I want a mandarin!

[xhaust50]

I'd like opinions from some more experienced mandarin owners. I would like to add one to my 45G tank, which has been running for over a year with an AC110 converted to a fuge. I just began adding some easy corals a few months ago and they are doing well. Water quality is excellent, there are never any nitrates. I guess the 65W over the fuge really does a good job as I am pulling large amounts of cheato out regularly.

Anyway, I'd like to add a dragonet to the tank. I know they are difficult to keep without a lot of live food. I know I have a good amount of pods, but I'm not sure if they will be enough to supply a dragonet for a lifetime. I will make sure I dunk the chaeto from both tanks that I will be getting rid of in the tank to try to add some additional pods. However, what if I did the brine shrimp hatching that is going on the in group buy section, say 3-4 times a week, or everyday if necessary. I could soak them with Selco for about an hour before feeding them. Would this be a nutritious base for the mandarine to live off of?

Appreciate all responses.

 

[xhaust50]

I thought my tank info would come up:

45G Light Reef
Couple Mushrooms, Zoas
Pair of Percula Clowns (1 w/ lucky fin)
Yellow-tail Damsel
BiColor Pseudo
Prizm Skimmer / AC110 Converted Refugium

 

[thirty5]

If i were you i would make sure that you KNOW that you have enough pods. If you have a fuge with macro then you "should" have them propogating themselves. But if you goto your LFS make sure that you see one eat. Mine will actually eat frozen food, but i seem him pecking all day long at the rocks. I have had mind for a while now and he never stop eating. Here he is, took this a little while ago..

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Mandarins are better left on the reef, not in our tanks. They have a poor survival rate in captivity. So instead of a possible doomed to death sentence, let them live hapily on the reef.

 

[ChibiReefer]

other than making sure that your tank has enough pods, you also have to find a healthy mandarin. when you are looking for one, make sure it does not have a sunken belly at all. also ask them to feed it, you will definately need it to accept frozen or live brine. frozen will make it easier for you. we have had our male mandarin for about a little over a year now and he feeds on frozen spirulina brine shrimp.

 

[xhaust50]

Thanks for the responses. I should have mentioned that the fish will have to look healthy and accept some sort of food at the LFS, but I know even when they accept frozen sometimes its not enough to keep them fed.

As a side note, in my other tank with the same setup my small puffer is always picking at the rocks and at the base of the AC110 where there is occasionally some chaeto hanging down, so there must be some pods in the tank.

 

[Deanos]

Appreciate all responses.

Another "I want a mandarin" thread.

 

[NYreefNoob]

save your money, these are a low survival rate, i have a TON of pods and longest i have kept one is 2 months

 

[rookie07]

Deanos linked my original mandarin thread.
Ive had mine about a month now. He is thin(but he was when I got him aswell).
He eats all day and night(half the time at night I see him perched on some rocks or sand).
I did a hang on ref. My tank is 34 gl, 30 lbs LR, 50 lbs LS. ill be adding more LR soon(in small amounts). My ref has tons of pods(I see them all day/night on the glass and rocks and cheato).

I think my mandarin is ok, but Im not sure.
If at any point I see him not picking away at the rocks for a day or so I will be moving him to a friends much bigger tank(120 gl).

PS.... about once a week or so I see him eating mysis when I feed the tank, and every month i add brine shrimp that I hatched.

Best of luck, either way

 

[xhaust50]

Good responses and links. I obviously wasn't expecting anyone to tell me to definitely do it, but it's good to see if there are other issues involved. I wouldn't be getting one for a while anyway, I want some more corals first.

As a side note, I have about 65-70lbs of live rock in the tank.

Rookie07, I'll follow your progress on him. Have you considered using vitamin enriched brine shrimp? I'm wondering if a mandarin would still starve if this was fed everyday, on top of the pods.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Mandarins do better on the reef. Most books recommend leaving them there and so do quite a few reefers.

 

[thirty5]

Mandarins do better on the reef. Most books recommend leaving them there and so do quite a few reefers.

I agree with that. But, and there is always a BUT!

If the LFS brings it in and NOONE buys it, then its life is doomed. The way that I looked at it, that I didn't ask the LFS to bring it in. So it has a better survival rate in my reef tank, than in just a basic tank in a store. The LFS will continue to bring them in.... The markup on those fish is ridiculous. So even if they sell one, they can pay for the loss of a few others.

So i do agree better off to leave something in natural habitat, but then sometimes you have to save something from SURE DOOM. And i know what you will say, that if people continue to buy them, then the LFS will continue to bring them in. Again most LFS are in it for the money, so if they can sell something for cash, they dont care about it. That is not directed at all LFS but you know that it is true for most places.

Just if you plan to get a mandarin make sure that your tank is WELL MATURED. Make sure that you have a fuge with macro and LR so that the pods can propogate as much as possible.

My mandarin has been flourishing since the day that i got him. And to this day he still eats pods, frozen mysis, frozen enriched brine. I have yet to hatch my own brine but that is next!

 

[Deanos]

If the LFS brings it in and NOONE buys it, then its life is doomed. The way that I looked at it, that I didn't ask the LFS to bring it in. So it has a better survival rate in my reef tank, than in just a basic tank in a store. The LFS will continue to bring them in.... The markup on those fish is ridiculous. So even if they sell one, they can pay for the loss of a few others.

Would the LFS continue to order mandarins if they all died in their tank? :tired: Or would they think "Noone is buying these, let's stop importing them."

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

If nobody buys them at the LFS then they will stop selling them.

 

[thirty5]

Would the LFS continue to order mandarins if they all died in their tank? :tired: Or would they think "Noone is buying these, let's stop importing them."

I would say that alot of people go into a store and buy what they see. They do not research like people do here. So they go into a store and they tell the person that they ahve a tank with some rock in it and they will sell them a mandarin.

IMO the hobby is larger than the amount of people on this site or even RC. So the LFS will continue to sell them. I want to bet that the LFS pays no more than 6 or 7 bucks for the fish. They are selling them for 35.

If everyone were educated then maybe they would stop selling them. But for the most part, people see a BEAUTIFL fish and they have to have them. I was in a LFS and someone was looking at a mandarin and the clerk in the store told the persont that it takes moderate care for it. This guy wanted to put it in a 20 gal fish only tank. The LFS was going to sell it to him. I spoke to the customer and told them it was not a good idea and why. He wound up buying something else.

So if we had 100% dedicated LFS to the hobby, then they would know not to bring them in.

 

[Deanos]

I would say that alot of people go into a store and buy what they see. They do not research like people do here. So they go into a store and they tell the person that they ahve a tank with some rock in it and they will sell them a mandarin.

Absolutely correct!! But, there's always a "but":

The way that I looked at it, that I didn't ask the LFS to bring it in. So it has a better survival rate in my reef tank, than in just a basic tank in a store.

...seems to apply to your state of mind, not the uninformed.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Maybe they should be added to the cites list. I think that is a great ide. Maybe as a reef society we should start a petition of fish that should be added to the cites list and not imported at all.

 

[thirty5]

Absolutely correct!! But, there's always a "but":



...seems to apply to your state of mind, not the uninformed.

Yes in that situation, you are correct... BUT (again) i know that my tank has a MUCH MUCH better chance of sustaining the animal. If i leave it there, it prob dies. I am not uniformed, i am trying to save an animals life (i sound like a superhero). If they stopped bringing them in, i would not think of going to LFS and asking them to bring it in. I have seen that also. People walk into stores and request something, and the LFS will get it, which is again business.

I think that is why that this site will strive, more and more people are realizing that SW tanks are not as easy as people make them to be. So getting the word out there will help everything. Keep selling those propogated corals from your tanks. Soon we wont have to pull any corals from the reefs to sustain the hobby. But i can also see it happening where CITIES finally says no more importing at all. Then we will have to depend on tank raised stuff.

I know i kinda went off topic for a minute. SoRRY

So back to the mandarin. There are much bigger reasons NOT TO GET IT, than to get it. Unfortunately, people will take the recommendation of more experienced people (like on here). Personally i did not buy my mandarin, a friend of mine bought it and there was no way that his tank was going to be able to sustain the fish. so i took it.

 

[Tito]

Let me be the bearer of some terrible.

Until the Internet is saturated with hundreds of sites that promote the banning of Mandarin sales and ALL potential Mandarin buyers are exposed to these sites........

the Mandarin sales will go on.

and the thing is - is that you always get the testimony of somebody who says "my Mandarin eats brine shrimp and mysis and pods and he's been in the tank over a year". With that testimony - it will only spurr on hobbyist to give it a try. I myself when I first got into Marines bought a Mandarin who ate shrimp and lots of it - I lost him when I moved to Tampa. Who's to say how long he would have lived?

This is one of those loosing battles - I'm afraid.

 

[ellebelle]

Yes in that situation, you are correct... BUT (again) i know that my tank has a MUCH MUCH better chance of sustaining the animal.

But you have a 175g tank, presumably with a lot of liverock. Even if your mandarin DIDN'T eat frozen food, you probably have enough life in your tank to sustain it on pods.

There is a huge difference between 175gallons and the 45 gallons this person has.