Mandarin Green Goby

[dragon79]

The information was found at marine depotlive.com and I had a question to ask of you guys/gals with experience with this particular goby...

The diet it says it likes to eat....is it true? The reason why I question what the site says is that, my friend says he's had them, but they wont eat, flakes, they wont eat brine shrimp, or worms. Says they are like the blennys and they eat copepods and Amphipods and they won't adapt. In your experiences, is this true with you guys/gals as well?



Mandarin, Green - Pterosynchiropus splendidus
Also known as: Striped Mandarinfish
The Pterosynchiropus splendidus grows up to 2.5 inches. The Mandarin, Green prefers a tank of at least 20 gallons with plenty of places to hide & swim. The Pterosynchiropus splendidus is a carnivore and likes to eat variety of foods, especially brine shrimp, worms, flakes. The Mandarin, Green is a medium maintenance fish and may act semi-aggressively toward other fish. It doesn't get along with other conspecifics. This is a fairly hardy fish. Able to breed. Reef-safe. Gobies may sometimes attempt jump out. Needs places to burrow. Prefer presence of substrate. The most colourful of commonly found fish for marine aquarium enthusiasts. Its appetite is not the easiest to satisfy. Commonly called dragonets which are charactistize by elongated bodies,without scales,and also by the presence of two dorsal fins. Keep water quality high (SG 1.020 - 1.025, pH 8.1 - 8.4, Temp. 72 - 78° F).

 

[incysor]

The information was found at marine depotlive.com and I had a question to ask of you guys/gals with experience with this particular goby...

The diet it says it likes to eat....is it true? The reason why I question what the site says is that, my friend says he's had them, but they wont eat, flakes, they wont eat brine shrimp, or worms. Says they are like the blennys and they eat copepods and Amphipods and they won't adapt. In your experiences, is this true with you guys/gals as well?



Mandarin, Green - Pterosynchiropus splendidus
Also known as: Striped Mandarinfish
The Pterosynchiropus splendidus grows up to 2.5 inches. The Mandarin, Green prefers a tank of at least 20 gallons with plenty of places to hide & swim. The Pterosynchiropus splendidus is a carnivore and likes to eat variety of foods, especially brine shrimp, worms, flakes. The Mandarin, Green is a medium maintenance fish and may act semi-aggressively toward other fish. It doesn't get along with other conspecifics. This is a fairly hardy fish. Able to breed. Reef-safe. Gobies may sometimes attempt jump out. Needs places to burrow. Prefer presence of substrate. The most colourful of commonly found fish for marine aquarium enthusiasts. Its appetite is not the easiest to satisfy. Commonly called dragonets which are charactistize by elongated bodies,without scales,and also by the presence of two dorsal fins. Keep water quality high (SG 1.020 - 1.025, pH 8.1 - 8.4, Temp. 72 - 78° F).

Sorry, but all the sites say the same things about these fish, and it's bulls$$t. Do a search for "mandarin" on RC. These fish need a very mature 30-50gal tank to survive. Preferably with a refugium that will help keep the tank supplied with copepods and amphipods which is ALL THEY EAT. Even in a decent sized tank, with a fuge it's likely that if they're kept with other fish that eat the same food they'll starve. Mandarins shouldn't be kept with many wrasses for this reason, except in very large tanks. The wrasses are simply much faster hunters/swimmers and will out-compete the mandarins for food.

There are people that have successfully managed to get mandarins to eat frozen brine, mysis, or bloodworms. If you find one in a shop, grab it. These fish are extremely rare finds. I was ecstatic when my male mandarin went after live brine after it had been in the tank for more than a year. These fish are beautiful and extremely peaceful, and not shy. However they are not suitable fish for nano tanks. In fact the only way I could see putting one in a nano would be if you had your nano plumbed to a much larger system that would ensure a constant supply of copepods/amphipods for it.

B

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Good post incysor.

I have a mandarin in my 30 cube...I've had him for several months and the only thing he will accept is live brine. Unfortunately live brine has next to no nutritional value, so I add selcon to the brine's water and plan to add a bit of marine snow to the next batch of brine I get.

My mandarin is constantly hunting through the LR for pods. I'm sure it has decimated my amphipod population but I still have a good amount of copepods visible on the LR. Right now I have about 45-50# of LR in the tank and have another 10# or so cycling in a bucket to add to the tank. I think I'll take a hammer to one of the rocks and create a rubble pile near the back corner of the tank so the pods will have a safe place to breed. Hopefully that will help bump up the population a bit.

I know this poor guy isn't getting enough to eat. It's evident in his lean abdomen. If after taking these next measures, there is no improvement in this fish's appearance (shrunken belly as opposed to the fat bellies on my other fish), this poor guy is being taken back to the reef store and hopefully someone with a larger system can provide a better environment for it.

In all honesty, I proably shouldn't have attempted to keep this fish given its need to feed on pods 24/7, but my tank has been running for 11 months now and 2/3 of the contents of it were from my other two well established nanos (2 yrs old each) I figured there'd be plenty of pod life to keep it fat and happy. I can now see that I was sadly mistaken and as I mentioned, if the addition of the extra LR and rubble pile don't make a difference, the fish goes back.

There are some things we just shouldn't attempt to keep unless we can provide them with ALL their needs.

 

[dragon79]

Thanks guys!

Very insightful information!

I am now thinking of perhaps in the future a bi-colored blenny or a lawn mower blenny to take care of the algae that my take will incur in the future. I like the bi-colored one, it's tight and seems like he'd be well fed on plenty of algae that he can eat of the live rock and tank in general...what do you think guys? Are they pretty high maintenance too or no?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

The bicolor is an excellent choice. I've had one for about a year and a half now and love that fish! Lots of personality! Not the least bit high maintenence.

 

[incysor]

Re: Thanks guys!

Very insightful information!

I am now thinking of perhaps in the future a bi-colored blenny or a lawn mower blenny to take care of the algae that my take will incur in the future. I like the bi-colored one, it's tight and seems like he'd be well fed on plenty of algae that he can eat of the live rock and tank in general...what do you think guys? Are they pretty high maintenance too or no?

I really love both of these fish. They both have great personalities and are generally pretty peaceful. If you're looking for algae maintentance and are choosing between them go with the lawnmower, not the bi-color. I've never really seen either of my bi-colors go after algae all that much. The lawnmowers are at it constantly though.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

good point incysor. The lawnmower would be the better choice for algae removal. Even though bicolors are listed as herbivores, the lawnmower is the more voracious hair algae muncher of the two.

I don't think I ever saw my bicolor touch any of the hair algae I used to have.

 

[dragon79]

aww

I guess I'll have to have a lot of luck to see if I can get a blenny with looks like the bi color and that has a great appetite to pick up that algae growth. I dont expect it do go buck wild, but that it eats, and lives! hehe. As for the lawnmower, he's ugly! lol. Since the transition of fresh water to salt water, I am totally diggin' the fish with bright colors and that do different things. It's intense. Of course the corals, polyps, and what not are amazing too! The sea world is sooooooo dope!!

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

lawnmowers aren't ugly! I think they have the coolest face. Red lipped blennys are pretty cool looking too.

 

[ExiledInfidel666]

he means its not bright purple, blue yellow pink red green and orange with black and white contrasting markings royal grammas, flame angels, manderins, etc

 

[mikeguerrero]

Never had a algae blenny but their face is very cool. They have long lips, sort of reminds me of the Chicago ganster Bugsy malone. You know, the character in Bugs Bunny that say Yeahhh Yeahhh and has big lips....

There overall color isn't that colorful against the bi-color. But they do get big. I'd host a bi-color in your size nano Dragon. But make sure you get the smallest one.

I purchased today a six line wrase, baby size, never seen it sooo small it's about this long:

>-------- >

I asked my wife for a digital camera for x-mas and she said cool. It was either stock my new 2.5 or the camera,,,, man I can't wait to take pics of my two tanks,,, I'm over due.....

MIke

 

[dragon79]

about blenny

Mike:

I looked around today looking for either the bi color blenny or a lawnmower blenny with no luck! I saw one lawnmower, but he was way too big at this local place I went to. He was like 4 nemos put together or so. I guess I'll have to venture farther to "TONGS" in Fountain Valley will get a shipment tomorrow, so perhaps I may be able to get one there, and perhaps a few blue legged hermit crabs. I'll KIT.

 

[mikeguerrero]

I saw your video of your bi-color blenny. He looks awesome and very healthy. I love the way he took to eating algae right away and what ever he stirs up Nemo is right behind eating the left overs. I wish the reefers could see your 30 sec clip.

Maybe you can post on another website so they can see your action. Your algae growth looks like your blenny is in for some lawn mowing....

Mike

 

[dragon79]

bi-color blenny

I saw your video of your bi-color blenny. He looks awesome and very healthy. I love the way he took to eating algae right away and what ever he stirs up Nemo is right behind eating the left overs. I wish the reefers could see your 30 sec clip.

Maybe you can post on another website so they can see your action. Your algae growth looks like your blenny is in for some lawn mowing....

Mike

Yeah, my bicolor is munching away the algae like crazy. The diatoms of the tank were bad on the rock, but in two days I've had mr. jar jar (bicolor) he's been doing nothing but non-stop eating, but at the same time for all the eating he's been doing, he's been crapping more than anybody, and his crap is very visible. I'm currenlty using like this turkey baster I got from the 99 cent store and sucking all of that solid stuff out of there. At least the rock doesn't look all crazy now, it actually looks almost back to normal again. (stay alive lil blenny, clean my tank!!)