Mandarin Goby

[Oprime]

Guys,

Would like to hear your stories on Mandarins that you have kept successfully in your tanks.

Regds

G

[SamuelTan]

Kept for 1/2yr, does that consider success? Need lots of rocks, I have 100kg+ of it. Looks fat everyday Overall its a easy fish if you can provide lots of rocks and you don't get to see it most of the time.

[RushAct]

i think they need pods rather than LR? water must be good cause their quite sensitive.

[Bulldozer]

I have a funny experience.

My Green Spotted Mandarin grew fatter and fatter i my 175 Gallon tanks with Live Rocks for coming 1 year.

But my Blue Mandarin which started out the same time grew thinner and thinner and report to Heaven not long ago ...

But the Smaller Green Spotted Mandarin kept chasing after my much larger Blue Mandarin..

[HW33]

have a Green Spotted Mandarin for amost 3 yrs,brought 3.5cm now 4cm haha.

grow very slow,eats pellets and frozen food.

[Oprime]

Lol....you guys are funny!! Yeah I guess it's best to not try with a Mandarin. They seem to be really tough to keep alive. This is one beautiful fish along with the Sohal Tang but i guess i have to resist getting both. Seems that the Sohal is once whacky aggressive bugger.....

[SamuelTan]

i think they need pods rather than LR? water must be good cause their quite sensitive.

The reason why I said need LR cause there'll be more pods living in it and reproduce to replenish the amount of pods being eaten.

[bubblefish000]

try breedin some brine shrimp

[TayHongSiang]

have a Green Spotted Mandarin for amost 3 yrs,brought 3.5cm now 4cm haha.

grow very slow,eats pellets and frozen food.

thumbs up...

they do better in nano tanks bcoz they r not fast eaters...n they do not like big fishes as neighbours

[dnsfpl]

i beg to differ

unless they are taking prepared food

they do better in big tank, with tons of LR

furthermore, i notice most of difficult fish tend to feed on live food initially

keeping a mandarin will greatly reduce the food source thus reducing their(newly added difficult fish) survival rate

this is why i will never keep a mandarin

just sharing my experience

cheers

[poomoon]

bigger tank is better, and having sump, even more. had a paired mandarin (dragonet) since sometime middle of last year, was able to train the male to eat pellets, but the female still won't. unfortunately the male succumbed due to an unknown cause - hole in the head (can see my thread poomoon upsized) early this year.

but since then the female is still alive and very healthy. i just have a 2-ft with no sump, so far i don't see her tummy shrinking, just feeding on pods. good thing is she feeds on live brine as well, which fills her tummy fast. when available i also put some tigger pods just as a feast. spending a couple of $ for brine every week allows the pods populate again, and to see her pecking a lot only on one area is a good sign.

it's the same way I had a couple of citron gobies and 1 green clown goby. was able to train 2/3 to eat pellets. however the 3rd disappeared. the remaining citron though also disappeared later. the green goby however has grown since, very healthy, and competes with the other fishes eating pellets. i usually stop the filter and wavemkr when feeding, and once i do this, he comes out of hiding, ready to feed.

one good example though is the spotted mandarin in RD ... it has grown REALLY huge and fat like a pig ! and it only eats pods ...

So bottomline, whatever it is, really need to spend a lot of effort in trying to make them feed ... otherwise, better not keep 'em.

cheers !

[lauterbrunnen]

i have scooter blenny for a while now.. does it mean that i can keep a mandarin?? also, where to buy pods just to make sure.

[RushAct]

scooter blenny not the same.. you can buy bottles of "live pods" from Iwarana

[Greenmariner]

To clarify what Bro Poomoon said about the fat spotted Mandarin at RD. It is not only surviving on live pods in the tank continually supplied by a connecting refugium. It is also trained to feed on prepared food. My own experience with blue Mandarin in a 3ft 8" tank with lots of live rocks is far less satisfying. Despite replenishing the tank monthly with a bottle of live ocean pods or tigger pods, the fish becomes thinner & thinner & I think it is only a matter of time before it died of starvation. My only option now is to try to catch it & release it into the sea. For those thinking of keeping a Mandarin without a refugium, as in my case, I suggest you think twice.

[poomoon]

To clarify what Bro Poomoon said about the fat spotted Mandarin at RD. It is not only surviving on live pods in the tank continually supplied by a connecting refugium. It is also trained to feed on prepared food. My own experience with blue Mandarin in a 3ft 8" tank with lots of live rocks is far less satisfying. Despite replenishing the tank monthly with a bottle of live ocean pods or tigger pods, the fish becomes thinner & thinner & I think it is only a matter of time before it died of starvation. My only option now is to try to catch it & release it into the sea. For those thinking of keeping a Mandarin without a refugium, as in my case, I suggest you think twice.

that's what Simon said when I asked how did it grow fat ... only eats pods.