Bought a Mandarin!

Picked up a Mandarin goby(dragonet) from the store the other day. Interesting coincidence since the last store sold the one I was going to buy like literally a week ago because I was afraid they wouldn't take care of it, hope it's doing well. Then the other LFS got two large ones in, and they eat frozen mysis!(I didn't believe it, but the guy fed both of them and they pecked at some of it)

She's very personable, comes right out to check me out, and is constantly hunting and pecking at the rocks. Seems to find plenty of food in my tank, yet she doesn't go after any of the larger amphipods, just small ones I can barely see. It's really surprising how friendly she is, guess I lucked out though.

My Scopas tang has done an interesting thing, where it will get really close to the mandarin but not touch her and graze near her at times. I also seem to notice it only happens when I'm close up to the glass and watching the mandarin, almost as the Tang is blocking my view. Never thought fish could be jealous haha.

I only took a cell phone pic of the mandarin now, but I'll get a good pic soon, it's pretty easy haha.

 

my yellow tang dose the same thing with my red corris wrasse

realy nice fish ;D

 

Wow, your cell takes great pics! I've always wanted a Mandarin, but we don't have a sump for the pods to replicate free of predation and I was worried it might starve.

 

Mandarin looks great, congrats.

 

Thanks! It was the original droid I used to take the picture, need a steady hand .

I've been building up a pod population for about 4 months, and for about a year from the previous tank, plus I have a farm now too. Funny thing is, all the larger ones will stay alive in the tank anyways and most likely breed some more so I don't think the Mandarin will destroy the population completely.

 

Beautiful fish! Obviously you've done your homework on these guys but just curious, how big is your tank?

 

I've always wanted a mandarin but fearful of them being a wild caught fish, it's always a gamble whether or not they will adapt to life in a tank. The tank is a 90gal.

 

Congrats! Looks like an amazing fish I hope it does well for you.

 

Awesome fish! Congrats

 

That is a cool picture. I had a spotted mandarin and I called him Napoleon. Great fish but finicky eater.