Mandarin Dragonet 101 newb edition

[Nyx101]

Hi all, one year old reefkeeper here. Posting this thread in the hopes another saltwater beginner wanting to keep a mandarin sees it.

I have a 92 gallon tank with a fuge. So far so good.

Requirements to keep a mandarin dragonet in a not so mature rock limited subject to scape change reef tank:


1. Paranoia and a limited need for sleep.
2. Credit card allowing online purchases
3. Space for spare ugly tank (7.5 gal & up)
4. Air pump, airline & sponge filters (2)
5. Spare heater (2) & 50 micron sieve
6. High quality fish pellets
7. Hatred for most wrasses
8. Tisbe and Grindal worms starter cultures
9. A spouse that isn’t home often

There you have it. My mandarin only ate pods the first 2 weeks. Then I saw it eat Grindal worms. A month in it tried frozen brine (Fed twice a day right in its lovely face.) I got lucky. You may not be as lucky. The two spare cultures and the sump are a must-have in my not so humble opinion. Thank you Paul B. For the Grindal worm idea. Hatching live brine and gut loading with phytoplankton would have required much more time, money and/or cultures.

Two months in I finally can sleep again. Dedication is what it takes & it is well worth the effort to see a colourful fat sausage with fins roaming about your tank all day. Cheers!

 

[Auquanut]

Hi all, one year old reefkeeper here.

Aren't you a little young to be keeping a reef? Seriously, I'm going to show this post to my wife. She really loves mandarins, but I'm afraid to try to keep one in my tanks.

 

[Nyx101]

Aren't you a little young to be keeping a reef? Seriously, I'm going to show this post to my wife. She really loves mandarins, but I'm afraid to try to keep one in my tanks.

Lol yeah reefkeeping is like a rebirth after all
With separate cultures anything is possible

 

[Tiffany Garcia]

I've been researching and going to build my tank around getting a mandarin. I plan on a 40 breeder, sump with refugium and start a culture and let tank get established and balanced. Plan to only add a clean up crew and corals before the mandarin. It will probably be 6 months to a year before I get one. What do you think?

 

[LesPoissons]

Soooo... maybe I was lucky or maybe mandarins get too much hype for difficulty? Idk. Tank was 12-18 months old. Lots of live rock. Added pods at 1 point just in case. Put a mandarin in and diidnt do anything else for it. 1 year later doing great.

 

[OrionN]

You just need to have a reasonably large tank, well run, avoid certain type of fish like some wrasse and angel or Pod predator and you will be fine.

 

[Tiffany Garcia]

Soooo... maybe I was lucky or maybe mandarins get too much hype for difficulty? Idk. Tank was 12-18 months old. Lots of live rock. Added pods at 1 point just in case. Put a mandarin in and diidnt do anything else for it. 1 year later doing great.

What size tank do you have? Looks like my plans have changed..thinking of doing a 60/65 cube.

 

[OrionN]

Mature 65 gal should be fine with the normal amount of aquascape. Like I said before, you should avoid dwarf angels and certain wrasse. There are other fishes that will compete with Mandarin for food and should be avoid.

 

[Adam Macleod]

dwarf angels compete for pods? really? didnt know that

 

[sde1500]

What size tank do you have? Looks like my plans have changed..thinking of doing a 60/65 cube.

My 65 has a mandarin and Melanurus wrasse in it. Both doing just fine. I turned my skimmer section of the sump into a fuge and there are always visible pods in both the fuge and tank.

 

[Tiffany Garcia]

Mature 65 gal should be fine with the normal amount of aquascape. Like I said before, you should avoid dwarf angels and certain wrasse. There are other fishes that will compete with Mandarin for food and should be avoid.

Thank you! Do you think a 60/65 cube is too small of a footprint for a mandarin? Yep that's what I am avoiding even clowns (so cute) but I like the PJs so far but still looking for something else that is colorful

 

[OrionN]

Clowns are fine

 

[Tiffany Garcia]

Clowns are fine

Really? I have been reading they compete with the mandarin for pods...that will be great then! Thanks

 

[Tiffany Garcia]

My 65 has a mandarin and Melanurus wrasse in it. Both doing just fine. I turned my skimmer section of the sump into a fuge and there are always visible pods in both the fuge and tank.

Yea I am hoping to culture them and have a refugium

 

[LesPoissons]

Clowns dont eat pods. You can have multiple pod eaters in a tank anyway and some often start eating a variety of foods. (Ex dwarf angels eat regular fish food no prob). (They also make frozen copeopd bleds now and my lfs has a mandarins eating frozen.) Just start a fuge and supplement if you need to. (Go to he fish store and get pods every couple weeks or month, add some phyto for the pods (and happy corals) etc.) Your tank is a fine size. Mandarins are not big swimmers, they crawl and flutter all over the rocks. Fit in as much rockwork as you can and he will be happiest.

 

[Tiffany Garcia]

Clowns dont eat pods. You can have multiple pod eaters in a tank anyway and some often start eating a variety of foods. (Ex dwarf angels eat regular fish food no prob). (They also make frozen copeopd bleds now and my lfs has a mandarins eating frozen.) Just start a fuge and supplement if you need to. (Go to he fish store and get pods every couple weeks or month, add some phyto for the pods (and happy corals) etc.) Your tank is a fine size. Mandarins are not big swimmers, they crawl and flutter all over the rocks. Fit in as much rockwork as you can and he will be happiest.

Thank you!

 

[Jon Fishman]

Bringing this one back up to ask some questions......


Assuming I don’t add pods, how will I know when I have enough? I didn’t ever really notice them in my old tank, but when I took it down, they seemed like they were everywhere!

Also, I run a scrubber and no fuge, and I am Bare-bottom in the new tank..... will I ever be able to sustain a large enough pod population in this scenario?

 

[LesPoissons]

How big is your tank? How old is it? Pods creep and crawl all over everything. You dont need a fuge to populate pods, it's a great feature but not a necessity. When you say it seemed like they were everywhere before, you may have been confusing them with larger creepy crawlies? Pods are super small, like pinhead size, I can only see them at night with a flashlight. Also buying a bottle or a portion from your lfs every once in a while can boost your population and add variety.

 

[Jon Fishman]

How big is your tank? How old is it? Pods creep and crawl all over everything. You dont need a fuge to populate pods, it's a great feature but not a necessity. When you say it seemed like they were everywhere before, you may have been confusing them with larger creepy crawlies? Pods are super small, like pinhead size, I can only see them at night with a flashlight. Also buying a bottle or a portion from your lfs every once in a while can boost your population and add variety.

It’s only 140 gallons or so, not sure exactly..... 8’ tank with probably 175lbs of rock


I have no idea what those things were in my old tank then, but they were REALLY small, and I only noticed them when I took the tank down

Current tank is just a couple months old, but all rocks were transferred twice already in the last 8 months or so due to upgrades.

The first tank was a direct move (rocks and water/media etc) from a tank that ran 12+ years continuously

I know I lose pretty much all pods in the moves, but as far as “seeding” it, will It be likely to maintain a population?

Should I pour them in display, sump, where? I have rocks in the sump.

 

[Jay Z]

I add mine to the sump so they start in a safe area.

Tank that size i don't see a issue with them establishing as long as water and food sources are good. Thats a lot of tank for a mandarin to search.

Just watch your mandarin, long as they are constantly picking, there finding food. If they start looking real skinny, they might need more.

I have a pair of mandarins, 6 line, watchman and bi color in my 45. That tanks almost 50% rock work. Took me 4-5 months to establish a good pod population. Seeded them all through my sump and a couple other safe areas until they could hold there own.

When pods get bigger, any fish in the tank will eat it given the opportunity from what I've seen. My baby clown triggers hunt them all day. that and anything else that fits in that little toothed mouth. I figure if anything is willing to take live brine shrimp, pods just made the list to.

Mandarins seem to do a thorough job on the micro ones.