Mandarin Goby in a 28g nanocube

yeah thats a very good idea. I think adding garlic might make it a little more enticing, but it depends on the mandarin.

 

Once in the AM and once at night when I got in. I used a stailess steel antenna rod with a rubber tube attached to it. I used a syringe to pull the food into the tube(I used bloodworms, cyclops and shrimp). It took a little while but when they got used to it the would swim to the tube as soon as I put it in the tank. i could watch them eat the food i presented. i also added pods. I could get them at my LFS. I "injected" the pods into rocks and rubble piles. Again alot of work but it was worth it to me. Again good luck.

Tony

 

Mf Lfs doesnt sell them unless they accept frozen/live. Unfortunately I would not consider less then 6 months...maybe even a year, to be a success. IMO you should go for it, but just stick with one fish, NO clowns, nothing. just the mandarin and a CUC, i would be careful even adding certain shrimp (mines a pig and takes food out of my clown's mouth).
About the idea of 100lbs of liverock, its not neccesarily true, wherein, the liverock does provide the copepods but if you have a ruge, sump etc. you have more space for copepods.

shortened up, do it but as steve said, only once. good luck and ill give k if you get some pics when you get im (if its soon)

 

To ensure that nothing else eats pods keep the mandarin by itself for a long time and then add a fish after about a month if you'd like (after having the mandarin by itself for a 4-6 months maybe.) No six line wrasse's though; they will consume pods. Now... I'm not 100% sure if the mandarins DON'T need pods if they eat frozen... but it's always good to have some IMO.

 

ive been in saltwater since i was 8, i have a job at the local lfs

 

Do you think you could give an estimation of how much money you used on pods and food?

 

i really would not add anything that would compete for ANY kind of food with the mandarin....that includes clowns, once it takes frozen, its still is a slow eater, and the clowns could beat it to the food. JMO

 

Ok well how about a herbivore, like an algae blenny. You'd be unfortunate if your mandarin is eating frozen, you buy an algae blenny, and the blenny eats frozen as well but doesnt eat algae at all.

 

between 15-20 a week. 2 bottles of pods a week. the frozen food was part of the other fishes diet. i just gave a little of it to the mandarin. On occasion my mandarin even skimmed the top for flakes. i have a pic somewhere i will see if i can find it. My fish budget now is about 250 a month. That is for everything. Food, salt, stuff that breaks and upgrades. I usually don't use it all every month but as a acrue money I can buy corals and additional fish.

Tony

 

thanks. Well the frozen was for other fish... but pods being $15-$20... that'd be about $80 a month I think. It's not bad, but keeping the population consistent until and if you can train the mandarin to eat frozen successfully doesn't sound as bad as I imagined.