I am planning to get a mandarin and I want to make sure I don't add any animals that will actively compete with it for pods. From experience I know that a sixline wrasse would actively compete. I have also heard that sand sifting stars do. What about mini brittle stars in the sand? Please list any others that you may know of. Thanks.
What animals significantly compete with mandarins for food?
- Thread starter Meloco14
- Start date
Lots of fish will eat copepods. 
Do you have any idea what fish you are considering? It might be easier to start from there. Like Wrasser said, pretty much all wrasses will decimate copepod and amphipod pop'ns.
Fish that would be good include clowns, anthias, tangs, some gobies, blennies......
Do you have any idea what fish you are considering? It might be easier to start from there. Like Wrasser said, pretty much all wrasses will decimate copepod and amphipod pop'ns.
Fish that would be good include clowns, anthias, tangs, some gobies, blennies......
Thanks, I realize any omnivorous or carnivorous fish will eat pods if they get a chance, but I am trying to avoid anything that will actively hunt them down all day long like I saw my sixline wrasse do in the past. The only fish I have right now is a yellow watchman goby. Here is a list of the fish I am considering, and it will be in a 100 gallon sumpless tank, with a small hang on refugium.
High fin banded goby and pistol shrimp - possibly
Purple firefish or mated pair if I can find one
Orange skunk clown pair
Tang - see my other thread if you have suggestions
Fairy or Flasher wrasse - a small group of 3 or 4. <- my main concern
bartlett's anthias - a small group of 3 or 4
sunrise dottyback - possibly
mandarin
I was also considering a rainfordi goby, but from my other thread it sounds like they do not take to prepared foods well, and will need to hunt in order to survive much like the mandarin. So I will probably end up chosing one or the other.
Will fairy or flasher wrasse (species undecided) actively forage all day long like the sixline wrasse does? I'm assuming the answer is yes, so I may have to skip these guys. Let me know if anything else on the list may pose a problem...the dottyback maybe? Or if you have any other suggestions feel free to share. Thanks
High fin banded goby and pistol shrimp - possibly
Purple firefish or mated pair if I can find one
Orange skunk clown pair
Tang - see my other thread if you have suggestions
Fairy or Flasher wrasse - a small group of 3 or 4. <- my main concern
bartlett's anthias - a small group of 3 or 4
sunrise dottyback - possibly
mandarin
I was also considering a rainfordi goby, but from my other thread it sounds like they do not take to prepared foods well, and will need to hunt in order to survive much like the mandarin. So I will probably end up chosing one or the other.
Will fairy or flasher wrasse (species undecided) actively forage all day long like the sixline wrasse does? I'm assuming the answer is yes, so I may have to skip these guys. Let me know if anything else on the list may pose a problem...the dottyback maybe? Or if you have any other suggestions feel free to share. Thanks
I wouldn't add that dottyback to a tank with anthias or flashers/fairies due to aggression. It will also hunt down pods. Oh, just noticed the firefish as well. You can forget these living if you get that dottyback.
The fairies and flashers don't really forage on the rocks all that much. They will get a few IME but your mandarin should be fine IMO. Keep them well fed (you'll need to feed a lot for the anthias anyway) and you should be good.
I'd add those fish in this order, FWIW:
Goby and shrimp
Firefish
Flasher wrasses
Skunk clowns
Fairy wrasses
Anthias
Tang
.
.
.
mandarin after a year or year and a half.
The fairies and flashers don't really forage on the rocks all that much. They will get a few IME but your mandarin should be fine IMO. Keep them well fed (you'll need to feed a lot for the anthias anyway) and you should be good.
I'd add those fish in this order, FWIW:
Goby and shrimp
Firefish
Flasher wrasses
Skunk clowns
Fairy wrasses
Anthias
Tang
.
.
.
mandarin after a year or year and a half.
I think I've read that flatworms eat young/small pods - and considering the numbers of flatworms I have is probably inversely proportional to the LACK of small pods I see, it seems to make sense..
Hopefully, this guy does a better job on the flatworms than he does on the larger pods or I'm just going to have to watch the flatworm population wither by attrition.. :?
Hopefully, this guy does a better job on the flatworms than he does on the larger pods or I'm just going to have to watch the flatworm population wither by attrition.. :?
Meloco14":2sq62kui said:
The only pseudochromids you might consider are P. fridmani and P. sankeyi. They are fairly peaceful (again, in general) as dottys go. Even then, flashers and firefish would likely get harrassed. And if they do, they simply hide and refuse to feed, and then die.
Not always. Mandarin food are tiny. Many time we don't even see the food that they eat. Other carnivores eat larger food and will be feed by you. You can keep a large amount of small fish happy and well fed if you choose well.Meloco14":pyc0ltst said:
Consider Randall's shrimp goby Amblyeleotris randalli. This is a beauty, easy to care for and not at all shy.
Great fish. Either the purple or the red fire fish is great. Have the LFS keep them together in a tank for a week for you, then you know you have a pair.
Consider Pink skunk instead. I like the pink skunk bettter, and they stay smaller. I like a nice A. percula best.
Not even close here
You got to get a A. japonicusNo experience here. Heard that you got to kepp the lid on or they go carpet surfing.
No experience here. I think a 100 g tank may be too small. Consider the Yellowtail blue damsel, Chryiptera parasema. They are very colorful and a very good fish for a community tank unlike most other damsels.
A pair of Orchid dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani) is what you want for a community of non agressive fish. They are docile and will breed easy in your tank and their color have no comparison. You will get tank raise these day. Look closely because I see a large number with deformities due to in breeding. Make sure you don't get a similar looking fish, the Strawberry dottyback (P. porphyreus) which is one of the meanest of the dottyback.
Great choice. This fish is hardy if you give it food and it's beauty is secone to none.
How about a few jaw fish. IF you have money to burn then get Bluespotted Jawfish, Opistognathus rosenblatti. Otherwise O. aurifrons, the yellowhead Jawfish. It is hard to find more interesting fish for our tank.
Sixline and other wrassse in this genus is not recommended. Sixline wrasse is a aggresive wrase and will try to eliminate competitor by killing your Mandarin. I lost my female Mandarin to the sixline. The wrase peck her eyes, yes eyes, out and she starved to death.
Consider a Flameback or a Cherub angel. They are beautiful small angels. I never have them peck on my coral. Good feeding may have something to do with this. Consider Royal gramma, Gramma loreto. They are beautiful fish for a community. A harem will spawn in your tank.
Goodluck with your tank and enjoy. BTW, all the fish named above have spawned in my tank except the Yellow
head Jawfish.
GratefulDiver":2cg1r7ja said:8OMatt_Wandell":2cg1r7ja said:
Really!?! - Wow! - Thats cool 'cause I was already thinking I wanted a couple/few anyway, but I've been hesitant over bioload..
Guess I could start a new tank, move the clowns out and the chromis in.
Yup. I haven't gotten a chance to test it out with other Chromis spp., but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if others did it too. It seems very odd since they spend almost all their time picking stuff out of the water, not grazing the substrate.
Yellowtail blue damsel, Chryiptera parasema. Such vivid color, peaceful and hardy. This fish give the most color for the money. They spawn and feed coral and other fish too. Try them. You will not be sorry.GratefulDiver":3nqbvkyb said:8OMatt_Wandell":3nqbvkyb said:
Really!?! - Wow! - Thats cool 'cause I was already thinking I wanted a couple/few anyway, but I've been hesitant over bioload..
Guess I could start a new tank, move the clowns out and the chromis in.
Minh
Thanks for the advice Minh. I have always loved the personality of jawfish, and would love to have them. But I was under the impression that they needed like a 6" deep sand bed to burrow in. Is this true? My sand bed is currently about 3". I also know they are jumpers, but I will have to cover my tank anyway for the wrasse. How deep is your sand bed? Does your jawfish actually burrow in the sand?
Three inches of sand is plenty. Jawfish is one fo the fish that should be add early in the day because the chance that they jump after settleing down is nil. They need to have time to set up house before the night come. They like to be in the middle of the sand bed if they have enough rubble to make their caves, otherwise the go under a rock or in a corner of the tank.
If you want to have them setup in the middle of your open sand bed then place, then scoop a pocket of sand out where you want them to go, and fill this area with coarse rubbles, shells and other thin but relatively large to 1/2 inches or so. Also pile a small pile of same rubble there. If you have a fine sandbed, this pile is the most atractive site for your new Jawfish, and it is the place where he buit his home. All you need to do is to keep you and other member of you family from looking and scare hime for the first few days. Once he settle, he will duck into his home when threaten.
We all want to check and make sure our new fish is OK, refrain from doing this if you want him to live right in front of the tank, otherwise he may end up in a more secure position in the back of the tank.
You can also build his home for him by have a segment of PVC under the sand. Getting him to see his new condo that you build is a problem unless you think carefully and set it up acordingly.
I keep my Jawfish in the refugium first in the PVC tube to get him use to eatting. I provide hime with rubble to build his home in the display tank. He settled exactly where I want him to be.
If you want to have them setup in the middle of your open sand bed then place, then scoop a pocket of sand out where you want them to go, and fill this area with coarse rubbles, shells and other thin but relatively large to 1/2 inches or so. Also pile a small pile of same rubble there. If you have a fine sandbed, this pile is the most atractive site for your new Jawfish, and it is the place where he buit his home. All you need to do is to keep you and other member of you family from looking and scare hime for the first few days. Once he settle, he will duck into his home when threaten.
We all want to check and make sure our new fish is OK, refrain from doing this if you want him to live right in front of the tank, otherwise he may end up in a more secure position in the back of the tank.
You can also build his home for him by have a segment of PVC under the sand. Getting him to see his new condo that you build is a problem unless you think carefully and set it up acordingly.
I keep my Jawfish in the refugium first in the PVC tube to get him use to eatting. I provide hime with rubble to build his home in the display tank. He settled exactly where I want him to be.
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