Mandarin Goby questions.

[feasible]

Hello all,
I have 6 old month old 55 gallon tank that has been fishless for the past 6 weeks due to a recent quarantine of the fish. During this time I have seen the copepod & isopod population skyrocket!

Now it is time to start placing fish back in the tank. Our family has been wanting a mandarin goby ever since we setup the tank but we knew we had to wait at least 6 months to a year before we could do so to allow the pods to multiply.

My question is, given the recent opportunity for the pods to multiply without any predators in the past 6 weeks, are there enough to support a small mandarin (female)?

Other question: How would I quarantine such a creature? If their main diet is pods, the QT tank definately has a lack of them. I figure I could hold out for one that feeds prepared foods?

Tank details:
80 lbs live rock
2-3 inch live sand bed
1 Flame angel (2")
1 Hippo Tang (1 1/2")
2 true percs
All tank parameters are perfect & stable (1.025, 80 deg, 0A, 0Nitrite, 0Nitrate, etc.)

plans for sump refugium in next two months
plans to go to lfs & purchase LR rubble for pod breeding area

Thanks!

[Matt Sable]

I would think with 80 lb's of live rock you 'pods should be sufficient enough to support a mandarin dragonet. A way to be sure that there is enough 'pods is to let a small patch of filamentous green algae grow somewhere inconspicuous. The 'pods love to eat it and the mandarins love to eat the 'pods! I don't know about quarantining mandarins, I've never read anything about it- to the best of my knowledge. If you did quarantine it, you might want to constantly switch pieces of live rock between the main tank and the quarantine tank to make sure there is always a supply of food for the dragonet. Hope this helped, Good Luck!!

[astronaut]

80 lb.s of LR is usually enough for a mandarin. they are fairly hardy/disease resistant because of an extra slimy coating to replace their lack of scales. i wouldnt think you would need to QT it because they barely every get diseases. the LR rubble is a great idea, and if you have any in the tank right now, pile it up into a few tight pod piles for them to breed in. some macro in the sump, or when you get a fuge will help, too. this has nothing to do with the mandarin, but that tang wont be able to turn around once its full grown, but hey, who am i to be the tang police. also, its not a mandarin goby, they are dragonets, family Callyonimidae, synchiropus splendidus

[perky]

if you have an algae srcubber in the tank there can be quite a few copepods, isopods and amphipods under there.

perky

[feasible]

Originally posted by astronaut
but that tang wont be able to turn around once its full grown, but hey, who am i to be the tang police.

Thank you for the reminder. Hopefully before it get's to that point we will have the 175 bowfront that we want.

Thanks for all the information.

[perky]

I think the minimum for a hippo tang is 200g. hopefully someone from the tang police will tell us.

perky

[astronaut]

120-125 for the paracanthurus hepatus actually, but back to the dragonets

[perky]

sorry. my bad lol

[csammis]

As someone stated before, you really don't need to QT mandarins because of their mucous layer. However, if you're getting it from a source where you may be worried about internal parasites or some other disease (mandarins aren't invulnerable, after all), you may still wish to QT it.

There are a couple ways to make sure it gets enough to eat in QT. First, someone mentioned algae scrubbers. Really, anything with fine bristles that copepods can breed it would work, but the idea is to let pods breed in a small removable object, then shake that object off into the QT tank. My personal favorite pod breeder is chaetomorpha, a macroalgae that resembles steel wool.

The other way is to try it on prepared foods. I recommend bloodworms and mysis shrimp.

[racrumrine]

I just QT'd a Mandarin for 3 weeks in a 25 filled with Live Rock. Additionally, every few days, I would shake and rinse about a basketball sized ball of Chaeto from the main tank sump into the 25.

I wanted to go the full 6 weeks in QT; but, when I noticed that the Mandarin was getting skinnier, and not picking at the rocks as much, I decided to transfer him to the 180.

Hopefully, he will fatten up soon.

On Anthony Calfo's Forum, there are threads about where to buy pods when you are quaranteeing a Manadrin.

Best of luck,

Roy