keeping a mandarin goby?

P

pinstripes

Reefing newb
We all know its difficult to keep these beautiful fish unless you have healthy pods population and refugium. But Im wondering if anybody has sucessfully trained them to eat frozen foods? any suggestion and thanks!

pin
 
Thats one fish that dont train very well.Either they will take frozen or they wont.If it dont eat at the LFS,99.9% of thime its not gonna take frozen in a home tank,It'll starve to death first.
If you really want a mandrine,watch them at the store.See it eat frozen more than once,I would suggest to go to the store every day for a week and have them feed it every one of those day.If it misses one time eatting,look for another one.
 
I agree with Yote, they can be hard to "train". Usually they will just waste away. Make sure it's eating frozen before you buy it. Then you can avoid the problem altogether.
 
Best to just wait til your tank is very well stocked with pods. My mandarin won't touch frozen, but he must be eating well because he's fatter than when I got him!
 
It will take time and patients to train a mandarin to eat frozen.It took nearly 6 months before mine would accept frozen in my old 72g.It took a lot of turning the pumps off squirting mysis in her face.Eventually she came around and actually became more and more enthusiatic.Even hovering over the goniopora waiting for me to feed it with the turkey baster.That one stayed with me for over 5 years and my current one is nearly a year old and is fat as heck.

Giving enough time they may come around so start with a very mature tank with at least 100lbs of live rock.A refugium would be a big plus.I know others recommend people to find one thats eating frozen,I never could.
 
I had one for about three years but the pods went from many to almost none. but the poor guy died when my tank got to hot. and i could not get it cooled down.
 
I have found it difficult to keep them even with a lot of pods, a refugium and plenty of live rock. I have tried two of them, and they both died with two weeks. I just don't think they adjust well to tank life. or at least mine didn't. I have swore them off, even though they are one of my favorite small reef fish.
 
I agree. Diet is the main problem, that and aggressive tank mates. they can be scared into hiding during feeding time and not come out even if they are taking frozen food. Tank mates are as important as feeding IMO

-Doc
 
Yes they are very shy the one that i had if you walked by the tank it was gone and you would not see it again for hours.
 
Look at whether you have food competitors. Do not consider a Mandarin if you expect him to compete with brittle stars, some gobies and the like. Just keep things in your sand bed that eat detritus and bacteria, and no more , if you want a Mandarin. Mandarins are not competitive fish and simply starve when they need to compete. Do not expect a tank by itself to provide a good home for a Mandarin without a long maturation period, and usually that even requires a few inoculations. Something like 18 months or so to mature a tank for Mandarins. Of course you can run culture facilities for food, but that is another topic large enough in itself. There are also culture packages. Just Google plankton cultures. Culture packages are pure strains and inoculation packages are usually mixed organisms.
 
Hi everyone, Guess what, Ididn't know they didn't eat frozen food. I've had one for about 5 months. What do you mean they wither away, and how long will that take? Come to think of it. I've not see it eat frozen food either. What do you mean by eat pods? I have a 180 gallon tank for three years. The only thing that's happened is that I sudenly keep loosing corals. Mushrooms,Colts,ect.... I do water changes and also have had my water checked by the reef shop. What's your ideas? Toni
 
Hi Toni. If yours has survived for five months, it's eating something. Most die within a month or two of starvation. If yours is still alive, then I wouldn't worry about it eating, it's probably eating when you're not looking since they are such shy fish. A tank your size and a few years old probably has a pretty healthy pod population, enough to sustain a mandarin.

About your losing corals, can you post what your water parameters are? And have you ever treated your tank with any sort of medication? And what kind of lights do you have?
 
Most of my reading on mandarins is that you can't claim success with them until one year.It can take up to six months before they actually starve to death.I do agree with Biff,with a tank that size and maturity with plenty of live rock then it will most likely sustain a mandarin.
 
so much of success is about their tankmates as well. even if they would take frozen fare, but if they have aggressive tankmates, they will hide and starve. I had one that was eating frozen and he just never came out...a month later...he was dead. It is encouraging for you to have him for so long tho. Hope he stays strong

-Doc
 
Lots of old aged rock and sand, and lots of nooks and crannies they can get into that larger fish can not get into. They do well with rubble piles, as they can get into small areas to get to pods and such that like to breed and hide in rubble where they are protected from larger fish.
 

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