Mandarin goby opinion and expertise please.

Brettinteriors · Feb 12, 2012

I have 140gallon well stocked mature mixed reef with a fuge underneath. I do nt have aggressive fish per sAy but they are active. Tangs, anthias, big pink spot goby, melanarus wrasse, clowns,and various others. Most of my fish are established and on the larger side. The only direct competition would me the wrasse but in general I don't keep small peaceful fish well. Ie firefish, as they don't feed aggressively enough. Do you think a mandarin is viable.

Aquaph8 · Feb 12, 2012

I think a mandarin should be OK in your tank. IME most fish ignore them.

Brettinteriors · Feb 13, 2012

/\ that guy is crazy. Jk, thanks for the zoas today.

Aquaph8 · Feb 13, 2012

No problem man, hope they do well for you.

typicalwhiteazn · Feb 13, 2012

melanarus might compete for food with it.. but all my fish (clowns, angels, wrasse, butterfly) leaves my mandarin alone. IMO, I hope your fuge is cranking out plenty of copepods, especially if you plan to introduce a mandarin that isnt acclimated to tank-life/tank-food.

capt85 · Feb 13, 2012

I think you would be ok but how long has your tank been up? Established can mean different things to different people.

x8turbo4x · Feb 13, 2012

Or if you get lucky like me my wild caught one loves eating small pellets

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_Alex_ · Feb 13, 2012

Put in feeding stations of pellets that it can get to. That's how we got ours to eat pellets. It loves them . More there available to it better chance will find and try them.

Reef Breeders · Feb 13, 2012

They should be fine, wrasses can't fit into the rockwork like mandarins, the pods can hide from wrasses, but they will be reachable by the mandarins. If you have a tank that big, I wouldn't worry about weaning them, unless you can hide a mandarin diner in your tank.

Brettinteriors · Feb 13, 2012

A year, but my rock is multiples of years established in other tanks.

QUOTE=capt85;869529]I think you would be ok but how long has your tank been up? Established can mean different things to different people.[/QUOTE]

Brettinteriors · Feb 13, 2012

A year, but my rock is multiples of years established in other tanks.

QUOTE=capt85;869529]I think you would be ok but how long has your tank been up? Established can mean different things to different people.[/QUOTE]

CJO · Feb 13, 2012

You should be fine.

CJ

Fragtastic Reef · Feb 13, 2012

I think you will be fine. You can also seed and add more pods to boost your population. Look at Tisbe Reef Pods and seed the fuge even more.

shred5 · Feb 13, 2012

Established reef has nothing to do with copepod population. I have had new reefs with far more copepods that my reef 3 years or even 10 years down the road. Actually during cycle is when they are at the most because there is nothing to prey on them and there is more food for them in the form of algae.

Anyway mandarins do not get picked on by most fish. The key to a mandarin is copepod population. If pod population is lacking do to food or competition from other fish that eat copepods, (wrasses, basslets, etc.) you can add them. They can be bought and just added but that can get really, really expensive or you can culture them yourself which is real easy.

Some can be trained to eat prepared foods or pellets, this is not an easy task and I dont think fully meets their nutritional needs.

cjilge · Feb 13, 2012

I have a pair in my 150 with no probs. I do have a malenarus and marble wrasse and they are fine. I do have a huge fuge with lots of macro and dose phyto regularly. I have added pods in the past but havent noticed any good or bad effect from adding them. INHO you should be fine. One of mine was a wild caught and the other from a local tearing down their tank, both only eat live pods but seem very fat and happy.