Doing a Poll...on survival of Mandarins

[DBW]

D'oh, wouldn't you know it, forgot something else

Please fill in the survey, even if your mandarin has died. Anyone that has kept a mandarin or has one currently. The more complete the information provided the more complete the conclusions that will come out of it. If we only get people answering that have them alive at the moment then we miss out on a great amount of information and it will be biased and of less value.

 

[Hammer]

I have a small issue with that survey.
It asks whether or not the fish ate food we tried to feed it. And it only gives the choice of YES, or Yes But Not Accepted.
I feel that there should be a YES but rarely or barely sampled food.
I had a mandarin before I knew about providing them their own food. And it would eat some of the foods I gave it, but not on a consistant basis.
The pair I have now will occasionally eat some of the foods I feed my other fish. But not even close enough to survive on.

Just my 2¢

 

[fishfarmer]

MandarinFish,

Not sure of the common name of the dottyback I had, but it was completely purple. I've read that dottybacks do eat small crustaceans, but wasn't sure if they would compete directly with a mandarin. My thought was that the dottyback would eat larger items like amphipods as well as prepared food. For the short time the dottyback was in my tank, it always had a full belly and would harrass the mandarin most of the time, basically chase her into the upper corners. The dottyback got along fine with my coral beauty. All I can figure is the dottyback must have seen the mandarin as a threat to the food supply.

 

[Terry B]

There are several factors that are essential elements for increasing the odds of success with mandarins (BTW, I have kept numerous pairs for many years at a time).

1. The age or maturity of the set-up. It is advantagoues to wait one year to allow the microfauna and small creatures that will be the stable of thier diet to grow into large numbers before a mandarin or any fish that competes for the same food (i.e sixline wrasse, etc.) is introduced to the tank.

2. A Sufficient volume of live rock

3. A deep sand bed of mixed sized grains to support a diversity of live foods

4. Compatible tankmates that do not compete for the same foods. Also do not keep sand sifting fish such as a dragon goby which will consume some of the live foods (i.e. adult, reproducing copepods) living in the sand

5. A healthy refugium

6. A tank big enough to support a large enough population of live foods in the aquarium

7. Feeding supplemental foods enriched with vitamins and highly unsaturated fatty acids. Most mandarins will accept some supplemental feeding. Training them to these foods should be accomplished during an isolation period in an smaller aquarium before being placed into the display. This can take patience and persistence. Do not attempt to make supplemental feedings the staple of their diet. Mandarins do require a substantial amount of live foods to be constantly available and growing in the system. I do recommend practicing quarantine with newly acquired specimens. I do this by placing them into a separate tank that I use as a food farm. It contains live sand and live rock and a variety of foods including worms, amphipods, mysid shrimp and of course copepods.

8. Making a wise choice when selecting a specimen. A large percentage of mandarins that I have see offered for sale are in some stage of emaciation. Most of them are not fortunate enough to end up in a LFS that knows how to care for them. Look underneath them to see if their stomach area is concave. Medium size (not too tiny or large) specimens are probably the best bet.

9. Some sort of cover on the tank, because mandarins do sometimes jump during the courtship ritual or when frightened (usually at night).

10. You may have success without following one or more of the elements I have suggested, but if you do follow them all you will have a greater chance of long-term success.

Terry B

BTW, I don't monitor this message board often so if someone has a question they want to ask me the best bet is email

 

[Dragonlady]

I had a mandarinfish for 3 1/2 years, and she was adult sized when purchased, so it could have been old age as cause of death. It was obvioulsy able to find enough food in the tank. Its stomach was quite plump, and I have no way of knowing the actual age of the fish when purchased. I purchased another mandarinfish recently. There were/ are mysis shrimp and amphipods in every crevice. The new mandarinfish was slightly emaciated at the store, but it has since plumped up since being in my reef tank. I knew that it would probably not survive at the store for more than a few more weeks without a constant supply of live food. The mandarinfish is one of the most attractive small reef fish IMO. I have read that they are a scaleless fish with a toxic mucous coating which makes them mostly immune to many parasites. Amazingly
my mandarinfish was cleaned for a short time by my cleaner shrimp, but my former mandarinfish would not tolerate this behavior at all. Hopefully, the new male mandarinfish will continue to grow plump. I felt sorry for the little guy beginning to starve at the store.

 

[richwill]

I've had a mandarin for about six months. Here's a snapshot taken yesterday. He seems to feed on the many teeming 'pods that are circulated back into display tank from my refugium. He also pecks at live rock and spits fine sand out his gills. In this photo he appears to be eating diatoms off the aquarium glass!

 

[richwill]

Oh, by the way, the mandarin lives in my 180G tank which has a 30G refugium, and a 20G sump.

 

[MandarinFish]

Amazing pic, Richwill

Terry B - have you captive bred / reared?

Farmer - did it look like this?

 

[fishfarmer]

I checked a book, the dottyback I had trouble with was Pseudochromis porphyreus, not Pseudochromis fridmani, the Orchid Dottyback which is pictured.

 

[Skitaemen]

I've had 2 mandarins in a 65 gallon reef tank with about 90lbs. of live rock. One has been in there for over a year and the other was added about 8 months ago. I also have one in my 180 gallon reef tank with 300lbs. of live rock. All have done great and are nice and plump.

 

[Alf3482]

Two years 55Gal tank 6" DSB and 70lbs live rock fat little fis I paid $10.00 for him he's one of my favorite fish. Oh I have a spotted manderin as well in diffrent tank.

 

[HARRISON]

Anyone out there having luck breeding these guys? They are going to be very close to my scooters so I would like to hear of any success or failures in attempting to breed them...

HARRISON

 

[Janet]

I have three mandarins,one male, two female and one male spotted mandarin. They are in a 70 gal.tank and I have had three of them for about a year and they are doing very well. They will eat frozen brine and daphnia. They also love treats of live food,(adult brine and baby guppies).
Janet

 

[MandarinFish]

Sooooooooo........

Mandarins compete for pods directly with Banggai's, dottybacks, and gobies?

 

[danmhippo]

Yes, they do.....

In fact, all fishes, if given opportunity to catch, will eat pods.