Mandarin Eating Habits

J

jsalt1

New member
I added a Mandarin to a 55 gal tank with no refugium.
The tank is about 9 months old with lots of live rock. I dosed the tank with 90 Oz of rotifer and copepod blends to really get a population of pods that would out produce what the fish would eat (2 clowns, 6 line wrasse, BS jawfish) $$$

The Mandarin has only been in the tank 2 weeks he looks great but I have noticed that he went from eating something off each rock every 2 to 3 seconds to moving around now and eating something every 10 to 15 seconds.

I just want to know he has enough food and if the answer is no he will get thin and then i will have my answer. BUT I just wondered what other people observe as "normal" with their long living mandarins in their tanks.....

The fish came from a very good reputable LFS that had the mandarins live in the large coral tanks where there are large populations of visible pods - so I quite confident he didn't arrive starved as some people have posted on other chains.

Thanks for your help
 
you're setting yourself up for failure with a sixline and a mandarin.

the sixline will decimate you pod population and will likely be openly aggressive to your dragonet. they're awful fish. especially in a such a small tank with no fuge.

i would strongly advise that one of them, the sixline or the mandy, must go. or prepare to lose the mandarin at some point in the near future.
 
Really....Hmm Ok well thats bad news i rather like my wrasse as despite their terrible reputation he has a great personality. I have noticed him eating the pods as well as the clowns.

i have a nano tank with clowns and anemones - maybe its time we try an relocate him.


Thanks
 
the mandarin can eat a thousand pods in a day by itself so even if you get rid of the wrasse it's going to be hard and expensive keeping up with the mandarin. that's why mandarin keepers have refugiums.
 
Well i could modify my sump or add a refugium. I assume the pods live on the rocks and i am growing them in buckets to addition to the tank on a biweekly basis.

Would the sump be more beneficial then growing them separately?
 
the sump/fuge would be very beneficial, but the six line is still an issue.

dragonets are slow, methodical feeders. they are easily out competed, and while many fish will ignore them (i've seen it proposed that their coloration is actually aposematic) there are many fish that compete in their specific ecological niche, such as many kinds of wrasse, that will harass or even kill them.

additionally, i've heard no long term success stories for six lines in mixed "community" reefs. mine harassed my clownfish so badly one jumped. the six line would start down at the bottom of the tank and get a head of steam and just crash in to them near the top, and this was in a 75 gallon. so their aggression is by no means restricted to others that eat the same food.

if you don't have the ability to build a full fledged fuge in your sump, adding in rock is better than nothing. external pod cultures are also a great idea, but don't rely too heavily on these, as they can easily crash without warning.

my main strategy for keeping dragonets happy and healthy is margin of error. stack the deck in your favor in every possible way, and then hope that when something goes wrong, you've left enough margin of error that the fish can still survive until you can take corrective action.
 
Thanks for all the info.
I do have some live rock in the sum and could add more... Its not very large (only 10 G and about 2/3rds is the bio balls the rest being heaters and various pumps to run the protein skimmer and GFO.

I have heard bad stories about the wrasses. This guy was one of the first additions to the tank and have NEVER see him show aggression to any new addition. My Yellow tang ****es off the Jawfish more then anything and the clowns were aggressive to the second clown pair (which is why i got the nano)

Someone said to me wow you got lucky with your wrasse... Maybe i did. I don't know. He is going to eat a lot of pods so thats a good reason to take him out but i haven't seen anyone pay ANY attention to the Mandarin which i guess is good.

Catching that wrasse will be a WHOLE other story!
 
They can be model citizens for a while, then become jerks without warning. Mine was good for several months before becoming a terror.

As far as getting them out, it took me 4 days of sitting and staring at a fish trap to get my six line. They can be tough to catch.
 
I've never kept a mandarin. I wanted one before I knew anything about them. Based on the research I have done, mostly from the experiences of people on these boards, your mandarin is slowly going to starve to death in your tank. Even if you remove the sixline.
 
I Have been researching and there are aquacultured mandarins that already feed on pellets and prepared foods you can check here: www.orafarm.com maybe you can trade yours for a captive breed one.
 
MondoBongo said:
the sump/fuge would be very beneficial, but the six line is still an issue.

additionally, i've heard no long term success stories for six lines in mixed "community" reefs. mine harassed my clownfish so badly one jumped. the six line would start down at the bottom of the tank and get a head of steam and just crash in to them near the top, and this was in a 75 gallon. so their aggression is by no means restricted to others that eat the same food.
Click to expand...


MondoBongo said:
you're setting yourself up for failure with a sixline and a mandarin.

the sixline will decimate you pod population and will likely be openly aggressive to your dragonet. they're awful fish. especially in a such a small tank with no fuge.
Click to expand...

I have seen many posts about owning/wanting this fish & not once have I seen anyone recommend to get a sixline. It is not on my wantlist, but is it just a very common species? Wondering why so many here have one if it so bad.
 
They're cheap and hardy. They're ubiquitous in the hobby, their coloration is striking, and they're an incredibly interesting fish to watch swim. That little torpedo gliding in out of the rocks is an awesome sight.

Aggression issues aside I actually love six lines. Fantastic critters to observe. They just don't play well with others.
 
I have a sixline and it doesn't bother any other fish. maybe because it's the smallest fish. of course I wouldn't add a mandarin.
 
Replace the bioballs with lots of rock rubble and float some chaeto above it. Can't hurt to fill a small mesh bag with rock rubble and hide it behind your rocks or in the rear corners of your tank.

Good luck.
 
I have had before and currently have both, mandarins and sixlines, but would never again put them together into the same tank unless it is really a huge tank (> 1000 gal) and jam packed with live rock.

My experience with sixlines in the same tank as mandarins is that they will harass the mandarins to death. They are quite sneaky and you may not notice the aggression until it is too late.
 
My opinion on Mandarins is that its not as much about tank size as it is creating a suitable "environment" for them.
I successfully maintained a female Mandarin in a 10 gallon tank for a whole year, kept her well fed to the point of being gravid most of the time. Then I upgraded to a 25g for the sole purpose of getting her a companion.

I feed supportively once a day with frozen lobster eggs, but other than that they live off what's in there. And essentially my tank is one big pod & microfauna factory.
I use a fair amount of very porous live rock, extremely fine sand and lots and lots of macroalgae. And unlike a normal reef tank I allow nutrients to get pretty high, SPS-lethal high.
The fine sand I find is very important, as it actually is a hunting ground. And it's quite a treat to see a Mandarin on the hunt there, the moment he/she finds something tasty and twin dust plumes sprays from the gills, separating silt from morsel. :)

It is the complete polar opposite of running a pristine reef tank. :p
 
Stop wrasse bashing, especially the 6 line. I've seen many established community tanks with them. They go about minding their own business-- hunting amongst the rocks.
 
I don't think this is as much about wrasse's getting along in a community tank as much as it is about conflict between them and mandarins due to the competition for a shared food source.
 
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