Mandarin Goby
- Thread starter ponyo
- Start date
Shrimp, yes, easy, no. Since they eat only live foods (different pods), unless your tank is fairly aged and has a great supply of pods, these fish tend to waste away in an aquarium. From what I've read they eat round the clock, so unless your tank is also fairly large they will eat all the pods available within just days or weeks, then they'll have no food.
Now, if you have a refugium or even a separate tank all together where you are successful at raising pods you may have a chance. Or if you actually see the mandarin eating prepared food - which is rare - you may have a chance.
Not to discourage you from getting one, just want to tell you the truth about them.
So, what are your tank conditions?
Now, if you have a refugium or even a separate tank all together where you are successful at raising pods you may have a chance. Or if you actually see the mandarin eating prepared food - which is rare - you may have a chance.
Not to discourage you from getting one, just want to tell you the truth about them.
So, what are your tank conditions?
+1 you need a large tank and/or a refuge to maintain a continuous pod supply UNLESS you are able to find one that has been trained to eat prepared foods. There is an aquaculture company called Ocean, Reefs and Aquariums (ORA) that will soon be providing retailers with captive bred mandarins eating prepared foods. I would imagine these will be a bit more $ but will be well worth it if everything I have read is true.
i have read an article by a guy who was breeding them, he suggests placing a new mandarin in a breeder net when you first purchase it, and feeding it live mysis shrimp. then you can try to get it to take frozen mysis. once its eating the frozen mysis, release it into the tank and you will have the best chance of keeping them alive. a bit of effort to 'train' them but surely worth it...
the mandarin is not a goby but a dragonette. Its an incorrect common name for Pterosynchiropus splendidus. these fish will also not live with shrimp like gobies do.
As every one else has said, these fish are very demanding to keep, and require live foods or to be trained onto frozen foods (not always successful and hard to do) They are best left to expert reefers or in the wild.
As every one else has said, these fish are very demanding to keep, and require live foods or to be trained onto frozen foods (not always successful and hard to do) They are best left to expert reefers or in the wild.
Yay for forum necro! :headbang2:
They eat a ton of pods. Their metabolism seems to be wired to constantly eat, rather then eat 1 or 2 meals a day like other fish. The problem with judging a pod population for keeping these fish seems to be that the pods like dirtier water then most people keep, especially if you go reef setup. In a setup designed to maximize pod growth, dragonets do okay. In a clean setup where pods struggle to get the food they need, dragonets starve.
I've heard mixed results on getting them on frozen foods and pellets. For some people it seems to work, for others it ends up still not being enough. It seems keeping these fish depends a lot on the individual tank, making it almost impossible to say whether a tank will work for them or not.