Help on keepin a mandrin in a 29g biocube. Note: im looking for a challange

[Hail_Ceasar]

Ever since i first saw one i have always wanted to keep a mandrian fish, but never have for fear of killing it. I know full well the difficulties in keeping one. But my tank has been up for about a year and a half now so i would def say it is mature. I have always oved the challange of having a reef tank, some how all the hard work i put into it just makes it that much more enjoyable to look at. And i have had great luck only ever losing one fish that commited suicide on the carpet

Anyways i really think i am up for the challange of trying to keep a mandrin in a small tank. To try and wean it onto frozen food and supplement my tank with extra pods if need be. If i fail and it starts to get skinny i will just return it to the fish store lesson learned. I was hoping someone might have some advise on what exactly to feed it once it starts eating frozen, i know mysis simply wont do the trick nutritionally in the long run.

[gqlmao]

I've kept one, they are very slow fish indeed. I've seen lots of people on forums train their mandarins to eat dry foods, But thats rare even if they do they have to be fed using a glass jar and they place food in there and hope that other fish don't come in and steal. If you are lucky you should be able to come across one that readily accepts frozen at your local LFS. I wouldn't buy one unless they do accept frozen foods at the very least. 29 gallons is fine as long as it takes food supplements, however if they do not eat the pod growth in that tank size will not be sufficient to support them long term wise.

[hillbillyreefer]

Find out when they feed the tanks at the LFS and go in then. Watch to see if any of them eat. Buy the one that eats frozen and pretty much the whole battle is won. Worked for me.

[Hail_Ceasar]

Im glad to see someone has had some luck. Do you feed it every day or is my normal once overy two days ok for the mandrin.

[hillbillyreefer]

I only feed him every couple of days. He's fat and happy cruising around picking pods off the rock. I've also noticed a large increase in the pod population since I started feeding phyto everyday.