Mandarin Goby (needs an experienced home)

[KeLusth]

I was wondering if anyone has experience with a mandarin goby. My roomate got

me one and i know I cant keep it because I dont have enough pods. I dont want

to give it to the lfs because I have seen their mandarins and they looked horrible.

The one I have is always pecking at the rock and he seem to be very active but

he definately isnt fat. I just want to give him to a someone who has experience

with them. Oh yeah and hes the most beatiful mandarin I have ever seen bright

blue fins and a really long dorsal fin. Very pretty. So if there is anybody in the

bay area that wants him please consider it.

Thank you so much

[bluenassarius]

ygpm

[Ehydo]

do a search for Mandarin Diner in RC.

[KeLusth]

Well maybe i should try other options first. Like that mandarin diner thing. Ive never tried pellets but maybe it will work. Thank you for the info. If it doesnt seem to work then next month when I move I will post again to find him a new home thank you!!

[racrumrine]

I have been looking for a Blue Manderin for awhile. If yours is no longer available, perhaps you can let me know where you bought him.

My 180 tank has tons of pods, and about 300 pounds of live rock. That should make him fat and happy.

Regards,

Roy

[Vincerama2]

The diner only works IF the mandarin will eat prepared non-live food.

Melev's intention was to give the mandarin a place to eat food before the other fish could get at it, so it's a solution to a specific problem. Your problem is different ... you need to either supply the fish with a supply of live food, or teach it to eat prepared food (pellets, flakes).

My suggestion is this...IF you decide to keep it.. (Disclaimer, I don't have a mandarin, but did a lot of research to determine IF I could keep one)

1) Start hatching brine shrimp IMMEDIATELY. Go buy some from the LFS maybe.
2) Make a "pod pile" ie; a pile of rocks where pods can live and breed
3) Add a refugium to farm pods (put the pod pile in here?)
4) Figure out how to get it to eat prepared food.

V

[lukasnca]

The mandarin diner also does not work if you have other things that can get into it -- ie shrimp, crabs, other small fish, etc.

My mandarins won't eat pellets but they'll eat frozen mysis, blood worms, etc. You can always buy live brine or hatch BBS and add frozen food to the mix.

[sfsuphysics]

My experience with "pod piles" is that bigger fish/turbos knock them over and they no longer are piles :) In my refugium and my 50 where there are lots of rocks & macroalgae they all have a "roof over their head" so are happy and reproducing like crazy. Heck I could probably get a turkey baster and suck out a bunch of "portion o' pods" like floridapets.com does. Actually might do that for future meetings if people want a "starter mix"

Although I don't have a manderin either, nor many other exclusive "pod eaters", heck in my 50 I rearrange the rockwork before removing it and 2 peppermint shrimp were hiding against the glass behind some rocks (caves) and there were hundreds upon hundreds of mysid shrimp swimming around them. I moved most of the rocks to my sump just to try to keep them "wet" so I'll probably get a huge population in my sump within a week or two as well, either way excellent usage for baserock.

[Vincerama2]

I remember Randy saying at the meeting that mysid shrimp are like locusts... So I'm guessing your pods are feeding them!

Oh, also if you want to increase pods, adding some king of phytoplankton food (DT's, whatever) will probably help. You know, feeding the bottom of the food chain ....

Hey, will mandarin eat red flatworms? If so I could keep a mandarin fed for a century...

V

[sfsuphysics]

out of curiosity whats the difference between mysid and mysis, is one a plural? Anyways yah that's what Randy said I even talked to him, he also suggested that if there's plenty of food the mysid won't both wasting energy eatting their own young/other mysid/other pods. I do notice that if I put some food in the refugium or some frozen mysis work its way down there I will see the food start to swim around with a little mysid hooked under.

When I started I didn't have terribly many 'pods (atleast that I could see in the numbers I see now) and I haven't added those 1000 mysid type things I think Randy's co. sells. I do see baby mysid quite often so obviously there's enough food to increase the overall number. While certain forms of pods might eventually die out, I'm fairly confident in my makeup, always see a bunch of those "pillbug" looking pods, which are bigger than the mysid and more heavily armored :)

[Reefcherie]

Originally posted by Vincerama2
Hey, will mandarin eat red flatworms? If so I could keep a mandarin fed for a century...

V

Some will, but that seems to be hit or miss from what I've heard. I've also heard some pipefish will eat them.

Cheri

[KeLusth]

Well I asked my room mate and she got the mandarin at 6th street aquarium. But she said that she saw the other ones that were there and they were all torn up and skinny. This guy is actually not skinny.

Well I tried the jar thing and my diamond goby swam right into it and ate EVERYTHING!!!! I also had an old plastic grape container that i poked holes in and put some live rock and live sand in it and cut out half of the bottom and put that in my tank but my diamond goby decided to turn that into his home, he somehow made a tunle into it and is now puting all the sand he can on top of it. I dont know if its a good pod pile/refuge anymore because the goby keeps messin it up.

I will have to try hatching brine shrimp and getting mysid shrimp. Where would i get mysid shrimp? Well thanks for all the info. Im going to try the jar thing again to see if he'll eat prepared food. It does seem that when I feed my other fish he gets more active. Well thanks again!

[KeLusth]

oh yeah I have also been feeding with DT Phytoplankton.

[Ehydo]

"If the jar think" works you should be fine. Just keep you fish fat and happy.