Mandarin Goby New Tank

[Blumlein66]

I’ve now had my 30gallon tank for about 2 weeks and I’m absolutely loving it so far.

However I was really disappointed yesterday when I went to my local fish shop to ask for advice on which fish would be ok in a new tank. I said that I had tested my water and all my levels were fine. Being a novice I immediately liked the colours of the Mandarin Goby the gentlemen at the fish shop did not inform me of just how hard it is to keep one it was only when I got home and started researching I realised.

I have plenty of live rock in my aquarium and have bought a number of Copepods I’m just worried my fish is not eating.

Any advice about other foods I could try how I can ensure my fish is eating and how often to feed it would be appreciated.

 

[DaveK]

The best advice, return the mandarin goby and get something else. You really need about a 50 gal tank with about 50 to 75 lbs of live rock so the system can grow enough pods to support one mandarin, and this assumes you don't have any other fish such as wrasses that also feed heavily on the pod population. Also you have a new system so the pod population is not very well established yet.

If your still going to try, sometimes you can get them for feed on frozen bloodworms, or live white worms, but this depends upon the individual fish.

It may also be time to consider a new LFS store. They should have never sold you the fish without informing you about it's feeding requirements.

 

[Humblefish]

^^ Agree. A mandarin can eat 1000 pods per day. You really need a larger system with a refugium attached so the pods have an area to reproduce without being eaten.