Mandarinfish in 20g?

[Dark_Knightt]

Hey #reefsquad ! So im really, really interested in mandarin dragonets. I have a 20g tank and i know most people say its not possible to keep one in such a tank, but a few have succeeded. So i was wondering if you could tell me what i could do to make it work; dosing, captive bred, etc. Anything like that.
Thanks a lot,
Dark_Knightt

 

[emilio365]

Check out the Captive Bred by ORA. The thing with mandarins is that they need a large population of Pods. These fish hunt for pods all day long, this is why it’s hard to keep the well feed in a small tank because of the small amount of rock available for the pods to populate/refuge.

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Check out the Captive Bred by ORA. The thing with mandarins is that they need a large population of Pods. These fish hunt for pods all day long, this is why it’s hard to keep the well feed in a small tank because of the small amount of rock available for the pods to populate/refuge.

Yes ive done quite a lot of research on these fish. I think the BIOTA or ORA ones are probably the best path to take

 

[James M]

Do you have a refugium ? I would build up a pod population before getting one of the captive bed ones

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Do you have a refugium ? I would build up a pod population before getting one of the captive bed ones

Yes i would raise the population for about a month before.I dont have a refugium. I was either going to get an HOB ref. or just dose the pods into the tank. Follow up question: if i dosed, how often would i need to dose?

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Algae barn recommends dosing 16oz. of pods per month for 20g tanks

 

[ChgoGoodGirl]

Ive done it! Had that little guy for 3 years. This is what I credit my success :
Started the tank with a 2 in sand bed, a lot of live rock and scaped it so a fish could swim all the way around and thru the rocks. (The more rock surface for the mandrin to pick at, the better.)
a fairly large clean up crew, mostly snails.
I seeded the tank with a variety of pods and let it all cycle/cure/grow for a few months. After the cycle i added some easy corals and fed them weekly . By month 3 i had so many pods I was afraid they would die en masse and crash my tank so I got my mandarin earlier than I thought I should of.
I dont know that there was ever a Time I didnt see that little fatty eating. I kept a close eye on him and he never looked skinny or unhealthy. If i was ever worried about the pods being depleted (honestly I was probably being paranoid but better safe than sorry) I would just order pods online and reseed my tank. Probably did that about once every 2 or 3months .
The one thing i never did though was put another fish in that tank. Those pods were for him and him only. Lol

Im sure others will have different thoughts or experiences but for me (and Little Jerry G) , it worked.

 

[nereefpat]

You can't possibly dose enough pods into a 20 gallon to make that work.

You will want a large fuge full of rock, sand, chaeto. And also wait at least a year.

I really would recommend against the whole idea, though.

 

[ChgoGoodGirl]

Well that didn't take long. Lol

 

[NashobaTek]

Make a Mandrin target feeder and hatch out brine shrimp daily and keep pods in the tank. I have 3 mandrins in my tank.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I've tried one in a small tank, 56 gallon years and years and years ago with live rock and a sump full of chaetomorpa. I can say it's extremely difficult to keep a Mandy fed enough with a small tank. I did have success target feeding it to keep it alive, but it was a huge hassle to feed it two to three times a day.

@nereefpat is spot on, unless your willing to add a lot of pods on a regular basis and if lucky enough to get one to target feed, they do best in very mature systems with a ton of live rock and a healthy copepod population to sustain them.

 

[josvanmeer]

I am gonna jump in here and go against the grain for a second. I know it's not a popular fish by any means because a lot of "experts" will say you need a mature tanks with tons of pods etc, PART of this is true, but not the whole truth. It is not that difficult of a fish to keep.

I successfully kept one in a 24 gallon, and I will tell you what I did so I hope you can be successful too. First of all, they are wonderful creatures and should only be kept with other peaceful fish, if you have any others at all. You do need to seed your tank with pods, that is literally what they instinctively eat all day every day. They do not swim casually in your tank, all they do is "graze" the rock and float on the sand/rock looking for tiny pods to munch on. You also need a lot of rock in your tank, the pods will not thrive if you do not have a lot of rock, if they cannot hide and multiply in the rocks from the dragonet, they will lose the fight from the enormous appetite that is the dragonet.

How do you become successful at keeping one? You seed the tank, and you wait till the pods take hold. Keep in mind you will have to feed the pods now too at this point, they eat Phytoplankton and can be bought in bottles. I would say let the pods multiply for at least a month, two months is better. Your tank is ready for a dragonet at this point. Now it will probably not hunt pods right away, most dragonets are very shy and need time to adjust to your tank. Make sure they can hide from you. Once they start eating, you can start training them on frozen or better, pellets!

Every single day, probably twice a day, you will have pellets of food or frozen food ready that you will soak in saltwater and possibly kents garlic juice to spice it up and suck up with a feeding pipet, and once you turn all the flow off in the tank, make sure you drop the food you want it to eat near the dragonet. It will not eat right away, but if you persist, after a week or maybe two, when you think it won't ever touch that food, it suddenly will be enticed to eat some of it, and it will love it. You then have a trained dragonet, that eats every time you will feed it, with high protein food, to keep it well fed and happy.

Once it's trained, it's just like any other fish.

If you are keeping it by itself, I would say a 20 gallon is just fine. If you keep more than that fish, you will probably need something bigger.

Here is a video of mine eating Hikari Marine S pellets before she passed (murdered by anemone):

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Here is a link to a thread about a target feeder.

Simple DIY target feeder for mandarin, pipefish, and more.

Build a simple target feeder with parts you probably have laying around your house or fish room. It works great for mandarinfish, pipefish, scooter blenny, copperband butterflyfish, and more. Here's how: DIY Target Feeder for Mandarinfish (and Pipefish)

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ChgoGoodGirl]

I am gonna jump in here and go against the grain for a second. I know it's not a popular fish by any means because a lot of "experts" will say you need a mature tanks with tons of pods etc, PART of this is true, but not the whole truth. It is not that difficult of a fish to keep.

I successfully kept one in a 24 gallon, and I will tell you what I did so I hope you can be successful too. First of all, they are wonderful creatures and should only be kept with other peaceful fish, if you have any others at all. You do need to seed your tank with pods, that is literally what they instinctively eat all day every day. They do not swim casually in your tank, all they do is "graze" the rock and float on the sand/rock looking for tiny pods to munch on. You also need a lot of rock in your tank, the pods will not thrive if you do not have a lot of rock, if they cannot hide and multiply in the rocks from the dragonet, they will lose the fight from the enormous appetite that is the dragonet.

How do you become successful at keeping one? You seed the tank, and you wait till the pods take hold. Keep in mind you will have to feed the pods now too at this point, they eat Phytoplankton and can be bought in bottles. I would say let the pods multiply for at least a month, two months is better. Your tank is ready for a dragonet at this point. Now it will probably not hunt pods right away, most dragonets are very shy and need time to adjust to your tank. Make sure they can hide from you. Once they start eating, you can start training them on frozen or better, pellets!

Every single day, probably twice a day, you will have pellets of food or frozen food ready that you will soak in saltwater and possibly kents garlic juice to spice it up and suck up with a feeding pipet, and once you turn all the flow off in the tank, make sure you drop the food you want it to eat near the dragonet. It will not eat right away, but if you persist, after a week or maybe two, when you think it won't ever touch that food, it suddenly will be enticed to eat some of it, and it will love it. You then have a trained dragonet, that eats every time you will feed it, with high protein food, to keep it well fed and happy.

Once it's trained, it's just like any other fish.

If you are keeping it by itself, I would say a 20 gallon is just fine. If you keep more than that fish, you will probably need something bigger.

Here is a video of mine eating Hikari Marine S pellets before she passed (murdered by anemone):

I 100% agree.

 

[nereefpat]

Once it's trained, it's just like any other fish.

It isn't like any other fish. It doesn't have a stomach. It needs to eat several pods a minute. So the tank needs to produce several pods a minute.

It will be really difficult to be successful in such a small tank. A big tank, or a big fuge with a lot of rock is best, or you could spend a fortune on pods in a bottle.

 

[hyprc]

It isn't like any other fish. It doesn't have a stomach. It needs to eat several pods a minute. So the tank needs to produce several pods a minute.

It will be really difficult to be successful in such a small tank. A big tank, or a big fuge with a lot of rock is best, or you could spend a fortune on pods in a bottle.

Agreed. They need to eat CONSTANTLY. Unless you're willing to dedicate about an hour of work a day to feeding this guy multiple times specifically, I'd wait until you upgrade to something 150g+ and get it well established first.

 

[Crustaceon]

Everyone is going to say “stock pods!” I’ve kept mandarins in barebottom QT tanks for months on end without adding a single pod. The key is taking the time and effort to train your mandarin to take frozen brine or mysis. Look at the size of one mysis shrimp compared to one pod. Each mysis is probably the equivalent of several hundred pods. Each daily feeding my mandarin munches down 8-10 frozen mysis shrimp. It’s plump and happy. The truth is, even in a 100g tank, a mandarin will decimate a pod population even if you’re running a fuge. You can restock your tank with pods and within a week, that pod population is going to murdered to near non-existence. I know. It happened on my 100g system with a fuge. I got tired of doing the pod-thing and got my mandarins on frozen. It’s not that hard.

 

[samnaz]

Why not get a captive bred mandarin from Biota or ORA?

Blue Mandarin | Synchiropus splendidus | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums

ORA Aquacultured Blue Mandarin Gobies eat frozen and pellet foods and are easier to care for than their wild counterparts.

www.orafarm.com

 

[josvanmeer]

Why not get a captive bred mandarin from Biota or ORA?

Blue Mandarin | Synchiropus splendidus | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums

ORA Aquacultured Blue Mandarin Gobies eat frozen and pellet foods and are easier to care for than their wild counterparts.

www.orafarm.com

Captive bred is more sustainable for the hobby, but wild will train just as easily. I have read that some people bought these and they didn't take well to frozen even though they are claimed to and they ship them as babies.

 

[samnaz]

Captive bred is more sustainable for the hobby, but wild will train just as easily. I have read that some people bought these and they didn't take well to frozen even though they are claimed to and they ship them as babies.

Well if they don’t take well to frozen, are they any harder to train than wild counterparts? As you mentioned it’s more sustainable but also I’ve heard great things about these, specifically from ORA. Worth it to try, IMO.