Green Mandarinfish

goroboy

goroboy

AC Members
Jul 15, 2007
68
0
0
Today I went to the store and was completely captivated by a specimen of this rare but beautiful species (Synchiropus splendidus), but I wanted to make some research about it before considering buying it.
I'd appreciate the comments and tips from people who keep one of this, anything you can tell me about it will be of great help.
My tank has been running for about 6 months. The tank specs are the following:

60 L Reef TankEquipt.-Filtration:Dolphin 500H cascade filter, counter-current Oddisey Skimmer, Sunny 1200 Power FilterLighting:Dymax 14 W 12,000 K white light T5, Dymax 14 W Blue Moon Actinic T5Other:150W heater with thermostat, 11.5 kg of assorted live rock, 4 kg of coral sand and 2.5 kg of live sand from an established aquarium.Added elements:CombiSanFood:Fish;MarineGro granules, AntiBacterial granulesCorals & Inverts;chopped fish, chopped shrimp, ChromaPlexInhabitants:Fish:2 Chrysiptera Parasema (Yellowtail Blue Damselfish)Inverts:Chocolate Chip Starfish (Protoreastor nodosus ?), Harlequin Crab, 1 Hermit crab, 3 Turbo Snails, 1 (rather big) Coral Banded Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus).Corals:Soft Polips growing on the live rock, 2 Sunflower Corals (Tubastreae Faulkneri)
 
Well, they aren't exactly rare in the U.S. anyway. They are very hardy if you can give them what they need which is a tank of around 180 litres that has been established for 4 or 5 months and crawling with pods. All they eat are copepods and yes you can buy them or rear them but, your mandrin will most likely starve with out a very steady supply. Some of them can be trained to or figure out how to eat mysis but, I would insist on seeing it happen prior to purchasing one of these fish.

They are nice fish but, I wouldn't buy one until you can provide them what they need very sorry to be a bore.
Max
 
agreed I bought one, at the time my tank was roughly 7 months old. But I do have a TON of LR so far hes been in there and looks full. There are two kinds of mandarins the spotted and then the reg green ones. (yes i know they are both green) they are rather inexpesive as well, but if you dont have the food for them they tend to parish off, I feed mine (well the whole tank really) live brine shrimp every 2 weeks or so.
 
It doesn't appear you have a fuge, I'd skip one unless you plan on adding it and giving pods a place to thrive to be able to keep up with the dragonette's needs. And Max is right, they aren't that rare here in the states, great looking fish but I've not braved one personally. Have cared for them but not kept one in my own tank.
 
oh, yes and I forgot to mention you'll want around 23 kilo's of live rock to make sure it can find a bite to eat .
 
Before I brought mine I kept adding a load of pods to the tank once a month. The majority of my rock was 3 years old so I knew there would be a fair bit of life on it but I wanted to make sure. He certainly isn't starving, he's got a right fat belly on him.

new tank 186.jpg
 
I've heard that, if you don't have a fuge, you can make small piles of rock rubble around your tank, so nothing can get in there and eat the pods and they can proliferate. Might have to 'seed' them with a bottle or two of tiggerpods.

And then, of course, wait a few months till you see pods in your tank.

Mine like to hang out on my magfloat, by the hundred...probably eating the crap it scrapes off the sides.
 
I have a green spotted one,,i wonted one forever but after all the research I did I decided not to get one till I knew my tank was ready.My tank is 6 months old,135 gallons and when my pod population got to the point that I could see them crawling all over my glass during the day I figured I was ready.Also the pods in my tank were not tiny little ones they were big fat ones,,easy to see..lol..The bigger the tank and the more the rock the better.I have had her a month or so and she hasn't made a dent in the pods in my tank..
 
where is the best place to buy pods from if i wanted to jump start my tank where would you suggest buying them?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom