Got a Red Mandarin yesterday,

quigimon · Dec 16, 2012

And what a beautiful fish, it's too bad he spends most of his time thus far behind my rockwork, i don't know if this will change once he get's used to the tank or not and the only other fish i have in the tank with him are a set of clowns. I'm sure by the week's end i'll be hitting up an LFS for copepods since i've read 1 alone can clean shop in a 100g tank. But wow, beautiful to look at and watch swim, like a graceful hunter.

gmoney243 · Dec 16, 2012

my target mandarin was super small and emmaciated when i got him. he now looks like fat albert. GL bro they need a lot of pods but how big is your tank? your tank may be sufficient but more cant hurt. mine also doesnt take to prepared foods. if you have a refugium with some algaes in it to allow the pods to breed and maintain a population all the better. they are a finicky fish and to be honest dont be to suprised if he doesnt make it ive lost a green mandarin myself due to him just stoping eating overtime.

show us some pics when he comes out. once they get acclimated they are constantly roaming and eating.

quigimon · Dec 16, 2012

It's a 20g tank till the 55 is freed up, but I'm pretty sure ill be investing in some copepods for sure, saw a post on breeding them on an aquarium app I have so I may certainly give that a try as I don't currently have a sump or a refugium at the moment. And you can bet as soon as he comes out he'll have plenty of pictures taken of him, I love how he hunts like a dog for the pods.

RacinRevo0818 · Dec 16, 2012

Tiger pods are so simply to raise. Order a bottle of them from reeds and a 16oz bottle of phyto feast and 53 um sieve. I've got two 4 gallon buckets with them and scoop out a few hundred ever couple days. Aquarium specialties sells both cultures and I get there stuff overnight.

Luckfish · Dec 17, 2012

What do you use for water circulation in your buckets?

thegrilledcheesus · Dec 17, 2012

Wait, doesn't this theoretically mean that it's possible to house a mandarin in a 10 gallon, and just keep pod farming, and keep it with other fish?

gmoney243 · Dec 17, 2012

just about everything we do in this hobby at some point was thought impossible or wouldnt work. its more a matter of how to in most cases. so im sure it is possible but might be more work than you wanna get into. then again lots of us like to work hard and take on challenges. SPS and NPS were thought impossible in captivity not to many years ago.

quigimon · Dec 17, 2012

gmoney243 said:
just about everything we do in this hobby at some point was thought impossible or wouldnt work. its more a matter of how to in most cases. so im sure it is possible but might be more work than you wanna get into. then again lots of us like to work hard and take on challenges. SPS and NPS were thought impossible in captivity not to many years ago.

Proof positive in looking at some aquarist books from the early 2000's, not an sps to be found.

gmoney243 · Dec 18, 2012

read some of these books and pay special attn to the dates published. love these

Internet Archive Search: subject:"Aquariums"

this is good book if you wanna go old school.

A handbook to the marine aquarium : containing practical instructions for constructing, stocking, and maintaining a tank, and for collecting plants and animals : Gosse, Philip Henry, 1810-1888 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

quigimon · Dec 18, 2012

Ugh, that ended sadly, I came from work to find him stuck in a rock, he was out and about this morning before work... Play taps for him Johnny. I don't know if he was trying to chase a pod or what, I don't have anything threatening in my tank, only two clowns that he was easily bigger then both put together. Oh well, fish life.

quigimon · Dec 18, 2012

he didn't show any signs of sickness, good color, active, no heavy breathing or anything, just got stuck in a rock as best i can tell, mainly because i had to pull him out, he was in about up to his pectoral fins so i can only guess he got that far and couldn't get back out.

gmoney243 · Dec 19, 2012

sry to hear that.

quigimon · Dec 19, 2012

Nothing that could have been done, although it has me second guessing about getting another one with the rock I have, key largo from Marco rocks, its super chunky with lots of crevices a fish like that could get stuck in.