How small of a tank for a mandarin?

[Salty Brother]

Ok, here is my plan, bear with me becuase I know that you arnt supposed to have them in small tanks, but I was wondering if this would work.
In about a year I would like to start up a 10gal aga tank. It would have a ac fuge, and some pc lighting for some softies and lps. I would start it with new sand, then seed it with stuff from my tank, then also give water to the new tank next water change. Then buy cured LR. Once it is all but together and sits for about 2 weeks, I would buy thoes pods in a bottle and dump them all into the tank. About 2 weeks later then (if the pod population was up) I would put in 1 or maybe a pair of mandarins. They would be the only fish in the tank.
How does this sound, anyone else tried it?
Thanks,
Patrick:)

[Reef_bones]

I wouldn't advise it...

I kept a mandy for about a year in a 20g tank with a 10g fuge. Everything was great till I came home and the sucker had commited carpet suicide....POOR MANDY :(

It will take longer than 2 weeks for your pod population to get enough numbers to host a mandarin....

[Salty Brother]

ya, thats what I was worried about people saying, Id like to get one in my 40, but do you think a sixline would compete with it?

[IsaaX]

A few yrs ago I put a Mandarin in my 40g. At that time I didn't know much about them except the fact it looked really cool and was readily eating flake food at the LFS. It was a whole different story once I brought it home though. It didn't go for any flake or any other foods I offered. Instead it cleared out my pod population and ended up dying a slow death from starvation due to the pods being all eaten up.

Just something to consider when taking one of these guys, especially if you already have a six-line.

[loup]

Mandarin eats ton of pods. If you have a fuge and can keep up with the population then maybe in your 40 (not 10g). I can't imagine someone supplementing pod population from purchase bottle, those bottle are expensive. I'm patiently waiting for at least another 3 months to get mated manadarin into my 225 as I want to make sure I have tons of pods.

Also there's been quite a few thread on sixline being overly aggressive with new tankmates.

[Phyto]

Sixlines will eat your pods too. Try to get a bigger tank. Set up your fuge with some chaeto. Add some live or base rock to your display. Add the pods and let your tank sit untill it becomes apparent that you have a pod farm and not so much a fish tank. Then add your Mandarin.

[Salty Brother]

I have a 38gal sump and a very large part of that is a fuge, with sand and chaeto, and Im going to get some rock in it too. So the real question is can I keep a sixline and a mandarin??
Thanks again
But I still want to buy one of thoes pod things, its $30 for a bottle, and I would add half to the display, and half to the fuge.

[Sk8r]

Sixlines and mandarins don't get along well, not only from the standpoint of pods, but also because some sixlines may aggress.

I have a 52 and a lot of rock, with cheato in the sump, and I feed phyto to keep the pods up. My mandy is finally getting fat...especially since my skimmer backed up for a few days while I was on vacation and started dumping skimmate into the sump. I think pods must eat some stuff other than algae, because the mandy fattened visibly while I was gone.

Seriously, I would say you can do it only if you are willing to spend 60.00 per month on shipped pods. That's how much one will eat.

[Travis L. Stevens]

I highly recommend that you don't do this. To house a mandarin in any small tank takes serious diligence that most people cannot offer. The average person would do better if there was at least 75-90lbs of good, porous rock for the mandarin to hunt and the pods to breed in.

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7826219#post7826219 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Salty Brother
ya, that's what I was worried about people saying, Id like to get one in my 40, but do you think a sixline would compete with it? Besides having heard stories of 6-lines poking the eyes off mandarins , they are one of the most voracious pod eaters you can buy

The 10g tank will be too small and the fish will starve unless you train it to eat other foods. Nutritious other foods would be necessary. Live brine shrimp is the easiest food to get them eating but it isn't nutritious enough.

If you do this against all advice - get the tiniest spotted mandarin you can find. they stay smaller and some say are easier to train on other foods.

That said - I think you aren't swimming upstream, you're fighting a losing battle

Sorry - but I have to agree with the other posters :)

[Salty Brother]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7827135#post7827135 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angel*Fish
Besides having heard stories of 6-lines poking the eyes off mandarins , they are one of the most voracious pod eaters you can buy

The 10g tank will be too small and the fish will starve unless you train it to eat other foods. Nutritious other foods would be necessary. Live brine shrimp is the easiest food to get them eating but it isn't nutritious enough.

If you do this against all advice - get the tiniest spotted mandarin you can find. they stay smaller and some say are easier to train on other foods.

That said - I think you aren't swimming upstream, you're fighting a losing battle

Sorry - but I have to agree with the other posters :)

I dont mind, I dont really need to have a mandarin, I was just wondering, does anyone know if a royal gramma would fight with a sixline, the gramma would be added first.

[Travis L. Stevens]

I've seen them have occassional tiffs, but nothing serious. I had those together without a problem before.

[Angel*Fish]

Hey it never ever hurts to ask -
I guess I'm kinda negative about adding 6-lines since they do eat pods like crazy (& possibly worms?) and they can get aggressive once mature. There are some pretty fairy wrasses out their that stay small. But I imagine the 6-line will be ok with the gramma. There are a lot of cool nano fish to look into if you are planning on staying put at 10g BTW :D

Thanks for serving our country and keeping us safe to sit around and argue over which tiny fish will get along with which :thumbsup:

[Salty Brother]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7827251#post7827251 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angel*Fish
Hey it never ever hurts to ask -
I guess I'm kinda negative about adding 6-lines since they do eat pods like crazy (& possibly worms?) and they can get aggressive once mature. There are some pretty fairy wrasses out their that stay small. But I imagine the 6-line will be ok with the gramma. There are a lot of cool nano fish to look into if you are planning on staying put at 10g BTW :D

Thanks for serving our country and keeping us safe to sit around and argue over which tiny fish will get along with which :thumbsup:

The reason I really want a six line is beause of there eyes, and that they eat pyramlilidid sp. snails, and I think I might have some and plan on adding clams later on
And I will tell my brother that you said thanks, hes currently in iraq training iraqi soliders.
:D

[CaptainPicard]

I personally woulnt add a mandarin or six line to anything short of 100 gallons, two is out the question, IMO...