I Fell In Love Today

[little_mermaid]

With the Mandarin Gobies I was at the LFS getting plants for my Betta and I peered into the tank and first a Blood Shrimp caught my eye *super cute* and then I kept looking around and that's when I saw the Mandarin Goby! I've never had a saltwater tank before, but I want to learn all I can about managing one! Right now I can't afford another tank and what-not, but in the mean time, I'll be doing lots and lots of research! I know that Mandarins need at least a 20-gallon tank and plenty of live rocks. My LFS also said that they now carry food that the Mandarins will eat...so that's very good. Anyways, I am very excited about my future Mandarin(s)! Maybe ya'll that have had them or have them now would share some info?

 

[SharonCC]

They are gorgeous...but salt water set ups scare me!

 

[IIITYIII]

With the Mandarin Gobies I was at the LFS getting plants for my Betta and I peered into the tank and first a Blood Shrimp caught my eye *super cute* and then I kept looking around and that's when I saw the Mandarin Goby! I've never had a saltwater tank before, but I want to learn all I can about managing one! Right now I can't afford another tank and what-not, but in the mean time, I'll be doing lots and lots of research! I know that Mandarins need at least a 20-gallon tank and plenty of live rocks. My LFS also said that they now carry food that the Mandarins will eat...so that's very good. Anyways, I am very excited about my future Mandarin(s)! Maybe ya'll that have had them or have them now would share some info?

they are awesome fish here is a picture of mine. i have a psychedellic mandarin. they are very cool fish and yes they do take some live rock because they eat copepods all day long. mine accepts frozen foods some do some dont.

 

[little_mermaid]

They are gorgeous...but salt water set ups scare me!

How come? The people that run the LFS said they're pretty easy to maintain...

they are awesome fish here is a picture of mine. i have a psychedellic mandarin. they are very cool fish and yes they do take some live rock because they eat copepods all day long. mine accepts frozen foods some do some dont.

your Mandarin is cool too!

What other sea creatures/fish can you put with Mandarians? Can you have more than one Mandarian together? Though I think I read today that males can't be together?

 

[kj23502]

The majority around here will likely tell you that 50 gallons is the minimum size for the awesomely colored mandarin. They are a small fish so size isn't the issue. The issue is it's diet. Most will not take froze, flake, artificial food. They eat copeopods which are tiny creatures that live and breed around the rock. Since they are all most mandarins eat they need to be able to reproduce faster than they get eaten, which is why the size of the tank needs to be larger to allow more area for the "pods" to outbreed the mandarins. The mandarins will spend a good amount of time hopping around the rock and hunting it's food.

A lot these fish die because they dont' have the proper diet and litterally starve to death

Please do full research before taking on care of another animal.

 

[IIITYIII]

you can keep your mandarin with a good amount of fish. i have mine with 2 percula clowns, a yellow headed jawfish, a six line wrasse. i would not recommend keeping 2 males together a male and female or a male and 2 females. 2 males will rip each other to pieces.

 

[connorsbala]

As people have said, their diet is the main issue. In setups as small as 20 gallons, you cannot contain as much live rock as they need in order to support the high populations of copepods needed as you could in larger tanks. But, as your LFS do, you can buy bottles of live copepods now. Although they may be exspensive and not contain too many pods, you can culture them easily. Put a jar of SW on the window sill, add the pods, feed live phytoplankton as much as needed in order to keep the water slightly green (i dose phyto once every other day)...i also feed them a bit of flake once or twice a week and mysis shavings).
When you have you culture going (4 weeks), you can split the culture so you have two on the go (in case one gets contaminated for example) and you can start feeding the tank with the pods. As my Mandarin eats frozen, i only add pods from my culture once a week (after the water change), but if yours dosent eat frozen, then you may need to dose more regularly.

The best thing you can do is:
1. Wait till your tank is setup for 6 months before your purchase one (to make sure there are enough pods there)
2. To not buy any other fish that's diet consists of pods
3. Get one that eats frozen (or at least live brine shrimp....i have found that if they eat live brine, its easy to get onto frozen)

Good luck and get researching before you take the plunge You may be put off by all these posts but if you do take precaution with the care involved, you can end up with a healthy, long lived Mandy

 

[IIITYIII]

i think if you get like a 40 gallon tank with lots of live rock and be pateint give it a couple months maybe buy a pack of pods once a month and seed the tank after 3-6 months youd be okay. thats my opinion. before you buy one see if your lfs will feed it to see if it accepts frozen brine or frozen mysis.

 

[Luketendo]

You need to make sure your aquarium has a supply of copepods.

There's a few ways you can do this:

1. Have a really big aquarium.
2. Have a refugium.
3. Buy Copepods.

They CAN be weaned onto frozen food however, with patience, I heard it takes about a month.

 

[karaim]

I am looking into this fish as well.

I have a 125 gallon reef tank (only 2 months old so far). I also have a 20 gallon sump and I will soon upgrade to a 55 gallon sump with refugium.

Is this enough space to breed the capepods?

 

[kj23502]

Yes it is, Karaim. Provided you have live rock too. The pods should flourish naturally in the tank and ideally produce enough for your fish to eat. I'll have a mandarin for my 120 gallon tank too!

 

[karaim]

Yes it is, Karaim. Provided you have live rock too. The pods should flourish naturally in the tank and ideally produce enough for your fish to eat. I'll have a mandarin for my 120 gallon tank too!

Great! And yes I do have live rock - 250 pounds worth.

 

[ILuvTropicalFish]

That is a beautiful Mandarin! I can see why you fell in love with it. It has already been said. Do your research. Saltwater is alot of fun and very rewarding. Take the time to understand the care of a saltwater aquarium and you will have years of enjoyment.