Mandarin Goby in a 28g nanocube

and the original poster is going to get alot of mixed reviews but the majority of the people here agree that a mandy needs at least a 100 gallon tank..

someone had this same thread on here a few weeks ago and they ended up shutting it down because it ended up in a huge fight..

if you wanna get the fish, then get it, they are beautiful fish, but i wouldnt ever think about putting one in a 28 gallon, or even a 40 breeder...the smallest tank i would put one in is at least a 75..mainly because they need so much live rock to have an unlimited supply of pods..

my friend jimmy with corals2go has like a 60 gallon tank that was soooo overstocked with pods, he put a mandy in and in a couple days they were all gone..im talking about packed with pods..they go through more pods than people would think..

 

and yes jumper it is very possible, but theres is a huge chance that the fish will not live long term..and it just sux seeing these fish die like that..they do seem like the perfect nano tank fish because of their size and chill relaxed attitude, but they are not..

 

Oh don't think I'm not aware. That tank has been up for a very long time and is in excellent condition. Check it out. Interesting to note that there's also a dottyback with a blood shrimp and cleaner shrimp. I forgot to mention: his mandarin I believe also eats live brine and those arctipods in the video. Arctipods are VERY expensive (about $20 for a small bottle; however they are very good for the fish). But he even messaged me once and says he maintains pods in the fuge.

Here he's training it to eat brine.

And finally here's what he messaged me.

Copepods will occur naturally in a saltwater tank, and will reproduce on their own. The trick is to have an environment where they have enough time to reproduce without becoming something's snack. Having a lot of rockwork helps give them places to hide, but you've probably heard that a refugium would be ideal. I converted the back, middle chamber of my biocube into my refugium using chaeto algae, some live rock rubble, and a submersible light. This helps keep a decent amount of copepods in my tank, being that they can reproduce safely in the chamber without fear of being eaten. Occasionally, the copepods will get washed into the main tank which then becomes food for the fish. This strategy helps, but will not likely be enough to satisfy a mandarin on it's own. When I was training my mandarin, I made sure to have a separate copepod culture running just in case (I used an old tank). This is no longer necessary since I trained the mandarin to eat mysis.

Good Luck,
-TBM

Now just to let you know I'm not trying to rub it in, but it is possible if you work hard toward it.

 

yeah so to keep the fish healthy it is gonna be very expensive..yeah people have trained them but i still have never someone house one "trained" for long term..

im gonna stay away from this thread, i have a feeling it is about to blow up once everyone gets on later tonight..

im just gonna say i wouldnt do it..

and 1or2 years is no where near long term, when i say that..im talking about 7-8 years..

 

I was told that it's not just about pods, but that it needs quite a lot of swimming room too, but at the same time I was talking about a 8.5g and that is a lot smaller. If I was going to do something like this (and for the record;D I'm not) I think I would want just a little bigger fuge and I would use multiple balls of some type of non-biodegradable sponge in the fuge, so that I could put something from the fuge with pods into the DT regularly. I think I would try to keep at least 5 balls (base ball size?) in the fuge, so that they have at least 4 days to repopulate with pods, if I could not keep 3X as many balls so that they would sit for 2 weeks in the fuge. I don't really know how many pods I would be moving, so overkill would be good in this case. When I was thinking about it I was planing on using a 40g fuge from a different system.

 

I think the issue is how long the pods take to reproduce. Think how long it took to populate the tank with pods to begin with. I don't know how big a Biocube refugium is, but I doubt it's large enough to hold a large breeding population. You need enough pods to out breed the Mandarins appetite.

 

the cube fuge is very small..its just the little back filter area modded..usually just a ball of cheato people put in there..

 

I have successfully kept my mandarin in a 55 gallon tank for around 6 months before upgrading to a 75 gallon. They do need lots and lots of pods. I had a good population in my tank and fuge but still regularly added store bought copepods to make sure he did not run out of food. Now he is eating frozen food so it is not such an issue. I would be skeptical of keeping one in a 28 gallon tank but if you are willing to supplement frequently then certainly not impossible but you will need to understand what you are getting yourself into.

 

i have a mandarin in my 16 gallon nano, it eat frozen cyclops and ive had him for 4 years in there. i know its a little cramped for swimming room but he does good. only other fish is a maroon clown.

 

If you don't mind can you tell me how many times a day you feed him? And do you still supplement pods?