Cheap Mandarins

[pinhead]

Was in King Eds on the weekend and they got in 100 mandarins intead of 2. They are selling them for $9.99 before they starve.

[Chin_Lee]

Oh man what a shame - most of them will probably die.
Canreefers - go save them if we can. I know this is counterproductive in that we show a demand and supplier will send more but I'm sure this was not king ed's intentions of bringing in 100 mandarins.
If you do go in to buy, make sure you tell them you are buying it to try to save them. its a shame i just shut down my refugium - had tons of pods in there.

[ferret]

They told me last week that an error was made for placing the order and turned out to be tons of mandarins as resulted.

[ScubaSteve]

Do you recall if they were the target or psychadelic mandarins?

[KPG007]

I picked up two psychadelic mandarins on the weekend (not targets). They were selling fast, but they probably had 30 - 40 at the end of the day saturday. Heck of a deal for such beautiful fish!

[apexifd]

Since i already have a male mandarine so I only bought a female. Will love to have of these beautiful fish in my tank. But, having 2 in a 75g, I am already pushing the limit. Unless I can train them all to eat frozen food.

[Canuckgod420]

i picked up 2 yesterday, they started picking at the rocks right away.

[cwatkins]

Anybody see how many they had today? I'm for sure stopping by tomorrow to pick one up.

Canuckgod420, any sign of them eating traditional foods?

[Mandosh]

Looked like there was about 15-20 left at 5ish

[apexifd]

do spend your time picking the right fish.. my first one die and I pick up another one today... hoping it will make it..

they probably sold so many of them in the last few days, the guy just ask me if I want to pick and net my own fish... ha... I wish I could have done that on my first fish. Might be able to pick a healthier fish.

[reeferious]

just bought mandarin #5 and #6 for my tanks from kinged pets but the tough hurdle is i found that even with a healthy refugium supplying pods the mandarins will sooner or later cleanse out most of your pod populations ,and so for food supplement i feed them with bloodworms. just make certain the worms get snagged on your stationary algae, rocks or even on your corals. took most of a week for the new mandarins to get the hints and start dining on the worms. unfortunately i haven't found any other frozens items that my mandarins will go for.

[ScubaSteve]

Anybody see how many they had today? I'm for sure stopping by tomorrow to pick one up.

Canuckgod420, any sign of them eating traditional foods?

Picked one up around 6... again... probably 15 to 20 minus mine. I spent a good 20 to 30 minutes watching them and the remainder all looked pretty chipper and were picking at the rocks minus two of them which didn't look so hot and one dead one.

If you go to the smaller tanks there is a gorgeous looking pair (mated pair by the way they were behaving) and they should be pretty obvious. Both were so nice and I'd have love to have them both (but my tank couldn't support the two) and I couldn't bring myself to split them up. If they haven't been split up, look for a male that keeps a smaller female under his fin all the time.

Thanks for the heads up on this Doug!

[Ron99]

They can be trained with some patience. What I have heard is that the best approach is to have them in a small tank and have gentle flow during feeding so that the mysis etc. moves slowly.

I have a great female that I picked up from Oceanic Corals a few months ago. Paul had a three in his systems for a long time (one pair and one lone female) and they had already been likely eating stray Mysis. I use a long acrylic tube as a feeder to spot feed my dendros etc and she learned very quickly that food comes out of it. She comes right up to the tube when she sees it and I squirt a few mysis or spirulina brine shrimp out on the rock in front of her. I think with some patience and effort most can be trained to take frozen or even pellets.

[apexifd]

I agree on the target feeding... they swim extremely slow, and generally won't rush out and chase after the food. but, it is possible to train them to eat frozen foods. I even heard that some are train to eat pellets.

with the 2nd mandarin I bought from king ed, I squirt some blood worm and brine shrimp during acclimating(feeding time in the main tank), and guess what, it took the blood worm.

so, it's more than possible to keep these fish even in a nano tank.

[Milad]

did anyone pickup the mated pair?

[The Grizz]

I would so love one of these but this miss order never seems to happen close to me :sad:

[Keri]

We bought one Saturday - should have enough food in the 120g, the only pod-eater in the mature tank, he's picking away at the rocks right now.



.

[eguld]

I am looking for a pair of mandarins. I know this might seem cruel but could I put two of them in a 5.5G tank while I try and train them?

Ultimately they would go in my RSM 250 that has about 180 lbs of rock and I have 64oz of reef pods arriving on Thursday.

Also does anyone know if mandarins are particularly sensitive to higher temps, 82-84 degrees?

[dankent]

optimal temps for them would be 72F - 82F

[eguld]

Just curios but it is day 5 they have been at the lfs, aren't they pretty much goners already?

I mean this is a really hard species to bring back to health.

[George]

Just curios but it is day 5 they have been at the lfs, aren't they pretty much goners already?

I mean this is a really hard species to bring back to health.

I don't think the LFS have time and energy to train them to eat or at least try to feed them. 5 Days at the LFS and who knows how many days they were in transit and holding facilities, you would be buying some dying mandarin fish by now.

It's very disgusting to bring 100 mandarins in at once. Accidental or not.

Someone should start a tracking project to see how many of the fish from this purchase will survive in 1 month, 2 months, 3 months....We have a very large sample size.

[Chowder]

Was in there today and they had about 16 left. They were also putting in live bottles of tiger pods into the tank to feed them.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I don't think the LFS have time and energy to train them to eat or at least try to feed them. 5 Days at the LFS and who knows how many days they were in transit and holding facilities, you would be buying some dying mandarin fish by now.

It's very disgusting to bring 100 mandarins in at once. Accidental or not.

Someone should start a tracking project to see how many of the fish from this purchase will survive in 1 month, 2 months, 3 months....We have a very large sample size.

Don't blame the LFS for this one. It was their supplier who sent so many when the store only ordered 2. Stores do their best to order both what will live & what will sell, but sometimes suppliers just "dump" their unwanted stock into a store's order knowing the store will not be able to ship the unordered excess back.

[dsaundry]

Don't blame the LFS for this one. It was their supplier who sent so many when the store only ordered 2. Stores do their best to order both what will live & what will sell, but sometimes suppliers just "dump" their unwanted stock into a store's order knowing the store will not be able to ship the unordered excess back.

+1

[cwatkins]

Was in there last night just before closing and they still had some left. He said they hadn't been eating at all.

I picked up one for my 90G and one for a friend from the valley who has a RSM tank.

I'm crossing my fingers as I don't really have any pod predators in my tank right now to compete with.

[ScubaSteve]

I'd bet King Ed has had the shortest stay time of Mandarin's in the history of their store this week because of this. The fact that they've been able to move almost 100 of them in less than a week is a freakin' miracle.

The store doesn't have the time to train them onto other food nor live rock to feed them. You'd definitely be getting a hungry mandarin but if you have lots of pods he'll eat like mad once he's in the tank. Mine was going to town within minutes of being in there.

[eguld]

I grabbed a male and female today. They are acclimating now.

I just felt like it's worth a shot trying to save these two even though they seem very skinny.

There were about 8-9 left at 1pm today.

[ScubaSteve]

If you've got a large pod population they'll probably be alright. I'd get them right into the main tank rather than waiting in a 5.5G like you suggested. Try giving them bloodworms if you need to but you'll find they'll start picking your rocks pretty quick. I only got mine 2 days ago, so they might be skinny and hungry but certainly not goners.

[eguld]

If you've got a large pod population they'll probably be alright. I'd get them right into the main tank rather than waiting in a 5.5G like you suggested. Try giving them bloodworms if you need to but you'll find they'll start picking your rocks pretty quick. I only got mine 2 days ago, so they might be skinny and hungry but certainly not goners.

Yes, I agree. I plan on putting them in the big tank.

[cwatkins]

Any updates from anyone who picked these guys up?

I picked up 2, one for myself and a buddy.

Mine is doing really well and within the last week has taken fondly to frozen Mysis (I did not intentionally attempt to get it to start eating frozen by doing anything special -- he just randomly started eating it during normal feeding time). I believe I have a good pod population.

My Buddy's picked up on frozen food within days which was great. But unfortunately he thinks it attempted to go down in a shrimp/goby burrow hole under the rockwork and got stuck and presumably died. Nothing in the tank could have eaten it, and it's not in the rockwork anywhere.

[Mandosh]

Mine is fat and healthy. Haven't been able to get him to eat frozen though.

[Keri]

Mine is also doing well :) I've never seen him show any interest in any frozen food but he picks at the rocks all day long.

[KPG007]

Mine is also doing well :) I've never seen him show any interest in any frozen food but he picks at the rocks all day long.

I got two - a male and female, and they are the exact same way, picking all day long with no obvious interest in frozen food.

[cwatkins]

Mine still pick at the rocks all day, but I think it's more of a curiosity for him to eat the white stuff floating around. He doesn't actively swim into the water column to chase after frozen food though.

[ScubaSteve]

My guy eats only from the rocks and he's fat as a pig. Haven't even needed to worry about getting him a frozen. I think it's also because he likes to hang out far back in the rock work where all the pods are... unfortunately that means I don't get to see him all that often. For the first while I kept thinking he had perished but then he'd magically show up again.

[Keri]

Still kickin' ;)

He comes out, but only briefly if I have the camera lol so please pardon the terrrible pics! He likes to hang out in the crevices and other unattractive parts of the tank lol. I don't think he looks thin? Must be getting enough pods because mealtimes he's oblivious to the food available. I might try hatching some brine shrimp for him as a treat?

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii254/Keri1980/mandarin.jpg

Doesn't look "sucked in"? What do you think?

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii254/Keri1980/mandarin2.jpg

[s.tan]

Yours looks good, Keri. No ribs showing. I bought a male and female at the big sale. The female was a goner within 2 days but the male is doing well. He eats frozen and whatever pods he finds.

[sbcam]

I bought one from King Ed's about 2 months ago and he is healthy as can be. He actually took to pellet food right away ( as long as I target him and keep the other fish away with a net). Here is the stuff which I find works, it sinks right to the bottom http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/fd-opzf21/Ocean+Nutrition+Formula+2+Marine+Pellet+Food+%28Sm all%29+-+100+Gram.html. Hope this helps

[Keri]

Well, a bit of an update... I took my 120g down and gave him to a friend and he jumped, but he was healthy till then! Anyone else's still alive?

[cwatkins]

Mine's still kickin'!

[sbcam]

Mine and my friends are both still alive and completly healthy. Eating pellets no problem since day one!

[KPG007]

I bought two and both would only eat pods. eventually one died, but the other one is fine. I think he might grab the odd brine shrimp I feed, but its tough to say as I rarely ever see him.

[ScubaSteve]

Mine was alive and healthy for the longest time. I had tons of pods (and flatworms) at the time, so he was a big fast mandarin. Unfortunately, my longnose butterfly came down with about every disease in the book at once in March and with working 18 hour days back then I couldn't do much to save it. The mandarin ended up picking up something from the butterfly during this ordeal and perished a few days later.