My 30 gallon plant tank has basically crashed–all the plants and a lot of the fish have died. Im giving the remaining fish to a friend with a plant tank and then Im going to set it up for saltwater. The only thing I want to keep in it are marine hermit crabs and a pair of mandarin dragonets. The hermies just fascinate me because they are so active and interesting. I keep land hermits and have wanted to try marine ones for some time now. And the mandarins are just gorgeous fish and are quite a challenge to keep in captivity. I have always wanted some and have researched them for a long time now. I think I can make my tank work.

Anyway the guys at work are always kind of teasing me for not havign any saltwater. Ive learned a lot about it in the past couple years and am ready for a change.

Heres a pic of a mandarin. They are beautiful and just really interesting to watch.
http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/mandarinfish.htm

That is one colourful fish. Very beautiful! Good luck with your tank set up

Keep us posted! I have always wanted to start a marine tank but I have too many freshwater tanks already :crp

Oh wow! They are beautiful! The feeding part is a challenge though. Good luck with your new setup and please send us some pics when you are ready.

Thanks, Im really looking forward to it. Im still really sad about my freshwater plant tank–it was my pride and joy and was the best looking of all my tanks. I have a few tetras scattered here and there and the whole thing is just depressing me!

I hope my friend will take my fish. I dont want to give them back to the store. At least in his tank they will have lots of room and be well cared for. Then I will start up my tank, and start culturing the live rock and live food. I'll get some hermies too! And since I do work at the store, I can keep my eyes out for a healthy looking mandarin pair who takes prepared food as well.

Ah the advantages of working in a pet store…

Wow! I've never seen anything quite like that!!
I know that some day not anytime soon, but someday I want to have a saltwater tank!
jsrtist, I'd love to see some pics of your tank and that fish when you get it!!

Im really excited. Im actually taking down the tropical tank today and hopefully will start setting up the sw tank soon. I have lots to do before I put anything in it but will definitely post pics once I get it running smoothly!

Good luck! Looking forward to the daily reports.

Js this is so cool.

the only word of Advice for that fish is that they need lots of live rock. The majority of these fish will only eat copa pods, witch live in the live rocks. most places will tell you that they need at least 40-50 lbs of live rock for them to survive....just wanted to lend a hand

great coloration. good luck with the fish, it says its hard to keep.

Yes, mandarins are one of the most difficult fish to keep and its just like Koko said, they mostly live on copepods. That is why you are never, ever supposed to put them in any tank less than 6 months old. Everywhere I have read says never to keep a pair in anything smaller than a 125 with tons of live rock. But I think I can get away with it because this tank will be tailored just to them. I am planning to stuff tons of LR in there and make "pod piles." Those are areas of LR rubble that you put food in (where the fish cant get to them) and the pods feed on it and multiply. You can also order pods online which I plan to do. I may eventually add a refugium because that will give the pods even more area to live without being eaten.

As you can see I really like to do things the hard way! When someone tells me I cant do it I get all the more determined to do it, and do it successfully!

One side note, some mandarins will take to frozen food. My friend and I are keeping an eye out for the mandarins that come in and will eat frozen. I will still of course culture the pods but its nice to know I can give them some other food as well.

I set up my tank tonight. I am hoping to add some live rock to it by the end of the week. I'll post photos as I go!

cool! I can't wait to see it!!
-how much does that type of fish cost?

Im sure it depends where you get them and how they are collected. At our store we sell wild caught ones for $15. If we get captive raised ones they would probably be about twice that price. I would of course prefer captive but they are hard to come by.

ahh...I see. I thought they'd cost a lot more than that, so that's not a bad price I guess.