So I love how cool looking mandarins are and I really want one in my 20 gallon, however the problem is that it’s a 20 gallon, I know that most likely a well establish pods in a 20 gallon might only last a mandarin for a few months, so I’m just wondering how realistic it is, like if I were to train him to eat frozen foods, could I pull it off? I feel like I do have quite a lot of live rock in my 20 gallon, which might help with the pod population, I’m a newb so any advice is appreciated,
The problem is they have a very short digestive tract so you have to feed them often and people tend to have lives jobs/go on vacation and a dragonette can probably live 10-15 years.
If you want to do this... it can be a lot of work... I did it for 5 years. I kept 6 of them in a 29g with a 20g refugium and I am not sure I would do it again (I was in college and had more free time then now when I have a job).
Basically have a planted macro algae 20-30g and get a sump that is also basically more macro... 20g one would be nice. Then run the tank dirty...plan on keeping only dirty loving corals, softies, gorgs, rock flower nems and such. I had a large clam that did fantastic in the macro tank as well, probably lots for it to filter. Just be sure to dedicate enough space to mostly macro with corals dotted throughout.
Supplement food but also feed the pods. Cut the pumps off for at least an hour so the mandarins can eat as most wont go chasing food around the tank (I had one spotted one that would but the other 5 would not). Plan on doing this more than once a day.
Run carbon... for water clarity and to reduce smell as heavy macro tanks or fuges can get a little funky.
I would also get a captive bred one as that cuts out the training.
The macro and heavy feeding will breed pods but also feed the mandarins.
No greedy fish or inverts, no cleaner shrimp, no damsels, I would personally even skip clowns. Anything that is a greedy eater and will steal from a mandarin. Once a fish starts eating a mandarin's frozen food... the mandarin will usually just swim away. Top dwellers like bangaii cardinals that generally won't eat off the bottom and such are good tankmates. No heavy pod eaters like wrasse either.
There is a article in coral magazine of dragonettes living in a 29g macro tank from Matt Peterson (look for the dragonette issue). I basically used that as my bases for setting up a smaller tank for them and it was successful but these fish... when kept in a nano are not something you can just feed. They do best with a species set up.
