Managing Mandarins: Should Mandarin Gobies be left for more experienced hobbyists?

[AlyciaMarie]

Mandarinfish, also known as Mandarine Gobies and Mandarine Dragonets, is one of the more striking fish that we keep in our home reefs. Their electric green, blue, and orange distributions make these little guys quite the eye-catching addition. But perhaps their looks shouldn't be the only factor considered when thinking about bringing home one of these beautiful fish. They've been known to give reefers heartache as their care requirements, and diets can be challenging to manage, resulting in devastating results if not prioritized. What do you think?

Should Mandarin Gobies be left for more experienced hobbyists? Why or why not?

 

[Crabby48]

I find most all info in the hobby is way outdated or wrong. Of your tank is big enough and you don’t have to many other fish to outcompete it for live foods then they are easy.

 

[exnisstech]

I think the key is a mature tank with plenty of rock with a heavy pod population. Adding pods to feed doesn't seem to work very well. Frozen is helps but these fish need to eat constantly and if a tank can't provide that then they will most likely perish over time. JMO

 

[Reefer Matt]

Until the tank raised ones are widely available and of substantial size, I think they are in a classification that includes Anthias, Copperband Butterfly, and other special care fish. A few sprinklings of fish flakes isn’t going to do it in most cases.

 

[jrill]

Just get a Biota mandarin then its a non issue since they eat frozen and pellets.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

To anyone with mandarin gobies, what has been your key to success with them? I have always wanted to get one when I get a larger tank, but I go back and forth on it due to their potential difficulty.

 

[Bob Weigant]

I found them to be easy as long as they have enough pods to hunt for

 

[Crabby48]

To anyone with mandarin gobies, what has been your key to success with them? I have always wanted to get one when I get a larger tank, but I go back and forth on it due to their potential difficulty.

I kept them as singles and pairs. Nothing diffrent than any other fish. I qt them just as other fish then add to my display. I kept them in big systems and smaller. Kept them in brand new tanks and older tanks. I do start my cycle of new tank with mix of copipods and amphipods and mostly have a fudge but not always.

Mandarins eat and pick pods every 3-5 seconds on average so I do not believe a captive bred makes much of a difference. My wild Mandy’s all would eat frozen at some point but they need to pick all day and not just a few feeding a day

 

[PharmrJohn]

I chose the that more experienced reefers should keep 'em. Not so much from a feeding standpoint, but from dedication. Too many get into this hobby not knowing just how time consuming it can be, and thus get lax. And it's downhill from there.

 

[jrill]

To anyone with mandarin gobies, what has been your key to success with them? I have always wanted to get one when I get a larger tank, but I go back and forth on it due to their potential difficulty.

Ive had my biota mandarin for three years. Eats everything the other fish do and doing great.

 

[code4]

To anyone with mandarin gobies, what has been your key to success with them? I have always wanted to get one when I get a larger tank, but I go back and forth on it due to their potential difficulty.

I admit to buying one at a pet store while visiting in Denver CO. Tank was just set up. No clue. Was told I needed copepods for it to eat. So I asked, do you have any I can buy? Nope. Maybe another store would have some pods. So off I went in search of the elusive pods. Bought one small bottle of Tigger pods. I was set. LOL

Long story short he survived despite my worst efforts for over 10 years. I put in a few rubble piles for pods to be safe and multiply. Added a Paul B's feeder. After a while the little guy ate anything.

Good luck.
Shelley

 

[Crabby48]

The target tend to eat prepared a quick. The blues not so much but can over time. That’s wild caught. If captive bred the work is done getting them to eat.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Ive had my biota mandarin for three years. Eats everything the other fish do and doing great.

That's the way I'm going when the time is right. I'll still have a healthy pod population, but other options in feeding certainly does help.

 

[hart24601]

Get a CB one and they are easy peasy. Have had several that are pellets right from biota although they come in small.

Get a eheim autofeeder and tdo xsmall
Pellets and it’s easy mode. Have a big girl in my 15g raised from a baby and she is a pig.

 

[liudachris]

Captive bred definitely doable for a new reefer. @Biota_Marine

 

[Jay Hemdal]

They are difficult to quarantine, and most aquariums do not support a large enough pod population for them to survive on for long. I would only buy Biota mandarins.....

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

I obtained one with my tank setup and knew nothing about how to care for them. Fortunately, I need to know everything about what is in my tank so I quickly learned their needs and bought pods, phyto, and made sure I kept an eye on the animal. Now, this is after I broke down a stand, put that same live sand and rock back in tank and added fish. There had to be a small ammonia spike from the transition, but the mandarin did ok. Could there have been injury to the gills or nervous system? Maybe, but I didn't notice any signs of injury.

Interestingly, the manadarin jumped out of my tank before I even put a lid on it when i was standing there. Put him back in immediately and seemed unharmed.

 

[code4]

I admit to having two biota ones now. They came tiny sized. Fortunately I had set up a 20 gallon tank ahead of time as a grow out. They grew quickly over 6 months and just moved into my display tank. Still use Paul B feeder

 

[sky414]

I find most all info in the hobby is way outdated or wrong. Of your tank is big enough and you don’t have to many other fish to outcompete it for live foods then they are easy.

You can pay for the abundance of pods early on. My tank is about a year old, my mandarin is fat and happy. He’s 9 months old.

 

[Biota_Marine]

Our captive bred mandarins are definitely a game-changer because they are raised on pellet foods and frozen. We had a young lady with a 14 gallon tank a few years ago, I believe she was only 12 or 13 at the time, who got one of our captive bred mandarins from a Petco. He grew up to be a totally gorgeous fish!

There is a bit of a learning curve with mandarins in general, but we have a handy guide here with some tips and tricks on feeding our specific mandarins: https://shop.thebiotagroup.com/blogs/news/how-to-feed-biota-captive-bred-mandarin-fish