Can I get a green mandarin dragonet?

[itsken37]

I have a fulval 13.5 gallon tank and it has been established since July. I was wondering if I could get one, and if I could, what should I feed it? Does the water have to be clean? I will try to respond asap. Some more information: I have a blue yellow tail damsel and a halloween hermit crab. I am hoping to get 2 turbo snails and a lawnmower blenny this weekend. I also have no protein skimmer yet. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Kfactor]

I think ppl will say you need a bigger tank to keep the food source there I would have to say your tank is way too small for one

 

[William Mumford]

No the tank needs to be atleast a 40 gallons

 

[Taby]

I think there are some captive bred ones that have been trained to eat pellets. I wouldn't do a wild caught one. Unfortunately your system wouldn't be able to support a pod population to keep it healthy

 

[Hermie]

To put it simply, No.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

The concern is that most mandarins never eat prepared food, they rely on copepods to survive. You would have to spend a mint weekly to supplement live food for him because he will deplete the copepod population in a 14 gallon rather quickly.

If you're willing to take great care and keep the tank supplied with live food, then by all means, give it a go.

 

[Nanoreefer4ever]

It's call Mandarin Goby, bigger tank is better for it plus you need established pods (A LOTS) for it to survive. Sometimes you lucky and find one that eat frozen but it's still a hit or miss.

 

[Hermie]

The concern is that most mandarins never eat prepared food, they rely on copepods to survive. You would have to spend a mint weekly to supplement live food for him because he will deplete the copepod population in a 14 gallon rather quickly.

If you're willing to take great care and keep the tank supplied with live food, then by all means, give it a go.

true but they already are at stocking limit and want to add more

1. damsel
2. large hermit
3. 2 turbo snails
4. lawnmower blenny

 

[Earl Karl]

It's call Mandarin Goby, bigger tank is better for it plus you need established pods (A LOTS) for it to survive. Sometimes you lucky and find one that eat frozen but it's still a hit or miss.

Proper term is Mandarin Dragonet. Mandarin Dragonets are NOT gobies.

Your tank is too small as they get pretty big and mandarin's metabolism is WAY too fast for just feeding frozen. Needs at least 4 feedings a day if feeding frozen. Or a bottle of copepods pretty much every few days.

 

[DSC reef]

Actually, the correct name is mandarin dragonet as it's not a goby, synchiropus splendidus and I would suggest passing on this fish. It needs a well established tank and a lot of pods. Even captive bred still need pods. They also need to eat multiple times a day to keep up with there nutritional requirements.

 

[OrionN]

My post from the other thread on Mandarin going on right now on this forum. 13.5 gal is way too small for a Mandarin Dragon

If you don't want to be a slave to your Mandarin, then the most important question is:
How big is your tank? if <75 then no go. If > 75 then:
Are you willing to forgo certain fishes due to the fish been a food competitor to Mandarin? How much you forgo depends on how big is your tank and how you set it up. If yes then
Are you willing to set up the tank with Mandarin in mind? If yes then you can get one or a pair depends on how big our tank is. You can keep a pair in 90+ gal tank, if you set it up right and not adding much food competitors.

If you are willing to be a slave to your mandarin, then you can get a pair. Size of the tank does not mater that much.

I don't (target) feed my mandarins and they are healthy and spawn all the time, at least 2 times a week.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Mine is a fatty too! hehe

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I think there are some captive bred ones that have been trained to eat pellets. I wouldn't do a wild caught one. Unfortunately your system wouldn't be able to support a pod population to keep it healthy

I feel this is very misleading information. These captive bred animal may be willing to eat pellets but they still need to eat almost constantly which I don't see that being possible. They are eating pods as well or they would starve to death. My mandarins were "trained" to eat mysis etc...but I have had my female now 4 years and she NEVER eats what I feed. She scoots about all day eating pods. IMO (I am not claiming to be an expert) if you can't provide a "natural" environment for these guys, they will live, slowly starving to death, until they pass.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

My post from the other thread on Mandarin going on right now on this forum. 13.5 gal is way too small for a Mandarin Dragon

If you don't want to be a slave to your Mandarin, then the most important question is:
How big is your tank? if <75 then no go. If > 75 then:
Are you willing to forgo certain fishes due to the fish been a food competitor to Mandarin? How much you forgo depends on how big is your tank and how you set it up. If yes then
Are you willing to set up the tank with Mandarin in mind? If yes then you can get one or a pair depends on how big our tank is. You can keep a pair in 90+ gal tank, if you set it up right and not adding much food competitors.

If you are willing to be a slave to your mandarin, then you can get a pair. Size of the tank does not mater that much.

I don't (target) feed my mandarins and they are healthy and spawn all the time, at least 2 times a week.

This man here, he IS the expert.

 

[William Mumford]

Mine eats anything like a clown fish but I still think pods are the only good source of food. I like to see him eat some mysis from the sand bed but i know that he is most happy hunting for pods.

 

[Fishurama]

As many have said your tank is too small. They eat 1000+ copepods daily. Each bottle you buy contains 2000-3000 generally(off the top of my head if i remember correctly) So by the time they try and reproduce your mandarin would be half way through them. I didn't try mine for 1 and a half or so years before i tried my mandarin to let the pods populate the tank.
Now I have 2, a spotted and scooter, they get along, don't fight, and are "bonded" but not paired and will eat side by side do to the fact i have enough pods and even still replenish once a month just to keep counts up. Sad to say in your tank they would starve unless you put pods in weekly.

 

[Taby]

I feel this is very misleading information. These captive bred animal may be willing to eat pellets but they still need to eat almost constantly which I don't see that being possible. They are eating pods as well or they would starve to death. My mandarins were "trained" to eat mysis etc...but I have had my female now 4 years and she NEVER eats what I feed. She scoots about all day eating pods. IMO (I am not claiming to be an expert) if you can't provide a "natural" environment for these guys, they will live, slowly starving to death, until they pass.

My post was never meant to mislead anyone. It was meant to encourage the interested party to do research on alternative possabilities. I'm sorry your manderin refused to eat pellet's however your experience wasn't like mine. My manderin ate pellets without any problem but I didnt mention as not to sway him to jump the gun and buy. I'm simply mentioning some possibilities and attempting to kindly discourage purchasing wild or untrained manderins. Meant no harm with my post.

 

[gobble]

Don't try it. I had a 150 gallon tank that had been running for a year and I bought one thinking I had a large enough pod population. Boy was I wrong. I spent hours and hours and lots of $$$ on pods trying to keep it fed and it starved to death. Now that Nutrimar OVA is unavailable the options for food seem nonexistent unless you want to spend lots of $$$ keeping your tank stocked with pods, and even that is a losing battle.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

The people that are breeding mandarins in captivity aren't housing them in a natural environment (tons of rock and substrate) and they aren't feeding them live copepods all day; although, they do feed them live feed organisms when they are newly hatched because that's what they require. When they wean them off of live feeds at a young age (when they are past metamorphosis), the mandarins are then fed prepared foods which include dead copepods, mysis and pellets. If this didn't work and the mandarins starved to death, then we wouldn't see captive-bred specimens available. While captive-bred mandarins still eat live copepods in any given reef tank, they will still eat prepared foods. There are people having success with this. I'm no expert either, but this is happening in aquaculture right now. Biota aquariums breeds mandarins in captivity. Here is a video they posted last year with some comments about diet.
My comments here aren't meant to say that mandarins are easy and are for everyone: they are not. I'm just letting people know that these animals can be maintained on a non-live feed diet if you can feed them enough times a day. Since we can't feed them all day long like Biota can, we rely on live copepods and other small crustaceans to keep them happy in between prepared diet feedings.

Very happy to see a discussion about this, and all opinions and experiences matter.

 

[Earl Karl]

I have a male red mandarin in my 100g, n

The people that are breeding mandarins in captivity aren't housing them in a natural environment (tons of rock and substrate) and they aren't feeding them live copepods all day; although, they do feed them live feed organisms when they are newly hatched because that's what they require. When they wean them off of live feeds at a young age (when they are past metamorphosis), the mandarins are then fed prepared foods which include dead copepods, mysis and pellets. If this didn't work and the mandarins starved to death, then we wouldn't see captive-bred specimens available. While captive-bred mandarins still eat live copepods in any given reef tank, they will still eat prepared foods. There are people having success with this. I'm no expert either, but this is happening in aquaculture right now. Biota aquariums breeds mandarins in captivity. Here is a video they posted last year with some comments about diet.
My comments here aren't meant to say that mandarins are easy and are for everyone: they are not. I'm just letting people know that these animals can be maintained on a non-live feed diet if you can feed them enough times a day. Since we can't feed them all day long like Biota can, we rely on live copepods and other small crustaceans to keep them happy in between prepared diet feedings.

Very happy to see a discussion about this, and all opinions and experiences matter.

Totally agree with this. I did post a thread of keeping my mandarin in a 10 gallon, even posted a video of feeding it with my RN mix. I had to feed it 4 times a day to keep it happy, but unfortunately, not everyone has the time to feed it 4 times day. I was busy in college so I had to give mine away since I couldn't keep up.