Mandarin Goby

they are supposed to be fairly difficult fish - you will need a fuge where you are cultivating copepods. they hunt and eat live copepods all day and rarely accept prepared or frozen foods. your tank must be well-established or the mandarin will decimate your copepod population very quickly and then slowly starve to death. there are many many posts about mandarins because they are very attractive fish and many people are drawn to them, so read plenty before you buy this one.
 
It looks like your tank is 2 years old and a 150 gallon. If so, then you should be OK to get a mandarin. I was told by someone that has both kinds that the spotted mandarins will more likely take prepared foods more than the green mandarins.
 
I've had good success with feeding green mandarins frozen food (brine shrimp, mysis, cyclopeeze, and blood worms). It just takes time and patience. It might be easier to teach it to eat frozen food in a smaller tank. I have two mandarins in my 40 gal.
 
I think rotifers are a better choice as they are smaller, move slower, and reproduce faster than Copepods. I feed both. Corals love them too.
 
I have two mandarins, probably the person t5Nitro is talking about. I have a spotted mandarin in a 24DX nanocube that he shares with seahorses (no aggessive eater in tank). Eats pe mysis like a pig and is as fat as jabba. :strooper:
I also have a green mandarin in a 50 gal. with a refugium full of cheato that doesn't eat prepared foods.
With a well established 150gal tank you should be fine. Except for their picky eating issue they are an extremely hardy fish (almost immune to parasites, nasty slime coat that other fish don't find tasty, etc.) If you have a refugium stocked with cheato and LR you are golden. I also dose my tank with live phytoplankton and that keeps the pod population up.
If you are at all concerned about the pod population crashing just ask your LFS to try some mysis with them. I have found most of my stores willing to do so. I check my lfs regularly and often find spotted mandarins that eat prepared foods, but only once did I find a green mandarin that was readily doing so. I purchased him, brought him home to my girl and she wouldn't have anything to do with him, :(, but that is another topic altogether.
 
Check out Melev's website. Melevsreef.com I think and look at his mandarins. They are super fat lol, he has them on prepared foods though along with baby brine he doses the tank with I think each day, along with the natural pods in the tank.

Duddly can get you some good mandarin advice too, thanks for the help Duddly!
 
The best advice I can offer is to make sure that your mandarin is not emacaited when you get it. I bought one from a LFS and I've been kicking myself for the last 2 weeks, that I didn't take it back as soon as I noticed it. It was so bad that not only did it have the lines running across it's body, but it's stomach area was sunken in and back. I didn't even really notice until after I released it, since I let it acclimate in a darkened room.
The mandarin looks better now, but it's not fat yet, and it's live or nothing so I can't just induce extra feedings. From the members of this forum, I've heard that the mandarin usually dies about the 1 month marker.
I'd post a pix, but I want to do it, when it's a little plumper... if he makes it.
 
Amyandlars, If they are emaciated usually less than 1 month, Less than 2 weeks actually. If yours is hunting and eating constantly and made it this far it has a chance. It takes alot longer to plump up than it does to get skinny from what I have seen. Dosing with live phytoplankton can really cause a nice pod population explosion, you might want to give that a try to increase the available food supply.

And for the picture request, this picture was from April, but he is only bigger and fatter now. :D
141658spotted-mandarin-rc.jpg
 
On the 28th, it will be the 2 week marker for the madarin in my tank. He does hunt all day, and it's funny to watch him hang upside down eating stuff off the rock.

I do dose phyto in my fuge. I think the mandarin has made it this far because, I have some seriously fat ampipods in my tank some are way bigger than frozen mysis preps.
 
Duddly, you have seen a pic of my mandarin where it has a small line by its belly, so you said it is a little emaciated, but you have seen worse. Mine does hunt around the rocks, more on the older rocks from the old tank. Do you think mine will make it or have a chance too? It is 1 week since I got him. I ordered those tigger pods and phyto you suggested also, hopefully they get here soon.
 
will mandarins eat brine shrimp? or would all the other fish eat them first since they are out in the open when you dump them in?
 
Isn't this nice? No bragging no fusing. Just talking and sharing! Thanks let's keep it coming and thanks again for the advice
 
It is unlikely the mandarin will take frozen shrimp or other prepared foods right away. Over time they may take prepared foods.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10407734#post10407734 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MegsB
will mandarins eat brine shrimp? or would all the other fish eat them first since they are out in the open when you dump them in?
Click to expand...

They will eat it but it is not nutritious enough to maintain them, not long term at least. I would feed only 1 day old nauplii, they are more nutritious because they still have their yolk sack. You could also gut load them with selcon, etc. Other fish will eat them. If you have more agressive eaters you might try target feeding them with a turkey baster.

t5Nitro, as long as it is hunting and finding something to eat ( at least every 2 seconds or so) it should be okay. Dosing the tigger pods and starting a live phytoplankton dosing regiment will help alot. Your corals will love it too. :D
 
Dosing the tigger pods and starting a live phytoplankton dosing regiment will help alot. Your corals will love it too

How Would you do this
 
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