Mandarin

[Carl C]

Have a large fuge with tons of pods and macro algae
I bought a mandarin for fuge figuring he’d prosper
But he died , was thinking I’d try again
Anyone have suggestions
Thanks
Carl (Boston)

 

[Wolf89]

If you fuge is less than 60 gallons you're wasting your time

 

[12gallonsofhex]

I didnt know years ago that you needed such a big tank with a ton of rock for a Mandarin. I had a 12 gallon hex with a 15 lb live rock pile, and had a Mabdarin for 2 years before I broke down the tank and gave it back to the LFS fat and happy. I dont know if it started eating frozen, but that fish did great. I think I must have lucked out. If I had R2R back then, I would never have brought it home.

 

[joe0813]

I have a 180 and I still can't get the pod population up. no clue why, tried seeding the tank, seeding the fuge, cheato in the fuge and raising nutrient levels.. mandarin still got skinny and died. they eat pods incredibly fast and for some reason my tank just can't keep the pod levels up

 

[Fishy212]

How you acclimate dragonets is extremely important. How long did the mandarin survive for? What was your process?

 

[CasaReefer]

Following... My favorite fish.. the reason I started a tank..

 

[Carl C]

If you fuge is less than 60 gallons you're wasting your time

oh wow ! Really? Why ? My fuge is probably 20the other 2 chambers combined problem another 15
All attached to a 150DT

 

[Carl C]

How you acclimate dragonets is extremely important. How long did the mandarin survive for? What was your process?

just float and release

 

[mikee002]

30 display with a 15 fuge. I grow lots of chaeto and have a bit of rubble. Lots of pods. I got lucky, my mandarin ate frozen from the beginning. Had a brook infection wipe out everyone but her a few months back, I haven’t fed the tank since. She’s been living off the pods and is fatter and happier than ever. I was culturing pods and phyto for a bit, but ultimately found it unnecessary since I have a good population.

 

[Weevo]

I have a red sea 170 and my mandarin is healthy fat and happy. Buy them healthy and then train to eat pellets. That is the key

 

[DraggingTail]

I bought a Green Dragonet yesterday. Acclimated and dead this AM. LFS has had this fish for months and Target fed pods.

I have really high flow for SPS dominate. Probably 12 inches per second flow rate. Lots of adult pods on my rock every where.

However, due to high flow I have large crushed coral substrate.

He was hiding in the low flow corner behind some rocks.

Should I try again with my setup.

 

[OrionN]

This is a post I did last week. The other poster asked about Mandarin in a 60 gal tank.

60 gal is borderline size for a Mandarin. If you want one you must avoid adding food competitors of Mandarin. Most of the wrasse that are used to control pest need to be avoid. Leopards also are not good tank mate of mandarin in small tanks. Fortunately fairy and flasher wrasse are fine. Small Angels should be avoid also.
you should have refugium and should have tank that are “pod friendly” substrates piles that are coarse with plenty of crooks and crannies that pods can live in and hid from predators. I have piles of small bivalve shells in the tank, on top of the sand. These piles provide perfect environment and protection for pods (until they venture out and be eaten by your Mandarin).
Using these rough guidelines I was able to keep a fat mandarin in a 28 gal cube for many years. This tank only have Crocea clam, small Magnifica, p pair of snowflakes clowns, a marine Beta and a male Mandarin.

I do not think how long a tank have been up have much bearing on it’s suitability for Mandarin, but how Pods friendly is of utmost important. Pods reproduce really fast so the pod population reach equilibrium quickly. No need to wait for years for this to happen.