mandarin in 30gal?

[romsoccer12]

29gal biocube
no competion for pods
45lbs of liverock plus a bunch of rocks with corals not added
small fuge in back compartment with chaeto
tank is around 5 months old.
if i added a couple more rocks and some rubble, waited another couple months, and added some phytoplankton in my tank, do you think it would be possible to keep a mandarin? i will only purchase one that i see eat frozen food in the store.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Nope, it will quickly decimate your pod population then slowly starve to death. Mandarins are constant grazers, and even adding the bottled pods wouldn't keep up with their voracious appetite.

 

[Cbravo212]

I have seen multiple people have FAT mandarins in biocubes. But as mentioned above by Adrienne, they will go through your pods in about a month. If you buy more pods, they will eat those is weeks b/c they have not reproduced enough.

If you just cant live without one, as some people can't (b/c they are like the coolest fish I think), then look into raising your own pods. It is not that hard, very limited equipment needed.

But like I said, they are the coolest in the world. Mine is a little ambush artist.

 

[Elysia]

Don't know about a 29 gallon. I have a 56 gallon with a male and female spotted. I'm over 18 months in with the male (he eats frozen food) and at a year with the female (she doesn't eat frozen.) There is no fuge. They are two of the healthiest, happiest mandarins I have ever seen (and it isn't because I don't see mandarins.) They share their tank w/ a Lubbock's wrasse and although I have occassionally thrown amphipods from other tanks into that one, generally it hasn't been supplemented in any way. Oh, and the male mandarin was the first fish resident in my tank. But I have been told that his flourishing with me can not be considered successful until he has been in my care for at least two years, so I am looking forward to this winter and our second "anniversary."

 

[atwinparadox2]

I had one in a 29 gallon years ago, he went through my pods like someone was stealing them from him, luckily i upgraded to a 90 and my refuge keeps the pods coming enough for him to graze and thrive. I agree, they are some of the most attractive selections for our tanks. it's easily one of the most popular fish in my tanks. Mine as well will eat frozen brine shrimp. He comes up and steals it out of the tube when i am target feeding some corals.

 

[JeF4y]

had one in my biocube 29 for around 4 months. He's grown substantially...

I started out by feeding tigger pods, and LOTS of them. It was very costly. It took him about 3 days to switch to frozen once I went to Rod's Foods. He loves that stuff. Heck, the whole tank does... I swear by it.

Still throw some tigger pods in, but not anywhere near what I did.

If you can commit to spending a few hundred bucks on food if needed to support a $30 fish, go for it. To my wife, it was worth it. To others, it isn't...

Now, to just toss it in and see if it will live off of the tank? That might end up bad... Again, try Rod's Foods. Many other Mandarin owners swore by it and it was almost instant once I made that switch.

 

[romsoccer12]

isnt it more based on liverock than it is size of the tank? somone can have a 100gallon with 50lbs of liverock and somone can have a 29gallon with also 50lbs of liverock? what is the minumum for a mandarin? i would think 50lbs plus frozen food would be more than enough for a mandarin. right now im seeing at least 5 pod molts float around my tank everyday. these guys are getting bigger than the mysis i feed the tank.

 

[ludnix]

They do not eat amphipods that you are seeing. They eat the much smaller copepods. If you do not get one that is eating prepared foods it will most likely starve.

 

[small alien]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15358617#post15358617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ludnix
They do not eat amphipods that you are seeing. They eat the much smaller copepods. If you do not get one that is eating prepared foods it will most likely starve.

I've seen my ocellated eat amphipods.

This is a hotly debated topic. The best information I can find and my experience with my ocellated and green are that they can be kept on prepared foods. It just takes a lot of work and the right tank mates.

 

[romsoccer12]

what is the best way to get a mandarin to start eating prepared foods such as mysis?

 

[small alien]

start with live brine in a confined space like a breeder basket or small QT. Gradually replace live brine with frozen enriched brine and move to cyclopeez and mysis. took my a little over a month to get my green eating mysis well. Check out this article.

http://en.microcosmaquariumexplorer.com/wiki/Breeding_the_Green_Mandarin

Pretty neat. That's the cool thing about our hobby. What was once impossible can become commonplace in quite short order.

 

[davocean]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15358617#post15358617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ludnix
They do not eat amphipods that you are seeing. They eat the much smaller copepods. If you do not get one that is eating prepared foods it will most likely starve.

They definitely do eat amphipods, seen my own do it many times.
Neat to see, cause they have to wrestle em down a bit.
IMO getting them to eat prepd foods isn't really that tough, but only makes a little difference when it comes to sustaining them.
They have a very high metabolism, much like a hummingbird, and constantly pick pods.
They eat about 1-3 pods per minute, hard to mimick that.
Can it be done, yes, it's just a matter of how much time and effort you want to dedicate to it.
But I would not personally recommend it.