I have a 90 gallon with a 20 gallon sump. I have a little mini fuge going on in my sump. I have a bowl with a little bit of cheato and a couple of pieces of rubble rock. I have about 95 lbs. of live rock. For fish i have 3 green chromis, 2 tru perc clownfish, algae blenny, yellow watchman goby, purple firefish, flame angel, royal gramma and a foxface. Remember my fuge is just a little bowl but its still something. Would i be able to keep a mandarin without a problem or no?
Can i keep a mandarin?
- Thread starter jfingers8
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Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Probably not quite yet. There is no absolute rule, but typically each one needs a mountain of rock teeming with many 1000s of pods. Usually when one needs to ask the question, the answer is to be patient and you'll be rewarded with a growing happy and fat fish. Otherwise these amazing critters slowly starve to death.
From the system information you provided, your system has a relative bio load capacity of about 24 bio load units.
The current nitrogen producing inhabitants are putting a load on the system of about 27 bio load units. You've pretty much maxed out the bio load on the system. Any minor thing going wrong could cause one or more fish to become ill and/or die. If you had a total of about 150+ pounds of live rock, I'd say you are perfectly set.
I'd suggest moving the Foxface to a larger aquarium. Besides being good for the fish, it will bring the bio load of your system to a good level.
Mandarin? I think the above says it. No for now, IMHO.
The current nitrogen producing inhabitants are putting a load on the system of about 27 bio load units. You've pretty much maxed out the bio load on the system. Any minor thing going wrong could cause one or more fish to become ill and/or die. If you had a total of about 150+ pounds of live rock, I'd say you are perfectly set.
I'd suggest moving the Foxface to a larger aquarium. Besides being good for the fish, it will bring the bio load of your system to a good level.
Mandarin? I think the above says it. No for now, IMHO.
LakeEd
Achilles
You are doing EXACTLY what you need to do before purchasing anything for your tank... and that is asking questions, researching, and asking more questions!
I don't think we can begin to say if your system would support a mandarin without knowing more about it than you've posted here. How long have you had your system setup? What is your water flow like? What types of corals (if any) do you have? What are your water parameters (amonia, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates, pH...SG)? What type of lighting do you have? Do you currently have an extreamly healthy population of Pods in your tank?
The more you are able to tell people about your system, the more they will be able to tailor their answers to your system.
I will agree with you though... the beautiful paterns on the mandarin's make them one of the most desireable fish out there to own!
I don't think we can begin to say if your system would support a mandarin without knowing more about it than you've posted here. How long have you had your system setup? What is your water flow like? What types of corals (if any) do you have? What are your water parameters (amonia, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates, pH...SG)? What type of lighting do you have? Do you currently have an extreamly healthy population of Pods in your tank?
The more you are able to tell people about your system, the more they will be able to tailor their answers to your system.
I will agree with you though... the beautiful paterns on the mandarin's make them one of the most desireable fish out there to own!
My tank has been setup for a little over 5 months but if i get a mandarin i plan on getting it when the tank hits a year, for flow i have 2 1200 maxi-jet powerheads and a return pump but not sure how much flow that pushes out but its a good amount, for corals i have a lobo brain, torch coral, avelopora, green star polyps, 3 rics, bubble coral, small frag of zoos and a candy cane coral, my water parameters are good temp 78 s.g 1.025 ammonia, nitrates and nitrites 0, PH 8.2. i have t-5 lighting and i do have some pods but i can't say that i have a exremely good population of them right now and are pods visible in cheato because i don't really see anything but little brittle stars?
LakeEd
Achilles
It sounds to me as if you have already done your research into owning a Mandarin... knowing that the more mature your tank setup is, the better for it!
Not owning a Mandarin myself, but I do have a Scooter Bleanie... which is also mostly a pod eater... what I found that helped my system with its Pod development, was adding a couple of bottles (about 2 months between additions) of Adelaide Rhodes' "Ocean Pods". She is one of Reef Frontiers Sponsors, and I think her product was instrumental in helping my tank's pod production get to where it is today.
Not owning a Mandarin myself, but I do have a Scooter Bleanie... which is also mostly a pod eater... what I found that helped my system with its Pod development, was adding a couple of bottles (about 2 months between additions) of Adelaide Rhodes' "Ocean Pods". She is one of Reef Frontiers Sponsors, and I think her product was instrumental in helping my tank's pod production get to where it is today.
... what I found that helped my system with its Pod development, was adding a couple of bottles (about 2 months between additions) of Adelaide Rhodes' "Ocean Pods". She is one of Reef Frontiers Sponsors, and I think her product was instrumental in helping my tank's pod production get to where it is today.
I did the same thing in my tank and in the fuge you can see them swimming all over the place.
i have four ten gallon tanks that I use to keep a culture of pods. I really love culturing them and then dosing my fuge and tank with them. I have low bioload on a 6 year old 75g tank and dose pods every week. my mandarin is still skinny. I am barely able to keep her alive. IMO I think youll starve it slowly.
i think its always worth waiting to add a manderin and a rufugium helps the main tank to feed a population of pods. it is also good to add more corals that may have flatworms on the as they also feed manderins although you dont go looking flatworms they will be their at some point. in reeftanks manderins are used to control flatworms in a very natural way.
