when is a system ready for a mandarin?

[kolosy]

i've got a 90g system, with ~120lbs lr, ~150g total volume, a fuge with macro and a dsb. the current stock list is

christmas wrasse
powder brown tang
two-spot hogfish
3 pajama cardinals
ocellaris
diamond watchman
striped blenny
rainford's goby

tank is an sps-dominant mixed reef.

the question is - when (if ever) can i add a mandarin? i know they only eat pods. i see plenty of pods on the glass in the dt, and there are a lot of the larger ones playing in the chaeto in the fuge, but i don't see those in the dt.

do i need to wait until the larger guys start showing up in the dt, or will a mandarin be fine with the smaller guys? also, will anything on that stock list compete with it for food?

 

[mthomp]

well my guess is they are getting into your DT but your wrasse is eating them.

 

[kolosy]

i thought 6-lines were the pod eaters? is it all of them?

 

[jchase1970]

the christmas wasse and the cardinals are pod eaters. my cardinals hover over my pod pile often waiting to get a stay pod that wanders out.

 

[kolosy]

tangent - do you have pics of your pod pile? i'm assuming it's in the dt - is it just a pile of lr rubble?

 

[romsoccer12]

wrasse wont work with mandarin. a lot of fish eat pods, including your diamond goby, clowns, and cardinals, just not to a point where you have to worry. lose the wrasse, wait a couple months for a larger population, and i think you can add it

 

[sedor]

Its usually best to wait until the tank is about a year old so the pod population can build up. Even more important its a good idea to find a quality specimen that isn't "on the way out" already. With the breeding being done with mandarins lately, finding a good animal should be getting much easier than it used to though.

 

[romsoccer12]

i completely forgot, but they are coming out with tank raised mandarins in the summer. just wait for one of those

 

[kahkah]

i completely forgot, but they are coming out with tank raised mandarins in the summer. just wait for one of those

Has there been anymore recent news about the tank bred mandarins?

 

[Palting]

I've been resisting posting on this thread because I don't know if my experience is the exception. I have a mandarin/gragonete, and he has been with me since the tank first finished it's cycle, one of the first inhabitans. i could not resist it's beauty. He was a juvenile, and he has grown despite getting him that early in the life of the tank. He hunts and pecks all over the place. The refugium I have is new and is just now producing the pods, so I have no idea what he has been eating, but he has grown.

 

[bluestarfish]

I would go for the tank raised coming out this summer. Your lf should be able to get ahold of one for you.

Palting - How long have you had the mandarin?

 

[Palting]

Going on 3 months now. Found out AFTER I bought him about the pod thing, so I've been watching him closely, so I could return him if he started getting thin or something. Darned if he isn't growing.

 

[sslak]

Going on 3 months now. Found out AFTER I bought him about the pod thing, so I've been watching him closely, so I could return him if he started getting thin or something. Darned if he isn't growing.

You have all that stuff in your signature in a 3mo old tank? Yikes.

I also wouldn't call keeping any fish for 3 months a success.

As a side note, the UV Sterilizer won't kill ICH unless your fish go through the sterilizer...which would kill the fish. ICH is a parasite that lives ON the fish.

 

[Palting]

Well, I'm not calling it a success. All I'm saying is that he is growing. So are the other fish, BTW. At 3 months, my tank seems pretty far along. Like I said, don't know if my experience is an exception . Not ready yet for SPS, but I just placed my first LPS, a hammerhead.

What's the fun in a hobby if you have to follow ALL the rules? Take a risk, go outside the box. Like my mandarin. Great to see he is doing well despite all the naysayers. It's fun!!!

BTW, NOT true that the Ich lives solely in the fish. It spends a significant amount of time as a cyst on the substrate, rock and walls, then a small amount of time as a free swimming SOB. Whatever small amount of time it spends as a free swimmer, and whatever little gets into my UV sterilzer, may be only one out of a million, I want to ZAP that one sucker!! Just the thought of it makes me smile. Well worth the UV sterilzer. This aquarium thing is FUN!!!!