Mandarin and Tiger Goby in 90 gal.
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: Fish
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions about fish.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=79956
Printed Date: November 08 2024 at 9:18am
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Topic: Mandarin and Tiger Goby in 90 gal.
Posted By: Kromlech
Subject: Mandarin and Tiger Goby in 90 gal.
Date Posted: May 06 2016 at 10:22am
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Well as we all know mandarins and sand sifting gobies main food source is generally copepods/amphipods. Do you feel that by putting both of these species in the same tank would cause a shortage in food sources? And if so, how often would you think I would need to dose more copepods into the tank to keep both species successfully? ------------- 50.3 AIO Waterbox |
Replies:
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: May 06 2016 at 11:26am
| How old is your tank? |
Posted By: Kromlech
Date Posted: May 06 2016 at 2:00pm
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I'm not planning on putting either of them in till 3+ months down the road. But the tank is currently about 2 months old. I am more or less doing my research now so I don't have to do it later. I have a population of pods building now, so by the time they are introduced there should be a significant population. ------------- 50.3 AIO Waterbox |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: May 06 2016 at 4:56pm
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A similar question was asked last week. Maybe you saw it: http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=79891" rel="nofollow - http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=79891 My answer there applies to your tank, sort of  . To be more specific, that tank was quite mature, running for a long time before it was moved almost a year ago to the hobbyists home. In your situation, if my math and assumptions are correct, this newly set up clean tank will have been running only 5 months if and when a Mandarin and a Goby are added. It would be helpful if we knew how much live stuff was used in setup of your 90. More live stuff encourages a population of bugs, yet a bug population stops increasing at a point. There are other comments I could make, if you wan't to pursue this, to find out more of how to ready the tank for a Mandarin. It's really the Mandarin that is the worry. A Goby will take frozen and dry foods, even while it is sifting the LS and devouring the good bugs and worms that have just started to make their home there at 5 months. Aloha, Mark
 ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Kromlech
Date Posted: May 06 2016 at 5:30pm
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Thanks for the post, I just read it. I know I've read that mandarins usually don't thrive in tanks that are not well established with bugs. This is one of the fish that when I joined the salt water aquarium hobby with this tank here now, is one I knew I wanted to keep. So in some ways I am just planning for the inevitable day that I will get a mandarin fish  .The tank was originally built using Dry Fiji from BRS. I used only 40 lbs of live sand, I only wanted a 1-2 inch sand bed. For about the first month, I let the rock cure in the tank with the sand while also cycling. about a month ago I started doing major testing, and was getting 0 ppm Ammonia had 25 ppm Nitrites and 50+ ppm Nitrates. At this time, I did a large water change, my guess is roughly 65%. The day after that time, I dumped in a bottle of Instant Ocean Bio-Spira, and threw in a couple of ocillaris clowns, like my buddy suggested, and also went and got some Chaeto from another hobbiest that I found on here. which at that time he said it was crawling with bugs, which it was. Now Fast forward to today. My in sump refugium is now crawling with these bugs, and I would think it would only get bigger, starting yesterday, I've started taking a peice of algae from the sump and swishing it around the main tank after the lights go off at night, to hopefully populate the main tank with as many Copepods as possible. The tank inhabitants as of currently all appear to be doing well and are all eating healthily (including the corals  ) (2 Clowns, 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Tomini Tang, 2 Emerald Crabs, 1 Cleaner Shrimp, 8 Cerith Snails, 2 Zoa's, and 1 Acan). Test Perimeters are doing awesome for the past 2 weeks with no spikes at 0 ppm Ammonia, 0 ppm Nitrites, >5 ppm Nitrates, temp is steady at 78.6-78.8, Phosphates at 0.02 ppm, PH at 8.2 as of the last test. The Tomini Tang was my most recent addition to the tank, which he was added on Tuesday.Hopefully you have all the info you now need, and my 5 month minimum was only a base guess, I won't do it until I feel comfortable doing it, and I do have the fishes best interest in mind. ------------- 50.3 AIO Waterbox |
Posted By: Kromlech
Date Posted: May 06 2016 at 5:36pm
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I have also read in some cases Mandarins can be "taught" to eat mysis shrimp? Not sure how true this is, but if its the case could help in supplementing it as well. ------------- 50.3 AIO Waterbox |
Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: May 06 2016 at 6:17pm
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ORA breeds mandarins that are raised eating frozen food. They are a bit more expensive but it's the way I would go. I'd still give it some time though because I'm sure their programs haven't altered their genes enough to only eat frozen. ------------- RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin |
Posted By: laroc
Date Posted: May 09 2016 at 5:42pm
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I love it when you have achieved the experience and knowledge for the fish(s) or coral(s)that lured us into this wondering and amazing hobby. Mine are.... no where. Emperator angle ( which is changing) and the good austrailian haliquin tusk. Took me four years and I'm still not done as the 300 sits there stare at me.Only so much time on the day. I started with a three gallon pico. Any who keep up the good work and grow YOUR ocean!!! ------------- Always be leery of a fish farmer...wait or is it a pig farmer? |
Posted By: aceofspadeskb
Date Posted: May 10 2016 at 7:52am
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In my experience, Mandarins that are "taught" to eat frozen foods will only eat it if it is right in front of their face. They will not swim to frozen food. They are also skittish about approaching a turkey baster(at least mine was) so I had to drop food from the top of the tank and hope that A) other fish didn't eat it before it got to the mandarin sitting on the bottom of the tank and B) that the mandarin didn't move before the food got there. I'm not saying that frozen eating mandarin are a bad thing(it was my favorite fish!). Just be ready to put the effort in to keeping it healthy. RIP Kermit...I miss you  Kermit the Mandarin 2011 - 2015
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Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: May 11 2016 at 11:23am
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Good to know! It is exactly how my pygmy hawk fish is (probably because he is an anthias)...I have to turn off all the pumps so I can monitor his feeding. Pain in the butt, but a super cool fish. ------------- RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin |