Mandarin goby

Tabasco1 · Mar 6, 2011

Most of mine as well. I did read a REALLY long thread on RC that people were posting on their experience from the first release of ORA's mandys. Very mixed success with the CB staying on pellet or prepared food.

Witts log made it seem almost easy

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par · Mar 6, 2011

if he is only eating pods, you are probably going to have to occasionally restock your pod population.. Just letting you know. They are constant hunters

clowns101 · Mar 6, 2011

Tabasco1 said:
Most of mine as well. I did read a REALLY long thread on RC that people were posting on their experience from the first release of ORA's mandys. Very mixed success with the CB staying on pellet or prepared food.

Witts log made it seem almost easy .

Anything Witt does he makes look easy,Im not sure how the man does it,but he does.

Reef Breeders · Mar 6, 2011

Any good ways to get this guy out of hiding? I really want to see this fish, especially with colors like that.

Tabasco1 · Mar 6, 2011

I can't really help you there. What are his tank mates? Have you only had him a day or two? If so I would be patient and try not to do anything that will scare him. Do you have a good idea of your pod population?

Reef Breeders · Mar 6, 2011

The only other fish are my snowflakes, and they hardley glanced at him. My pod population is unknown, I just added most of my lr as dr about 3 weeks ago.

drainbamage · Mar 6, 2011

anemonekeeper said:
The only other fish are my snowflakes, and they hardley glanced at him. My pod population is unknown, I just added most of my lr as dr about 3 weeks ago.

err....the rock was dry rock? If so it's not going to have many, if any, pods on it. Did you seed with established rock? If not get some going ASAP or there won't be any pods for him to be eating- and definitley think of getting some sort of pod farm up and running asap if he doesn't eat frozen/prepared foods.

And yes, clowns, like all damselfish, are unabashedly hungry guys and will munch on anything and everything including pods.

Reef Breeders · Mar 6, 2011

Yes the rock is seeded, I see coraline sprouting up all over between nuisance algae. And I havent seen them eating pods, just picking at the side of the tank, as they are male and female.

drainbamage · Mar 6, 2011

anemonekeeper said:
Yes the rock is seeded, I see coraline sprouting up all over between nuisance algae. And I havent seen them eating pods, just picking at the side of the tank, as they are male and female.

How much of the rock was live, and how much dry? A decent rule of thumb for a mandarin without support feeding is 50# of Live rock per mandarin (at least that's why I've used.) IMO, it takes well beyond a year or two for dry rock to become truly live rock with seeding.
copepods love to munch on film algae, so if the clowns are picking at the sides of the tank, very likely that's what they're pegging. Try and find a reefer in your local area who has a refugium running without any fish in it, and you'll see just HOW many pods there would otherwise be if the clowns and mandarin weren't picking them off.

Joe Knows Reefs · Mar 6, 2011

I had a pair in a well established 75g with no other competitors (wrasses, angels etc) which was seeded w/ pods regularly before the addition of the mandarins and even re-seeded 2x weekly. They lasted about 2 months. Since their demise (about 2 months ago) I can now see pods on the glass and rocks again. A hard fish to keep - I definitely recommend a pod farm along with some sort of pod refuge in the tank for success - and even then it is questionable

Reef Breeders · Mar 6, 2011

I happen to have a refugium with no fish, but no lr. Ill be sure to take a look. And I did seed the lr with a 4 month old piece that I bought live.

Reef Breeders · Mar 6, 2011

And I just saw him grab a shrimp, I got some back where he was and he has been moving around like crazy. Its hard to see what he is doing, he hides when he sees me. But I could see him grab one of them and suck it in.

Tabasco1 · Mar 7, 2011

I think what people are trying to say is that in order to sustain a mandarin that is not eating prepared or frozen food you will need about 50lbs of live rock that has been free of predation and allowed to mature for at least a year as well as a refugium that also has a healthy pod population. It is not just having a refugium that is the key, it is having one with a pod population. And that 40lbs of dry rock seeded with 10lbs of live rock regardless of how well established that 10lbs was does not come close to 50lbs of established rock that has healthy pod populations.

So it sounds like your system will not be able to sustain your new buddy without supplemental feedings.

This is not impossible, but from what I understand challenging. If you are seeing him eat brine shrimp that is a very positive sign. I would try to get him to eat mysis as that has more nutrition than brine and then try to get him on pellets. As others have mentioned they eat/hunt all day. Some people have had success with "mandarin diners". Basically a jar with a food source that only they can get into. That way they can munch at their leisure without competition. There are some videos on meleev's website of his mandarins in the diner he made. I am not sure how he trained them to do this.

Good luck! Let us know how he does. Hopefully he will take the prepared food!

emerald525 · Mar 7, 2011

My Mandarin

Here is a picture of mine. It was given to me almost 2 years ago now. He or she? is constantly hunting for food but eats frozen food , pellets, etc which is why it's one of the fatter mandarins I have seen..

Reef Breeders · Mar 7, 2011

Wow, Ive never seen patterning like that.

Captain Nemo · Mar 7, 2011

I just recently took the plunge on one as well, mine is a little more red than the others, but he is gorgeous. He seems to be happy, but camershy....

Paul_N · Mar 7, 2011

anemonekeeper said:
He seems interested in the flakes to, he peeks out whenever I put some food in the tank. Hopefully I can get him onto flake, but he is still terrified of me.

Try Spectrum pellets also. My target mandarin loves them. One of my favorite fish...:bigsmile:

Reef Breeders · Mar 8, 2011

Hes a little less scared of me, I can ser him poking his head out every now and then. I made a madarin diner, I say him poking around it after school, and I moved it since the "door" was facing out in the open, and being a nervous fish, he wasnt entily buying it.

CJO · Mar 9, 2011

emerald525 said:
Here is a picture of mine. It was given to me almost 2 years ago now. He or she? is constantly hunting for food but eats frozen food , pellets, etc which is why it's one of the fatter mandarins I have seen..

She is a beautiful spotted mandarin.

CJ