Mandarin Primer
- Thread starter BrianD
- Start date
dg3147
Active member
thinking about adding a red mandarin and have three concerns:
1) I also plan on adding a Diamond Goby --they are comapatible, yes?
2) My tank is 75g w/ 30g sump and lots of rock, currently crawling with tons of pods. Do I need to add a small fuge? Or is there a chance of getting by without one? (assuming he never learns to eat prepared food).
3) I have left my tank fallow for 6 weeks following an Ick outbreak with my last couple fish (R.I.P) and I hear mandarins are Ick resistant --can they still be carriers though?
1) I also plan on adding a Diamond Goby --they are comapatible, yes?
2) My tank is 75g w/ 30g sump and lots of rock, currently crawling with tons of pods. Do I need to add a small fuge? Or is there a chance of getting by without one? (assuming he never learns to eat prepared food).
3) I have left my tank fallow for 6 weeks following an Ick outbreak with my last couple fish (R.I.P) and I hear mandarins are Ick resistant --can they still be carriers though?
JTL
New member
I have read quite a bit about mandarins and ich. Some say they cannot get ich, others say they can but are very resistant. I tend to believe they can carry ich, perhaps in the gills, but rarely show any symptoms. A while ago I posted the question asking who has has an ich outbreak as a result of putting a mandarin in the DT. No one responded so I guess that is good. I could put it into a QT, except for the fact that I have a 6 line in there so it would be difficult to feed it any pods. I may one day just take a chance and put one directly into my DT. First I need to deal with my outbreak of flat worms.
loglew
New member
So I've had my mandarin for about 6 months he has done very well, been eating frozen ever since he went in the tank. I thought I would share this strange experience with you guys. I decided to try out some bloodworms for my copperband (he loves them) and my mandarin seems to really like them as well. He is even taking them out of the water current? Is this normal for them? This little guy seems to eat anything that goes past him!
stealle
Premium Member
@ loglew- I don't know if its "normal" but I'd be happy that he is an aggressive eater!
@ everyone else - I read in another forum that mandarins can not resist live black worms. Black worms are apparently popular for fresh water tanks, but some people feed them in salt water too. They are available to order on the internet. My LFS actually keeps them in stock. I can't wait to try them someday when I get my tank up and running.
Another thing that I've read they go after really well is fish roe (fish eggs that you can get at an Asian market/grocery store).
Of course, I think the best thing for a mandarin is copepods. But if you are trying to supplement the diet and having trouble finding something they will eat. I'd say black worms would be the thing they would most likely consume. Then blood worms and fish roe would probably tie for second place. I'd start with those three foods and after the mandarin get use to taking those for a few weeks I'd try mysis, cyclopeeze, and spectrum pellets.
@ everyone else - I read in another forum that mandarins can not resist live black worms. Black worms are apparently popular for fresh water tanks, but some people feed them in salt water too. They are available to order on the internet. My LFS actually keeps them in stock. I can't wait to try them someday when I get my tank up and running.
Another thing that I've read they go after really well is fish roe (fish eggs that you can get at an Asian market/grocery store).
Of course, I think the best thing for a mandarin is copepods. But if you are trying to supplement the diet and having trouble finding something they will eat. I'd say black worms would be the thing they would most likely consume. Then blood worms and fish roe would probably tie for second place. I'd start with those three foods and after the mandarin get use to taking those for a few weeks I'd try mysis, cyclopeeze, and spectrum pellets.
euromomtx
New member
I tried the live blackworm route when I started with mandarins and YUCK -I will never do that again. You have to keep them in the fridge and rinse their wastes away daily. The mandarins don't like them either. They were such a waste and just really gross. The skimmer goes nuts with them as well.
Once the mandarins are used to frozen food mine seem to prefer frozen prawn eggs (Nutramar Ova - made for fish ... no soy sauce
) and small bloodworms over anything else.I wrote a little article for my local reef club about my experience with feeding mandarins. It contains pictures and it is too large to attach it. It's long but might include some ideas worth trying. Here's a LINK
I got the acrylic feeding station made by somebody in my reef club but the original idea came from LostOzzy, a member in Australia.
palmer373
New member
hey im sorry for not posting about my experience with madarins but i wanted some of your opionions about geting hopefully a male and female green madarin. My tank is a 75g with a 20ish gallon sump. it has been up for 6 months now and i have noticed an abundance of copepods and amphipods in my fuge as well as my DT. my stocking list is 1 yellow tang, 1 six-line wrasse, 1 royal gramma, 1 chromis, 1 yellow watchman goby, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp (and surprisingly large), and maybe 1 red firefish (either hiding or dead 
, im freinds with the LFS owner i got it from and he said hes having problems with his wholesaler sending dead/injured fish). I would like to know if you madarin keepers would say about me getting a pair of green madarins. im looking for sumthing to top off my tank with and it would either be this pair, or a coral beauty (im thinking about it). Im in no rush about getting the madarins becuase i want them to have a great home to live in.
thanks
, im freinds with the LFS owner i got it from and he said hes having problems with his wholesaler sending dead/injured fish). I would like to know if you madarin keepers would say about me getting a pair of green madarins. im looking for sumthing to top off my tank with and it would either be this pair, or a coral beauty (im thinking about it). Im in no rush about getting the madarins becuase i want them to have a great home to live in.thanks
Unless you are fortunate enough to acquire mandarins that will freely accept frozen food, it is my opinion that your system is too small to sustain one mandarin, let alone a pair. Those "abundance of copepods" would last maybe a week or two with two mandarins constantly depleting the population... IMO, you would have to constantly supplement pods in your tank, which becomes very expensive...(the cost of a bag of pods is more than the cost of a mandarin)
Go with the Coral Beauty.
LL
Conventional wisdom is to wait a minimum of six months for your pods to develop a strong breeding pattern. Then they should be able to sustain food for your mandarin...
LL
