concern would be the trigger. i was considering getting a trigger from the Xanthichthys genus (i assume you're talking about Xanthichthys auromarginatus? blue throat, or blue jaw?) but i warned by a couple people that they may be aggressive towards dragonets.

so with my admittedly limited knowledge of the species you're keeping, i would probably say proceed with caution. perhaps if i give this a bump some others with more experience with the particular inhabitants in question will chime in.

apologies on giving you basically nothing but weal anecdotal reports, but right now it's all i've got to share. :)
 
Thanks for the info. I'm going to give it a try. I guess I was a little worried mainly because of the Tamarin. He's always hunting for pods.

The bluejaw is a very timid fish for me in my tank.
 
You should be fine. With a tank that old, I'm sure for every pod you see, there are dozens of baby pods maturing within the crevices of the rock-work. If you are worried, you can always seed your tank and sump with them every now and then. I see them crawling all over my sump, overflow, and live-rock after years of sporadic seeding. I have several wrasse and a mandarin pair that spawn on the regular, and my tank isn't as old as yours.

You may also get lucky and yours to start eating pellets as well. It's not a substitution for pods, but every little bit helps with these fish.

Also: Don't worry about the BJ. Mine swam up and inspected my mandarin when it was introduced to the tank, but never bothered the fish. For some reason, these fish get passes where others don't. My maroon clowns don't even bother mine when it goes near their anemone. The only thing that gave my mandarin any problems was a rogue starry blenny I had a while ago. That thing hated everybody and everything though...
 
I have 2 mandarin in my 80 gallon tank, one male one female.
i got them over 4 months, they look fat and healthy.
the trick is I got 2 gallon of cheato under my sump - with par38 light and a TON TON TON of pods.
maybe im just lucky i dont know. people recommend a way bigger tank if u keep 2
 
tsunade said:
I have 2 mandarin in my 80 gallon tank, one male one female.
i got them over 4 months, they look fat and healthy.
the trick is I got 2 gallon of cheato under my sump - with par38 light and a TON TON TON of pods.
maybe im just lucky i dont know. people recommend a way bigger tank if u keep 2
Click to expand...

Success will be one year.
 
Another thing I've realized is that there are many pods in my tank that are too large for my mandarin or wrasses to eat. As long as they stay out of the way of my larger fish, they should be there for the years to come to populate future generations of pods.
 
snorvich said:
Success will be one year.
Click to expand...

I just had my mandarin die in my tank last month at just over a year in the tank. She was still healthy looking when she died. No sign of malnourishment all. I had tons and tons of pods still in the tank and many more in the refugium I just dont understand what happened.
 
I went for it. Bought a mandarin today. After 30+ years in the hobby and 13 years with this tank I'm giving this cool looking fish a try. He was pretty shy and went straight in the middle of the rocks so I haven't seen him much. Can't wait to see him more tomorrow. Thanks for all the advise everyone!
 
When I had a few pod eaters in previous tanks I would place a couple pieces of rock in my refugium for a week to a month then swap them out with a few rocks in the display. This would reseed the rock after my wrasses and mandarins would pick them clean. At the time my system could handle it but this was a nice help.
 
Jasanden said:
When I had a few pod eaters in previous tanks I would place a couple pieces of rock in my refugium for a week to a month then swap them out with a few rocks in the display. This would reseed the rock after my wrasses and mandarins would pick them clean. At the time my system could handle it but this was a nice help.
Click to expand...


Good idea!

You can also supplement with freeze dried pods ( product called calanus) , frozen Rotifers and frozen cyclops.... Then shortly thereafter most will accept to eat frozen bloodworms, Artemia and mysis.
DISCLAIMER: not every specimen will take to these foods... But that is what I had to do to keep a Mandarin pair fat and healthy enough to be interested in mating for 6 1/2 years....
Adding a leopard wrasse to the tank was a total mistake... Any wrasse will be a challenge for Mandarin survival.
 
eatbreakfast said:
Fairy and flasher wrasses don't pick at pods so as to provide competition for a mandarin, but leopards, tamarins, pencil, lined wrasses, and Halichoeres will.
Click to expand...


It's probably prejudicial on the part of a sedentary and crouching fish lover....That wrasses are fast swimming fish that annoy sand dwelling gobies and such. And are voracious eaters and therefore don't give a lot of chances to feed to slow moving or perching fish.
I've only owned 2 over my lifetime which were model "citizens" for community aquariums ( mystery and leopard) and they still got into the mandarins face and whip their tail at them.
 
ginpang said:
It's probably prejudicial on the part of a sedentary and crouching fish lover....That wrasses are fast swimming fish that annoy sand dwelling gobies and such. And are voracious eaters and therefore don't give a lot of chances to feed to slow moving or perching fish.
I've only owned 2 over my lifetime which were model "citizens" for community aquariums ( mystery and leopard) and they still got into the mandarins face and whip their tail at them.
Click to expand...

Mystery and leopard wrasses are not fairy and flasher wrasses, and both also are big time competition of pods, and would also want to set up a pecking order with other pod eaters.

Flasher and fairy wrasses feed from the water column and don't pay any attention to any benthic inhabitants.
 
eatbreakfast said:
Mystery and leopard wrasses are not fairy and flasher wrasses, and both also are big time competition of pods, and would also want to set up a pecking order with other pod eaters.



Flasher and fairy wrasses feed from the water column and don't pay any attention to any benthic inhabitants.
Click to expand...


Sorry I was unclear...I was now referring to speed as competition for supplementation food. But[emoji106]🏼 great info nonetheless!
 
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