Mandarins

[Mushroom Boy]

I've redesigned my system in the hopes that someday I will be able to keep a mandarin fat and happy. I'd like some input on whether you think my system will be able to sustain one of these marvels and what you would consider as acceptable tank-mates.

My main tank is a 40 gallon with roughly 40 pounds of mostly Fiji live rock. It has a 4" ESV/CaribSea oolitic bed. My sump is a 20 gallon high that has another 20 pounds of live rock and a 3" CaribSea Seaflor bed. I have a 6 gallon behind tank refugium with a variety of macro algaes, a couple pounds of rubble rock and a 4" ESV oolitic bed.

Since the addition of the refugium, I have noticed an increase in micro fauna, but would like input on whether the above system would be considered suitable for a mandarin. I know that a larger tank is preferable, but due to space and $$$ constraints, it's not feasible now.

I've got 2 clowns now and was considering adding a cherub angel (C. argi) and possibly a royal gramma (G. loreto). Would these make acceptable (i.e., non competitive) tankmates? Anyone having success with a similar setup? Thanks for the input.
Paul.


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Blumenpflücken während der Fahrt verboten!

[This message has been edited by Mushroom Boy (edited 04-21-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Mushroom Boy (edited 04-21-2000).]

[northshore]

With a flashlight after the lights go out check and see how many Amphopods and Copopods you see running around the rock, sump and overflow. If you can see thousands milling around then you can probably support a mandarin.

I have a 225 and it took over a year before one would survive. Unfortunately I jumped the gun and lost one eight months in.

Once you put one in you will be amazed at how fast the population of Amphopods/Copopods decreases.


John

[billsreef]

Just might work. I have a mandarin in my 40 breeder propagation tank. It has a deep LS bed, some LR rubble, eggcrate shelves and lots of cuttings. The only fish are a foxface, a damsel, and of course the mandarin. The mandarin was a rescue that got for nothing as it looked like it was starved beyond all hope of recovery, a year later it is fat and happy, and has doubled in size. Not sure I would put a second one in but a 40 can definately sustain one with a good set up to provide plenty of worms, copepods, amphipods and such.

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Bill

If damsels grew as big as sharks, the sharks would run in fear!
My dive photos (http://hometown.aol.com/billsreef/)
ICQ 56222784

[Doug1]

I agree your gonna need a hi pod count, you might check out Inland Aquatics and see about adding pod culture kit to the mix.
As far as the argi and loreto, I dont see a major problem there if theyre fed well, not much competition for bottom feeding, though I question the bioload in a forty, I have argi, loreto and 1 damel in a 55 with 20L sump.
A 6line wrasse will directly competing with a mandarin, and more aggresivly FWIW

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Reef as though your life depended on it, yours might but the sea's does.........Doug ReefCentral/ReefTank moderator

[badgers]

If I had it to do over again I would not have purchased the mandarin for one simple reason. I think it is a waste of space. The only way I ever see the dang thing is if I get my face agains the glass and spy on it. It is always flirting about from behind one rock to behind another rock. I have pods on the front glass during the day, but emmy(wife named the fish not me) would never come eat those pods because my refugium dumps into the tank via a spray bar at the bottom of the tank. So emmy hangs out and gets the pods as they come from the refugium. I kind of wish that emmy would cut down the pod population. they are all over the front and side glass. And in the corners were the rocks keep the flow to a minimum you can see little bugs swimming in circles.
They are cool looking fish but I think that if they have plenty of food you will have a hard time seeing it. Why come out in the light/open to eat pods from the front of the tank when you can hang out in your little spot and wait for them to flow out of the refugium. Hey I wouldn't leave the house if money just came flowing into my bank account :)
this is just my opinion, and I am bitter :D
thank you for your time and have a good day

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I'm so skeptical, I can hardly believe it!
The facts, although interesting, are irrelevant

[BurnNSpy]

I've had a Mandarin in my reef ever since my copepod population exploded so much they were running around the tank during that day also.

I built it with my favorite fish in mind though.
She was very shy about showing herself forever(bout a year), until I added a pair of Bangaii cardinals. Now she comes out all the time, needed the attention now that she had company I guess.

BurnNSpy

[Breef]

The pods will reproduce progressively,if fed.I give mine spiralina flakes and they run all over collecting them and chowing down.In three days of doing this in a fifty five they quadripled,or more.If you do this slightly in your refugium then I see no problem whatsoever in being able to feed one.Like the other poster mentioned,one way of telling how well you are going to do is to find one[probably not hard to do]that is skinney when you get it and watch and see how he fattens up in you tank,he will at first anyway,and then at the same time observe your pod population and see how they are holding their own.In this way and only in this way can you find out the balance between the use of the pods and the health of the manderin in your specific situation.Also as BurnNspy mentioned it may take some dither fish to bring the critter out to where you can enjoy it.

[OrionN]

Originally posted by Mushroom Boy
I've redesigned my system in the hopes that someday I will be able to keep a mandarin fat and happy.........

My main tank is a 40 gallon with roughly 40 pounds of mostly Fiji live rock. It has a 4" ESV/CaribSea oolitic bed. My sump is a 20 gallon high that has another 20 pounds of live rock and a 3" CaribSea Seaflor bed. I have a 6 gallon behind tank refugium with a variety of macro algaes, a couple pounds of rubble rock and a 4" ESV oolitic bed.

........
I've got 2 clowns now and was considering adding a cherub angel (C. argi) and possibly a royal gramma (G. loreto). Would these make acceptable (i.e., non competitive) tankmates? Anyone having success with a similar setup? Thanks for the input.
Paul.

I think this tank is great for a mandarin. The fishes you plan to add are excelent tank mate for the Mandarin.
Good luck.

[Breef]

As Ming has said,and I must add,with three different places for the pods to breed,if and when you are able to observe them in all three,I see no reason what so ever that you shouldn't be able to keep one alive and healthy as long as there are no other highly competitive{after the same food}fish added to the tank.

[David Groos]

I have to admitt that I loved my Mandarin. That is until it went carpet surfing. I kept her, short dorsal, in a 29g reef. She was pudgey and like most mandarins kept to herself under the live rock except for when I would bring the live adult brine shrimp which she would take directly from the dropper. The tank also had a large pod population and the only other compitition was a yellowhead jaw fish who never strayed far from his bolt hole unless it was feeding time.

Dave

[Dragonlady]

My mandarinfish(Synchiropus splendidas) has been in my tank for 3 years, and is still fat and active. There was a pod overpopulation problem the mandarinfish seems to appreciate.
It makes me sad to see the starved ones sometimes I see at stores.

[Downdraft]

I was wondering if it was alright to have them together. I have a Red Schooter blenny and it benn in the tank for about 3 months. Thanks ahead of time!!:confused:

Dave

[Breef]

I just bought one of these red scooter blennies and this is a fair question.

[OrionN]

They eat the same food. If you have enough, then it is OK I guess. I am not sure if the mandarin will attack the scooter or not. You can ususally can keep a group of scooter together if there is only one male (from what I read not from experience)

[Breef]

Minh,I just came back from a weekend in Corpus,and brought back a 120qt. ice chest full of fish I caught off the Dolphin,at Port Aransas.I also bought a Koran Angel,and a sharpnose butterfly,from a man a couple of blocks from the freeway that goes to Padre Island. He told me a story about another fish store but I didn't get a chance to visit it.:D

[OrionN]

Why would you want to buy fish in Corpus Christi when you can choose from all these stores in Dallas?
Anyway, let me know if you are in town again.

[Breef]

I'd love to chat. I have been down at least three times in the last three months,and three to four times in Galveston area in the last six. On why I bought from the C.C. store,just addictied I suppose,I like to see what is available all around where I go but I don't always know where the good stores are. Sometimes I run into something that I just cann't live without.:p If I knew how to contact you when in town I would give it a shot,but I don't have any kind of portable computer.

[gfish]

just thought it was strange or something, but I have a 110 gal tank with all that I thought a mandarin would need .I've had the mandarin for 3 weeks, and he's been eating lots of frozen brine. " I didn't think it was supposed to be that easy" whenever I feed the fish, he always is sitting there waiting for the frozen brine to fall.
because of this I've been thinking of getting another one.
any thoughts?

[Dwayne]

gifsh,

Some folks have had success getting a male/female pair and this seems to be the only coupling that will work.

I have heard that a single male will live with multiple females. This might be true, but my personal experience says multiple females will not live together without fighting. What I observed did not appear to be dominance fighting. It looked more like "one of us is not swimming in this tank" fighting.

Just my rambling.

Dwayne