Preparing for a Mandarin

So I am planning on having a mandarin in my system. I was hoping to hear about peoples experience with them and how they successfully cared for them.

I have a 55 with a sump/fuge and my rock had been dried out for several months before my current setup. I added some reef pods about a month ago to get things started on the pod end, but I am wondering if there is anything else i can do to prepare for getting a mandarin.

It is not in the plan to get this fish very soon. My tank has only been set up almost 6 months now, and I don't think it is ready for a mandarin now.

So, if anyone has any experience, good or bad, or advice they can toss in it is greatly appreciated.

 

Have not seen many who have good luck with the mandarin unless it was a huge and well established setup.

If you really want 1 you should look into getting an ORA Mandarin which is captive bread and eats a wide variety of prepared foods.

 

I have had mine for almost a year in my 57g. I introduced it after about 8 month and has been doing really well...even lost it for 3 weeks in my overflow! sounds like your on the right tracked getting your tank stocked with pods. I would be cautious with adding other fish that may compete for food, cus all it does is eat....Mine eventually started eating frozen and I intentionally aim food its direction when I feed the tank to make sure that it is eating... if yours doesnt accept frozen you will have to add pods to replenish your population on a regular basis.

 

I'd prob wait until you at LEAST hit the year mark.

When ever you can afford it, buy pods and continue to seed the sump!

I waited almost 2 years before getting mine and he's doing great. He even eats frozen bloodworms if he's around come feeding time on days I feed bloodworms.

Coolest fish ever!

I wouldn't want to watch one wither away from starvation...

 

I figured it would be around the 1 year mark. I figure pods procreate as well so if i can get them in there now maybe they will have a decent population once i get one. The last thing I want is to have one of these beautiful fish for only 6-8 months.

 

Yup, there you go.
Keep stocking up the fuge with bottled pods and your display and fuge will thrive.

 

I got lucky with my red mandarin from LA. I've had her for about two years and she eats frozen, as well as flake, and will actually snatch food from right in front of my tangs. She's in a 4 year old tank with a variety of other fish. I don't add pods regularly, but since she was added to a 2 year old, 75 gallon tank, I don't think that's a problem. She is fat and sassy!

 

be cautious with the bottled pods, some of the species in the bottles do well while others don't. I would buy different verities of live pods to get a pool of different pod species and buy some zooplankton to give them a solid food source. reefs 2 go sells them live and they did great in my tank.

a live rock rubble bed in the fuge and in the tank are also good ideas to give them some where to breed un-disturbed they don't have to be big and can make numerous small ones to give them more area.

 

great advice given to you thus far, personally i have had both good success with my old 50 gallon + sump setup and my current 120 without sump.

both mandarins did not eat prepared foods but i did wait a good year before adding.

here he is... picture quality isn't very good as he is very shy and isn't easy to capture of camera. he is nice and plump tough...

 

No disrespect Swiss but your Mandy is not plump imo. Just one of the MANY problems with this fish is its stomach is difficult to see.You should see no indentations around the head as these fish look fat in the wild.Heres some good links.While ORA is a step in the right direction they still have dreadfull long term survival rates and as one person has already stated its heartbreaking to watch them slowly starve to death.(this can take many months to occur) Pods like anything else in our system are food dependant.More animals+more food=dirty tank.It can be done of course but large well established systems with well picked tankmates are the only way to assure success.Target feeding an active eater can be a chore.Also they have tiny mouths so only pods of the right species and size can be consumed limiting the already decimated food chain.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-month/mandarin-dragonette-fotm-may-08-a-47991.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/tropical-fish/how-long-should-i-wait-get-mandarin-113142.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-food/mandarin-dragonet-feeding-117256.html