Tank critters for my new Mandarin

Couple of thoughts for you, hope you find them helpful:

1) I've never heard an experienced salt keeper recommend anything smaller than a 75 gallon for mandarines, specifically b/c of the 'pod predicament.
Even then they recommend that the 75+ be well cycled and established.

2) The only way I know to increase infauna in your tank is to add a refugium, the bigger the better. My 15 gallon nano has a 20 gallon fuge, nearly all coral I've ever tried do fine, and I feed my fish maybe twice a week, if I remember.

3) Rotifers, to my knowledge, are way too small for a 3" mandarine to care about. Kinda like feeding an elephant a bag of flour.

4) Mandarines usually are good for about half of retail price if you should choose to trade them in for a yellow watchman goby or something :cool2:

TT, no offense but you should take the Mandarin back to the LFS, my friend.
I have seen these wild in the lagoons of Micronesia; they are beautiful but among the most difficult to care for in captivity, usually slowly starving in most hobbyists tanks; even those with years of experience.
Notice I did not say impossible; some have good success for years under proper care, but your tank is too small for this species and even an established pod colony will soon be exhausted. IMO, this is one of the species the industry needs to control distribution on, perhaps requiring a special license or permit for retailers. Millons have wasted away after being sold to unprepared hobbyists, and we need to deal with it now before radical groups ban all wild caught imports. Sorry for the soap box, I can only hope you understand and see the big picture.

It is possible to get Mandarins to eat prepared foods but its highly unlikely they will, its like buying a lottory ticket and expecting to win.

Just to give another point of view. I have had a mandarin in my 50 gal reef for about 2 years. It ate only pods for the first year, but has eaten frozen mysis for the last year. While I don't necessarily recommend mandarins for this size tank, it it possible. I would suggest adding at least 1 rock pile in your tank. This will give the pods a place to hide. A refugium is also a good addition to increase your pod population. Try feeding your tank cyclop eeze & phytoplankton. My last suggestion is to not add any other critters to your tank that eat pods. Good luck.

Brian

Brian, good to hear your success.
Are you using a refugium?

I do not have a traditional "refugium". I have a section of my sump where I have calerpa. But my live rock is two large circular piles on each side with a large rock in the middle creating a tunell/bridge effect. The mandarin loves hunting in the rock piles for pods.

Hey, Brian don't take this wrong I don't know how old your guy was when you bought him . I have a friend that's had a mandrin for about 8 or 9 years . Mines 2 and a decent size "gray spot" about 2 inches give or take a quarter inch and I don't think that she's full grown yet. Your fuge plan will help some but I'm afraid you'll pretty much have to rip the little nano apart to get at them ,"please try it though if you want to keep him." You might be better off trying the macro and l.r. rubble not chunks also in your main tank put little dense piles of l.r. rubble here and there it will help out the population some.
Even if you can get them to eat prepaired foods it's not really much of a solution IMO. They eat pretty much the whole time that they are awake "the piggies of the marine world." Something you might try if you are really in a pinch though is raising your own brine in addition to the pods. While they are usually pretty low in nutritional value you can change that by feeding the brine spirulina, cod liver oil or omega 3 oils, brewers yeast and white fish powder . You might also consider setting up another tank with a bunch of rubble add some pods and feed them the same diet . Scoop up some of the rubble in a fine plancton net etc and pick out the rocks.
hth
chris