Mandarin goby..possibly.

Washburn82

Reefing newb
My friend has a very nice 55 gallon tank with many fish. However he recently just got two new picasso clowns and they are bullying the mandarin goby (dragonette) like crazy he had to remove the goby tonight for fear of them killing him. He doesnt want to get rid of his two new clowns sine they are already hosting his anemone and well they were very expensive and the store offers no refunds on sw livestock. Since i am the only other person he knows with a SW tank he has offered me the Mandarin. Im a bit hesitant to accept it. I hear they are fairly difficult to keep, however when i go and visit and he feeds his fish vitamin enriched brine the goby eats it. He said when he first got the goby he ate all of his copepods within days. About a week later he started eating frozen food. So hopefully feeding the little guy wont be a problem. My only concern is my tank may be too small for him. I have a 20 gallon long with only 2 clowns and another goby who gets along with any fish i have put in there. Bullying i can almost guarantee wont be an issue its just tank size. What do you think? I'd love to have one as they are beautiful creatures, i just want to make sure i have a suitable environment for him/her.
 
Why do you think bullying won't be an issue though? It's usually 50/50....fish get along one minute, until you add a new guy. Plus your 3 fish in there will already be pushing the stocking limit.

You might also have to retrain the mandarin to eat frozen. I've heard it happen many times. But maybe you'll get lucky. Just feed smaller portions, and more often if you're worried about him getting enough to eat. But definitely,. you'll be overstocking your tank.
 
Im not worried about overstocking my tank. Theres plenty of room and i have had 4 fish in there before no issues at all, in the month i housed a fairly large lawnmower blenny for a friend while he setup his new tank, my params never budged once (i checked quite frequently while housing him) and everyone got along fine. The bullying thing your right. Its a hunch but ive had a few fish in my tank and never had an issue with my current fish being bullies, like i said i can ALMOST guarantee. The way i see it, it cant be any worse then his current situation from the new clowns. I do have copepods from the established live rock i added i see them alot at night. Though i am prepared to buy some from a store nearby to add more and eventually if i have too learn to mass produce them. From what i read its rather easy. Ive also read many success stories of people keeping them in smaller tanks then mine. Just wanted some opinions from on here. Thanks Wonton. I just wanna give the little guy a safe place to live.
 
If you do get him, i would try and feed him at least twice a day, because there wont be anything for him to graze on and these guys need a ton of food to stay healthy.
 
I wont be getting him until I find a nearby supplier that sells copepods. My friend has a ton in his tank with nothing that eats them. He said he is going to try to gather some for me. I read a clean sponge placed in a tank will collect alot of them in a week. We may try that. There are a few stores im going to call in the a.m to see if they have them. If I can't supply food for him I wont get him. Wouldn't make sense. But I'm going to do everything I can to find some. Thanks for advice. :)
 
I just got an email back from my fav coral store. They carry reef nutritions concentrated Arctic copepods for mandarins. Since i buy alot from them she said she'll give me a good deal. So ill be making the 1 hr drive tomorrow to pick up a few bottles. I figure if all else fails my other fish will eat them too.....i hope.
 
Your clowns for sure will eat the pods. I would put them in the tank about an hour after lights out the so pods have a chance to make it to the rocks before being eaten.
 
You are going to have to reteach him to eat frozen, there is no way those pods will be able to establish themselves enough to sustain a mandarine.
 
Good luck. Mandarins can be tricksy sorts of fish. I love the look (they're one of the reasons I went saltwater in the first place), but I just don't have the experience to risk caring for one yet. Maybe if/when I set up a nano and can get an ORA eating frozen. Maybe. I hope the little guy does well for you! If so, I think you will really like keeping one.
 
Trying to get a Mandarin to eat only copepods won't work. You need to feed him:

Frozen foods if he is trained to eat them. Was it tank bred?
Orange sushi roe.
Ocean Nutrition's "Marine Formula One" small pellets
I've seen them eat frozen blood worms and bristle worm also.
 
Yes this particular mandarin was tank bred, apparently he was raised eating pellets. That was before my friend had him. Since my friend had him he has been seen eating copepods, brine and apparently some blood worms. My friends has had him for about 8 months and he said within the first month he decimated his copepod population. So that leaves him around 7 months without pods. I went to see him yesterday when he asked me about him. I seen him eat vitamin fortefied brine shrimp and the little guy isnt skinny at all. Leading me to beleive for the past 7 months he has been eating other foods aside from copepods.
 
If he is eating frozen foods, then you have a good shot of keeping him healthy. Mandarins are very peaceful fish, so as long as the other fish in your tank leave him alone, he should do fine, IMO.
 
Thats what i think as well Biff. My current fish are very peaceful. They stick to their territory and even if the other wanders into theirs, there is no fighting. Weather kept me from getting the pods today since ill be going to work tomorrow and work is much closer to the Fish Store. I'll be going after work. I plan on putting the pods in my tank for a few days. Then if i still want the dragonette i will put him/her in my tank. I also have 5 different kinds of various frozen foods, prime reef flakes and new life spectrum marine formula pellets. So i am hoping he will like at least one thing i offer.
 
Well it was a good thing i didnt go. They have the reef nutrition arctic pods. Apparently they are dead in the bottle so that doesnt really help.Kind of a hit and miss with those since they prefer live food over anything. And the live tigger pods they are out of stock and wont be in for 3-4 weeks. So shit out of luck there. Cant seem to find any place in Ontario that has copepods for sale that isnt at least 2-3 hrs away.
 
So i did end up getting the little guy, my friend tried putting him in the tank, clowns still harrassed him. He tried taking the clowns out for a time out. 2 days i believe and after he put them in an hr later right back at him. So i took him. Ive had him for 4 days now and every day i have got him to eat vitamin enriched brine shrimp, blood worms and mysis. :) Just today about 20 mins ago i got him to eat the Spectrum marine formula pellets. He seems to be doing great the clowns were curious at first but leave him alone my other goby and him get along great. He looks happy. Hopefully he keeps eating all that i offer him. :) I feed him twice a day once in the morning before work and once when i get home. He eats quite abit as well. So far so good. Hopefully hes got a good new home.

The new guy and Goby-won hitting it off.
IMG_20120218_150521-1.jpg
 
Thanks gals! I do feed him as much as i can, and boy what an appetite for such a little gaffer. I damn near fed him a whole cube of marine cusine all to himself and after that he still ate brine shrimp. If i was home more often id feed him even more!!! Its really cute how my goby and him hit it off. They sleep in the same cave. The goby even finds where the shrmp lands and sit there and lets the mandarin eat it. Its odd. Is there an easy way to tell males from females? The markings on them are unreal. So beautiful.
 
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