Fishy Ideas

That is a great idea I never thought of that.

I have about 30lbs of established rock in the tank and unfortunately do not have a sump or fuge due to space. I am running a magnum 350 and a penguin 200 for filtration.

 

Bananaboat
I def do not want to get a fish that would be unhappy in the tank so I think I can refrain from having one until I am able to upgrade the tank.

pink4miss
That's what I was wondering if I got them as juveniles if they would be ok together. They are beautiful fish and I feel they would be a great colorful fish to add to the tank.

 

There are still some possibilities for a mandarin for a 55 gallon. I'm just saying it'd be difficult for one that eats just copepods. If you can, I'd search hard for a Red Mandarin Dragonet that has been trained to eat frozen mysis or brine shrimp. If you do get lucky in finding one, all you'd need to is use a turkey baster to squirt the shrimp by the mandarin a few times every day.

 

I will def look into it and wouldn't mind doing a little extra work to keep the little guy happy Thanks for the advice!

 

yes they should pair. 3 times i have seen it happen. and before i tried it i read up on them

 

I've known people to order them online and then have problems and be over an hour away from any kind of store that carries marine fish to try to trade it in to. It was more of a stress to play it safe than an idea...

 

us13fox- there are many threads on madarins, i would delve into them and gather as much info as you can, there are many misconceptions as far as tank size for a mandarin goes. i do not want to start anything so i will not list my opinion

but basically a good pod population (copeopods), Lots of LR and some caves and hiding places, one that actually EATS is good too haha

 

mandarins are cool but you need to know how to take care of them. I would probably get paired perculas with snowflake eel and a lionfish and like 7 pistol shrimps XD nah I'm just messing with you. but definitely go for the perculas; IMO they are pretty. Also maybe try out a goby/pistol shrimp pair unless you have like a cleaner shrimp; the pistol might try and kill it. there are a few goby and shrimp combinations if your interested, including a yasha goby/shrimp pair, yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp pair, and I believe a Randall's or randalli goby/pistol shrimp pair. Good luck!

 

OK thanks!! I will def read a little more on them before I get them.

Thanks!

Yea i understand that I keep reading conflicting idea from different sites so I will take the advice from this site and stay away for right now til I have some more experience.

The bad part about the lionfish and eel idea is that's what I wanted before I joined this site hahahaha you must have read my mind, but I will look into the pistol shrimp, goby idea!!