Mandarins, Seahorses

fish_NEMO

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Hi

I am wanting to set up a fish/seahorse tank and was thinking about having these fish with them (not shure on the type of horse i want)

- Green Mandarin (3)
- Bot bellied Sea horse (4)

I was thinking aobut a 50 gallon? what you think
 
3 mandarins? ina 50 gal? they'll kill all ur pod population and die. MAAAAAAAAYBE 1 will survive if u have a fuge where the pods can reproduce...
 
Manderins are tropical fish, Potbellies are temperate.

Also multiple manderins will fight to the death unless they are a mated pair.

It is not a good idea all the way around.
 
With a huge amount of patience and consistent training efforts it is possible to get Mandarins eating frozen mysids. I do not recommend this fish and it should be saved for folks willing to put in the time. Start with one, plan on providing newly hatched brine. Males have a big extnsion on the fin.
 
You can keep 1 mandarin in a very well established, very mature 58 gal tank with tons of rock rubble. I know, I have done it for over 2 years - BUT - as stated in the previous threads - more than 1 mandarin will fight and a pair will probably not get enough to eat even in a very well established, mature tank.

My bigger concern is that you are planning on keeping 4 pots in a 50 gallon tank. These are some of the largest horses, reaching up to 14" long. I wouldn't think you could get a tank in the 50 gallon range with adequate height. Also, as previously stated, these are cold water fish, needing a chiller in most places. I'm unsure whether the mandarin will survive the temps.

Probably, you should do more googling, reading, and looking.
 
we get mandarins to eat frozen at the store all the time and we definitely don't spend copious amounts of time or effort getting them to. They actually learn pretty quick. I still believe that they need a large tank to get the pods they need, as the mysis once a day won't sustain them at all.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6973064#post6973064 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hooterhead
we get mandarins to eat frozen at the store all the time and we definitely don't spend copious amounts of time or effort getting them to. They actually learn pretty quick. I still believe that they need a large tank to get the pods they need, as the mysis once a day won't sustain them at all.

How do you go about doing this? and also, what would everyone say would be the min tank size for a mandarin that has been trained to eat frozen?
 
YES please tell us? would it be better if i put them in a 10 gal with a bunch of LR when they are babies so it is easier getting them onto Frozens?
 
Hmmm. I would think it would be easier to get them to eat frozen young---b/c they havnt already learned another behavior, but its still difficult. A 10 is a little small, but with alot of LR, you might get away with it :D

-alien
 
I have a mandarin in a 20g. She eats frozen like crazy and is a big pig. I feed her mysis enriched with selcon and spirulina enriched brine. I've had her about 8 months now and she has doubled in size and has amazing color. She's also very fat. I have a decent ammount of live rock in the tank but not an overwhelming ammount.
 
She eats frozen mysis, spirulina brine and Spectrum Pellets. The LFS I bought her from trained her to eat frozen so I didn't do that.
 
I really love her a lot. She's a really pretty spotted mandarin with bright orange eyes ;) She actually chases down the food even if it's in the water colum. I do soak it in Garlic Extreme and that might help entice her a little bit. I will be moving her to a 37g in a few months with a pair of Reidi or Kuda seahorses.
 
Here's my Mandarin. It was a little skinny when I bought it, but has since fattened up. This picture was from January. It loves to eat PE Mysis.

18392IMG_1390.JPG
 
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