one more fish?

[tonyg]

Hey guys, so heres the deal...
My biocube 29 hqi is doing really well. Ive got two clowns and a midas blenny who all seem to be very happy.

Ive only added a few bits of coral so far. I started with 3 mushrooms and a couple small zoa colonies. Everything has grown and multiplied. Theres now 7 mushrooms and the zoas have been spreading nicely. And I have pods all over the place.

Everytime i test, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are 0

So, my buddy is moving out of state in a few weeks and is tearing down his tank. He has an awsome green manderine goby that I would love. I didnt plan on adding any more fish, but this guy is hard to pass up.

Think adding this little guy would mess up my tank?

 

[Mattyice008]

When you introduce a Mandarin into a tank, make sure you buy the bags of pods(Copepods) that they need to eat. You should be able to get them from any LFS. (You have to put them into the tank before you get the mandarin)
These are pretty much the only thing you can get your mandarin to eat safely. Talk to your friend and see how he fed them.
They wont hurt your tank and mandarins wont hurt your corals are fish. Great fish to have, just gotta make sure you got pods for them to eat :)

 

[tonyg]

I did some research on those guys and I am prepared to provide it with an ample supply of pods.

Guess im just worried about adding a 4th fish to my 29 gallon tank. I would hate to see my levels thrown off and my fishies suffer.

 

[Bifferwine]

I would not take that fish unless it eats frozen foods. If it only eats pods, it will starve to death very quickly in a 29 gallon tank. It would be impossible for you to stock enough live pods to sustain a mandarin in a 29 gallon tank -- they literally eat thousands of them.

Compatability wise, I think it would get along just fine with your other inhabitants; that wouldn't be a concern for me.

Ask your friend if it is eating frozen food. Before you take it home, witness that yourself -- ask your friend to feed it. If it will not take frozen foods, it really belongs in a much larger tank with a large working refugium. Without a large tank and large refugium, a mandarin that only eats pods won't stand a chance.

 

[Mattyice008]

I did some research on those guys and I am prepared to provide it with an ample supply of pods.

Guess im just worried about adding a 4th fish to my 29 gallon tank. I would hate to see my levels thrown off and my fishies suffer.

I have a neighbor with a 29gal biocube and he has:
2 tangerine clownfish(really bright orange color)
1 tang
2 damsals
1 mandarine

And his tank does fine, and he's going to end up getting another mandarine I'm pretty sure.
They're all small fish, but your tank will easily be able to hold 1 more

 

[Droskie20]

I did some research on those guys and I am prepared to provide it with an ample supply of pods.

Guess im just worried about adding a 4th fish to my 29 gallon tank. I would hate to see my levels thrown off and my fishies suffer.

on the real, you'll be fine lol my boy has a 29 cube with 5 fish...its a good healty reef been up for like 2 years already

 

[Bifferwine]

I have a neighbor with a 29gal biocube and he has:
2 tangerine clownfish(really bright orange color)
1 tang
2 damsals
1 mandarine

And his tank does fine, and he's going to end up getting another mandarine I'm pretty sure.
They're all small fish, but your tank will easily be able to hold 1 more

That's actually pretty horrible and a terrible example to give. His tank might do fine for now, but his fish are probably miserable. Having a tank that overstocked with so many inappropriately sized fish is a disease outbreak waiting to happen. It's just cruel to keep any tang in a 29 gallon tank. There is no excuse for that.

Just because one person does it doesn't make it right, or okay for other people to do the same thing.

 

[Droskie20]

I have a neighbor with a 29gal biocube and he has:
2 tangerine clownfish(really bright orange color)
1 tang
2 damsals
1 mandarine

And his tank does fine, and he's going to end up getting another mandarine I'm pretty sure.
They're all small fish, but your tank will easily be able to hold 1 more

im calling the tang police as we speak! lmao

 

[FishyReef]

I have a neighbor with a 29gal biocube and he has:
2 tangerine clownfish(really bright orange color)
1 tang
2 damsals
1 mandarine

And his tank does fine, and he's going to end up getting another mandarine I'm pretty sure.
They're all small fish, but your tank will easily be able to hold 1 more

Matty, your neighbor's tank is a very bad example to use - severely overstocked and no tang belongs in a 29g tank.

 

[bjohanson1234]

I have a neighbor with a 29gal biocube and he has:
2 tangerine clownfish(really bright orange color)
1 tang
2 damsals
1 mandarine

And his tank does fine, and he's going to end up getting another mandarine I'm pretty sure.
They're all small fish, but your tank will easily be able to hold 1 more

I would not condone this many fish in a 29 gallon tank. The tang needs a MUCH larger tank and having 4 aggressive fish (clowns and damnsles) in a small space is just asking for trouble.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Damn I just got triple ninja'd

 

[Bifferwine]

Again, the bottom line I think is yes, you can add another fish to your tank. Just make sure it's the RIGHT fish. Not a tang (I know you weren't planning on doing this, just saying because of the example earlier), and not a mandarin that won't eat frozen food. :)

 

[Mattyice008]

I guess I shouldn't have used the tang as an example.
He got a baby blue hippo to put in there, and every fish in the tank is about the same size, an inch at max. I told him that it was a bad idea, and tangs need bigger tanks to swim around and prevent stress. He kindof just buys what he wants and disregards info(I get pissed when he does that) but he says when his tang gets bigger he will put it in his dads 90gal

Yes you can add another fish, is all im trying to say.

 

[tonyg]

I would not take that fish unless it eats frozen foods. If it only eats pods, it will starve to death very quickly in a 29 gallon tank. It would be impossible for you to stock enough live pods to sustain a mandarin in a 29 gallon tank -- they literally eat thousands of them.

Compatability wise, I think it would get along just fine with your other inhabitants; that wouldn't be a concern for me.

Ask your friend if it is eating frozen food. Before you take it home, witness that yourself -- ask your friend to feed it. If it will not take frozen foods, it really belongs in a much larger tank with a large working refugium. Without a large tank and large refugium, a mandarin that only eats pods won't stand a chance.

When we talked about it, he said it does pick at the frozen foods he feeds the rest of his fish. Seeing is beleiving though. I bought some chaeto for my fudge that was seeded with pods. Now they are literally all over the place.

Do you think he will go hungry even if i add a bag of pods to the fudge or directly into the tank on a regular basis?

Just got off the phone, he has had the fish for almost 6 months and has never added pods. Sounds like it mainly eats frozen foods. I will wait until i can see it eat for myself before taking it. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Gizmo]

I guess I shouldn't have used the tang as an example.
He got a baby blue hippo to put in there, and every fish in the tank is about the same size, an inch at max. I told him that it was a bad idea, and tangs need bigger tanks to swim around and prevent stress. He kindof just buys what he wants and disregards info(I get pissed when he does that) but he says when his tang gets bigger he will put it in his dads 90gal

Yes you can add another fish, is all im trying to say.

90 gal is still way to small for a hippo tang.

 

[little_fish]

A blue tang in a 29 gal is probably the worst possible tang to put in a small tank, they should be in a 8 ft long tank.

Also those really tiny ones are pretty much doomed, they have just settled out the larval phase and need to eat about 30 times a day to make. At this point, that fish is just starving and stressing to death in that tank.

 

[FishyReef]

TonyG, I think the mandarin will go through the pod population much more quickly than you think it will! If it eats frozen consistently, then really you just want to keep feeding it frozen. I've heard of some fish who are trained to eat frozen, then switch to eating pods and never really re-learn how to eat frozen and starve to death. I'd go and watch your friend's fish and watch him feed it several days in a row to really make sure it is in fact eating frozen consistently before you get it. Also, buying bottles of pods gets expensive really fast (we're talking several bottles a week to feed the mandarin). Good luck!

 

[tonyg]

Ive decided not to go with the mandarin. I went over to watch him eat last night, and he barely seemed to be picking at the frozen stuff. After looking at tons of pictures of those guys i came to the conclusion that this one dosent look to be in the best shape. On top of that my tank does have tons of pods, im afraid if i put him in there he may lose what little taste for frozen he has like fishyreef said.

So, now im jonesin for a new fish. Any suggestions?

 

[Bifferwine]

I'd say to go with some sort of goby. There are lots of cool ones to choose from, and they will get along with the clowns and blenny.

 

[spongeycrab]

I guess I shouldn't have used the tang as an example.
He got a baby blue hippo to put in there, and every fish in the tank is about the same size, an inch at max. I told him that it was a bad idea, and tangs need bigger tanks to swim around and prevent stress. He kindof just buys what he wants and disregards info(I get pissed when he does that) but he says when his tang gets bigger he will put it in his dads 90gal

Tangs and blue hippo tangs especially get stressed very easily when moving tank form to tank just saying because they're immune system goes down when they get stressed just a warning not saying don't move the tang just be careful.But tell your fried to get that tang out of there or...

:D :sfish::death: :shock: :-x

:sfish:= blue hippo tang

:shock:+:D+:-x= your friend