Mandarin Gobies

jessie

AC Members
Mar 3, 2004
448
0
0
51
indiana
Visit site
I have a friend that decided he needed a Mandarin Goby in a 10 gallon tank. Of course, I told him that it was too small of a tank, but he bought it anyway and now he wants to give it to me and I already have one Mandarin Goby in a 135 gallon tank. Is there any problem with having two of them in the tank as far as territory and space? I have 2 Percula's and a flame angel in the tank also. My pod population is great and they have plenty of breeding spots and I know that they eat a lot of pods. Do you think that there will be a problem with having two Mandarin Gobies in my tank?
 
Might be a big problem Jessie . If you have two males you'll have wwwIII. Two females no problem or male and female no problem. You can sex them by the length of their fins if they are mature. Males fins are longer and much fuller than the girls.
hth
chris
 
i knew mine was a male, but i havnt seen his yet. he said last night that he might keep it in there. so i convinced him to go buy some pod cultures from inland aquatics if he does. i was told by the guy at my lfs, who seems to be quite knowledgable, that males top fins have a longer extnesion on them. does anyone know if thats correct?
 
Yes, it is correct unless the male is a juvenile . As far as your friend buying pods he better get them often and in quanity. Mandarins will VERY quickly consume any of them he puts into the tank. He doesn't really have to have a lot of l.r. and a well established tank for these guys to do much more than hang on.
sorry
*** edit changed you to he***
 
Last edited:
I put a second mandarin in my tank as a temporary rescue situation.
Immediately they attacked each other even though I released the new one in the opposite end of the tank where the my mandarin could not see it.

I know my tank is much smaller than yours, but they are extremely aggressive. I truly believe they would have fought to the death if I had not intervened.
 
get some cyclop eeze and see if he will eat that if not find a really good seafood market or asian food store and buy seaurchin eggs and/or flyingfish eggs. This is a good way to get one to start eating prepared foods.
 
he has decided to make his 46 bowfront a salt tank. i told him it would take a while that before he could put the mandarin in there but he has been buying pod cultures every week. will a 46 support enough pods for a mandarin. just want to know if he will need to keep buying pods for it.
 
He'll need to keep buying, especially initially, or if there is competition for the pods from another fish. I had a mandarin in a 50 invert tank--he was the only fish. He could wipe out all the pods pretty quickly. Moved him to a 65 that was plumbed in with 115 more gallons of tanks with rock, plus a sump, and no other competitors, and he still kept the pod numbers really low, even after he started taking prepared foods.
 
Depends on what the substrate. If you covered the bottom with an inch or so of live rock rubble and almost no sand underneath it would easily generate enough pods to feed a mandarin. Live sand and tidy piles of rock are no good. Most peoples tanks aren't tooled up for pod production.
My opinion
 
AquariaCentral.com