Mandarin goby

[Hilltopreef90]

I really want to eventually have a mandarin goby in my tank once it’s well established with plenty of pods. I’ve learned that some fish may out compete it for copapods and I’m wondering if that automatically excludes me from having any of the wrasses. What other fish would it be best to avoid in order to give a mandarin the best chance of surviving?
tank size is currently 90 gallons, and I’ll be upgrading to a 200 gallon in the next year

 

[Zach B]

My canary blenny is always hunting pods. With that said I recently got a pair of mandarins that are eating well. I do however add a bottle of pods or 2 every month

 

[MrTPlush]

Do you plan on a self sustaining pod population where you don't have to add pods consistently? Then yes, you probably want to avoid other pod hungry fish.

 

[Tchung23]

Just buy captive bred ones. I have one and it eats pellets and frozen mysis. They are raised to eat prepared foods. Only draw back is they are small and expensive.
Not sure if vid will work but this is mine eating frozen.
Mandarin was why I got into the hobby. My all time favourite fish!!

 

[Gtinnel]

I have a melanarus wrasse and spotted mandarin both in my 125. I assume both fish are getting plenty of food since they're both healthy looking. I've never had to add pods.
To be fair though I do see my mandarin eat frozen food sometimes when I feed the tank.

 

[Hilltopreef90]

Just buy captive bred ones. I have one and it eats pellets and frozen mysis. They are raised to eat prepared foods. Only draw back is they are small and expensive.
Not sure if vid will work but this is mine eating frozen.
Mandarin was why I got into the hobby. My all time favourite fish!!

I recently lost almost my entire tank of fish because I added fish that weren’t properly quarantined.
going forward I will be quarantining all my fish regardless where they come from and I’m going to try to get as many tank raised fish as possible.

 

[nereefpat]

I’m wondering if that automatically excludes me from having any of the wrasses.

No. Fairy and flasher wrasses don't eat pods.

 

[jrill]

I have a tank raised Mandarin from Biota. I've had him for over a year and he has tripled in size eating pellets and frozen and occasionally baby brine shrimp. No need for Pods

 

[fromdiscustoreef]

I have a mandarin and its eating liveblood worms mixed with frozen copepods. Hea a big fat yoke!!

 

[i cant think]

I know there’s the captive bred blue mandarins but are there captive bred red mandarins?

I really want to eventually have a mandarin goby in my tank once it’s well established with plenty of pods. I’ve learned that some fish may out compete it for copapods and I’m wondering if that automatically excludes me from having any of the wrasses. What other fish would it be best to avoid in order to give a mandarin the best chance of surviving?
tank size is currently 90 gallons, and I’ll be upgrading to a 200 gallon in the next year

To me, you’ll be fine (In a 200g tank you can have the other wrasses) fairy and flashers do not eat pods so you can have them. As for fish to avoid:
Pipefish,
Tamarin wrasses,
Leopard wrasses.
And that’s just to name a few.

 

[Rmckoy]

I have a green spotted mandarin , Mel wrasse , fairy wrasse , and I can only assume many other fish in my system also eat them.

once the tank is mature and a healthy population of pods , they reproduce fast .
Give it time to mature .

 

[MaxTremors]

You can have a wrasse and a mandarin dragonet (they are not gobies) in a 90 gallon. So long as you have plenty of rock, and so long as you at least seed it with a few pounds of real live rock, you’ll have plenty of pods. I don’t really trust that the bottled pods reproduce all that well in our tanks, but if you you get some live rock, it’ll have a few different species that will reproduce. You can also feed them live black or white worms if they won’t eat frozen and you’re concerned they aren’t getting enough food. Just wait until your tank has matured, get a healthy specimen (mandarins don’t QT very well, so that’s something to consider, but they are also more resistant to disease than a lot of other fish), and it should do quite well. I’ve never really found them to be all that difficult, I’ve had one in pretty much every tank larger than 40g that I’ve ever had.

 

[las]

are the green and blue mandarin the same thing?

 

[las]

Just buy captive bred ones. I have one and it eats pellets and frozen mysis. They are raised to eat prepared foods. Only draw back is they are small and expensive.
Not sure if vid will work but this is mine eating frozen.
Mandarin was why I got into the hobby. My all time favourite fish!!

nice colors

 

[i cant think]

are the green and blue mandarin the same thing?

Yes, green and blue mandarins are the same fish but the reds are separate to the Blue/Greens.

 

[Rmckoy]

There are green mandarins as well . Typically hardier but smaller

they are said to also eat red flatworms ( to be proven )

 

[Wicket30]

There are green green dragonets but sometimes the blue/green/mandarin dragonet refer to the same fish. I think the greens are also spotted. the red scooter dragonets are supposedly easier to train on frozen/pellets. I know Algaebarn currently has captive bred Mandarins for $99 which IMO is a good price vs trying to train a random store bought one for $25-35. I also highly recommend a paul b feeder and a brine shrimp hatchery ring, its amazing for hatching BBS.

 

[i cant think]

Here’s a photo of the red mandarin:
And a photo of the blue/green mandarin:

here are the green/spotted dragonets:
Three totally different fish, I don’t think there are any captive bred reds because of the belief that they are the same fish as the Blue mandarins. There’s captive bred ruby red dragonets but not the red mandarins. There are spotted mandarins that are captive bred and look beautiful (I’m tempting one in my nano but may wait for a CB red mandarin) the downside to this is how they’re sparse and relatively hard to get over here in the UK but also go for a high price tag of £100.

 

[Wicket30]

Here’s a photo of the red mandarin:
And a photo of the blue/green mandarin:

here are the green/spotted dragonets:
Three totally different fish, I don’t think there are any captive bred reds because of the belief that they are the same fish as the Blue mandarins. There’s captive bred ruby red dragonets but not the red mandarins. There are spotted mandarins that are captive bred and look beautiful (I’m tempting one in my nano but may wait for a CB red mandarin) the downside to this is how they’re sparse and relatively hard to get over here in the UK but also go for a high price tag of £100.

That red is awesome, but that's a new one to me. The only reds I see locally are the red scooters.

 

[Rmckoy]

That red is awesome, but that's a new one to me. The only reds I see locally are the red scooters.

I have never seen this particular red one ….
20+years and never saw it .
I currently have a green spotted one ,
And the blue are common but getting harder to find .