Mandarin Question...

[Pinkheine]

I know a tank should be established and have a high pod population to sustain a mandarin. That is why I promised myself I'd wait a year before introducing one to the tank. Which I still am holding true to. Don't have one yet.. won't have one until a year. Not so sure I'd like to wait longer...or rather not so sure my selfish tendancies to get what I want will allow me to wait longer.

Anyways my question is this... I have other fish. Other fish that obviously eat pods. How do you know if there are enough? There are tons in my fuge. But I rarely see them in my tank.

I'm sure if I had to I can pick another fish to replace the mandarin, but I'd rather not. I really think they are spectacular.

So how do you tell if there are enough pods?

 

[D1J8Z]

I would say you are good to go, If you really wanted to you can always shake some pods into the main display if you dont see him/her picking at rocks

 

[jhale]

what size is your tank, and what other fish are in there?

the amphipods the mandarin eats are not the ones you would see.
they are really small.

 

[D1J8Z]

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/tank-threads/36301-we-once-had-solid-wall.html

 

[Pinkheine]

Right now our fish consist of...

Two clowns
Velvet Multicolor Wrasse
Greyheaded Wrasse
5 Chromis
Tiny Sixline
Tiger Jawfish
Kole (sm. for now)
Blonde Naso (sm. for now)--no worries we will either upgrade or rehome like we have in the past.

Tank is 120g... yourbedormine18 posted the tank thread for me.

All the fish are always picking at this or that. The cleaner shrimp currently has eggs. The snails reproduced twice in the past few months. Going to have to do some snail removal soon I think... there are soo many babies. At least 50 that I have counted.

There used to be tiny pods on the magnet when I went to use it.. but they aren't there often anymore. The glass rarely has pods on it. I figure they're in the tank now..and not on the glass but who knows. I can't see 'em.

 

[prattreef]

Sounds like your tank is ready to support a mandarin at least for the short term. The problem is, there is no way to know for how long or if your food production can keep pace with predation. IMO the best way to have long term success with mandarins or similarly finicky eaters is to train them to eat frozen or prepared foods. It is possible to do so with some mandarins but not always. Your best bet would be to place the fish in your pod heavy fuge and try to train it to eat mysis or cyclopeeze prior to introduction to your reef.

I'm not sure how big or visible your fuge is, but you might want to consider making it the permanent home too.

 

[Marteen]

I've heard of people training their mandarins to eat live brine shrimp and then moving them to frozen brine and then to sinking shrimp pellets. They also teach them to eat out of a small bottle that really on the mandarin can get into, this lets them eat the food at their own pace and not worry about the other inhabitants eating their food.

 

[Awibrandy]

And then you can do as I do. Because I want to be a little more reassured. Ever so often I purchase a couple of bottles from Ocean Pods - Aquacultured Copepods for the hobbyist. They are alive, and she is a really nice person to deal with as well...

 

[KathyC]

Awilda has a good idea there if your worried
I have 8 wrasses in my 120 and my Mandarin is fat & happy (knock wood, no whammies!) The wrasses seem to eat the full sized pods that you can easily see (...the ones too dopey to hide from them). The Mandarins eat pods that are so small, most of the time you wouldn't see them without Superman type vision. They are slightly smaller that the period at the end of this sentence.
If you have a large pod population in your fuge, you probably have a similarly large population in your DT that includes a wide variety of types.
I'd go for it. At worst, you can move him back to the fuge & supplement if he seems to not be maintaining his weight, just don't delay as they often do not start to eat again once they begin starving!