Mandarin - When to get?

What would you consider long term sucess?

 

Edit to one of my post I feed the corals cyclopeeze once in awile and he eats that also

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here. But I believe your fish is slowly starving to death.

I do not intend on being the grinch here just stating facts

J

 

I know I'm obviously not the one to say this since I don't have the fish...but in the aquarium world 6 months is not really long term. I'm not sure what is, but it's not six months.

What would be a good tank size for one, then? And why does a slow scooting around fish need so much room?

And for all of you telling me not to ever get one. I'm plugging my ears. The question was when could I get one, and by the sounds of it I can get one after I have a bigger thank that is 6 months old.

 

It is not the Size but the amount of LR that can house Copepods for it to eat. I had a 3 year old 75G tank with a ton of Copepods. At 3 years I got a Manderin I began also supplementing with Live tiggerpods. at 12 months I could not keep up with the Manderin's needs and at 18 months the Mandarin was dead. I'm sure other have had better luck but the more and more I hear about Mandarin's the more I hear the same story

J

 

Folks are not telling you not to get one, just stating that they are very hard to keep alive, and letting you know that you need a large tank and large supply of pods to even start to keep up with their needs.

Once you are more established, you may even be able to keep one in your current tank - once you add a fuge, get the fuge established, begin to cultivate pods, and provide enough rock / etc. for them to to reestablish so that the mandarin won't starve to death. You may see thousands in your tank but the mandarin will constantly eat them until you have none left. If you have a fuge, you will stand a better chance, but most likely will still need to keep adding them.

Packleader adopted one for his 40 gallon but he is cultivating his own pods. You could do the same somewhere down the road.

 

I dont see how you can possibly "state facts" that he is starving to death. I have a plumbed 20g fuge to the tank with alot of live rock and chaeto. Plus about 18 pounds of live rock in the tank itself. So he is constantly eating pods. In my 75g tank I would never think about putting one in because there arent enough pods in there. I didnt just go out and buy one without knowing what the needs of one are

 

wow clowningAround you're very ignorant eh, no one is trying to go against you here, stop being so defensive, and not to be an ass, just give it sometime before the mandarin starts to starve, you actually think a fish can be happy in a 12G? even if the mandarin is slow moving i'm sure it doesn't enjoy itself in a 12G, not to mention, so what if you have 20 pounds of live rock and a fuge? i have close to 70 pounds of liverock in a 40G in mine and i have a 24x4x12 fuge hanging on the back as well with, not to mention i've bought 2 vials of copepods to seed and culture and i recently had to give one away to a friend.. good luck to you, you won't be keeping that fish for very long.. i hate to break it to your face, but you're obviously very ignorant and tend to ignore everyone's advice on here, good luck with your soon to starve mandarin

 

lol wow thanks for the kind words. I have a question for you since you said do you think a fish can be happy in a 12g. I dont think any fish is happy in any tanks since their natural habitat is in the ocean so it doesnt really matter what size the fish is in because its not the same as the ocean. Im not putting huge fish in small tanks the mandarin is 2inches! I really dont need you to wish me goodluck about keeping the fish all im saying is I have had it 6 months and the previous owner had it for about a year before he broke his tank down. And i dont think im ignorant at all I just have my own opinion on things so maybe your the ass?