green mandarin question

[lionfishlover123]

i haven't been able to find much info on green mandarin fish. Does anyone know what would be a adequit living space for it. What would be some good tankmates? I am guessing puffers and lion fish would not.

 

[steelhealr]

Is this the fish you mean?

SH

 

[lionfishlover123]

yep

 

[GuppyDude]

went to a lame zoo a couple weeks ago and they had for a marine section, just one big 200g salt water tank. had one of those guys in it, he was very entertaining, wanted to stay and watch him play iv seen similar fish at my lfs that had a $50 price tag on them, but they weren't guite and pretty as that one, these had more orange, yellow and tan on them. gl with your search, ill keep and eye out for you

 

[Ed4567]

They normally require a medium/large amount of live rock to provide food (they only eat 'pods and other small creatures) unless you're lucky enough to get one which is taking frozen food.

I don't know too much about lionfish but I would have thought it would eat a mandarin fairly quickly.

 

[Navarre]

I recomend that you have a 100 gallon system for a mandarin thats not feeding on frozen food

 

[steelhealr]

I'll add that I hear more failure stories than successful one when keeping these fish in small tanks. Someone on this forum brought one home after being shown at the lfs that it ate brine shrimp. It since has died. As Navarre stated, it needs a large established tank with an established copepod population. SH

 

[superman]

I'll add that I hear more failure stories than successful one when keeping these fish in small tanks. Someone on this forum brought one home after being shown at the lfs that it ate brine shrimp. It since has died. As Navarre stated, it needs a large established tank with an established copepod population. SH

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It is the same in my experience as well and it is for this reason that I have come to recommend that even if the mandarin is eating frozen mysis (DO NOT TRY TO SUSTAIN ONE ON BRINE!) you must still have a large copepod population to suppliment your feedings of frozen mysis. The main thing to remember that mandarins have a very high metabolism, they need to eat about 90% of the time that they are awake. So to think that feeding a mandarin on only frozen mysis whenever you get a chance to feed (which would be only about 3 times a day for most people) would be a choice that would lead to the eventual demise of your prized mandarin. It is very hard to get a head when feeding these mandarins, once they start going skinny it is very hard to bring one back without a ton of natural food in the tank at all times.

 

[RPTPAUL]

From my experience with them I would go no smaller than a 20g tank for one and a 55g for 2. Basically with these guys it is a hit and miss if they survive, most of the time they usually die off because they are in a tank that is not well established. They thrive mostly on copepods and if you can get them to eat brine shrimp that is awesome but be careful once you see there stomach caving in a little that means they will be dieing soon because they are starving to death. It is very common for this species to do this so dont get discouraged. They need to be with docile tank mates that dont claim any territory and they need to be the first goby in the tank. Last of all they need lots and lots of hiding place the more the better.

 

[superman]

From my experience with them I would go no smaller than a 20g tank for one and a 55g for 2. Basically with these guys it is a hit and miss if they survive, most of the time they usually die off because they are in a tank that is not well established. They thrive mostly on copepods and if you can get them to eat brine shrimp that is awesome but be careful once you see there stomach caving in a little that means they will be dieing soon because they are starving to death. It is very common for this species to do this so dont get discouraged. They need to be with docile tank mates that dont claim any territory and they need to be the first goby in the tank. Last of all they need lots and lots of hiding place the more the better.

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It is exactly this attitude that kills so many mandarins. Don't get discouraged if they die?!! The only thing that makes this "common" is that people try to keep them in a 20-55 gallon tank and try to keep them alive feeding them brine shrimp! It is sad that people think that these fish can be kept in small tanks, and then think that they can go out and try to give people advice and end up perpetuating the killing of these beautiful fish. Mandarin Dragonets are not gobys!

 

[Navarre]

Ok lets get things i nto perspective now and keep tempers under control.
Superman is right however, I would not consider a mandarin in anything less than 100 gallons with a large amount of live rock. However, if the mandarin is eating frozen foods then a smaller tank can be used as the large size needed is not for swimming space.
I kept a mandarin in a nano tank happily on the pods that lived there and a daily supply of krill or mysis shrimp. I would advise against brine shrimp as a staple diet as its very poor nutritionally, (i have known fish to starve to death on a diet of brine shrimp alone)

 

[steelhealr]

There is a mandarin at my local lfs right now. So tempting. Such a beautiful animal. Walked away from it. IMO, there is no substitute for good judgment with a marine tank. Sometimes I am amazed at the survival abilities of some of these fish when it comes to capture, transport, acclimation. On the other hand, crashing a tank or slow starvation of an inhabitant is something I think we should avoid. SH