Mandarin Gobies - What’s the truth?

JayM

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that's what I thought but never heard of feeding fish with it. Thought it was something else. thanks
Just to be clear, I was being sarcastic. Don’t feed your fish relish unless PaulB says it’s ok. He’d be the guy that knows if anyone does.

Relish also means “to enjoy” or “to eat or drink with pleasure”.
 

Buckster

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I could never keep a mandarin as they seem to die shortly after being introduced. My tank is loaded with amphipods and Copepods. I bought a pair of captive bred and they have done fantastic. They do eat the frozen food and they also hunt during the day
 

Paul B

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jhadaway

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I raised my Biota Mandarin in a 5.5 gallon pico until he grew enough to not slip through the overflow teeth. My tank was over a year when I got him and I have tons of rockwork. I also keep a refugium of around 3 gallons. I add pods about every other month. I sometimes don't see the little guy for a week at a time. He likes to come out early and late. I have seen him eat frozen brine and smaller bits of food from time to time. Otherwise he hunts.
 

Tonycass12

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20240703_160741.jpg

Wild caught, mine will take frozen bloodworm and mysis once they disperse into the tank. It's in a 120gallon so plenty of food to hunt for when I'm not feeding.
 

DHill6

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Biota, they eat the pellets when offered. Daily feed is LRF nano frozen, they don’t waste any time finding it, I also toss in pods every 6-8 weeks, corals don’t seem to mind it either. 34 g tank, Florida live rock and Tonga.
 

radiata

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Not too long ago, I plunked down $300 for a pair of wild caught BLUE Mandarins from a source that quarantined their fish. Before they were ready to be shipped to me, I was advised that they had been moved to a different observation tank and that they were now fighting with each other. I was then told they had another pair coming in, and I opted to get them instead. It wasn't specified if they were wild caught or not. When they arrived, they were smaller than I had hoped for. I suspect they were both BIOTA bred. I held them in an observation tank for a few months so they could put some weight on. With some trepidation, I transferred them to my 180 DT as they were still small, and didn't know it any of the fish in my DT would take exception to them. However, they did OK for a while. BUT, the last time I saw them both together in the 180 (DUH), one was chasing the other.

I haven't seen both together since, and thus I don't know if I have one or two Blue Mandarins. All that said, the fish that I do keep seeing seems to be unusually large to me, and I'm very pleased with the size that it has become.

All things considered, I suggest that you opt for a Biota Mandarin/s, and have prepared frozen fish food on hand to feed it/them, just in case you haven't developed the sustainable populations of copepods required to keep it/them well-fed in your tank. You're going to need live phytoplankton to keep your population of copepods growing. Frozen capelin eggs, and smaller frozen microplankton fauna, might help keep the Mandarin/s alive in the absence of copepods if you can't keep feeding them living phytoplankton.

Some Odd addenda:

(1) The first Mandarin I ever saw for sale was at Al's Aquarium near Church & Nostrand in Brooklyn, a good forty+ years ago. The asking price was $600. (That was $600 without any info for keeping it alive.) Al told me that the one he had the previous week went for $1100. So, Mandarins were a seductive fish way back then. You might consider not being seduced and thus pass them by.

(2) Fish collectors in the Philippines had a unique way of catching these fish. They would use a long, thin stick with a pin embedded in one of the ends. When spotted, they would pin the Mandarin to the substrate with the pin on the stick going through one of their pectoral fins. Better than using cyanide to stun them, no?
 

Paul B

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I get them here in New York for about $25.00.

But Radiata, I do remember that LFS on Nostrand Ave. Brooklyn. :D
 

reneeL

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Pods help with other problems as well. Mandarin are interesting to watch as they travel around the tank to hunt. Be sure you have places for the pods to hide. My mandarin seemed to only eat pods but over time he has been seen eating frozen and he also love the live BBB that we hatch here at home. I also have a Copperbanded Butterfly fish which appreciates them both but has learned to beg for the mysis.
 

hart24601

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I have never had trouble getting them on tdo pellets, I have kept a few CB ones and a wild. All converted easily. I use eheim feeder that goes several times a day.

Had them for years in nano. They do great on tdo and breed. I have one right now in a 5g qt tank (CB) that was sterile before putting it in. I’m growing him out in there and he is growing well like the others.

I’m not sure if it’s the tdo pellet composition or just size. Pellets that small were not very common way back.
 

mathvmendes

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Always wanted one mandarin and even passed the opportunity a few times thinking it would need a much bigger tank than mine to live well. But reading this thread I got back some hope lol

Currently have 2 clowns, a watchman, a gramma, yellow tail damsel (really well behaved... for now), an eightline flasher and a rock algae blenny. Was not planning on adding any more fish, but...

Do u guys think I'd have a hard time/would be irresponsible keeping one with my current fauna in a 1.5yo 40g?
 

legendhua

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If there are enough live rocks in the tank, they do not need to be fed.
On the contrary, if there is no such environment, it will be very difficult to raise them.


As you can see from the video, they foraged for food on their own.


 

Phil Adams

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I have success. I use mysis and cyclops (frozen) to supplement my copepod population. I have both a mandarin and a copperband butterfly and a six line wrasse to keep happy. I broadcast feed so the mandarin has to go around and find the frozen food which is nice as it keeps him hunting.
More or less exactly the same with the copperband and mandarin. The CBB eats like a horse and the mandarin mooches around all the time and appears to pick up bits of frozen.
 

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