99% starve to death

90 percent of mandarins will die unless they're in 200 gallon systems with 200 plus pounds of live rock... I've even read one claim that says "99.99999%" will starve.

Bunk. Absolute bunk.

Those percentages are as outrageous as me claiming that 50% of mandarins will eat prepared food, which has been my own personal experience, as I lost one and my second is well-rounded and thriving.

My point is that these numbers are pulled out of thin air. All based on anecdotal evidence, and worse yet, perpetuating parrot-talk by forum gurus, who often never even had a mandarin in the first place.

Claiming that 99% of green mandarins will not make it in your tank is like saying your stomach will explode if you chase some popping crystal candy with pepsi.

Though I haven't experimented on 100 mandarins, I don't have to prove that statement is rubbish. Either I am absurdly, unrealistically lucky and I have one of the 1% eaters, or else the percentage of mandarins that will accept food other than pods is nowhere near 99 or 90 percent. Also, there's just as much anecdotal evidence out there supporting mandarins eating prepared foods as there is starving mandarins. It's almost funny to hear the parrots spew out their party line when several people have reported success in mandarin keeping for years in the very forum thread being thrashed by the fish gestapo.

One of the saddest things is hearing the 99% number coming from such "respected" fish authorites like wetwebmedia. Almost makes you want to take their advice with a grain or two of Instant Ocean...

Don't get me wrong--wetwebmedia has some tremondous info you can't find anywhere else, but they are not the final authority.

Especially when they write stuff like this.

Maybe that's just some dinosaur thinking that's unfortunately too rampant in the saltwater hobby. Maybe it's latent elitism, maybe it's an unwillingness to accept the evolution of the hobby. Whatever it is, I totally disagree with the scope of the article. The whole thing is just a blanket statement, loaded with opinion veiled as fact. I know if I started with a large tank like the article suggested I'd hate saltwater. Protien skimmers, sumps, all the plumbing and pumps... too much can go disastrously wrong... not to mention the price of a setup like that!

In this case, I couldn't agree more with the military motto of keep it simple, stupid.

In his own words, Bob Fenner, author of The Conscientious Marine Aquarist, states:

I can't for the life of me, understand, or at least agree with authors who have encouraged the general hobbyist/public to attempt small aquaria for marines. Maybe like adults who have forgotten how it was to first tie their shoes or ride a bike, they can't recall how hard it was to learn what now seem like simple tasks; or the frustration, sense of helplessness in losing livestock. Maybe they're trying to impress someone or make a sale? The same writers who advocate small marine systems as a "bargain" likewise list halide lighting, wet-dry filters, Redox testing... for them, costing hundreds of dollars, as well.

I place blame for such simple-mindedness, "Anyone can keep marines in a drum bowl", in part for the pathetic level of participation in marine aquarium keeping and it's[sic] sophistication in the West. By prompting aquarists to participate in an enterprise so fraught with loss, hobbyist attrition is promoted.

Small, (less than forty gallons, really) systems are a bad gamble for all but the advanced aquarist, who will put the effort into testing and adjusting for water quality and organism interaction, and has the facilities to move, rescue these systems as they crash.

If you are going to still try your hand at a small marine set-up as your first, or only (and probably last) saltwater aquarium, I remind you to be on guard for temperature fluctuation and over-feeding ill-effects. No matter what any and everyone else might write, bigger is better [my emphasis] in marine aquarium size. (Source link)

Hmmmm... sounds to me like someone is overcompensating.

I just don't understand why monitoring water quality, doing frequent water changes, and appreciating the relationships between the life in your nano is reserved only for advanced aquariums. More bunk, I say! I'd recommend a ten gallon marine nano tank to the intelligent beginner any day. The non-intellgient beginner, however, well, I'd recommend a ten gallon guppy and white cloud minnow tank.

I bet you're wondering where I'm going with all this.

I'll tell you.

The snipped bit of the article above is a perfect preamble to announce my new project, a marine 2 gallon vase, very much similar to this freshwater one. I've ordered a micro-jet powerhead, a 50/50 20 watt power compact screw-in bulb, and a thermometer from the Canadian outfit Big Al's.

Going to get some live coral rubble for a thin substrate, put in a couple scrubber pads for pod growth, 2 pounds of live rock, and the powerhead will be tuned to about 32 gph, just a little over the usual 10 times gph you need for marine systems.

Put in one of my hermit crabs and maybe a shrimp.

I already do maintenance on my freshwater vases every day, so this saltwater one should not be much more difficult.

Look out for more updates on this new project.

In the meantime, remember that bigger is not always better, though it's definitely no worse or any better than smaller--in fact, I think it's just about equal if you're running a clean and maintained system. Yeah, the added water volume gives you more leeway for mistakes, but hell, that's only an excuse to be lax and really let things go. I've seen pristine nanos and horrendous 72 gallon tanks... the difference is all in the attitude and care.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

P.S. Please don't misinterpret my message and go out and buy a mandarin and plop him into a 5 gallon tank. Do your homework, and if your heart is set on a mandarin, contact an LFS and see if they will let you experiment with different foods like roe, cyclo-pese, etc. And also be cautious of mandarins eating only brine... some have learned to accept mysis, others haven't. Brine will not sustain a fish long-term.