getting a mandarin to eat

[asylumdown]

As the title says, any tips or tricks? It's in QT, which has no pods at all, but it won't touch the frozen stuff yet. I was thinking I'll go pick up some tigger pods from Wai's for now, but I really need this guy to eat frozen foods. Any tips or tricks from those who've succeeded?

[reefwars]

As the title says, any tips or tricks? It's in QT, which has no pods at all, but it won't touch the frozen stuff yet. I was thinking I'll go pick up some tigger pods from Wai's for now, but I really need this guy to eat frozen foods. Any tips or tricks from those who've succeeded?

what type of mandarin is it, some are harder to get on foods , in my experience the psychodelic are hardest and targets the easiest:)

very small tank and try lots of food with the flow off , they dont actively hunt in the water column.

you can also stuff a small piece of liverock my small , very small mysis.

ive had luck with cyclo as well in the past.

[Reefgoat]

Just curious why you purchased a fish that is known to starve to death most of the time because of an inadequate food supply if you knew you didn't have appropriate food?

If you absolutely need it to eat frozen food you should probably take it back to the store as most will never reliably eat frozen food. I've been told that is why ORA blue Mandarins aren't available. They can't get them to reliably continue to eat pellets or frozen once their customers have them in their tanks.

Also Mandarins aren't generally fans of Pelagic Copepods but maybe the Tigger Pods will keep them from starving?

If you can keep it from starving to death in the short term you could check out videos on youtube by others who have trained them to eat. I believe Melevsreef.com has a diary of how he trained his to eat as well. It is worth trying, just remember there is no guarantee your Mandarin will respond positively.

[pinkreef]

Get some live pods. Target feed it several times a day putting a few in front of him when he is resting on a rock. They can learn that the tool you use to feed them brings food. Put as much live rock in the tank as possible. Put a bunch of cheato in. Gradually add frozen to the live and one day you will see him suck it in. The trick is to have enough for him to hunt to keep him going until he learns to eat frozen. Choose as many types of frozen (small) as you can find. Cyclopeze and roe (eggs) will fit into his mouth easily. last but not least find one that is already eating and put him in to teach him.
good luck :biggrin:

[asylumdown]

what type of mandarin is it, some are harder to get on foods , in my experience the psychodelic are hardest and targets the easiest:)

very small tank and try lots of food with the flow off , they dont actively hunt in the water column.

you can also stuff a small piece of liverock my small , very small mysis.

ive had luck with cyclo as well in the past.

Yah it's a psychedelic. Why are the coolest ones always the hardest? It's in a 15 gallon QT tank by itself so I'm trying the cyclopeeze and tiny mysis route. I'm also trying to harvest pods from my tank but it seems as soon as you actually want them to be crawling all over your hands they suddenly start channelling Houdini.

Just curious why you purchased a fish that is known to starve to death most of the time because of an inadequate food supply if you knew you didn't have appropriate food?

Because there's more than enough to sustain it in my 2 year old 275 gallon tank with cryptic refugium, but there's not enough tea in China for me to put a fish in my tank without some sort of a quarantine procedure. I do the tank transfer protocol on every single fish, which means my two QT tanks are emptied and dried twice each during QT and left dry between new additions, so there's no opportunity for pods to grow in them. Risk to my other fish aside (and that's a risk I'd never take anyway), I'd rather take the minimum 12 day tank transfer period to train it on frozen foods than have it go in to a tank where there's something it would rather eat and then never learn to eat frozen.


If you absolutely need it to eat frozen food you should probably take it back to the store as most will never reliably eat frozen food. I've been told that is why ORA blue Mandarins aren't available. They can't get them to reliably continue to eat pellets or frozen once their customers have them in their tanks.

I think it's important for all fish to learn how to eat prepared foods if they're going to survive long term in a tank. I have control over how much of that goes in to the tank, I have no little to no control over the pod population beyond what I've already done to encourage their reproduction. So far I'm at the 1 year mark on a copper band butterfly, 9 or 10 months on 3 purple queen anthias, and I've returned an utterly emaciated, near death powder blue tang to full health, all fish that are known to have miserable success rates in captivity by taking the quarantine time to train them on a well-rounded captive diet, which is what I'm trying to do with this guy. If he's not going to eat them for me, he likely would have starved to death in someone else's tank anyway.


Also Mandarins aren't generally fans of Pelagic Copepods but maybe the Tigger Pods will keep them from starving?

If you can keep it from starving to death in the short term you could check out videos on youtube by others who have trained them to eat. I believe Melevsreef.com has a diary of how he trained his to eat as well. It is worth trying, just remember there is no guarantee your Mandarin will respond positively.

Yah I tried to track down some tigger pods today. The only two stores that I know carry it are out. According to Wai's he hasn't been able to get ahold of the supplier in a few months. I'll check out the Melev's reef blog. I know it's no guarantee, but if he can at least make it through the QT period my hope is that in time he'll figure it out in the big tank. When I feed I turn my return pump off and my vortech's go in to feed mode so a ton of food ends up hitting the sand bed, which seems to be necessary for both my copper band and my slow-as-a-golf-cart cowfish to get enough food, so this guy won't have to compete too hard for food in the display if he can only figure out he can eat it.

Get some live pods. Target feed it several times a day putting a few in front of him when he is resting on a rock. They can learn that the tool you use to feed them brings food. Put as much live rock in the tank as possible. Put a bunch of cheato in. Gradually add frozen to the live and one day you will see him suck it in. The trick is to have enough for him to hunt to keep him going until he learns to eat frozen. Choose as many types of frozen (small) as you can find. Cyclopeze and roe (eggs) will fit into his mouth easily. last but not least find one that is already eating and put him in to teach him.
good luck :biggrin:

Do you know what size of pod they generally prefer? My glass is literally crawling with the really small kind that nothing else in my tank eats if I don't wipe it down with a magnet every day, so I can get a bunch of those out no problem. It's harder to get the amphipods out in any reasonable numbers because they're so good at hiding during the day, but I've built a pod pile for them in one corner of my tank.

[toytech]

Ive got mandarins onto frozen blood worms twice now , I had a 15 gal nano that was just for my mandarin and it had a lot of pods but I fed blood worms every second day from a pipet . Had them to the point where they would swim to the pipet and feed from it .

[asylumdown]

oooh, blood worms, that's a good thing to try. I just remembered that my overflows have been developing nice thick carpets of hair algae at the water's surface, so I pulled a chunk out. There's hundreds of pods, amphipods, and mysid shrimps crawling around in the mat so I put some in the QT tank. So far no reaction from the dragonette, so he's either not figured it out yet or he's not long for this world anyway.

[ScubaSteve]

I've used live white worms and blood worms. Mine seemed to go after the white worms with more gusto (if you can find them). Eventually start freezing them, then slowly start adding mysis. BOOM! Frozen trained mandarin.

[asylumdown]

Well this guy might not be 'my' mandarin. At lights out, there were literally two different kind of pods actually crawling right on him. No reaction. There's about 100 of the small kind within 2cm of his nose where he's sitting now and he doesn't even seem to see them. There's zero hunting behaviour at all, which as I understand is a bad sign. Hopefully he comes around tomorrow.

On the upside, giving him live food on a living algae substrate is going to have way less of an impact on the water quality in the transfer tanks.

[mrhasan]

I have heard that they like salmon eggs. Maybe give that a shot?

[ScubaSteve]

I have heard that they like salmon eggs. Maybe give that a shot?

I could see them going after capalan roe but I think salmon eggs are much too large for them to swallow (unless it's a big mandarin).

[The Guy]

I was advised not to get one until your tank is minimum 1 year, so @ 6 months in I couldn't resist getting this beautiful psychedelic he seemed to be hunting and pecking all the time but lost him after about a month, should have taken the advise given by my long time reefer friend.
My tank is a 90g with about 80lbs of LR and it's at 14 months now so I am trying again.
I have lots of chaeto in my sump which is loaded with pods and it's supporting which seems to be supporting the food chain for both my new Pych and a red scooter blenny.
So far so good. :noidea: fingers crossed!

[Ron99]

Guess I've been lucky. My psychedelic mandarin came to me already eating frozen and pellets. She'll even take flake or that free gel food that came with my IO salt. I was in JL a little while back and noticed a spotted mandarin that looked to be eating mysis after they fed the tank there. So I took a chance and he is eating frozen mysis and bloodworm. Hasn't clued into pellets yet but I'm hoping once he's in the tank with the other mandarin and sees her eating pellets he'll take the hint.

So they can be trained onto other foods but I haven't really had to do it myself. Some of it might be luck too.

[magikof7]

I understand the need for QT BUT Mandarins have a very thick slime coat and are very resistant to disease. You might want to consider just putting him in your Display. Do some research on your own on that. I put my guy in my 29 gal right away because they can be hard to get to eat I figured the less stress the better and the chances of disease was very low.
Before anyone jumps all over me for not QT-ing fish. I do with all any new fish. I have some in qt right now but Mandarins are a little different. I did a lot of research before getting one and decided the chances of him dying in qt were higher than the risk of any disease.

I did reply on my tank build thread about my mandarin. I will copy and paste it here for others.

..."I didn't do anything to get my mandarin to eat frozen,(not intentionally anyway.) I don't feed frozen often nor did I need to because I had a crazy pod population in my fuge and DT of my other tank.

I can tell you what I think got him eating frozen...I turn off all flow, power heads and return pump. I fed the carnivore frozen cubes, brine shrimp and or blood worms Mixed together. I also fed frozen mysis shrimp. Because there was no flow the food sat on rocks, substrate, and Corals when the mandarin was over the food his fins would stir up the food and he would eat it when he saw it move. It also has to be very small pieces.
They are such slow hunters, I think the flow is just too much but you turn it off and he can hunt all he wants and his own fins make it move. It has to move and catch his attention but not so fast he can't "hunt" it.
I have seen others use a petrie dish with holes in it filled with store bought pods or frozen foods. Another method I have seen is a baby food jar with frozen food and small pellets, the mandarin can get in the jar but bigger fish can't."

[Myka]

I think you are smart to be quarantining your Mandarin and training it onto frozen food. In my experience, almost all Mandarins can be trained onto frozen food, but few will reliably take pellets or flake.

I've trained many onto my homemade frozen mash. I always start with frozen plain brine shrimp, then wean to gut loaded brine, then mysis, then homemade mash. For some reason, males seem to be easier to train and Target Mandarins are definitely easier too.

I use a little square jar (that won't roll) on its side in a low flow area away from rocks. I put a couple brine shrimp in there in the morning and then siphon them out in the evening. This goes on for usually 1-2 weeks and the shrimp will start to disappear. Then I feed more shrimp in the morning - they will eat 10 brine shrimp happily. Eventually the Mandarin will start to hang out in the jar at feeding time and will eat like a pig right after I feed him. That's when I know he's weaned well.

I understand the need for QT BUT Mandarins have a very thick slime coat and are very resistant to disease.

Mandarins can still be vectors.


Sent from my Dungeon using mad Ninja Skillz.

[asylumdown]

yah I'm not willing to risk aborting the QT period. My tank is actually C. irritans free and has been for a year. It's not just at low levels, it's not present, which has taken a ridiculous amount of work. If I were to introduce it now, I'd probably have massive losses because my fish likely have very little immunity. And even if I didn't have losses, I have a powder blue that I just returned to full health with perfect, unmarred skin. It would suck nuts to watch him deal with repeated outbreaks. I can't see any visible pustules on this fish, and there weren't on any others in the tank he came from, but I've seen ich in that tank in the past (I've seen ich in pretty much every tank in every store in the city at some point really), so it's just not worth the risk.

and I'm not sure if this guy is going to make it. If anything he's even more lethargic today. I've seen mandarins hunt before, and he's not doing anything like that. There's tons of pods in the tank now, but he's just ignoring them. Someone has offered to bring me some larger pods which I'm going to try out and see if those will entice him, but I'm starting to suspect that this fish may have been captured using one of the more questionable methods. This sort of a thing smells a little like a cyanide caught fish to me, I should have asked where the order came from.

Anyway, he's still alive, but I can't do anything if he won't even eat live food, so the best I can do is keep presenting them until he either starts eating, or he expires.

[Skimmer Juice]

yah I'm not willing to risk aborting the QT period. My tank is actually C. irritans free and has been for a year. It's not just at low levels, it's not present, which has taken a ridiculous amount of work. If I were to introduce it now, I'd probably have massive losses because my fish likely have very little immunity. And even if I didn't have losses, I have a powder blue that I just returned to full health with perfect, unmarred skin. It would suck nuts to watch him deal with repeated outbreaks. I can't see any visible pustules on this fish, and there weren't on any others in the tank he came from, but I've seen ich in that tank in the past (I've seen ich in pretty much every tank in every store in the city at some point really), so it's just not worth the risk.

and I'm not sure if this guy is going to make it. If anything he's even more lethargic today. I've seen mandarins hunt before, and he's not doing anything like that. There's tons of pods in the tank now, but he's just ignoring them. Someone has offered to bring me some larger pods which I'm going to try out and see if those will entice him, but I'm starting to suspect that this fish may have been captured using one of the more questionable methods. This sort of a thing smells a little like a cyanide caught fish to me, I should have asked where the order came from.

Anyway, he's still alive, but I can't do anything if he won't even eat live food, so the best I can do is keep presenting them until he either starts eating, or he expires.

smart to not take the chance , especially with a cowfish in the tank. Cowfish can get ich super easy and other diseases ...

[GROPP]

[QUOTE=magikof7;875677]I understand the need for QT BUT Mandarins have a very thick slime coat and are very resistant to disease. You might want to consider just putting him in your Display. Do some research on your own on that. I put my guy in my 29 gal right away because they can be hard to get to eat I figured the less stress the better and the chances of disease was very low.
Before anyone jumps all over me for not QT-ing fish. I do with all any new fish. I have some in qt right now but Mandarins are a little different. I did a lot of research before getting one and decided the chances of him dying in qt were higher than the risk of any disease.



..."I didn't do anything to get my mandarin to eat frozen,(not intentionally anyway.)

+1

Mine eats mysis, flakes, pellets, even small pieces of Nori, been in my tank going on 5 months now, He eats pods all day long but when I feed he always eats a bit of everything. I do feed pretty heavy for all my tangs though, and I do have a scooter blenny in the tank for over a year that eats everything too, maybe he learnt from him...

[Myka]

Anyway, he's still alive, but I can't do anything if he won't even eat live food, so the best I can do is keep presenting them until he either starts eating, or he expires.

If they are already skinny they are REALLY difficult to get eating - any kind of food. I've had the best experiences buying Mandarins the day after they arrive at the store, and only from shipments when they are still fat. If he's not hunting that is not a good sign - questionable collection method or not (could be disease too).

[halwake]

I'm 2for2 now mandarin training. Put in breeder net for 2 weeks suspended in tank. Add some frozen brine couple times a day, usually takes a couple days for them to start picking at it. It sticks to the mesh and moves with the current, think this helps the feeding response. Start to introduce mysis. Usually takes a few more days before they will take it. Then they should almost take any frozen like bloodworms and such. Have not had luck with pellets yet. After 2 weeks, into tank. Spot feed with baster, mandarin comes right up to it. Problem now is all fish recognize the baster as a source of food and come in. Had my first mandarin trained to go into a small jar where his food was it to protect it from the other fish "mandarin diner". New one will go here and there but not regularly. Mine is the psych. Red mandarin. He hunts for pods all day and gobbles up any frozen I can get to him. He is a slow eater so it's tough to get him fed before the other fish move in.

Good luck, beautiful fish

[darkreef]

It took me 6 months to train mine he was near death in my 33 with 20 g sump with 60 lbs of live rock ( no swimming room lol ) he was a blue dragonet . Used chemiclean and the frozen just wasn't enough he died. Even when there on frozen they are grazers and need to be fed every few hours a tiny bit . So having a huge aquarium is the best.

Iv heard of using a little container , poke a few holes in it . And hatch brine shrimp and they will swim out of the holes . Never used it though .

The best time to feed was when he was hunting the sand bed in the back . Spray some mysis and not watch . They no when your watching! Eventually they will flap there fins and make the mysis swim sucking them up in the water :)

Goodluck

[asylumdown]

Well I'm just not sure what to do at this point. He's still alive, but he's still not hunting. at all. The Codfather was awesome sauce and brought me a bag full of the large sized amphipods. Combined with a fresh mat of algae from my overflow rife with the small kind of copepods and small mysid shrimp, this guy's tank is loaded with living food. He doesn't appear to have eaten a single thing in the first 3 days (which has now all be thrown out according to the TT protocol), and this morning when I did the transfer, I was able to simply scoop him up with my hands. He barely even tried to escape.

at lights out tonight, there was a large sized amphipod hanging out on the side of his face, with no seeming reaction from the fish.

He's still looking around, and every few minutes he'll change position, but he seems far more concerned with finding a sheltered place to hide than 'hunting' anything.

Question to all you experienced folk out there - if you were me, would you continue with this rather labour intensive QT protocol hoping that suddenly he'd start eating live food, or would you look in to one of the human euthanasia techniques for sick fish? I can keep going and put him in my DT when this is done because I have faith that this QT protocol will clear him of the kinds of parasites I'm trying to avoid (I'm also now treating with prazipro), but if he goes in to display only to die of starvation in a week, I'm not sure if I'm doing him, or the rest of my fish any favours. From my reading it looks like death by starvation (assuming no other internal organs are damaged) takes months for these fish, and even thinking about that makes me queasy. It would be one thing if it simply wouldn't accept frozen food, as I am capable of working with that, but not eating anything at all, even if it's exactly what it would be hunting in the wild, live and right in front of it's face, seems to me like there's very little hope for it.

[IanWR]

I wouldn't panic yet. Sounds like you are doing everything that can be done. He's probably stressed out from multiple moves, plus he's being medicated. So finish your QT, and if he's still hanging in then move him to DT. Maybe add some more cover for him? I'm still new to the reef game but when I got my bangaii cardinals they wouldn't eat for almost 2 weeks, then just decided to start. So who knows?

[MitchM]

Whenever I buy a fish, I only want fish that have been at the lfs for 2 weeks or longer and are already eating frozen food.
I would keep him in qt if he was a new arrival to the lfs.
I would put him into the dt if he was stable long term and eating frozen at the lfs.
You said you're treating with prazipro, but is there a reason why?
If there was no sign of illness, I would not have started treatment of anything.
If there's food in the qt tank, just leave him there.

[Myka]

Question to all you experienced folk out there - if you were me, would you continue with this rather labour intensive QT protocol hoping that suddenly he'd start eating live food, or would you look in to one of the human euthanasia techniques for sick fish?

No. Some Mandarins are tough to wean, don't give up yet. You haven't tried nearly long enough. You've only had him 3 days? You have another 3 weeks at least.

I'm also now treating with prazipro

That's a bad idea at this point - Praziquantel can, and usually does, cause temporary anorexia during treatment. This is certainly not helping your cause.

if he goes in to display only to die of starvation in a week, I'm not sure if I'm doing him, or the rest of my fish any favoursExactly. Think with your brain, not with your heart. There is no way in **** I would be adding an inactive, apparently unhealthy fish to my display tank. That is backwards thinking... "He's not doing good in quarantine, so I'm going to put him in the display." Mandarins do JUST FINE in quarantine tanks PROVIDED you take the time and effort, which is significant, to train them onto frozen foods.

From my reading it looks like death by starvation [...] takes months for these fishYes. Keep going. If you're doing everything right, and assuming you started with a fish that was fat at the LFS, in my experience, he WILL begin to eat.

It would be one thing if it simply wouldn't accept frozen food, as I am capable of working with that, but not eating anything at all, even if it's exactly what it would be hunting in the wild, live and right in front of it's face, seems to me like there's very little hope for it.I've had Mandarins do this, and they still began to eat frozen food.

What I have found the secret to be is consistency. Feed him the same food (frozen, plain brine shrimp with a drop of garlic), at the same time, in the same spot, everyday. Don't screw around with different foods, don't mess with him a bunch, and quit doing tank transfers until AFTER he's eating.

[Slick Fork]

+1 for giving him more time in quarantine. Once you're happy you've avoided parasites I wouldn't bother with the tank swaps, just give him/her a quiet place to hangout and have a chance to recover. The other fish in the display might bully it enough to push it the wrong way over the edge.

[mike31154]

A little background before I provide any advice on what might help your little dude. My 77 gal just turned 7 years old & I've had a Psychedelic Mandarin Dragonet in there since a month after setting it up January 2007. I was a newb who bought a used system & didn't know any better, but despite my lack of experience this little guy flourished in there until last month. Some time ago I noticed him getting skinny on me. He stopped roaming & hunting. What's up with that after so many years? I had a significant GHA issue for quite a number of years while the used LR & sand gradually became purged of all the junk that was in there. It almost seems as if the Dragonet preferred a 'dirtier' tank since there appeared to be many more pods in my system until I got the hair algae & nutrients under control a couple of years ago.

Not sure what caused him to stop hunting & eating, but seems like my pod population declined since the tank slowly cleared up of hair algae. Might also have something to do with the switch to LEDs? Seems far fetched, but I'm grasping at straws as well. Even without pods, he still shouldn't have starved, since he learned to take first Cyclopeeze granules, then Omega One small pellets (sinking). He really used to go after the pellets once he figured out they were food, so I always made sure the auto feeder had a good supply of those. I didn't train him to eat pellets, he got it on his own. Once I noticed he wasn't getting enough food, I tried daily spot feedings with the Omega One pellets. This worked for a while, but I had to monitor things since other livestock got wise to this & were raiding the feeding area! Finally a couple of weeks ago I found him expired in the corner, RIP. One of my first & favourite critters in the tank, tough to watch him waste away slowly, but what can you do? He lived for over 7 years. I don't know the average lifespan, perhaps he was a senior? You win some & lose some.

Hoping your situation turns around. As mentioned by others, it's early in the game for yours & you still have some time, don't throw in the towel just yet. Not a good sign when they get lethargic & totally ignore anything that resembles food, but all you can do is keep trying. I realize you've tried just about every type of food now, but won't hurt to give the Cyclopeeze granules & Omega One small sinking pellets a shot. Good luck.

[jason604]

I was at JL the other day and was absolutely stunned when I saw the green dragonet mandarin. The most beautiful fish I've ever seen by far but too bad some jerk has it on hold till Tmr lol. How do u guys QT? Just a reg small tank with salt water n a hang on back filter or something more complex? I never QT before and I bought 3 fishes from the LFS and 4 from other reefers and they all seem as healthy n happy as ever. I rly want the mandarin but I need I need to QT it to train it to eat what I want.

[asylumdown]

Sadly, this was not to be. Little guy was belly up today. He never ate a single thing as far as I can tell, even with live pods all over the place. He may have been much farther gone than I thought when I bought him.

[denny_C]

Sadly, this was not to be. Little guy was belly up today. He never ate a single thing as far as I can tell, even with live pods all over the place. He may have been much farther gone than I thought when I bought him.

was probably the case , if they havent eaten for a long time they lose the ambition to hunt, its sad but pretty common.

sorry buddy if anyone had a chance it was you , he was just destined or to far gone.



cheers

denny

[George]

Sorry about the loss.
Also remember that these fish don't come directly from the ocean to our tanks. They go from the ocean to divers to collection stations to distributors to wholesalers to stores. There maybe even multiple stops within each layers (like a store also wholesales live stock and sells to other stores). I don't think many of these places feed the fish or make sure the fish eat. We don't know how long the fish has left the ocean and in transit.
The best advice I can give is that the old recommendation of seeing a fish eating in the store is still a golden recommendation. As long as you are not looking for a super rare fish, the same type of fish will show up sooner or later. Buy the fish that is eating in the store.

[reeferious]

I mean those orangy capelin herring or whatever fish eggs they put on sushi. they sink to bottom and under water motion roll, frolick around very much like pods and with their natural fishy odor no mandarin can refuse them

[asylumdown]

Sorry about the loss.
Also remember that these fish don't come directly from the ocean to our tanks. They go from the ocean to divers to collection stations to distributors to wholesalers to stores. There maybe even multiple stops within each layers (like a store also wholesales live stock and sells to other stores). I don't think many of these places feed the fish or make sure the fish eat. We don't know how long the fish has left the ocean and in transit.
The best advice I can give is that the old recommendation of seeing a fish eating in the store is still a golden recommendation. As long as you are not looking for a super rare fish, the same type of fish will show up sooner or later. Buy the fish that is eating in the store.

Yah this guy came in on an order from Indonesia. I've looked in to some of the huge Indonesian exporters in the past, and from the sounds of it most of them source from all over the coral triangle. None of their websites talk about collection methods, just how fish are treated at their facilities, but I would imagine that their supply networks encompass everything from a couple of guys with a dingy to truly 'professional' outfits. There's really no way of knowing how long a fish was on the collection boat, how it was collected, how long it was at the facility, or what happened to it in between the exporter and the store.

I'm usually really careful about buying fish, I went with this guy over the other ones because it's fins and colours were particularly outstanding. Placed next to the other 3 mandarins of the same species in the store and there really was no comparison. I let vanity beat out of over practicality.

[Myka]

Sorry to hear. I don't think it was your fault though. It sounds like he wasn't in good shape to begin with. Next time make sure you pick a very fat one. Je should seem oddly fat for his length - that's a healthy Mandy.

Sent from my Dungeon using mad Ninja Skillz.

[jason604]

Just got. Psychedelic green mandarin today. Tossed him in the DT. Making brine shrimp eggs. Hopes he eats

[asylumdown]

Well I couldn't resist and bought a second one. Same species and from the same order, but this time, I actually watched the little guy eat frozen PE mysis in the store. He (or she, not really sure how to sex them) is a lot smaller and not as flashy in the fins, but he's about 40 times more active than the last one, and actually moves around in the QT tank. He's still on what I'd call the skinny side compared to 'fat' mandarin photos I can find on the web, but he was in a small tank with a bunch of fire fish and some other gobies, so there wasn't much food hitting the floor for him. Over the course of the day he's eaten about half a frozen cube of mysis shrimp.

I've been paying careful attention to how much food actually hits the ground when I feed, and I'm pretty sure he'll be fine so long as my tank is producing as many pods as I think it is. At feeding time I kill the return pump and put all vortech's in feed mode, so probably 1/4 of the frozen food sinks straight to the sand bed. I'll extend the feed cycle from 5 to 10 minutes to give him extra time to graze.

In any case, the behaviour difference between this fish and the last one is literally night and day. The last one was so lethargic I could literally just reach down and scoop him up with my hand, while this guy is feisty as all get out. I'm feeling a lot more confident about it this time.

[jason604]

Damn half cube of mysis all to himself? I think all 7 of my fishes share half a cube when I actually feed them it.

[Myka]

Hey that's great! You can also make a little rubble pile in the corner of your display where pods can hide inside and breed in a place where the Mandarin can't get to them.

[asylumdown]

Damn half cube of mysis all to himself? I think all 7 of my fishes share half a cube when I actually feed them it.


Well this was over the course of 10 hours. The QT tank is bare bottom and he's the only thing in it, so it can take it's time.

And between my 21 fish, every day I feed:
3 cubes of hikari mysis
2 cubes of PE mysis
1 cube of frozen adult brine
1 cube of spirulina brine
1 (sometimes 2) cube of ocean nutrition formula 1
A decent chunk (about 2 cubes worth) of Pacifica plankton
2 mantilla clams
2 or 3 sheets of nori
A healthy portion of crushed aegis flakes and freeze dried cyclopeeze via an auto-feeder

Clams in the morning, nori and flakes in the afternoon (if I'm not home I sometimes skip the nori), frozen in the evening.

My fish are fat. Hopefully the mandarin does well in the display.

[asylumdown]

Hey that's great! You can also make a little rubble pile in the corner of your display where pods can hide inside and breed in a place where the Mandarin can't get to them.


Yah I set one up in a corner after I bought the first one. It took the last of my rubble so I'll make it bigger when I get to smashing my last piece of Marco rock in to tiny pieces. It's crazy how white it is compared to the rest of my rocks! Over 2 years the Marco rock that's not covered in coralline, sponges or tube worms has turned dark grey. It's already got a dusting of brown and at night I can see bristle worms have moved in, so the pods won't be far behind. Hopefully the mysid shrimps that now live within the branches of my corals will move in as well.

[jason604]

Well this was over the course of 10 hours. The QT tank is bare bottom and he's the only thing in it, so it can take it's time.

And between my 21 fish, every day I feed:
3 cubes of hikari mysis
2 cubes of PE mysis
1 cube of frozen adult brine
1 cube of spirulina brine
1 (sometimes 2) cube of ocean nutrition formula 1
A decent chunk (about 2 cubes worth) of Pacifica plankton
2 mantilla clams
2 or 3 sheets of nori
A healthy portion of crushed aegis flakes and freeze dried cyclopeeze via an auto-feeder

Clams in the morning, nori and flakes in the afternoon (if I'm not home I sometimes skip the nori), frozen in the evening.

My fish are fat. Hopefully the mandarin does well in the display.

Holy crap. That seems like it takes a ton of time
And effort to feed your fishes each day!! The green mandarin that I got yesterday seems to just hide in the caves in my DT and won't come out. He just lays in there. I squirt a bunch of frozen mysis in there and I do se him pecking it. Is this a good sign even tho he just hides n seems very slow? Also I tried hatching dry brine shrimp but still didn't see any hatch yet in a 24hr period. Used tank water in a bottle with an air pump.