Mandarin fish!

[Navarre]

If you can find a fish that will take froze/ried foods thenthe battle is won basically. the only issue as i see it with mandarins is their need for pods and to sustain the population of pods enough to keep a mandarin happy needs load of liverock (30 gallons worth doesnt cut it IMO). We have a mandarin eating happily on frozen foods and is quite content in our 10 gallon nano tank. The nano ha sonly been running 3 weeks! Admittedly the liverock is very matured (2 years) as the wife stole it from my tank

 

[smb7676]

10 gallon nano tank. The nano ha sonly been running 3 weeks! Admittedly the liverock is very matured (2 years) as the wife stole it from my tank

Whats a little LR between family. Add more to your tank and 2 yrs will just fly by.
But honest here if I set up a 100 gal; with say 90 lb of LR and I buy a mandarian that will take freeze/dried food can I add him the second my tank is stable. Or are they not hardy enough to go in as the first fish ? I read you should introduce the most docil fish first and then add a fish or two ever 3 monthes until you are stocked. I was going to hold off adding the mandarin until like the 9 month point even though it "should" be the first on the rating system of docil in first. This sw stuff is like a very strange ballet. To much spin and you loose a whole tank (or fall off the stage).

 

[Navarre]

The problem you face with a mandarin in larger tanks even if they eat frozen foods is the company they will keep. They now have to compete with loads of other fish for food and they just dont move that fast. Im not saying it cant be done but you would have to take measures to ensure the mandarin was not left out at feeding time.
A smaller tank (such as the 10 gallon nano) only has 3 fish and its far easier to make sure the mandarin gets its chare of the food.

 

[littlefishie]

Dont Worry guys, i took it to the lfs and traded it for a Mandarin fish that eats frozen foods. Hes eating heaps! its all good

This sounds a bit odd to me.. I may not keep a marine tank, but I know enough about it, and how an LFS runs.
In fact, I was so intrigued by this that I called my LFS to ask what their policy on this was, saying that if someone were to bring in a mandarin which was caught and brought home from a vacation, and asked to trade it for one in the store which would eat frozen foods, would they do it?
The answer was simple: No way. Some stores MIIIGHT agree to it based on the size of the mandarin, but to just simply trade one that someone found on a vacation for feeding conveniences? It's against store policy, and it wouldn't be done.
And given the employee I asked is one who is a good friend of mine who's made many trades and deals for me against store policy, he said that even if I came in and tried to do it he'd have to say no. Trading a saltwater fish like that totally messes up the store's guarantee, which they usually don't have on saltwater fish anyway.

Where did your brother manage to pick up this mandarin anyway, and how on earth did he get it through customs?

 

[Great Lakes]

There is a catch-22 with a Mandarin.

You have to have a large tank to house him, then the odds decrease that you will ever see him...


GL

 

[Opcn]

Mandarin fish are out in the open all the time, they are brightly colored so that predators can see them, they taste horrible though so they don't get eaten often.