Mandarin goby help

[ReeferCreeper]

I have been keeping SW tanks for a while but have never kept a mandarin, but now I'm ready to give it a go. This tank will also contain a pair of young seahorses until they grow big enough to go into my adult seahorse tank.

I have a 20 gallon tank with an integrated sump with live rock and macro algae (caulurpa) set up for 3 months and have added copepods at the at the start. If I look really closely I can actually see copepods on the glass of the tank and there are no fish or CUC to depleate the supply.

I'm now wondering is it okay to add the mandarin in now. Will he have enough food? I don't mind having to add more live copepods regularly if needs be but have no idea how often I should do it. Once a week? Once a fortnight?

Also could I house a pair of mandarins or a mandarin and a ruby red in this tank or is that a big no no?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[pfan151]

There are tons of threads on this topic but to keep one in a tank that small you will need to add pods almost every day. They eat around 2 per minute all day every day. It’s too small for one and certainly too small for a pair.

 

[elecbzerk]

I kept one successfully in a 29..added pods and phyto to start off and he eventually started eating frozen..ive kept several mandarins and they all started eating frozen in addition to the pods I added every once in a while. I start adding pods and phyto and let them be for a few months before adding a mandarin. Never had an issue.