Mandarin Goby

[ZBT3091]

I picked up a mandarin today for my 75 that now only has two ocellaris clowns in it. When I went to the lfs I work at to change my list of fish I was ordering from them (to remove the mandarin) they had already placed the order and couldn't change it. The mandarin I have is a female. If the one i get in the order tomorrow is a male can i house them both together? If it is another female should I sell it? I wasn't sure if I could house two mandarins together in a 75 with 110 lbs of LR competing with a sand sifting star. I have alot of copepods and amphipods. Even though the tank is relatively young (5 months), I have seen more copepods and amphipods then in any of my other tanks. The mandarin I have now is stopping at every part of the glass and picking the tiny copepods that look like stars on the glass.

 

[nanchil]

I guess your tank is pretty new and you should not keep this fish. Either return it or donate to a MR member who has a established tank. Sorry.

 

[reefman]

1 is already is no no. for god sake, dont get another.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Mandarins are best left on the reef. They seem to do well for a little while but then they deplete the number of pods in a tank to nothing and starve to death. Sometimes people can get them to eat frozen foods some people spend tons of money on bottled pods most are hard to get eating in captivity. If people stopped buying them then pet stores would stock them less and less.

 

[ZANYMASTER]

I've been told to buy them when they're small,easier to get them to eat.Have one for at least 6 months now.

 

[Alex]

ZBT3091 It has already been stated that a wild caught mandarin will be hard to train to eat frozen foods but not impossible.
I had one for 4 years, and it ate mysis shrimp. It's a tough fish, feeding wise, to take care of but a wonder to watch.

Fyi - the mandarin has joined the list of captive bred fish,although a BIT more money than a wild one, much better decision. better fed , less disease and you won't be dooming the fish to certain death.

 

[D1J8Z]

I tryed adding a second one into a 75 reef and the smaller orignal one picked on the BIGGER about three times the size and sadly the big one died and my other mandarin is happy alive and still well

good luck with either choice

 

[marrone]

If you do plan on getting two, and you're tank is mature enough and has the food to support two, you need to make sure you get a male and female, otherwise one will kill the other.

 

[bigyankfan]

Love mandarins but never got one because I didn't want it to starve in my tank, however, if there are tank-raised mandarins that will eat mysis, then I am in. Who sells these tank-raised fish?

Eric

 

[Alex]

this is the website for the captive bred mandarin. they had a booth at macnaxx in atlanta where they had a display of some of the captive bred fish/ inverts in their catalog. one of the displays that caught attention was the seemingly empty tank which housed several tiny mandarins. It was truly remarkable to see. will try to post a pick when I find it.

http://www.marinebreeder.org/

 

[bigyankfan]

Thx buddy. Does anyone know if they will be at the NJ Frag Swap later this month?