My next fish?

Well I finally got my tank almost where I want it. After dropping a few hundred to get the lighting and skimmer up to par, I now have 7 corals (the zooanthid is eensy weensy tho, very very small frag) and a bubble tip anemone. All are doing freakin AWESOME! I love just sitting in front of my tank and watching it.............................oh my fish? Oh yea! ;D I have a gold stripe maroon clown, velvet damsel, and royal gramma (which after a couple week's protest of my coral additions has finally been coming back out to eat). I want another fish. The tank is 46gal. My considerations are a yellow tang (yes I will be upgrading to a bigger tank in the next year or so, 75-125gal, we'll see), ocellaris clown but I'm not sure on the compatibility with my maroon, especially since the maroon took to the anemone in like 10 seconds! or a green mandarin goby. The tank has been running for 4 years and has plenty of live rock, I don't remember just how many pounds but I know there are lots of copepods. Plus I found several sources for buying pods if I have to. My number one choice is the goby. What do you guys think? I want something thats COLORFUL! Or are there any other suggestions for other fish I might consider?

 

Goby would be my first choice, if copepods are constantly available.

 

About the goby. Ive searched the posts here and found several people successfull in getting them to eat blood worms or mysis shrimp. Are these generally live or frozen? And how do you make the switch? I feel like my pod pop. should be ok since the tank has been running for like 4 years and I see the pods and their eggs all over my filter pads and LR, but I also know from having a mandarin before that they gobble up pods FAST (that was in a smaller tank though, before I upgraded). One more thing. My clown and damsel are PIGS. I mean they eat whatever I put in there and they eat it fast! What would be the best way to get bloodworms to the goby in this situation?

 

What type of Goby, there are tons! If you are referring to the mandaring dragonet, they will consume pods rather fast. Even if your tank is littered with them, he will exterminate them within time.

 

Yeah you need to worry about dragonet starving!! I would also get rid of the velvet damsel. Very aggressive and will haunt other fish especially ones added after it. I have the same problem with a four striped(humbug) damsel. And I can't get it out of my tank now with 80lbs of live rock and corals throughout! Yellow, purple, sailfin tangs are nice though the latter gets pretty big. Maybe a Flame angel. Alot of blennies and gobies are nice reef inhabitants too.

 

Well, thats why I'm weary about getting the green mandarin goby, I don't want it to starve. I looked in my tank last night after the lights were off and my tank is SEETHING with copepods!! All over my glass, rocks, sand, there are more than I thought. Plus like I said I found several places online that I can literally buy a bottle of pods to put in my tank. What I want to know is, when trying to switch the goby...or dragonet as Ive also seen them called, to bloodworms, are they frozen or live? What methods are used for doing this? Ive read threads on this site about several people being successful in this and would like to know how.

 

They are called dragonets because that is the species of the fish; not in the goby family at all. Scooter blenny's are also dragonets. If you notice the behavior in both, they almost act identical in how they hover, eat, etc.

If you are the blessed one, you will be able to teach your mandarin to take in meaty foods. 99.9% sure your mandarin will turn the food away and continue his quest for those little glass boogers. Trust me, I've tried. I think my mandarin doesn't even like small baby mysis shrimp I'm growing in my tank, he only wants pods and pods ONLY!

With buying pods and adding them to your tank, it will be quite costly over time and those things are expensive, 500 for $20 bucks! The mandarin will chow half of them in about 2 weeks. I would setup an algae tank if you dont want to add a fuge to your tank, and then just syphon water from that tank to re-introduce pods.

 

Hey Brandon, did you decide what fish to get yet?

I might be getting the mandarin sooner than I thought. Although my pods population is not that high right now, I am going to buy some macro algaes from my LFS and it has lot of pods in it cause they keep it in the LR tub. I will give it 2 months in my fuge to multiply before I get that mandarin. Can't wait!

GL!

 

Yes, I bought the mandarin, and then 2 days later it died!!! I dont know if it was stressed because of the damsel I had to remove, causing the entire tank even more stress because I had to tear it halfway down? Or what?! I know it wasnt starved, my tank is 4 freakin years old and my rock is seething with pods. But thats my 3rd mandarin, so NEVER AGAIN! I ended up getting a six line wrasse and a small yellow tang instead.....

 

I am sorry to hear that.
Are there any chances of him being sick when you get him? Don't give up on them little buggers yet, they are awesome.

How's your 6line doing? I am thinking of getting him after I get my false perculas clowns.