What is considered "mature"?

[chickenofthesea]

I am looking to add my next fish sometime in the near future. The fish I want to add is a Mandarin Goby. Everything I read about them always says they should be added to a mature system. What does this mean exactly? Is there an amount of time? Or just curtain things that should be developed in your system before it is "mature". The only reason I can find that these guys are "difficult" to care for is their diet. I have copepods gilore breeding in my tank, am I missing something key? I have a mixed reef so I know my parameters are good.

 

[akunochi]

Mature refers to a tank that has developed a wide spectrum of biological filtration and additional life that helps to sustain the balance and demands of the ecosystem in your tank.

In reference to mandarins. I have kept them in a relativley young tank. The reason they are listed as requiring a mature tank is because they are very finicky eaters and often will not eat a prepared food. They rely on the copepods in your system to thrive and feed. I usually run a very large refugium and seed it with several bags of pods then wait a few months before introducing my dragonet style fish.

 

[Aquanaut]

You could look at buying pellet fed goby's that are tank raised. Barrier Reef or RedC could order them for you.

 

[chickenofthesea]

so it sounds like its just the pods. My class, rock and sand are crawling with pods. I could always seed my tank with more whenever I see they are thinning.

 

[akunochi]

You could look at buying pellet fed goby's that are tank raised. Barrier Reef or RedC could order them for you.

Yes but keep in mind these are about 4 times the cost of a normal wild caught dragonet.

 

[Tecnomage]

Also I've had problems getting them to stay eating prepped food. When put in a reef tank there are reports of them going back to copepods and ignoring all other prepped food. My own experience with them was not positive I tried every food listed on the ORA site and couldn't get them to eat any. I'd follow akunochi's advice and just set the system up so you'll always have plenty of pods.

 

[user 26995]

so it sounds like its just the pods. My class, rock and sand are crawling with pods. I could always seed my tank with more whenever I see they are thinning.

I think you should be good to go with getting a mandarin. As long as you have a refugium where they can safely breed you will have a consistant supply for a mandarin. And if your concerned about it, you can restock periodically. For the first year and a half I addd more pods to my tanks every 5-6 months. I have not added any now for about 6 months. I am finding pods in my tank that are a good 4-5mm so there must be more in there than what the mandarin needs. And hes fat!
Anyway, good luck with your new fish and enjoy. They are really pretty.
Will you be getting the blue, red or green spotted mandarin?

 

[chickenofthesea]

Thanks IPisces, Im not sure. Im going to start looking around local LFS and on here to see if anyone has any and what is available. I think they are all pretty awesome looking. Not sure you can go wrong.

 

[DonW]

What size tank is this? Dragonettes will wipe out a pod population real quick in a smaller tank.


Don

 

[Zoanthrope]

i was thinking about a mandarin a while back and I came across this blog of a guy trying to get over the feeding issue. in the end he had luck with fish roe.

Caring for a Mandarin Goby

 

[Tecnomage]

i was thinking about a mandarin a while back and I came across this blog of a guy trying to get over the feeding issue. in the end he had luck with fish roe.

Caring for a Mandarin Goby

I had the best luck with fish roe, they would occasionally pick at it but not enough for long term sustainability.

 

[chickenofthesea]

I have a 42g column with about 55lbs of live rock. I will adding a sump in the near future. Also, not so worried about population if I can just go buy more pods to repopulate. I do have and area in my tank where the pods can populate and hide that the fish cant get into now.