Size tank for mandarin goby

cjvolitan

cjvolitan

New member
hey guys what size tank do i need for a mandarin?
I know they need live rock to provide mirco fauna but how much are we talking about here ?
and do they eat brine shrimp ?
 
Not sure about size of tank (I'm sure someone with more exp. will be along shortly) but I know the tank should not only have plenty of LR but should be pretty well aged before you try a Mandarin. 6 months or a year to allow the pods and other micro fauna time to proliferate would be best.

Good luck to you. Mandarins are my absolute favorite fish and I'm looking forward to getting one again one day too.
 
mandarin faqs

I have one in a 55 w/ about 80pounds of LR....I would recommend something larger though. Read through this article, and yes the tank should be well aged, and have a fuge for pods too...

My mandarin is definitely a beauty, but be fair to the fish and don't get it if you can't take care of it....they aren't the easiest to provide a good home for. JME
 
Tank size is of no importance, they are not heavy swimmers (having watched mine over the years I can say that they would probably do fine in a 3 gallon jug). However, they need a lot of live food (copepods and assorted small critters) to make it through the long haul, since they do nothing but comb over the rocks looking for small bits of food their entire lives. They will eat brine shrimp (though make sure it is either gut-loaded or newly hatched for it to be of any nutritional benefit), but they eat in a very slow, methodical manner, and something else is likely to snap up the shrimp before they can get a significant amount. That said, if you do not plan on using a refugium, I would recommend using about 200 pounds (I've got about 150 lbs. in my 75 gallon, with a refugium) of live rock that has been established for at least a year, the longer the better. If you use a refugium, you can cut back on the rock amount by about half, but make sure it is very well established (as long as possible, but no less than 6 months). It sounds pretty major, but if you can keep the food flowing, they all but take care of themselves and are very hardy ;) .
 
i am planning a reef system to maintain a mandarin and a few other fish. i was wondering what other types of reef fish eat pods. id like avoid these types. do shrimp feed on pods? hermits? im sure they do, but maybe some types dont.

do mandarins feed on shrimp larvae? i heard peppermint shrimp were easy to breed so that might be an idea. maybe in a refugium...


thanks in advance.

-z
 
Fairy wrasses can compete with mandarins, but the big ones to avoid are the lined wrasses (six-line, four-line, mystery wrasse, etc). They are direct food competitors and are much better/faster at it. Other than that there aren't too many fish that will compete for the mandarin's food source. I wouldn't worry about shrimp or crabs competeing with the mandarin for pods, though. They wouldn't have nearly as much impact as a fish would. I'm sure a mandarin would eat shrimp larvae, but again, they are such slow feeders that they probably wouldn't get to them before something else did.
 
I have two, male and female in my 90g. I've got about 200 pounds of LR in system. I have a fug above and behind tank. I pump water in and let it drain into main tank. This way none of the live food dies going through a pump. It's just a heavy duty plastic container. It's about 25g with dsp, LR and cheato. I stocked the fug twice now with pods and mysis. I waited 6 months, bought female about 4 months later bought male. I've had them both now over a year. Sometimes they do mating dance. My other fish don't bother them, coral beauty, clowns, chromis, anthias and flasher wrasse. They are my favorite fish.
 
I just got my Mandarin today. Even though my 100g tank is only 1.5 months or so old. THe entire system has been running for over a year now. I did a complete swap and added about 30lbs of LR to the the existing 120lbs. 40g fuge with 20lbs 15LB of LR there now but have about 30more lbs that I'm debating on using or not. Is there a way to speed of the process of getting copepods and amphipods introduced to the tank? Can we buy these things and dump them in the fuge?
 
I have a manderine in my 46 bow with about 85 lbs of lr and it is cool also my fav. What i did when i got it i power fed frozen pe mysis untill it started to eat it. So when in dought of it getting enough food i just take the turkey baster and shoot him some food.
 
i have a 30 gal with about 12 lbs of lr in it. I'm keeping a mandrain just fine. I waited about 6 months though. I have plenty of brine and my cleaner shrimp are hatching regularly. I have plenty of pods left after about a month of having it.
 
2nd that on the frozen bloodworms. Buy the Hikura brand, the worms they sell are alot thinner so the Mandarin can suck them up like spagetti noodles. After he's done his belly looks like it's about to pop. My Mandarin will actually eat of the of the pipette. I turn off the powerheads and shoot the worms on the rock where he is.
 
Copepods are the best and will give them the nutrition they need. A DSB in the main tank and/or refugium will help, and feeding phyto to keep the copepods going is essential.
 
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