Mandarin goby...

Well guy's and gal's, it seems I've done the impossible!

I have to admit though he did consume the copods a lot quicker than I expected! But I was able to switch him to live brine. He's been going to town every week on those little buggers!!! My aquascaping seems to be perfect for him with lots of caves and holes in the L.R.. I am still going to be very carefull with him if I notice his belly getting smaller, or if he starts looking bored of his environment I'll take him back. I'll post pictures of my tank ASAP!

 

Getting him to eat live brine isn't supprising. The problem with live brine is the isn't any nutrional value. I would at least work on him to eat frozen brine. Good luck I really want one of these fish.

 

See if you can get the fish to eat live/frozen mysis shrimp and nutrition won't be as much of an issue as it would be with brine shrimp. Soak whatever you feed in cod liver oil or Selcon to give it an added boost of protein, vitamins and amino acids.

 

There's a great article on mandarin's if you're interested. It's the front cover story in the annual issue of Marine Fish and Reef magazine. The focus of the article is just how misunderstood keeping these fish has been. Quote from begining of article: "Despite its reputation, this exotic fish may not be so difficult to keep".
I personally have no opinion on the matter since I've never kept one, but the article is there for what its worth.

 

I have had a Mandarin for some time now. As you can see my tank is not that big. When I first started researching this fish, they stated you needed a minimum of 80 lbs of LR to supply it with enough copeopods. Well my LFS guy, Who talked me down about this being a difficult fish to keep, fed his blood worms, They love 'em.
Mine eats blood worms easily, and even goes over to the mag 3 recirc in my tank and eats them off the intake filter like a spaghetti noodle. He just gets a little odd behavior for a day, when a new fish is introduced into the tank, otherwise he is just a thing of beauty just piddling over the reef looking for treats.

 

i noticed that when my scooters did not eat frozen, tetra marine makes this stuff, very nice. its called TetraNature's Delica ,it comes in brine shrimp and bloodworms. its (dead lol) brine shrimp or blood worms in a nutrient rich gel. they seem to love it!

 

Frozen mysis sounds like a good way to introduce him to something else. Also my reef H20 turns to swamp H20 when I feed brine once a week to the reef, filthy !!! Variety is what I need to be doing for the guy. The mysis should be cleaner than the brine? Thanks for all this quality info, appreciate it !!! Oh ya, pics should be coming soon, lazy sometimes.

 

Awesome eagle eyes! Good luck switching him over. I want one too, i'm letting my tank(ie copepod population) mature a lil more before getting one myself. It's only been up and running for 4 months... It would be awesome to get one to eat other foods. Keep us posted