Archivarium 2004

[Rainy]

AH, that folks, is a goby! Thank you, I'm better now. he he
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"Nothing is good, nor bad, but thinking makes it so." -William Shakespeare

[SoS]

Latest additions

Mandarin Goby:






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Don't buy the fish before you know the fish.

[SoS]

Cowrie snails


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Don't buy the fish before you know the fish.

[Skysong]

Nice goby! How big is s/he?
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Suffering from intense study syndrome.. Have to keep plugging away at my masters....

[SoS]

Thank you About 3 inches, that's about half grown for a mandarin. They get about 5 inches and they fill out more. As far as he or she not a clue
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Don't buy the fish before you know the fish.

[Rainy]

All right, it may be the coffee talking, but what beautiful shots of your Mandarinfish (I'm sure your Spotted is panicking now)! It's funny, I almost asked you one time if you'd thought of getting one, but I didn't think you would, because I'd read they can be a bit difficult to keep (in terms of feeding, at least), and you seem to have your hands a bit full as it is. But hey, look at that! Congrats! About the snails: how big are those? They look to be at least 1.5"... do they feed on algae, or live mice? he he (Kidding, kidding!)
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"Nothing is good, nor bad, but thinking makes it so." -William Shakespeare

[SoS]

The reason Mandarins are hard to keep is there specialized diet. They only eat small shrimp and copepods. To sustain a large enough population of pods to support a Madarin you need a pretty good sized tank with live rock and live sand. Most people say 55 gallons minimum. Well I have a 55 Gallon with a 5 gallon refugium(livesand and macro). I have a healthy pod population. I see them crawling on the glass during the daytime that's always a good indicator. The Mandarin is the only Pod specific eater in the tank. The orange spotted goby will grab one occasionally, but I keep him fat and happy on frozen mysis shrimp and blood worms.

Just to be on the safe side I put a copepod seeding pack on order. That should put that mandarin in seventh heaven.
He's the final fish I'm going to add to this tank. I don't want to push the bio-load.

The chestnut snails are about 1.5 inches and they are algae vacuums.
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Don't buy the fish before you know the fish.

[SLACkra]

wow nice mandarin love his colour patern. is it a he or she? also I have heard of someone keeping a mandarin in a 100L tank but before he put the mandarin in he gave the pods 1-2 months to start a coloney. Keep the pics coming! Thanks for sharing your tank! o and they way to sex a mandarin is to watch them and if your mandarin has a large dorsal fin it will be a boy and if is smaller its a girl. good luck!
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32g planted community
7.5g Nano Reef
1 four legged wonder napper
2 winged demons

[SoS]

You could probably keep one in a 100L with a decent sized Refugium. Like a 38L (10gallon) Refugium with Live rock and sand to encourage pod growth.

Its probably a boy then its got a rather impressive dorsal fin.


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Don't buy the fish before you know the fish.

[SoS]

And Rainy I haven't fogotten my Orange Spotted Goby.



No fish face has more personality than a blenny


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Don't buy the fish before you know the fish.