mandarin

my tank is a 150, has a 55 gallon refugium, 250 pounds LR in the main tank and about 40-50 in the refugium, its been up for a while now ikd how long exactly, can i have a mandarin, oh and there is already a 6-line in there

 

Mandarins are constant feeders as they keep eating organisms, sometimes algaes off your rocks. IMO, I find them difficult. Your can try live copepods and pour them on your rocks, turn off all the filtration when pouring. I remember someone at my LFS told me about a Mandarin feeder you can buy or build yourself filled with live brine / mysis shrimps. Gah, my memory is bad...

When you'll choose your guy, make sure he's chubby and have a fat tail, as they're constantly eating.

Good luck!

 

How does your pod population look now. Your tank is ideal for one but just have to make sure you have a steady supply of pods.

 

What scenario1313 said. Your tank is an outstanding setup for one. The refugium and the enormous amount of rocks are KEY. You pretty much need those for a mandarin to be happy and healthy. They're the hummingbirds of marine aquariums, always eating, and they only live really well off of small crustaceans such as pods. Some people find mandarins that eat flake or other food, but I've heard that they can only get the nutrition they truly need from something such as copepods and other pods and such.

Before you would get one, I would add a bottle of pods in your fuge and let them hang out and get to know each other for a while, and try and see how their population is in your main tank. If you've got a steady stream of them in there, then your system would be perfect for a mandarin.

 

+1 I'm sure with that much LR you'd be fine having one, but just for good measure you might as well add some pods

 

You seem to have an ideal set up for these guys- big tank, lots of LR, big refugium, but its better to play it safe with mandarins.

 

sounds like plenty for a mandarin. As long as you have a good pod population. I would build a pod bucket and raise your own, basically a heater, an air stone, and some sponge in a five gal bucket. Seed it with pods to get it started then take out a sponge and shake it into the tank whenever you need to.

 

To throw in another question, will mandarins eat tiger pods?

 

aren't tiger pods freeze dried? or is that something else...Mandarins only eat live pods, so try to find living pods for sale...

Try searching for mandarin in the search section of the site...this topic has been discussed a lot of times and i'm sure you could find your answer very very quickly!!! good luck!!!

 

Thanks for directing me. Tiger pods are live. Maybe your thinking of cyclop-eeze?