Captive Bred Mandarin in a 10 gallon tank?

[ckl]

I've seen old threads (2019 and older) where the consensus is that mandarins are poor inhabitants for 10 gallon tanks. However, now that captive bred mandarins are more common, and Biota claims that theirs will accept TDO pellets, would keeping a captive bred mandarin in a 10 gallon be feasible if I used an automatic feeder to dispense pellets 3-4 times a day?

The setup I'm building will have a 10 gallon tank as a sump, and I'm planning on having a refugium with macro algae and rubble to maintain some kind of population despite having small fish.

My ideal overall stocking is a mandarin, a purple dartfish, a sharknose goby, a tailspot blenny, and (maybe) a swales basslet.

 

[Tahoe61]

That's too many fish in a 10-gallon regardless of sump. The Blenny and the Basslet won't work unfortunately.
You're going to be adding a significant amount of food initially into a small volume of water.
I would start with the Dartfish and Goby, get the tank dialed in and let the system become more established.

Good luck. :)

 

[liddojunior]

Where are all these fish gonna fit? That’s highly overstock plan.

You have to think about what’s best for the fish. They get to be a little bigger than 3 ins. And need places to hide and explore. Fish need things to do.

If you compared that to us, it’ll be like putting us in a space smaller than a studio apartment and that’s all the space we have. And sharing it with a whole other family

They are really curious micropredator that needs space to hide and explore.

 

[Quietman]

If this is first tank I would even go with one or even none and get a couple soft corals. They are much more forgiving and will help mature tank for LPS/SPS in the future. Learning how to manage water takes time and with a small tank it really is a bit trickier keeping everything in balance.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

That is a lot of fish in a 10g. At most, I would do at the most two fish, and even that can be pushing it depending on size.

 

[BryanM]

So already great advice given. This is just for some added context.. I have a 170g display tank, 6 feet wide. Generally accepted I can try and add some things that might not work out in smaller tanks.

Probably given bad advice from local LFS selling Biota "tang gangs", but I liked the idea of 3 yellows, and I have clearly seen other tanks with several tangs, including multiple yellows, doing quite well.

I have a sailfin, blue hippo, 3 yellow tangs, bonded clown pair, tomini, lawnmower blenny, red flame angel, gold flake angel, and a 6 line wrasse. I have 150+ pounds of live rock as well, lots of places to swim and hide.

I am currently trying to re-arrange rock work to change the scape to curb some behaviors. I definitely have one aggressive yellow tang, and the sailfin has joined on on this, and bullies the smallest yellow.

So not like your situation really, but what I am trying to say is you're asking for trouble over stocking a small tank. By all accounts my tank is not over stocked and I'm having issues.

even if I get my issues sorted out successfully I doubt I'll be adding any more fish to my tank. *I* am stressed out about this, and its not worth the emotional toll on myself, let alone the fish in my tank.

 

[pooootiqe]

I’ve overstocked my 10 gallon a few times. Ultimately, the tank just looks too crowded with that many fish around.

If you’re integrating a macroalgae refugium already, why not leave the mandarin in there? No competing for food, and mandarins looks much better under daylight anyways.

Swap out the basslet for another small goby (yellow, green or citron clown gobies are pretty nice) and it may be more manageable.

 

[Tamberav]

I've seen old threads (2019 and older) where the consensus is that mandarins are poor inhabitants for 10 gallon tanks. However, now that captive bred mandarins are more common, and Biota claims that theirs will accept TDO pellets, would keeping a captive bred mandarin in a 10 gallon be feasible if I used an automatic feeder to dispense pellets 3-4 times a day?

The setup I'm building will have a 10 gallon tank as a sump, and I'm planning on having a refugium with macro algae and rubble to maintain some kind of population despite having small fish.

My ideal overall stocking is a mandarin, a purple dartfish, a sharknose goby, a tailspot blenny, and (maybe) a swales basslet.

If this is your stocking plan, then forget the 10g and get a 30g macro algae/soft coral dominated tank.

The macros and dirtier tank will really help the pods thrive and you simply need more room for those fish.

Auto pellet feeder is a poor choice for even pellet trained mandarins and they are slow feeders and the other fish will simply take their food.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

You have to think about what’s best for the fish. They get to be a little bigger than 3 ins. And need places to hide and explore. Fish need things to do.

If you compared that to us, it’ll be like putting us in a space smaller than a studio apartment and that’s all the space we have. And sharing it with a whole other family

They are really curious micropredator that needs space to hide and explore.

This needs to be repeated, so here it is again. Yes, fish apparently have needs that aren't reducible to gallons of water.

The aim to provide the very least that is possible and have fish (etc) not die seems inordinately common in this hobby; for every thread that's seeking info on how to really make the best situation for a fish (not sure I've actually seen a thread like this of any quality whatsoever, actually), there's pages of 'what's the minimum I can do, and is less than that OK for a while?' threads. I'm not sure why seeing how low the bar can be set has such an attraction, especially for a group of people who think themselves doing something really high-end.

 

[ckl]

I appreciate the feedback about a 10 gallon tank being extremely overstocked.

This will not be my first saltwater tank or my first time keeping corals. It will be my first saltwater tank in about 7 years though. I'm planning on doing a mixed reef with softies and some LPS (duncans, blastos, frogspawn, and leptoseris), plus maybe pavona and a birdsnest).

So, back to the issue of having a mandarin in a small tank, if have two specific questions. If I had just the mandarin and corals in the tank, could a pellet trained mandarin thrive in a 10 gallon tank with regular 3x per day feedings? Would adding 1 small fish (Eviota/Stonogobiops goby, dartfish, or some other small fish) to the tank with a mandarin be ok? Or would that leave the mandarin without any pellets at feeding time?