pairing mandarins

[isnyc300]

i was wondering if it is really hard to pair mandarins. i have never seen 2 in one tank and wanted to put 2 in my 75.

 

[Paul B]

They are not hard to pair at all. I have two of them, you just need a male and female. Two males will fight to the death and for a little fish with a tiny mouth, they really can fight.

 

[thirty5]

I was thinking of getting a pair for my 75 also. But have to wait a bit to make sure that pod population is stable. But then again my other mandarin eats pellets...

 

[bigdog1428]

I have 2 in my 55 cube ,, just make sure u have enough pods to keep up wit them

 

[isnyc300]

ok thanks guys i have a 30g sump with a big fuge so it should be no problem.

 

[thirty5]

How old is your tank???? While you may have a large fuge, you still want to make sure that your pod population is large enough to keep it going. A single mandarin can deplete pods very quickly. They eat constantly if there are pods there.

When it comes to this fish, just make sure that your tank can support it before "trying" to keep one.

Stocking a tank with pods manually can get expensive

 

[Meadowlane]

I was thinking of adding 1. I guess I won't be adding anymore.

 

[andylee]

I think it's hard to keep them at all, for the reasons discussed above, so pairing rarely becomes an issue.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I think it's hard to keep them at all, for the reasons discussed above, so pairing rarely becomes an issue.

My experience has been the other around, they are very easy to me but the tanks I keep them with always have pods and live mysis running around everywhere.

 

[evoIX_Reefer]

Would you give a number to what you think is a healthy amount of pods to keep up with a mandarin? I have a bunch in my fuge 40-50 on the glass then you can see them crawling on the rocks so I would figure there would be a healthy amount hiding away. I see the babies or smaller type of pods all over the glass. I rather wait for it to mature even more if need be. I was just wondering how many pods are enough to sustain the population if all I have in my tank would be 1 mandarin and in the future add another one to pair.


looked for further information and RC has a mandarin primer [do a search for "mandarin primer"] and you will see a lot of information. I guess my assumptions of a lot to me is not too much for a mandarin. It would look like I would have to supplement or get a frozen food eating mandarin.

 

[thirty5]

Allegedly ORA ones will eat mysis. But unless you see them actually eat at the store I would not buy them. A mature tank should be able to sustain a mandarin, if you have a fuge that is a great benefit. Yes they will grow in the rock in the DT, just remember that the mandarins eat all the time so they will constantly be picking them off the rocks.

it is hard to say exactly when you can add one.

 

[motortrendz]

the new coral magazine has a huge article actually almost the whole magazine is dedicated to mandarins and how to "train them" to eat frozen...

@wingo, where did yo get the live mysis?

 

[isnyc300]

i already have one in my 40g breeder for more then a year now. i feed him once a week with frozen mysis and brine + he hunts on his own.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

My experience has been the other around, they are very easy to me but the tanks I keep them with always have pods and live mysis running around everywhere.

Same here but without the live food... I've kept Mandarins a few times and they've always been good eaters. Besides having lots of pods the trick I've used is to feed pellets, frozen brine and/or frozen mysis at the same time. They will eventually take on the other foods...