Mandarin Goby

How do I know if I have enough pods to support a mandarin. I know that they are sometimes hard to keep. Any advice from you all would be great.

 

Mandarins are only good in a highly established tank because they only eat copods, most can't be trained to eat prepared foods and they will wipe out a copod population in no time.

 

I guess my question would be how long have you had the tank setup and do you have a fuge? I found that after I added my fuge and it got established the never ending food supply has made my mandarine goby fat.
Also if you look at the tank at night with a red flahlight you should be able to see them crawling all over the rocks.

 

I think every newly setup tank will have enough because pods spawn incredibly fast.

I have had my mandarin for over 6+ months and he is healthier than ever. The key is to have as much rock as possible in your tank, and no fuge is required to keep them. In the long term, mandarins will adjust to what you feed the tank too. I've noticed that after a couple of months of being in my tank, my mandarin started getting curious on what I was feeding the tank. And he use to be those mandarins that wanted pods and pods only! So if my mandarin was trained to eat prepared foods, I think all of them are capable. I feed my corals twice a week, so the mandarin is constantly offered these foods.

 

jtreef is right it is base on how long ur tank has been setup, usually people recommend 6+ months of and an establish tank with alot LR. it would help tremendously if u have refugium, that will make sure there will be plenty of food for it. so good luck

 

if you wanted to jump start your tank's population, you could try one of these fine products......


Ocean Pods Aquacultured Marine Copepods - 4 oz bottle: Premium Aquatics

Reef Nutrition Marine Copepods

 

I just have seen to many of these starve in new tanks.
Another trick I learned is to make a nice little rock rubble pile(I did this before the fuge) Hide it under or behind your current aquascaping. This way the goby or other fish such as a wrasse won't deplete the supply, plus then they have a nice place to keep reproducing to feed your Mandarin.

 

I have seen many starve in established tanks as well, particularly in mine! I've tried about 4 times with different types of dragonettes with the same results. I won't try keeping them again as they require far too much attention than I'm willing to provide to any fish.

 

Thanks all for your input. I have had my tank up for about a year and 3 months. No fuge, but I do have a whisper HOB filter with some sand and rock. And I have thrown some pods in there that I got out of my filter.

 

Just give your tank enough chance to build the population up (when you start seeing them on the glass). And keep your tank with plenty of rock with a lot of hiding places. Trust me, I've kept my little guy for almost a year.