Mandarins + SPS = What do you do about flow?

[esther]

Any of you out there have mandarin's in your SPS or mixed reef tank? If you can you answer a couple of questions for me?

• How big is your tank?
• Do you have SPS in your tank?
• What do you have for flow in your tank? Speed?
• Can you post a pic of your mandarin with your tank?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[kamikazereefer]

I do have one
60x30x24
Flow red sea reefwave 45 100%
Mp40 antt sync 100%
For the pic ill try to get one

 

[tehmadreefer]

They do just fine in high flow, as most every other fish. Also, they don’t just swim around the tank they stay on the sandbars or rocks. If a fish is struggling due to current in a tank then it’s either sick and weak or someone has too much flow that would kill corals anyway. And yes I have one.

 

[Dvanlier05]

I have one
120 gallon SPS dominant-4'x2'x2'
Flow- 3 MP40 at 50% and 2 Nero5 at 50%
Been in there for +1 year and doing great. They figure out how to move around the rocks with the flow. When it's off for coral feeding, he goes crazy hunting pods. I'll try for a pic tonight when I feed.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

My mandarin swims straight into the power head to get pods lying around it, or just for fun maybe, as he seems to keep doing it every now and then, so they definitely do fine in high flow, never even phases him lol

 

[ReefnFG]

I used to keep a breeding pair in my 40 breeder, it wasn't SPS at that point and they ate frozen food & pellet! I lost them to unknown reasons, they just stopped eatting. I think the female was actually blocked up with eggs so there was nothing really i could do. Currently I have a male in my 40B that also eats frozen and I have SPS in there. I have 2 MP10s, 1 on the side and 1 on the back running about 80% reefcrest. Biggest thing I noticed I need to put the pumps in feed mode (turns them down to like 25%) so he can get food then they crank back up. Sorry I do not have any pictures of just him but here's a full tank shot.

 

[OrionN]

I have a 320. I have 4 Vortec MP60 in it plus my return pump. I am maximizing my flow by have my pump set at 100% lagoonal flow (more flow then reef crest). The video below is an example of my tank flow during the day. I do have a pair of Mandarin in my tank and they do just fine.

 

[hart24601]

Waterbox 100.3.

3 reefbreeder RPM, 1 MP10, 1 tunze. Around 100x realistic turnover and no issues here. Grew him from a tiny baby from biota that I thought had no chance of making it being so small. Of course didn't know the gender until it got larger but he grew up and is doing well.

 

[adsf430]

Anyone have experience with flow and a captive bred mandarin? I got one and pretty sure the flow is what killed it. It was fine on the sand but stupidly kept going into the current and was so tiny. Not sure if it's worth trying another.

 

[Arego]

Those little guys can handle flow don't let them fool you. They are very fast and agile when they need to be. Acclimation and feeding habits and those resources that sustain them are the tricky part.. not how fast the water is moving.

Mine will dart out of the rocks to snatch huge pieces of food right into heavy flow and wrasse traffic if it feels like it. Otherwise they duck around and under rocks and peck around.

 

[jfoahs04]

Anyone have experience with flow and a captive bred mandarin? I got one and pretty sure the flow is what killed it. It was fine on the sand but stupidly kept going into the current and was so tiny. Not sure if it's worth trying another.

I've never seen so much flow in a reef tank that it would kill an otherwise healthy mandarin. My guess is that your fish had other health problems. I've had mandarins effortlessly pick pods off of rocks directly in front of an MP40 at 100%. I think many people would be surprised at what these fish can tolerate with relative ease. Of course, you also want places for respite for them, but I sincerely doubt the flow killed your mandarin.

 

[adsf430]

It's a mixed reef and back then all I had was 1 Nero 3 on 60%. But the little bugger always got caught sucked up against the return overflow until he'd shoot himself out back into the tank and seemed to just let himself get thrown around by the current.