Success with a Mandarin, I need some guidance

cody6766

cody6766

Super Best Friends!
Premium Member
I have a 120 that's been running for about 5-6 months now and it's doing very well. The usual corals are growing, parameters are stable, fish are healthy, etc. Water quality isn't a concern.

I don't see pods crawling all over and that's where my concern lies. I added some rubble in a few discrete areas in my tank to provide a safe place for breeding. I also have a fuge with a good ball of macro in the sump. Other fish load is low, and none are really pod hunters.

So, finally to my question...What do you guys look for before adding a mandarin or a pair? I'm sure I have the pods to keep them happy for a while, but I don't want to run short and kill the fish down the road. Do many of you with tanks this size have to add pods down the road, or does the tank support the population well enough to keep the mandarin fat and happy?
 
The secret to keeping a mandarin fat, is lots and lots ( and lots) of pods. The secret to getting that many pods is letting them establish fully. Make pod piles, then add a few types of pods then give it a few months. I went fish less for almost six months, letting the pods build a solid population. I had corals but no fish. That slow start paid off. I suggest getting a few pod types from DF&S and letting them grow for awhile. How do you know when you are ready for a mandarin? Check your tank with a red light, a few hours after the tank lights go off. If it looks normal, you aren't ready. If it looks like a scary, terrifying Sci Fi movie and it freaks you out, then you are ready. Never underestimate how many pods a mandarin can consume. But pods breed like crazy. When you are ready, you will know it. At night your rocks, sand, everything in the tank will be crawling with pods. It will be a creepy, discusting but wonderful sight.
 
how much rock abouts do you have, and are you running with sand or bare bottom?

when are you looking for the pods? might be helpful to try a flashlight and magnifying glass at night.

they can be hard to spot. although i would think in that size tank with a fuge that they're present. do you ever seen any in your fuge area at night?

if you have concerns about food supply, starting with one mandy with a good plan for supplemental feeding might be the best idea. see how he/she fares for about a year, then consider adding another down the road. just remember, if you're going with more than one, you will want a male and female to mitigate possible aggression.

if nothing else, buying a couple starter cultures of bagged pods and dumping them in to your fuge is never a bad idea. then give them a little time, and see if that helps them start being noticeable.
 
I honestly don't know how much rock I have anymore. The last time I knew was when I bought my first load of rock for my 30g about 7 years ago. Then it was 25lbs. I bought a few buckets of dry stuff here and there and now I have a 120 with 'enough' rock. There are a ton of holes and crevices all through the rock and I don't have any heavy pod predators right now. I know I'm not short on pods in the tank because I've seen them when moving things around. I haven't gone 'hunting' in quite a while because it's not as fun and new as it used to be. I imagine there would be plenty crawling around with the other night life that's more obvious. The 'pod piles' are pretty new to the tank, but there's always been plenty of space inside the rock structures for things to hide. I have a sand bed too, so I'm sure that helps.

I'm not worried that I don't have any pods, I just don't want to add something so dependent on a single food source too soon. I know there is no 'right time' light that goes off when the tank is read. It's probably good to go, but I guess I want anecdotal reinforcement before going forward. I've seeded and waited, so I guess I'll just wait some more to be sure. Thanks for your suggestions...luckily I've done all of that so far, so the wait is less than it could be. I'll just continue to overfeed a bit (the tank can take it now) and add one when the store had one that knocks my socks off.
 
yeah, honestly you're ticking all the right boxes and then some. i would be shocked if your tank couldn't support one long term.

pods were never that noticeable in my display either unless i really went looking for them at night. but my mandy finds them no problem, and i'm only in a 75.

i bet you'll be just fine. get a healthy mandy and enjoy.
 
120 gal usual reef would be enough for a pair of Mandarin. If you feed your tank a reasonable amount, they should be fine.
Small angels and wrasses compete with mandarin for the same type of food so watch those fishes and try not to add them. My 65 is fine for Mandarin but when I added one flame Angel, the mandarin would get thinner and thinner until I remove him to another tank, then he recovered.
 
I'm going to hijack this thread a bit because I also want to add a pair of Mandarins in the future. I have a 140g, 5 months old now, I am not confident putting in Mandarins yet, however I am curious if the pod population in the tank will ever be able to keep up for Mandarins with my stock of wrasses.

Mellanarus
Yellow
Six Line
Pearly

Thanks,
 
Washout said:
I'm going to hijack this thread a bit because I also want to add a pair of Mandarins in the future. I have a 140g, 5 months old now, I am not confident putting in Mandarins yet, however I am curious if the pod population in the tank will ever be able to keep up for Mandarins with my stock of wrasses.

Mellanarus
Yellow
Six Line
Pearly

Thanks,
Click to expand...

doubtful.
 
For the Original Poster and Washout, If you have lots of rubble rock in your refugium and a heavily load of rock in your tank then with some seeding and feeding (phytoplankton) your pod population should develop pretty quickly.

I produce pods to over stuff 4 mandarins, 2 scooters, 5 pipefish and bunch or wrasses and lots of angels.

Once or twice a year I pick up a bottle of pods to add something fresh. But at night I can pick up any rubble rock from any of my connected tanks and the pods are swarming. During the day I can pick up a frag out of the frag tank and the pods are squirming all over the bottoms of the frags.

Definitely need to give the pods a good head start on building a population. If you have a trendy reef tank with a minimalist aquascaping of just a couple of pieces of rock, you probably will make it difficult to sustain and adequate population or provide enough of a hunting area for your Mandarins.

For what it's worth in my 400g tank the mandarins don't even hunt across the entire tank, they have a limited area that they spend about 90% of their time. The Pipefish hunt all over the tank.

Dave B
 
Never add a Six line into your tank. My sixline pair kill my female Mandarin by pecking her eyes out. Once the Mandarin is blinded, they just ignored her and she starved. This is in my 450 gal tank. There were plenty of food for all. I got this pair of devils out of my tank before they go after my male Mandarin.
 
Not only do you have enough food for a mandy, you could probably keep something like a dragonface pipefish as well. Or maybe a smaller pipe if you're concerned.
 
My mandarin eats frozen shrimp like crazy, basically he eats everything that moves, anyways I have plenty of pods in my tank, try feeding the stump in front of him maybe he gets interest
 
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