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View Full Version : Any tricks to get a Manderin to eat anything?


Douglas
03-31-2012, 03:33 PM
I have a pair of Manderins, a male, eating pellets and frozen, and a female, that is "skin and bones". She won't eat....anything. The tank has some natural food. Any thoughts on getting her to eat?

dc4
03-31-2012, 03:42 PM
You could try several things like setting up a diner (small jar that they can fit through and eat without competition) but really it just takes time. I had a female that ate frozen but my male only ate copepods. I have tons of them so I didn't really worry but then one day I saw the male eating a large piece of frozen mysis. Both are fat and happy, for now, I would try to source some copepods to seed your tank and run a fuge with chaeto to help grow the population until the female learns to eat frozen.

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Reef Puffer
03-31-2012, 03:59 PM
im training my scooter blenny as we speak. i heard live brine in a baster with frozen foods, slowly switching to only frozen. i cant seem to find brine eggs around here so i just use munnids and small anphipods. has been about a week now and i see her picking the odd frozen brine/pellet. idk how much shes actually eating yet tho? good luck!

LeanneP
03-31-2012, 04:50 PM
Also try adding some garlic drops that you can get at the pet store on whatever you are feeing. I had a cardinal that didn't eat anything for two weeks due to my tank cycling and it did the trick to start him eating again. Garlic will stimulate the fishes appetite. Hope that it helps.
Leanne

naesco
03-31-2012, 06:05 PM
I have a pair of Manderins, a male, eating pellets and frozen, and a female, that is "skin and bones". She won't eat....anything. The tank has some natural food. Any thoughts on getting her to eat?

Please try to arrange to have another reefer that has a tank teeming with pods take her.

Mandarins require larger mature tanks that are teeming with pods to survive. While it is true that some force themselves to eat other foods and live. the majority do not do so and perish in our tanks.

toytech
03-31-2012, 07:23 PM
newly hatched baby brine shrimp work and are easy to hatch , but if she is as skinny as you say and your tank isnt swarming with pods there is no hope.They dont eat much in a sitting and if you get them to eat frozen your only giving them a snack so they dont eat so many pods.

daniella3d
04-01-2012, 12:18 AM
Get yourself a white worms culture and give her live white worms. My mandarins love them.

At some point I treated my tank with interceptor for black bugs and that killed pretty much 95% of the pods. With 2 mandarins in the tank, they would have died without the live white worms.


I have a pair of Manderins, a male, eating pellets and frozen, and a female, that is "skin and bones". She won't eat....anything. The tank has some natural food. Any thoughts on getting her to eat?

fishytime
04-01-2012, 12:24 AM
At some point I treated my tank with interceptor for black bugs and that killed pretty much 95% of the pods.

black bugs??????:noidea:

chandigz
04-01-2012, 01:50 AM
Try frozen cylopeze, cyclops, caplin roe(reef caviar) or daphnia. Most people make the mistake of trying to feed frozen foods that aren't the right size for mandarins. Stuff like mysis are no where near the size of pods, their natural food source.

reefwars
04-01-2012, 02:18 AM
if you want to bring her to my house i can give you a frag of something for her, she will do well in my tank......thats if it seems like shes not gonna make it, if shes skin and bones now its prob to late for training.

reefwars
04-01-2012, 02:19 AM
Try frozen cylopeze, cyclops, caplin roe(reef caviar) or daphnia. Most people make the mistake of trying to feed frozen foods that aren't the right size for mandarins. Stuff like mysis are no where near the size of pods, their natural food source.



+1 i have my pipefish on cyclopeeze soaked in mysis juice:p works like a charm considering it was only eating live foods(mostly pods):)

BlueWorldAquatic
04-01-2012, 02:36 AM
white worms, almost 100% of the time for us

daniella3d
04-01-2012, 04:10 AM
black bugs.

Little predatory copepods that hang on digitatas and montipora. Not as bad as red bugs but still prevent polyp extension and the coral from thriving.

black bugs??????:noidea:

FitoPharmer
04-01-2012, 04:20 AM
Nutramar Ova (http://www.nutramar.com/ova.html)
I heard this is like crack for mandarins.

ScubaSteve
04-01-2012, 06:51 AM
I had a mandarin that wouldn't even take pods though my tank was teeming with them. I got it to eat a couple live black worms and it got it's appetite back and started eating pods. At this point I'd be taking the shot gun approach. I'll second Denny's advice and recommend cyclopeeze.

daniella3d
04-01-2012, 02:58 PM
NOne of my mandarin ever eated cyclopeeze. I had 3 so far and I have 2 for nearly 2 years and they don't eat that at all. I don't know why since it is sort of a small pods.

My first one used to eat fish roe (caplan eggs) and Hikary frozen bloodworms and of course live white worms, but the last 2 only eat pods and white worms.


I had a mandarin that wouldn't even take pods though my tank was teeming with them. I got it to eat a couple live black worms and it got it's appetite back and started eating pods. At this point I'd be taking the shot gun approach. I'll second Denny's advice and recommend cyclopeeze.

SkunkClown
04-01-2012, 03:17 PM
Mine eats bloodworms. Try feeding with a turkey baster and turning off the power heads. I believe you can buy small size bloodworms that would be easier for her to eat. Good luck!

MaxwellSilver
04-01-2012, 04:12 PM
Nutramar Ova (http://www.nutramar.com/ova.html)
I heard this is like crack for mandarins.

Where can you find this in Calgary?

daniella3d
04-01-2012, 04:35 PM
Masago or caplan eggs does the same. YOu can buy this at the grocery store. It is the same orange eggs that you can find on sushi. If you have a sushi store around or a restaurant, you can ask them to sell you some of these orange eggs.

Ova are shrimp eggs and masago is usually caplan (a marine fish) eggs.

It does not matter if they have food coloring as I have been giving my fish seasoned caplan eggs for years now and it's all good.

Where can you find this in Calgary?