[CHEMCHEF]

I purchased a set up 6gal nano from fish town fully stocked (overstocked).
there was a mandarin in the tank. i took him home and put him in my aquapod 24 he is eating mysis shrimp everyday. is this ok? will it be enough nutrition for him? he seems active and happy.

thanks for any feedback

[jackson6745]

eating frozen mysis?

[marki24]

i thought they eat pods.

[DCG1286]

AHHH The myth of the Mandarin...No way it could survive in a 6G...a 24G is pushing it...People say so many different things about this fish...I have seen the smallest tank 37G...they recommend 45-55...as long as you can get them to eat prepared foods...plus it's need for pods...you should have no trouble...I have a Scooter Dragonet in my 45...eats anything and everything...and is such a little piggy! But he didn't eat prepared foods for like 2 weeks...just the pods around the tank...well...personally i wouldn't take the risk in such a small tank even if he is eating prepared foods (mysis etc.etc.) he still needs a plentiful natural food source for optimum health.

Good luck!!!!

-DCG

[marki24]

YOur blenny might survive on the food now but i have a feeling sooner or later he will become picky and die out of starvation. I had the same thing with mine and it lived for 7 months and then it died out of starvation, he ate like a pig in the beginning and then one month started to just got on a permanent diet. RIP blenny

[DCG1286]

Quote: Originally Posted by marki24 YOur blenny might survive on the food now but i have a feeling sooner or later he will become picky and die out of starvation. I had the same thing with mine and it lived for 7 months and then it died out of starvation, he ate like a pig in the beginning and then one month started to just got on a permanent diet. RIP blenny

+1 A 24G is too small to maintain a pod population that is required to care for one of these creatures.

[MikeyZO]

Check out this website. He gives a whole rundown of keeping a mandarin in a nano tank.

http://joshday.com/mandaringoby.htm

[jhale]

they had a mandarin in a 6 gallon tank?

[MikeyZO]

Quote: Originally Posted by jhale they had a mandarin in a 6 gallon tank?

I've seen that tank, but I never noticed a mandarin in it before. (btw, Im not a fan of that store, but its conveniently on the way home when I'm in dire need of certain dry goods.) Regardless, I know that they havent had any mandarins as of late, so it may have been a new fish they just got and put in there. Did you ask how long it was in there and what it was eating?

Quote: Originally Posted by marki24 i thought they eat pods.

Apparently its not uncommon for some LFS's to feed them things other than pods. Suffolk County Fish and Reef in Ronkonkoma has told me that when they get mandarins, they keep them well fed with pods but try to get them to eat other kinds of foods before they sell them. I've seen theirs eat frozen mysis, brine, and cyclopese. Im not saying this is a complete substitute, but if you can get it to continue to feed on live brine or frozen mysis/cyclopese, it will be better off then one that wont. If you read that article that I posted above, he got his to start eating roe (fish eggs) that he bought from an asian food store. You can also buy bottles of pods and add them once a month or so to keep the pod population up.

[KathyC]

I still wouldn't put one in a tank less than 100 g's..and only then if it has a place ..fuge, pod pile..to grow more pods naturally.
I did read that guys entire blog and the second part too and he went through at least 3 Mandarins before the blog stopped. Assuming he was successful I'd bet he would have continued the blog. He filled it up with a lot of assumptions and 'this should work' info and then failed to prove what he wrote. If those fish were all eating the things he said none would have starved to death..but that's pretty much how he does describe the deaths of them, and then goes back to say well 'maybe they weren't healthy when I got them'.

Chemchef..the issue with these fish is they graze..all day and (it seems)
night long. If you don't have the proper pod population --the little tiny ones that look like no more than specks -- or can't provide them on an ongoing basis multiple times per day, the chances are good that you will lose the fish. Mandarins have a bad habit of once they begin to starve, no matter how much food you add, they will not resume eating and just waste away.

There are always exceptions to the rule and I certainly hope that your guy is one of them but without a large enough tank that creates it's own sustaining pod population, the chances of successfully keep one of these fish is slim at best.