fish compatablitly help

[PetRanch6892]

I have a 29 gallon FOWLR tank cycling, its been a week, but im going to wait another. i want to add, a mandrin goby both colors, a rust angel, and half black. i was goin to get one fish a week, but ive been reading that angels have to be introduced together. can i have these 4 fish in my 29? how easy are they going to be to feed? i know i need copepods for the gobies.

[cocoa_pleco]

most angels need a 100g+ tank

[PetRanch6892]

there dwarf angels they only get 3-4 inches

[cocoa_pleco]

there dwarf angels they only get 3-4 inches

good!

you do know that the mandarin goby needs a constant supply of copepods to feed on too, right? you usually have to buy copepods since few tanks can keep up with the amount the mandarin eats

[spudbuds]

I don't know that I'd try a single mandarin in a tank that small, let alone two. I think it would be tough to keep them from starving, but it sounds like you are ready to obtain a constant supply of copepods, so it might work. Also, I don't think you are supposed to keep two male mandarins in the same tank, but I'd have to double check that part.

- Bill

[PetRanch6892]

im going to buy some copepods this weekend and start cultivating them in jars. ill check about keeping 2 males.

[sailor]

It is recomended that mandarin gobies do not go into tanks that have not been established for at least a year. If not they sometimes starve to death if there is not a steady food supply and they can be hard to get to eat store bought food.

[PetRanch6892]

im going to cultivate copepods for them. male mandarin gobies cant be keep together so im going to get a bangii cardinal.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Be sure you get a captive bred Bangaii, wild caught specimens have a terrible survival record in tanks. As for the Mandarins, I'm not so sure I'd attempt them in such a small tank. You will be buying pods all the time. Cultivation is not likely to keep up with one. They have insane appitites for pods and will completely strip your tank in no time at all. Some people have reported that even with supplying cultivated pods or bottled pods, their Mandarins are still slowly starving.

[PetRanch6892]

i went to one of the other lfs, not the one i work at, and they had a manderin that ate brine shrimp, is it easy to get them to eat shrimp?

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Not always easy at all. However, brineshrimp, or mysis shrimp or what ever other kind of food you want to pick is only going to be supplimental for mandarins, they are still going to strip your tank of pods in a hurry. Frozen foods don't really seem to diminish their appetite for pods much at all. Some will accept frozen foods and then immediatly turn around and start grazing for pods. There is no way to 100% substitute for the pods in their diet.

[PetRanch6892]

guess i wont be getting one.