Any tips on where to obtain captive bred mandarinfish/dragonet?

[paddyob]

Actually you are coming across very rude.

I won't offer any further advice.

Originally Posted by mandyplo

This seems to always happen but no matter how much info you put in the original post, no one seems to read it and I always find myself repeating... Anyways, My 65 gallon is over a year old now and I have done endless reading on these fish since I started my tank because I've always wanted one. I have also purchased from reef nutrition the live tigger pods and the phytoplankton to feed the tiggers. I'm fully prepared to continue to stock my tank with pods for the mandarins if they refuse to eat prepared foods.

And I don't know where you got the idea that this would be my first fish... I have many fish they are just in quarantine right now, I have been a fish hobbyist for years and I have successfully kept other hard to keep fish such as certain anthias and butterfly fish. Sorry if I'm sounding rude I just feel that a lot of people jump to conclusions/makes assumptions when I have already stated the facts.

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by naesco

In fairness to all who posted your OP:

1. that you tank is a 65 gallon
2. stats this is a start up tank but later says it is 1 year old.
3. fallow but pods are growing.??

Kudos to you for seeking out aquacultured.

Contrary to the other poster in the case of mandarins it does make a difference.
Mandarins feed on the reef and when someone approaches dive for the nearest hole. Fishers squirt cyanide in and they come out but half are dead and another half die by the time they reach the beach.
MAC taught the fishers to hook them but with MAC gone I do not know whether this continues.

Mandarins! Always buy aquacultured. Never buy a mandarin that you do not see actively eating in the LFS.

Never once did I state this was a startup tank, I stated my tank is currently fallow and I'm soon to be reaching the 7 week date. All of my fish that WERE in the tank are in quarantine and I want to add a mandarin to my display first and let him settle in, before I re-introduce my old fish. I said BEFORE when my tank was immature I had dreamed of trying a mandarin fish but decided to wait until the time was right and my tank was more mature (which is now, as my tank is currently 1 year and 1 month old). Sorry if that was not clear.

And maybe I am confused on what the term fallow means, I suppose I don't know the exact meaning but I was under the impression it was regarding your tank having all fish removed from it. I wasn't aware it also meant inverts/corals were not allowed to remain in the tank.... And if my tank has all fish removed from it currently (which it does) and only my corals remain, why would pods not culture and grow (which is what you are suggesting)??? Without fish to prey on them they have all the more advantage to grow and populate do they not?

[naesco]

Originally Posted by mandyplo

Never once did I state this was a startup tank, I stated my tank is currently fallow and I'm soon to be reaching the 7 week date. All of my fish that WERE in the tank are in quarantine and I want to add a mandarin to my display first and let him settle in, before I re-introduce my old fish. I said BEFORE when my tank was immature I had dreamed of trying a mandarin fish but decided to wait until the time was right and my tank was more mature (which is now, as my tank is currently 1 year and 1 month old). Sorry if that was not clear.

And maybe I am confused on what the term fallow means, I suppose I don't know the exact meaning but I was under the impression it was regarding your tank having all fish removed from it. I wasn't aware it also meant inverts/corals were not allowed to remain in the tank.... And if my tank has all fish removed from it currently (which it does) and only my corals remain, why would pods not culture and grow (which is what you are suggesting)??? Without fish to prey on them they have all the more advantage to grow and populate do they not?

Apologies accepted. Turbo charge your tank by over feeding live phytoplankton daily with the pumps off for an hour or so.
Get a lfs to order an aquacultured mandarin and when it arrives and you see it eating other foods buy it. Avoid other fish that also prey on pods. Your mandarin will soon devour all the pods in your tank.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by naesco

Apologies accepted. Turbo charge your tank by over feeding live phytoplankton daily with the pumps off for an hour or so.
Get a lfs to order an aquacultured mandarin and when it arrives and you see it eating other foods buy it. Avoid other fish that also prey on pods. Your mandarin will soon devour all the pods in your tank.

I had luck feeding my Mandarins Lobster eggs...from ocean nutrition...hard to get though...at least it was when i had my tank. Of course thats not all that was fed but they like it.

Also, try not to get one unless you can see it eat..and i mean more than one type of food. I bought mine after I saw them eat three or four kinds of food...including pellets. Again though, this was really before captive bred mandarins were available.

But I kept them alive for 4 years, I also used lobster eggs to get my Moorish idol eating other food...though he was in the qt tank for almost 4 months.

If you are relying on "buying" pods the tigger pods are not always the best...and it gets mighty expensive if you cannot get them onto something else.

Good Luck though, everyone always love looking at my mandarins... curiously they liked asterina starfish as well...the green spotted anyways...so that might be something to introduce in a QT tank and see if they take to them.


http://www.oceannutrition.eu/product...ct=lobstereggs

those. well worth the hassle to get them. Actually good to get any finicky eater....well eating..

[halwake]

Hey, we just went through this with a mandarin about 4 months ago. I had all intentions to (farm) pods and so on but I was able to get my male green mandarin eating frozen food quite quickly. He is not a ORA Mandarin, got him from Big Als. I put him in a breeder net floating in the main tank for about a week. Here I introduced frozen brine shrimp. To my surprise after a day or two he started sampling it. Then I started to add a bit of frozen Mysis. He was not overly interested but picked at it. About a week in he escaped into the main tank. I was hoping he would keep eating frozen but only went after pods. He showed very little interest in frozen food. After a week and him getting skinnier I decided to re-capture him. Once I got him back into the net we started over again. To my delight he started to accept very small Mysis, (Hikari brand). We tried blood worms now, mysis, brine shrimp, and he even tried some flake. After I was sure he was eating good, I released him back into the tank. Here we spot fed him with the pumps off using a feeding tube or turkey baster. He came to associate the tube with food and came to it as soon as it was in the water. Unfortunatly so did the other faster fish, so we started using the mandarin diner approach. Small glass jar in the corner that just the mandarin can go in and take his time to eat. Works great, he is always going in there looking for food. He won't touch pellets or flake really but will gobble up and frozen preparations. I think the key is to get a plump healthy one to begin with that will last the initial training phase and do not release them until they are taking frozen very well. Wish I could take credit for these ideas but the articles and links were posted by members on the site. Search Mandarin diners and training mandarin to eat frozen food. My guy is healty, happy, active, and in a 36 gallon tank. I gave up on pod farming, much easier just to train him to begin with. All together took approx. 4 weeks but remember after the 1st week he escaped and we had to start over again. I would guess 2-3 weeks total in the breeder net you would be fine.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by halwake

Hey, we just went through this with a mandarin about 4 months ago. I had all intentions to (farm) pods and so on but I was able to get my male green mandarin eating frozen food quite quickly. He is not a ORA Mandarin, got him from Big Als. I put him in a breeder net floating in the main tank for about a week. Here I introduced frozen brine shrimp. To my surprise after a day or two he started sampling it. Then I started to add a bit of frozen Mysis. He was not overly interested but picked at it. About a week in he escaped into the main tank. I was hoping he would keep eating frozen but only went after pods. He showed very little interest in frozen food. After a week and him getting skinnier I decided to re-capture him. Once I got him back into the net we started over again. To my delight he started to accept very small Mysis, (Hikari brand). We tried blood worms now, mysis, brine shrimp, and he even tried some flake. After I was sure he was eating good, I released him back into the tank. Here we spot fed him with the pumps off using a feeding tube or turkey baster. He came to associate the tube with food and came to it as soon as it was in the water. Unfortunatly so did the other faster fish, so we started using the mandarin diner approach. Small glass jar in the corner that just the mandarin can go in and take his time to eat. Works great, he is always going in there looking for food. He won't touch pellets or flake really but will gobble up and frozen preparations. I think the key is to get a plump healthy one to begin with that will last the initial training phase and do not release them until they are taking frozen very well. Wish I could take credit for these ideas but the articles and links were posted by members on the site. Search Mandarin diners and training mandarin to eat frozen food. My guy is healty, happy, active, and in a 36 gallon tank. I gave up on pod farming, much easier just to train him to begin with. All together took approx. 4 weeks but remember after the 1st week he escaped and we had to start over again. I would guess 2-3 weeks total in the breeder net you would be fine.

Mandarin Diner...Good old Melev.

http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by halwake

Hey, we just went through this with a mandarin about 4 months ago. I had all intentions to (farm) pods and so on but I was able to get my male green mandarin eating frozen food quite quickly. He is not a ORA Mandarin, got him from Big Als. I put him in a breeder net floating in the main tank for about a week. Here I introduced frozen brine shrimp. To my surprise after a day or two he started sampling it. Then I started to add a bit of frozen Mysis. He was not overly interested but picked at it. About a week in he escaped into the main tank. I was hoping he would keep eating frozen but only went after pods. He showed very little interest in frozen food. After a week and him getting skinnier I decided to re-capture him. Once I got him back into the net we started over again. To my delight he started to accept very small Mysis, (Hikari brand). We tried blood worms now, mysis, brine shrimp, and he even tried some flake. After I was sure he was eating good, I released him back into the tank. Here we spot fed him with the pumps off using a feeding tube or turkey baster. He came to associate the tube with food and came to it as soon as it was in the water. Unfortunatly so did the other faster fish, so we started using the mandarin diner approach. Small glass jar in the corner that just the mandarin can go in and take his time to eat. Works great, he is always going in there looking for food. He won't touch pellets or flake really but will gobble up and frozen preparations. I think the key is to get a plump healthy one to begin with that will last the initial training phase and do not release them until they are taking frozen very well. Wish I could take credit for these ideas but the articles and links were posted by members on the site. Search Mandarin diners and training mandarin to eat frozen food. My guy is healty, happy, active, and in a 36 gallon tank. I gave up on pod farming, much easier just to train him to begin with. All together took approx. 4 weeks but remember after the 1st week he escaped and we had to start over again. I would guess 2-3 weeks total in the breeder net you would be fine.

Thank you Naesco, Pan, and Halwake!
You have provided me with a lot of insight. We have only 2 stores in town that can order the mandarinfish. I am going to try my best to order one in, and whether I receive captive bred or not, I am still going to go through all the procedures to be sure they are eating prepared foods I'd just feel better if I had a plan B (pod population in my tank, buying lobster eggs, etc) just in case I have troubles getting him to eat prepared foods at first... this is usually how my luck works out.

My only worry is that I've had such a hard time with this ICH problem, and I've finally eradicated it... Only a few more days and my tank will be done its 8 week fallow, and I can be (hopefully) assured that its ICH free. My fish have completed their 4 week treatment in quarantine, so once my display is ready I will finally have fish to admire again.
But anyways my worry is that I know both of the local stores in town have been having ICH problems aswell... So part of me is saying "make sure you quarantine your new mandarin" and the other part is saying "don't quarantine theres no pods in that tank, he will starve, he will be too stressed to eat in there, he will die if you try to quarantine..."

Do you think if I use the breeding trap method in quarantine, he should be okay? I'm really worried about re introducing ICH to my display If it were any other easier to keep fish I would BE SURE to QT and treat it! But I'm starting to think he should be alright in QT if I have tigger pods, lobster eggs, and frozen/prepared foods ready for him right?

[SoloSK71]

I am thinking this might be the next step for me as well, SPS looks to be a lot moredemanding in terms of water quality and more costly as well. Sadly the ORA mandarins are all sold and no more are expected for a year or so.

Charles

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by halwake

Hey, we just went through this with a mandarin about 4 months ago. I had all intentions to (farm) pods and so on but I was able to get my male green mandarin eating frozen food quite quickly. He is not a ORA Mandarin, got him from Big Als. I put him in a breeder net floating in the main tank for about a week. Here I introduced frozen brine shrimp. To my surprise after a day or two he started sampling it. Then I started to add a bit of frozen Mysis. He was not overly interested but picked at it. About a week in he escaped into the main tank. I was hoping he would keep eating frozen but only went after pods. He showed very little interest in frozen food. After a week and him getting skinnier I decided to re-capture him. Once I got him back into the net we started over again. To my delight he started to accept very small Mysis, (Hikari brand). We tried blood worms now, mysis, brine shrimp, and he even tried some flake. After I was sure he was eating good, I released him back into the tank. Here we spot fed him with the pumps off using a feeding tube or turkey baster. He came to associate the tube with food and came to it as soon as it was in the water. Unfortunatly so did the other faster fish, so we started using the mandarin diner approach. Small glass jar in the corner that just the mandarin can go in and take his time to eat. Works great, he is always going in there looking for food. He won't touch pellets or flake really but will gobble up and frozen preparations. I think the key is to get a plump healthy one to begin with that will last the initial training phase and do not release them until they are taking frozen very well. Wish I could take credit for these ideas but the articles and links were posted by members on the site. Search Mandarin diners and training mandarin to eat frozen food. My guy is healty, happy, active, and in a 36 gallon tank. I gave up on pod farming, much easier just to train him to begin with. All together took approx. 4 weeks but remember after the 1st week he escaped and we had to start over again. I would guess 2-3 weeks total in the breeder net you would be fine.

Update!!! I have purchased a mandarin he is in qt and I used the breeding trap method right away. First I was feeding live tigger pods because he wouldn't accept anything else. On day three he started taste testing brine shrimp, and cyclops. He is fully accepting frozen food now and he is nice and plump!!! I bought a Bangaii cardinal at the same time however and he is in the same QT tank (not in the breeding trap obv). But I have yet to see him eat and it's been a few days I would never have guessed I'd have trouble with a cardinal! Any suggestions?

[Skimmerking]

Mandy bangi cards are. A tricky one too they love blood worms they are a finicky eater so just give it time.