Mandarin - When to get?

Agreed. This is going downhill way too fast for my liking. My question was answered, so if anyone wants to go start their own Mandarin thread, have at it. I'd rather not have heated arguments going on in a thread I started, however

AND some DID tell me flat out not to get one, however their post got edited after I posted that last post (say that five times fast). So it's directed to no one in particular.

 

come on guys!! I remember a wise friend once told me, "Fighting on the internet is like running in the special olympics, if you win...you're still special!"

It's not worth it! If he wants to keep a mandarin, hey! keep one!! These are just peoples past experiences that are trying to help other people (myself included) in having the most success!! There is absolutely no reason to get tense!!

 

no not for me mine died after 3 months its face got a lump on it and 6 weeks later it died. I have huge amount of live rock but tank was only 3 months old. Now I have a refugium and would like to try again it is such a cool fish

 

i guess living in an apartment is the same thing as living in a mansion

 

It's not where you live, but how you live that truly matters. That just entered into a complete different world didn't it?

 

if you can think that space and tank size does not matter for marine fish whether it's a 10G or a 40G or 100G, i'm gonna just stop here and not make anymore comments

 

Feel free to stop. But I was talking about human life and philosophy and what not. NOT fish. I'm not as stupid as you think, you know.

Richard Cory

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed, 5
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace: 10
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, 15
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

It's not where you live in life, but how, that truly matters.

 

I put a mandarin in my 90 gallon (no fuge / just a sump) at about 4-5 months old. Once a week i dosed my tank with pods (nutra mar sells em & reef nutrition) for about 3 weeks than added a sporadic bottle a month or two later. I also use sponge in my sump (ive read the sponge makes excellent breeding ground for pods) i have no nitrate problems despite what some claim cause of sponge use. I also mix frozen nutramar prawn eggs in every other day with my frozen foods. My mandarin in my "immature" reef tank is so fat his belly skips on the sand as he swims. Hes been fat and healthy for months now, ive tried madarins in old mature systems with out the dosing of pods or frozen foods and they have dwindled as fast as is if he were in a new tank. I know its initially expensive buying the pods and such but there isnt much in this hobby that is cheap. Im not disagreeing u should have a established system but i think if at around 4 months u want a mandarin and take the steps i have u could keep one no problem. Just make sure u get one that is still meaty and eating when u buy him, once they begin starving its pretty much impossible to bring em back.

Dennis

 

OK, I saw the reference to my recent thread so I feel I will chime in. Don't worry, I actually pay attention to posts, so I do know you're not an un-informed person, and at the same time, I am not going to belittle or talk down to you, rather just try to explain the many different things here.
I recently rescued a mandarin. It was one someone else had, and couldnt sustain. It is already pretty skinny, and I am 100% certain it was going to die if I didnt take it. So myslef and the fish really didnt have much to loose, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I have a 40 gallon. About 80-90 pounds of rock. No fuge. I do have a ton of pods, but I know I still cant sustain the proper pod population long-term. To combat this I have set up a completely separate, stand-alone system dedicated solely to culturing pods. I have also already gotten it to take prepared foods. Will this work? I really don't know. I hope so, and my gut tells me if these are the steps people with smaller tanks are willing to take, then yes, keeping a mandarin long-term successfully is possible. Will mine survive? I'm really 50-50 on that. Its pretty far gone already, and a slim dragonette is not an easy thing to revive.
The other part of the problem is people believe if they get one that eats prepared food, they are in the clear. IMO, this is untrue. The mandarin has one of the highest metabolisms out there. They must be eating all day, every day. That cannot be accomplished by feedings that we normally do with our tanks. While it may extend the period, it still will slowly starve to death (this can take up to and beyond a year). They must have A LOT of pods; all day, every day.