Mandarin Goby as part of clean up crew?

[lovely_trequartista]

After 3 months or so in the tank, my Mandarin Goby has started eating any food on the sand that falls to the bottom during feeding.

I feed LRS Reef Frenzy, and frozen mysis and/or brine. Mandarin Goby eats it all, down there mixing it up with the nassarius snails and hermit crabs.

I wasn't expecting that and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

I plan to still supplement with pods but thought this was pretty cool.

 

[Sailfin11]

Usually a mandarin wouldn't swim into the water column to get food, so it would only every get what falls into the sand. I'm glad yours is eating prepared foods, that's awesome!

 

[ichthyogeek]

Many of the captive bred dragonets are trained to eat frozen, so it's definitely a thing.

 

[OrionN]

IMO, If you feed your tank where there are a lot of food for the Mandarin to eat off the bottom, then you are feeding too much food. I feed my tank a lot of food, but not much of my food make it to the bottom.
My fish are very fat and my Mandarin pair are very fat, but not off of frozen or pellets off of the bottom

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Interesting... I would love to try a mandarin in my tank, but I'm afraid my pods aren't enough. Wish I could find one who was for sure eating prepped foods.

 

[Scott Edward Matheney]

Interesting... I would love to try a mandarin in my tank, but I'm afraid my pods aren't enough. Wish I could find one who was for sure eating prepped foods.

Me too. Breed that Mandarin, lol

 

[Uncle99]

I’ve never had any longer term luck with captive bred, but maybe that’s just me. Many say they are great.
I do have great luck with wild caught, provided you have rock, a tank greater than 40g, mature at least 8 months, and is the only exclusive POD eater, they are the easiest fish I have kept.
4 years going strong.
This fish is a hunter, mine will only peck at the hard surfaces.

 

[boatguy]

I would be willing to bet that a healthy refugium full of pods could support a Mandarin. It would need to be a fairly big refugium in relation to the tank volume and it would need to be a seasoned system. I have been out of the hobby for ten years but when I set up a fairly large refugium on my 125 gallon tank I saw a remarkable improvement in stabilty of tank parameters and had pods everywhere.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Mine eats what makes it to the sand. I broadcast LRS reef frenzy.

 

[Baby Reefer]

How do you know when you have enough pods to sustain a mandarin. You cant see them so is there another way?

 

[Vasilios]

After 3 months or so in the tank, my Mandarin Goby has started eating any food on the sand that falls to the bottom during feeding.

I feed LRS Reef Frenzy, and frozen mysis and/or brine. Mandarin Goby eats it all, down there mixing it up with the nassarius snails and hermit crabs.

I wasn't expecting that and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

I plan to still supplement with pods but thought this was pretty cool.

Mine does the same thing. I have plenty of pods but he also goes for the LRS

 

[Blknovass]

I’ve always wanted one but worry my pods are not enough. Good job getting him to eat wish I could find one myself.

 

[GrapevineReefs]

I have one reef tank that has a healthy female psychedelic mandarin that eats live baby brine shrimp daily and in another reef I have a green mandarin that only eats pods won’t go anywhere near anything I feed I feel like with wild caught specimens it’s totally up in the air and probably has a lot to do with the conditions and situation it’s being kept in. The Biota captive bred mandarins are guaranteed to eat pellet and cost 4 times that of a wild caught mandarin. When I got my first mandarin the reef it went into was 6 years mature and super healthy. The second one I put in a year after starting the reef and had to supplements pods every few months until the refugium population seemed to hold steady

 

[Cole.mormon]

i have a scooter blenny that eats prepared foods

 

[jazzfisher]

Interesting... I would love to try a mandarin in my tank, but I'm afraid my pods aren't enough. Wish I could find one who was for sure eating prepped foods.

Biota! Just got mine, eating well, they don’t feed them pods as they raise them. So they are used to pellets and mysis etc.
My female mandarin I’ve had for several years swims in the water column to eat with all the others besides cruising the rock work.

 

[Keen4]

After 3 months or so in the tank, my Mandarin Goby has started eating any food on the sand that falls to the bottom during feeding.

I feed LRS Reef Frenzy, and frozen mysis and/or brine. Mandarin Goby eats it all, down there mixing it up with the nassarius snails and hermit crabs.

I wasn't expecting that and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

I plan to still supplement with pods but thought this was pretty cool.

YES! Injust got a mandarin a couple of months ago and I was shocked that it eats the frozen brine and whatever else I feed my fish. It also swims up my Tonga branches and feeds near the surface of the water. Very interesting fish. I have dropped maybe 5 bottles of pods since I stared this tank in June.

 

[kjkaminski]

Mine will also eat brine and bloodworms that fall onto the rocks. It will occasionally swim up to a sinking piece of food as well. It spends the rest of the day cruising the rockwork looking for pods. I've also noticed it spends a lot of time hanging out with the snails and urchins when they munch on the nori I add for them. Maybe pods are also gathering in this area to feed on the nori and the mandarin takes advantage of the easy pickings?

 

[slojim]

so those of you with aqua-cultured mandarins put them right into the DT and have no issue feeding? My family wants a mandarin. I have a 110 with a lot of rockwork. It's about a year old and I think I have plenty of pods - I see them crawling around on the glass at night. But I am not sure if I would quarantine for the usual concerns - since a bare-ish tank wouldn't have pods, or if it is smart to go into the display even if it is disease-free - since there's no way I could target feed it if I had to. Both plans have issues.
These tales of biota mandarins swimming up to eat food make it seem like it won't be an issue either way.

 

[Tom Giddens]

Interesting... I would love to try a mandarin in my tank, but I'm afraid my pods aren't enough. Wish I could find one who was for sure eating prepped foods.

Go to someone that gets fish from ORA or Biota they are aquacultured, Check out Algae barn they carry them.

 

[EMeyer]

None of my mandarins eat frozen food, but contrary to their reputation as difficult fish, I have actually started putting one in each tank as a utility fish. I've currently got one in every display tank and every frag tank.

They do an amazing job of getting rid of those little brown flatworms that are harmless aside from being ugly.

Not sure how they got a reputation as difficult fish. I lose them occasionally within a couple days of purchase. But if they survive shipping / adjustment stresses I have found them to be pretty robust and very useful fish.