I just got a mandarin goby on friday and made sure before i bought him that he at least ate brine shrimp. I have a good friend that works at my LFS and had him order me one and feed it brine shrimp before i bought it. I was on the phone with him and told him to throw some brine in to see if he ate it. The next day i went and picked it up. Hes been in my tank since then but mostly hiding. At night i would catch him out with a flash light and used a baster with live brine in it and put it near him. He didnt touch the stuff. I did notice him picking at the LR and substrate so i guess hes eating pods. My tank, 75 gallon tank, has been set up for about 1 year and a months. I have a small yellow tang, fang blenny, 2 helfrich firefish and a coral beauty. I also have a 10 gal sump/fuge with LR, Cheto and caulerpa. What is the best way to keep this fish healthy and thriving in my tank. I dont want to keep buying pods cuz ive heard people spend lots of $$$ doing that. I have a fuge but theres a sponge that the water has to flow through before it gets to the display to cut down on bubbles so im not sure if the pods can get through from the fuge. What is the best way to go about feeding this mandarin and i ultimatley want it to eat frozen brine w/ spirulina like i feed the other fish. Please help.
Mandarin Goby (Dragonette) Help
- Thread starter Xler8n
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reefpeeper
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Just be patient he may start to eat the brine. Hes probly still adjusting to the new enviroment. I had one for a very long time that didn't eat brine.
My mandarin eats mysis, you could try that. You shouldn't have to keep buying pods if you have enough live rock for them to hide and grow in. I also put some rubble rocks in a couple of the corners and made "pod piles" for the pods. I also did not see mine for 3 or four days when I first put him in the tank.
Just keep an eye on it. If it starts to look thinner at all, you need to do somethign to give it more food. Otherwise, you may find that it finds plenty to eat and does just fine. I now the common experience with mndarins is that they are difficult to keep, but the fourth fish I bout some 12 years ago was a mandarin (when they said they WILL NOT live more thn 6 months in a tank). My first one made it four years, inlcuding nearly starving to death because of a six line wrasse (the six took the A train out of the tank shortly after I realized what was happening). A rock crab finally did it in (found it twitching with a nice sized hole in it's side). If you're tank is established, you don't have a ton of predators that all eat the same thing, and you keep an eye on it, you should have few problems. Somethign I've done with leopard wrasses is to put a bakk of chaeto in the display. Since it is loaded with pods, I can somewhat replenish the pods in the display with just a refreshing of the chaeto ball every few days, Tuck it back behind a rock and leave it for a few days. Maybe an HOB fuge would help you out, too. Pods will live all through the sponge, though, so I'd suspect you have plenty ion your tank. Wait until the lights have been out for a couple of hosur, then shine a flashlight on the walls and in the water column (WC viewing works best if there is no flow). You will liklely see millions of different pods on the glass and in the WC.
He should be fine in 75gal as long as there's a lot of live rock. I've had my mandarin now for 3 years. When I bought him he was just a skeleton with skin starving in a 10gal tank at the lfs. He spent the first 2 years of his life in a 58gal with about 80lbs of live rock. He was always fat and happy picking at the rocks for pods. Now he's in my 90gal reef and he's still fat and happy and fat as ever. The key is lots of live rock.
Here's a cool article on feeding a mandarin prepared foods.
http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html
Here's a cool article on feeding a mandarin prepared foods.
http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html
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