Mandarins

[Jmck]

After having a good look, I love the fish. I headed into my LFS and he had 2 of them in pony tank and was thinking I would buy them in a couple of weeks when its safe to add some more fish. When I told him this, he told me that they are best in mature tanks and wouldnt want me to buy them until my tank is a year old.

What do you guys think on this? Is that the right approach? or if my tank has steady readings for a month or 2 would it be safe to put them into the tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

He is right. Mandarins will usually only eat live foods. In a tank that hasn't been set up long, they'll starve to death. You really need a large tank with a refugium to provide a constant supply of live food. Sometimes you'll come across mandarins that eat frozen foods, but those are harder to come by.

 

[BL1]

If they're eating frozen food then you should be ok to add them. If they're only eating live foods then you need to wait till you have a large pod population. They will go through a tanks pod population very quickly

 

[Jmck]

im not sure if they eat fozen food, i think he said they did but he still suggested I wait, so im going to wait a while and see whats happening then

 

[daugherty]

yep they gave you good advicde wait untill you tank is more mature

 

[askmeificare]

i'm no expert..but i might suggest having them feed the fish in front of you...then you will know :)

 

[Jmck]

thats a good idea to get them fed in front of me, the guy is quite trustworthy but.

I wonder if my tank would be ready for it in about 2 months. hrmm

 

[daugherty]

if the fish is eating frozen food than you will be good but most of them only eat live food

 

[Jmck]

Yea ive heard that, ill get to checking all that. His tank that he has it in was only established in february i think. So not too much older than mine, so Im thinking it would almost be ok for my tank

 

[BL1]

you can't go by that because they only stay in LFS tanks for maybe a few weeks. Even a dying fish can survive for a few weeks in a tank

 

[reeffreak]

Listen to your fish store.They are actually giving you good sound advice.

 

[Jmck]

Thats fairly true Brian, but he will talk me out of it if the animals will die, so I at least trust the LFS, Im just hoping I dont have to wait a year for them XD

 

[bur01014]

What size of tank do you have and do you have a refugium? I don't agree with any time period you must wait....I would agree that you need pods available for the fish to eat.....in other words, this can be setup quite quickly, or it could never happen....even in a year.

If you want mandarins I suggest you do two things:

1. Get a refugium set up
2. Get chaeto and LR rubble from an established tank setup (over a year old) and get it in the fuge for a couple weeks to a month. Depending on the fish you have already...you will have tons of pods in no time....

*For even more pod population within the tank for mandarins, I would suggest a HOB fuge, since many of the pods actually get washed down the outflows into the tank, rather than a under the tank fuge....then again, it is ugly and limited....just my two cents, based off of experience....for optimal pod population

 

[Jmck]

hey bud, i currently have a 60g tank which has a cute setup with live rock and algae. unfortunately the algae isn't cheato but i should have a post population, I'm just not sure the size of it. the five has been running with algae for about a month so it needs a lttle more time that's.why i wanted to pick them up in about 2 months. but see what happens.

thanks for your advice. :)

 

[Sharkie]

just curious on the "them" part... are you referring to one or two mandrins?

a few words of advice :) Mandrins shouldn't be in a tank together unless its a male/female pair. You can tell that by the dorsal fin, the males have a very large "pointed" one and the female doesnt. Make sure any mandrin you buy is plump or at least eating frozen.

Mandrins are a 24/7 eater so unless you have like the ultimate supply of pods I would highly suggest against having more than one for quite a while. Mandrins are pretty touchy and if they are starved its pretty hard to get them back into a healthy state. I would wait for your tank to mature for at least 6 months... that gives you time to build up a nice pod population and learn as much as you can about the mandrins. They are a great addition to any tank but it does require a bit of tank maturity for them to be stable in there :)

Personally I can't wait to have another, my eel gets along great with them and when I get the bigger tank I can keep one in a better uncrowded environment :)

 

[Jmck]

hey sharkie, thanks for that info. the lfs has them together and i believe they are male and female. i know you can't have 2 males together but what i have read suggests that you can have one male and multiple females. but i only plan on having 2. thanks for the suggestion of starting with one but i also didn't know they eat 24/7 i just thought they were fussy.

 

[Jmck]

hey bud, i currently have a 60g tank which has a cute setup with live rock and algae. unfortunately the algae isn't cheato but i should have a post population, I'm just not sure the size of it. the five has been running with algae for about a month so it needs a lttle more time that's.why i wanted to pick them up in about 2 months. but see what happens.

thanks for your advice. :)

bahahaha i just red my post... Thats what I get for replying on my phone XD

 

[yote]

Josh,A good way to judge your pod population is to hvae a look in the tank at night.
Just take a flash light with a red bulb or lense and inspect the rocks for em.
If you can guesstimate a few thousand,then I think you'd be alright.
And it sounds like got a 1 in a million LFS that actually cares about their customers tanks.

 

[Jmck]

Thanks yote, ill get onto checking the pods in the next week :)

And im highly lucky with my LFS, he is more passionate than all of us, just spent 15000 dollars on a tank just dedicated to large fish and thats before filling it! :D I cant wait to see that haha

 

[yote]

See if he'll let you get us some pics of that tank.:D