new tank

[blatch]

hi everone, i was looking into getting 1 or 2 mandarin fish. but i have never had a marine tank before so was wanting some help, i no mandarin fish are really hard to keep and that is why i have made this thread before i have the tank set-up and everything. first of all i have two options for the mains tank,
47"(L)x18"(H)x12"(W) or a 24"(L)x18"(H)x12"(W)i also wanted to have a refugium, but i needed some info on how to make a refugium, as i have been looking up on it but im not sure how to keep a constant suply of the copepods needed to keep the mandarins alive.
i was thinking of only having a few peaces of live rock in the tank as im trying to keep costs as low as possible. for tank mates i wanted to have watchman goby and pistol shrimp and a pair of clown fish(black and white perculur(spelling??)) if i am able to and the only peice of coral that i wanted to have would be some colony polyps.
any help would be appreciated.
thanks matt

 

[BIGgourami]

go with the 55 for the main tank and use the 20 as a fuge

but seriously the 20 shouldn't even be an option for these guys


to make a fuge you basically have the tank overflow into the fuge (overflow box or get the tank drilled, etc) and have a deep sand bed and some macro algea and such for the pods to feast on and breed in.. basically you don't have to do anything to the fuge, the older and dirtier it gets the more it produces...

i'm not exactly sure how the pods are supposed to be returned into the tank, but when i had my pipes i just shook the peice of chaeto from my 29 in my pipe tank, a bunch of pods fell off and the pipes went crazy

if you went with the 55 and put maybe 30 pounds of liverock in there, filled it in with like 20-30 more pounds of base rock and let it run (as a normal tank, you can fish in there and such, just no madarins yet) and let the base rock rally get a good establishment of pods and such a mandarin should be fine in there...

thats the hard part...
getting a big tank FULL of LR and waiting..

if you're lucky you can get one that eats prepared food but this is like 1 in 30 chance we're talking about


the fish you mentioned would be fine with the mandarin and shouldn't really compete with it or bully it around much...
and polyps like zoos and such dont require too mcuh lighting ot care.. some T5 or PC lights and the occasional suppliment should be all that's needed

 

[spring007]

I go with what BIGourami said, get the tank established for a while and then get the mandarin. or you can get live pods for sale too...

 

[blatch]

i think that i will do that. would i be able to use ocean rock as base rock and then live rock on top. also would there be any shrimp or gobies that i would be able to breed in the tank because that would be the main aim of the tank to try and breed some fish and if i were able to breed the mandarins, the clowns and then either shrimps or gobies that would be really good.

 

[spring007]

you can breed clowns...I don't know about the others tho...

 

[Otto_VonBacon]

Liveaquaria claims mandarins have been known to breed in tanks, but i've also been told not to listen to everything liveaquaria says...

 

[BIGgourami]

ocean rock as in rocks directly from the ocean?
or rocks you collected on a trip tot he beach that have now dried out?


breeding mandarins is EXTREMELY hard to do and is just now starting to be done successfully

but clowns are fairly simple.. my cleaner shrimp have had a few hatches, but i've never taken the time to remove the female to try and raise the eggs, i just let the fish have them

 

[BIGgourami]

Liveaquaria claims mandarins have been known to breed in tanks, but i've also been told not to listen to everything liveaquaria says...

do public aquaria count as tanks?

the monteray bay aquarium just reported that their group of mandarins (in their new mandarin exhibit no less) are showing signs of breeding behavior

 

[violin33]

sounds great

 

[blatch]

alrite then its just reading articles on marine fish and how captive breeding set-ups need to be set-up and i thought that ive got the tank and the time to give the fish all the attention that they need.
i think that my best idea is to use my rio 400 and then im going to split it into either 5 sections of 12"x20"x18" or 6 sections of 10"x20"x18. my plan is to have a refugium underneith the tank that is conected by the tank via a overflow pipe and to get a external filter and maybe once a day put the inlet tube into the refugium so the copepods go into the tank and the water tank from the refugium will be replaced by water from the overflow pipe.
i was planning on breeding:a pair percula clowns,orchid dottyback pair, royal gramma pair, fire fish pair,and dwarf angel pair.