Thu May 29, 2008 12:59 am GMT   Reply      

i have a 37 reef, its been up for about a year. am i ready for a mandarin? my clown is a total jerk will he mess with them?

Thu May 29, 2008 7:35 am GMT   Reply      

the clown could mess with him ......clowns are funny great fish [I have three of them] but remember they are just damsels with pretty clothes, lol

Manderins on the other hand eat copepeds and "bugs" and don't really switch to prepared foods well {as a rule, not in all cases} so make sure your tank can support them........do a youtube search for them and look at their natural environments, they have beautiful footage on there......................then you can decide if your ready or not............good luck, they are incredably beautiful fish

awsome tank by the way

Boss

Thu May 29, 2008 1:29 pm GMT   Reply      

If your system is just the 37g without a refugium, then no and never will be unless you can get him eating prepared food.

A Mandarin just eating pods needs at least 150-200lbs live rock. That is to say, there needs to be that much LR and some would need to be in the safety of a refugium for the pods to be able to multiply and grow far from the predation of the Mandarin.

If you get a fat one, he may live for 6 months or so but a skinny one, less time.

Even if you see pods everywhere, one Mandarin will wipe out that population in a matter of weeks.

Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:32 am GMT   Reply      

ok thanks