Mandarin in fluval evo?

[Cwoyssant]

Hi everyone, I have a fluval evo 13.5 and I wanted a mandarin dragonet. I have a clownfish and a striped goby, and plan to add another clown in the future. I have a Refugium in chamber 2 with lots of pods and chaeto. Do you think these four fish are overkill or do I need to choose between the mandarin and another clown?

 

[Uncle99]

Too small for long term success with wild caught Mandy.
Will wipe out pods in that size quickly.

 

[Cwoyssant]

I was going to buy a biota captive bred one. I also already have can o cyclops I feed to my clowns, so he can also eat those. I replenish with pods once a month and give Phyto every day.

 

[Uncle99]

I was going to buy a biota captive bred one. I also already have can o cyclops I feed to my clowns, so he can also eat those. I replenish with pods once a month and give Phyto every day.

That could work, they are so, so tiny and grow, slow, slow.
As long as he eats frozen, I don’t see the problem.
Good tank mate, doesn’t care much about anyone else.
Will jump.
Pods are really expensive.

 

[Cwoyssant]

Oh I didn’t know they grew slowly

 

[Uncle99]

Oh I didn’t know they grew slowly

I have a Mandy, 1” last year.
Still looks 1” to me but a bit fatter maybe.

 

[mtraylor]

I just got my first biota pair of mandarins. They are tinyyyyyyyyyy. Smaller than 1/4"

They are too small to put in my display so put them in 10 gallon nano. So far the ate trigger pods. Expensive meal. Going to try baby brine next. If they are biota they should eat multiple foods so you should be good in that tank as they are small.

 

[davidcalgary29]

I was going to buy a biota captive bred one. I also already have can o cyclops I feed to my clowns, so he can also eat those. I replenish with pods once a month and give Phyto every day.

Be warned, though, that not every captive-bred goby will eat frozen foods or pellets. I spoke with one importer who stopped selling them because the long-term success rate was so poor.

My mandarin ate frozen food, and I did keep it in an Evo, but this is a very hit-or-miss thing.

 

[DaJMasta]

As said, to keep them in a small tank it is absolutely critical to get them onto prepared foods. Be prepared to have several things on hand and be able to feed heavily until you can verify they are eating as even a small one will clean out a tank that size of copepods in a matter of a couple days.

Small frozen bloodworms seem to be pretty quickly accepted by the dragonets I've trained onto frozen, calanus or cyclops frozen pods will likely work with smaller ones especially, and smaller mysis should be accepted if they are large enough (but they can eat something bigger than you expect from their size).

 

[Ly78]

Managed to get mine to eat pellets, tdo small. Only thing is I have to ensure enought pellets make it onto the sandbed for the mandarin to slowly pass by and pick those up.

 

[52728299]

Idk I feel my biota mandarin has doubled in size in a matter of a couple months. He's prolly gone from 1/4 in to 1/2 inch..

Imo you will want to start your own pod cultures. I started 2 five gallon tanks with pods and I'm able to add pods to dt about 1-2 times a week, and I'm talking about 64oz of culture water with thousands of pods each time. You can just do a couple half gallon jars tho doesn't have to be multiple gallons. I also have my own phyto cultures but they recently crashed.. here's my cultures

 

[Mortgaged Reefs]

I kept one for over a year in an Evo13.5 until he jumped. I seeded it with pods and phyto. I did stress about him a lot so I wouldn’t recommend it again but they are beautiful. It is doable if you commit to seeding it with pods and phyto daily until you can get them to eat frozen. I have had several dragonettes over the years and I’ve always been able to get them on frozen brine eventually.

 

[Cwoyssant]

Are they likely to jump? I have no lid, I don’t want to spend another 80 bucks for some mesh.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

Are they likely to jump? I have no lid, I don’t want to spend another 80 bucks for some mesh.

Mine hasn’t jumped yet.

 

[52728299]

I've seen mine after lights out shooting straight up quickly then floating back down and repeating this. My assumption was he was grabbing pods from the water column but I could see him jumping without a lid if another fish scared him idk tho

 

[OrionN]

Any update?
I think your tank is way too small for Mandarin, unless you are very dedicate and plan to feed them at least daily.

 

[blaxsun]

Be warned, though, that not every captive-bred goby will eat frozen foods or pellets. I spoke with one importer who stopped selling them because the long-term success rate was so poor.

My mandarin ate frozen food, and I did keep it in an Evo, but this is a very hit-or-miss thing.

^ This. All of this.