keeping green mandarin and dragonet together

[frizbit]

I've recently become fascinated with green mandarins, and I'm seriously considering bringing one home. To ensure I'm prepared, I'd love to hear from experienced owners - any advice or guidance you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I'm eager to learn and do what's best for my future pet, so thanks in advance for your input.

[zenfox8]

If you do some digging on this forum, you'll come across numerous threads on mandarin care, often misclassified as gobies or blennies. A common theme is their dietary needs. They're notoriously picky eaters, mainly consuming live pods that thrive in live rock. To maintain a stable pod population, you're looking at around 40-50 kg of live rock, which translates to a substantial tank size - think 80-100 gallons. Now, if you manage to get your mandarin to consistently eat frozen foods, a smaller tank, around 10 gallons, might be feasible in theory.

[frizbit]

If you do some digging on this forum, you'll come across numerous threads on mandarin care, often misclassified as gobies or blennies. A common theme is their dietary needs. They're notoriously picky eaters, mainly consuming live pods that thrive in live rock. To maintain a stable pod population, you're looking at around 40-50 kg of live rock, which translates to a substantial tank size - think 80-100 gallons. Now, if you manage to get your mandarin to consistently eat frozen foods, a smaller tank, around 10 gallons, might be feasible in theory.

I've always thought that bigger is better, right. But I guess that's especially true for green mandarins. Also, I've heard that a refugium is a must-have for these fish - is that really the case? Thanks for the response, zenfox8.

[floralix]

It's not a requirement if you've got a large enough tank, but typically it's necessary to maintain a sufficient pod population.

[frizbit]

I'd say a minimum of 80-100 gallons is what I'd consider 'big enough'.

[finleyz]

I've been eyeing those green mandarins for a while now, and from what I've found, they seem to require a pretty substantial setup - at least a 100-gallon established reef tank. Unfortunately, that's a bit out of my reach at the moment. Has anyone had success keeping them in a 55-gallon tank for an extended period, like a year or more? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

[flynix]

I'd say as zenfox8 mentioned, you can keep them in smaller tanks if they're eating frozen food, but it's pretty rare for them to stick to it. If your LFS claims they eat frozen, make them show you the fish eating it before you buy, some will lie just to make a sale. It's still best to be patient and wait a bit, even if it does eat frozen at first - at least by then you'll have some copepods established to supplement their diet, just in case they decide they don't want frozen anymore.

[zeno9]

You've also got the option to buy live copepods and give them to your mandarin a few times a week, but be warned, they don't come cheap - we're talking around £10 for 100ml, which gets you roughly 20 pods.

Another way to go about it is to culture them yourself in a small separate tank, or you could try building a couple of rock piles in a way that keeps the mandarin out - this should give the copepods a safe place to breed, hopefully resulting in more pods than your mandarin can eat.

Ideally, you want your copepods to be fully established and multiplying before bringing in a mandarin, otherwise you're putting the fish at risk, asking for trouble, or looking at a monthly pod bill of £20-£40.

I've been thinking of getting a fluxeonet myself - I've got nearly 30kg of live rock in my 180L tank, and I'm planning to add another 5kg and introduce a bottle of pods to let them establish themselves before I bring in the mandarin.

[finleyz]

You've also got the option to buy live copepods and give them to your mandarin a few times a week, but be warned, they don't come cheap - we're talking around £10 for 100ml, which gets you roughly 20 pods.

Another way to go about it is to culture them yourself in a small separate tank, or you could try building a couple of rock piles in a way that keeps the mandarin out - this should give the copepods a safe place to breed, hopefully resulting in more pods than your mandarin can eat.

Ideally, you want your copepods to be fully established and multiplying before bringing in a mandarin, otherwise you're putting the fish at risk, asking for trouble, or looking at a monthly pod bill of £20-£40.

I've been thinking of getting a fluxeonet myself - I've got nearly 30kg of live rock in my 180L tank, and I'm planning to add another 5kg and introduce a bottle of pods to let them establish themselves before I bring in the mandarin.

Actually you can get 200 pods for $10 from DeepB23.com. I was thinking about pods in the refug - do you think they can establish a colony in there and avoid getting sucked into the return pump? Of course some will get pulled out, but I'm wondering if the majority can stay in the refug and thrive.

[frizbit]

I've been eyeing those green mandarins for a while now, and from what I've found, they seem to require a pretty substantial setup - at least a 100-gallon established reef tank. Unfortunately, that's a bit out of my reach at the moment. Has anyone had success keeping them in a 55-gallon tank for an extended period, like a year or more? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

I was thinking along the same lines, actually. You could just add a small piece or two of live rock in there for the copepods to live in and multiply, that way they'd have a safe haven and a chance to establish themselves.