will a christmas wrasse compete for food with 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.

*edit*

the tank itself is new (~1 month), but it's an upgrade. i moved my previous 2y/o 46g reef into this one, and added about 60lbs of cured lr from a fellow reefer.

the question(s) is(are) - will the christmas wrasse or any other fish in the list deplete the pod population? 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?

 

[bhelne01]

i have
bluestar leopard
2 possum wrasse
2 clownfish
mandarin
swales basslet
powder brown
rainford goby
randall goby
fathead
and I have no problems with my mandarin she is eating great and you are able to train your mandarin to eat frozen food. all of my fish eat frozen and i have had my tank for 2years
if you are concerned about you pod population you can always supplement you tank with more. I supplement my tank about every 3 months with different species from different vendors to introduce new genetic strain to my current population and different species

 

[kolosy]

wait - you trained the mandarin to eat frozen, or all your others eat frozen? i don't want to rely on being able to do that, it's notoriously hit or miss. i'd rather not kill a fish because it wouldn't take frozen food.

 

[bhelne01]

yes i have trained my mandarin to eat frozen food and if you are fearful that you wont be able to train it. the supplemental pods will keep it well fed and healthy

 

[Ralph ATL]

yes, your Wrasse will eat a bunch of everything.

maybe, get a Madarin that you KNOW is eating mysis already? For example, get one from Kevin at DD. Or your local fish store thats eating frozen.

 

[BrianD]

I added a christmas wrasse to my tank, and it beat the snot out of my mandarin. I think it would be even worse to add a mandarin to a tank with an existing christmas wrasse.