My tank has been established for 3 years now and I’m thinking of getting a Green Mandarinfish. Does anyone who has experience with one care to share any insight or wisdom.
First 3 important questions:
Do you have a fuge?
How much rock do you have?
Any anemones in the tank?
also how big is the tank
I have 155 lbs of live rock in a 75g tank with a 55g sump copepod population is wayyy up there, this is a must. I have 4 GBTA’s and never had one eat it but I have had one jump out of the tank of the 2 I have owned. Mine is so fat that even tonight I was wondering how he turns his head lol!
My tank is @ 37 gal. with plenty of rock & a shallow sandbed. I don’t have an anemone. My sump is a 20 gal. tank, 1/2 of which is my refugium.
I would say it likely isn’t large enough then. It is completely possible you would keep it, but I would recommend against it. Someone will post and say that they kept one in a similar sized tank, but how long they honestly did who knows and if you could replicate the exact conditions they have… impossible. I would say you’d be rolling the dice with the life of an animal and the odds are against it will survive, up to you if you want to roll them really.
I’m with Gordonious on this one. I don’t think the pod population would be enough to sustain a mandarin for more then a couple weeks in a tnak that size.
The problem with these fish is they rarely eat prepared foods and require live foods to survive - and they’re pigs - they eat constantly.
Thanks guys,
That’s what I was afraid of and why I asked before considering it any further. I was concerned about the pod population and thought about cultureing them in a 10 gal. tank but it doesn’t seem worth it for now. I’ll put that idea back on the shelf until I get my 90.
In a 90 with a fuge you should probably be good. Just wait until you’ve had it up for at least 3 months or so and it is stable. Wise to ask first.
I have one in a 45 gallon tank with a 10 gallon fuge and he has gotten alot more plump since I got him at Pet Kare in Govner Square for $14.99. But when I asked the guy if they have any copeods. He said no wich I thought was odd, so when I asked what he was feeding him he said a mix of mysis & Brine shrimp. So basically they where starving him cause now he is alot more beefy and seems to be fine but after all these coments Im worried
Reefer keep a close on eye him and if he starts to get skinny you should consider finding him a new home or making some changes in your tank.
As far as the response that they fed them a mix of mysis and brine. Well that is their response likely to what they feed any of the animals. They may not even feed that often either. Going to sensor now .
Reef nutrition has a great bottled product for this concerned about pod population, called tigger pods. Most lfs in delaware carry them. 20 bux, and toss a bottle in every few months. They should keep their own population going for awhile. But, as always, a larger tank will give them better chance to reproduce before all being eaten by very hungry mandarins. So this still wont help a tank that’s too small, unless u want to buy a bottle every week! Just a little fyi…
A large, matured fuge and tank is really what you need for these animals and I agree 100% with what has been said by Craig and Jon.
Things like tigger pods just give people false hope of keeping these beautiful little animals. I know a few stores in the area that stopped carrying this food because in the long run it is not a solution, and copepods will grow naturally, and they are also not the same as tigger pods.
Good luck and practice patience with these little guys 
Well in Pet Kare’s defense they may very well be feeding their fish Mysis and Brine shrimp - it doesn’t necessarily mean the mandarin was actually eating it. Now I do know people that have trained their mandarins to eat frozen and prepared foods as well as mysis and brine, but it usually takes some time and some patience, the idea of a store getting the fish to eat prepared foods in a matter of the couple days that they had the fish in the store is unlikely.
Now caveat - I know the guys that work at Pet Kare and they’re good guys, one of which is a member of this club and I trust they would never intentionally mislead anyone.
Well today my manderine past I hate loosing fish. And I’m not trying to say any thing about Pet Kate negative and loosing my manderine was more then likely my inexperience with these fish but all I’m saying is they even told me you can try to ween these fish on to live brine and frozen maybe as in not all will take to the new food change and knowing that you still put those manderine on order every week knowing there gonna starve or more Likely get sold to someone like me who got no business owning a fish of this skill level but not a big deal till the only way you can see one of these fish is in a book. Sorry for carrying on. But I just lost my mandarin. :-("
By that theory jared, we shouldn’t keep anything but snails in our tanks… that’s the only thing that will live on what the tank is growing alone… we feed everything that goes in! And if a mandarin is a must have for someone, there is indeed a food that can be fed to them. How is that not a solution? Its no different than feeding any other fish or coral for that matter…
It is very different from feeding coral or fish. Most fish and coral commonly kept will eat a wide range of foods. How many times have you heard someone at your LFS say, “he’ll it anything I put in there”.(and you roll your eyes knowing they put a lot of food in their)
When a customer comes in and asks what should I be feeding my clown fish I am giving him mysis shrimp do you gladly respond, “that’s great most fish are good on a diet of one food and only one food. I myself enjoy French Fries every day. Variety is good for no one.” No fish should be fed only one type of food it’s entire life.
The other difference is how much does a pack of frozen Salt water multipack cost and how long does it last for most hobbyist? Now a bottle of water with a couple of little pods in their how much do you sell those for? You said it will last a couple of weeks, but given the opportunity a mandarin could eat that amount of food in a day.
How often does the fish bowl run out of live bottles of pods? How often does the fish bowl run out of food you could feed to a clown fish?
Come to a meeting and ask everyone who doesn’t grow algae in their tanks to raise their hands. Ask people to raise their hands for people who grow so little algae they are afraid their snails will starve.(you’ll hear laughter) Then ask how many people can’t hardly find any pods and you will find some, especially those with well stocked nano tanks.
Feeding can be a major issue with Mandarins. Some will take foods such as frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. Others will refuse to take anything but live foods. Mandarins are extremely slow and hover, much like a hummingbird using their front fins while looking for food. Even Mandarins that take prepared foods have a hard time competing with faster fish for the morsels. One suggestion I have heard that makes good sense, especially in smaller tanks that don’t support a large pod population is to build something called a ‘pod pile’. This is a few small rocks stacked into a pile into which small pieces of shrimp or similar food can be inserted every couple of days. This pile of rocks provides shelter and a food supply for the pods which allows them to rapidly breed and provide food for the Mandarin.
from here: http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/mandarinfish.htm
I have a question on this topic. I have seen that some people try feeding there mandarins flying fish eggs. But the posts were quite old and things do change. Does anyone have experience with this? I have had a green spot mandarin since around November and she is still surviving but her belly has not gotten big at all. I have a 10gallon tank half filled setup for copepods and mysis I have cheato in there that is about 1/3 of the tank and little nets with around 1lb + LR rubble that we alternate in the tank to keep the population going. She is always plucking at the LR in the tank but still so skinny. I prob have about 40-50lbs of LR in the tank (20 long) no fuge just sump atm with a small piece of cheato in it.
We also feed her cyclopeez does not look like she eats it everytime I do give it to her and the tankmates.
second I noticed in the post earlier that someone was asking if there was a anemone in the tank. Why is this? Do they eat the same things as the mandarin?
First the easy one. The anemone question was because perching fish and sticky fish eating anemones are not generally a good idea to house together in the same tank.
As far as food and feeding mandarin fish you’ve got a pretty decent system that seems to be working. Unfortunately 2-3 months doesn’t equate to success as the fish could still be slowly starving. I generally would not recommend a mandarin to anyone without a fuge and at least 60-70 lbs. of rock. You can purchase copepods and isopods for the fish to eat but it generally gets very expensive very fast.
There are threads out there about training mandarin to eat frozen and prepared foods, I’ll see if I can find one or two good ones and post them over here.