Green Mandarin Goby?

Not really sure what to feed him. The LFS sold me some Nutramar. I also have a PJ Cardinal that I have been feeding mysis shrimp. When I feed them the PJ Cardinal will eat both of them, the nutramar and mysis. Is there something else I should be doing? 29 gallon nano

 

He eats copepods and amphipods


What size tank?
How long established?
How much live rock?

 

29 gallon nano, 10 months old and 25 pund of live rock. The LFS said that copepods would get expensive since my tank is not that big.

 

Unless the mandarin is trained to eat other foods (such as mysis, brine, or bloodworms which mine eats), you will need to add copepods on a regular basis to keep the mandarin healthy. They are very finicky eaters. Unfortunately I don't think the LFS should have sold it to you as you typically need a larger aquarium with a good pod population.

 

One of the LFS's here in Austin said that the green mandarin golby would eat flatworms so I got him. I had a really bad problem with flatworms. The GMG did not touch the flatworms so I wound up getting a nudibranch or sea slug whatever you want to call it and he did the job. Now 2 months later I sill have the GMG and is healthy. Just don't want him to starve and die.

 

They are very good at decimating pod populations. I would try to spot feed him bloodworms. That is how I first trained mine. I have a baster that i spray some bloodworms in his direction and one day he decided to try them and now he eats them and nearly any food he sees floating by. Until then you will probably need to buy pods on a regular basis.

 

Adding copepods isn't practical long term. They eat too many, it would cost a fortune. Plus the ones sold to us live, tend not to reproduce well in our tanks, but may out compete copepods that do, so, it may actually be counter productive to add them. Really what you need is a large established tank, with a self-sustaining pod population and a mandarin that readily eats prepared foods. Your tank may be established, but it is not large. Most likely the mandarin will not survive if you can't get him eating prepared food, but that is easier said than done unfortunately.

 

Your mandarin will not survive if left to eat only the pods in your small tank. If you don't want to keep buying pods, you could set up a pod culture in a small aquarium or container - lots of threads here and on RC on how to do this. By culturing your own pods, you could conceivably keep your mandarin well fed.

 

You really should read this thread.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-food/mandarin-dragonet-feeding-117256.html
Even if you get him to eat prepared foods he will likely starve to death in that tank.
Heres another one with good info.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-month/mandarin-dragonette-fotm-may-08-a-47991.html

 

+1 even with supplementing them with other foods chances are 10 to 1 you won't be able to keep him healthy. They feed constantly throughout the day making feeding them nearly impossible. You can only supplement there diet. They expend a lot of energy searching the rock work for pods

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