Green Mandarin Not Eating...

SaltwaterNoob17

Reefing newb
I bought a Green Mandarin yesterday, and so far it refuses to eat. I went through this problem with my leopard wrasse until he finally started eating, so I'm not too worried...yet. However, I'm open to any tips you all may have. What are mandarins' favorite foods??? Do they prefer mysis, brine, etc.?

So far I've tried frozen brine shrimp, frozen brine shrimp soaked in garlic, and flake food. Also, I'm going to call the LFS and see what they had been feeding it...
 
Unfortunately, unless you saw it eating at the LFS chances are it won't eat anythign you try to feed it. Mandarins are notorious for only eating live foods, like amphipods, and copepods. If you don't have a HUGE pod supply in a sump, I would see if you can return it to the LFS.
 
If it won't eat roe take it back and tell them its not eating and you want to return it.... chances are its probably already starving/not enough copes in your tank/will only eat live... mandrins are super picky
 
I moved the mandarin from QT to DT hoping that the mandarin may mimc the fish in the DT and eat the frozen brine shrimp (I read an article that said that mandarins sometimes do this)...didn't work. I called the fish store where I bought the mandarin, and they said that they were feeding live brine shrimp. Tomorrow I'm going to look into finding either live brine shrimp, live pods, or the fish roe.

I am hoping that I'll be able to wean the mandarin off of live food (i.e. live brine shrimp) and onto the frozen brine that my other fish eat. However, if the mandarin is stuck on live food, I might consider setting up a brine shrimp hatchery. Has anyone bred their own brine shrimp? Is it hard? Expensive?
 
Hatching brine shrimp is easy. They are actually called sea monkeys if you remember from when you were a kid. You can buy vials of brine shrimp eggs at pet stores or online, and you can use an empty soda bottle and an airstone as your hatchery. Keeping a constant supply for the rest of the fish's life would get tiring though.
 
You can also buy a bottle of Tiger Pods. Dump half in your tank, and the other half in your sump. Or maybe in your case 1/4 in tank and 1/4 in sump. They are live pods, so make sure not to cap the bottle after use. Wait another week, and use the rest the same way. This should jump start your live pod supply.
 
I don't know how much nutritional value brine will have anyway.
Are you exclusively feeding your fish frozen brine?

You should look into some prepared frozen foods and mix it up a bit.

I typically give brine as a "treat" to my fish....not as a sole source of nutrition.

Good luck with the Mandarin!
 
Hatching brine shrimp is easy. They are actually called sea monkeys if you remember from when you were a kid. You can buy vials of brine shrimp eggs at pet stores or online, and you can use an empty soda bottle and an airstone as your hatchery. Keeping a constant supply for the rest of the fish's life would get tiring though.

Thanks Biff. I'm hoping that I wouldn't have to breed brine shrimp forever, just long enough to wean the mandarin onto frozen stuff...

You can also buy a bottle of Tiger Pods.

As for Tiger Pods, I might give those a try as well. Using live tiger pods was the way I transitioned my wrasse from live pods to frozen foods.

I don't know how much nutritional value brine will have anyway.
Are you exclusively feeding your fish frozen brine?

And no, I don't exclusively feed brine. I feed my fish frozen brine, mysis, krill, plankton, and squid cubes from a couple of frozen packages my LFS sells and I alternate which kind of cube they get everyday. And every now and then I buy the live tiger pods as a special treat. I'm just focusing on the brine for now because that was what the fish store was feeding the mandarin...
 
I've had two MDs and I was able to fatten both of them without great trouble. Feed them all of these four:

Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 Small Pellets
Orange or Red sushi roe, frig section at Asian markets
Pods
Live Brine shrimp soaked with Selcon

Both of my MDs have gobbled up all of these foods.


Turn off flow and drop the food right in front of them. MDs are shy so move in slowly. After the first month they are less shy and you can drop food in without turning the flow off.

To get enough pods for an MD get a fuge and do NOT keep fish that will decimate your pod population like wrasses, blue damsels, dottybacks.

BTW, "sea monkeys" are a species of brine shrimp that come from dry salt lake beds. Brine shrimp come from the sea.
 
I've had two MDs and I was able to fatten both of them without great trouble. Feed them all of these four:

Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 Small Pellets
Orange or Red sushi roe, frig section at Asian markets
Pods
Live Brine shrimp soaked with Selcon

Both of my MDs have gobbled up all of these foods.
Thanks, Sen! I just bought live brine shrimp and the mandarin finally ate!!
Did you ever try to feed your mandarins frozen food?
 
Thanks, Sen! I just bought live brine shrimp and the mandarin finally ate!!
Did you ever try to feed your mandarins frozen food?

Yes but you have to train them to eat it by mixing a little frozen brine shrimp with the live --this is very time consuming. The pellets and sushi are much easier.
 
Mandarin Update:

I'm moving the mandarin back to QT so that I can better monitor what it eats. Despite enjoying the live brine today, the mandarin is still very skinny, and I'm worried about him. Once he's back in QT (he's dripping right now), I'm going to try another round of the live brine to see if I can get some weight back on him. Tomorrow I'll give the pellets a shot and I might try to hunt down some roe and tiger pods. Keep my fingers crossed...

Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 Small Pellets
Also, Sen, I found Omega One Natural Protein Formula Small Pellets...is that what you were talking about (or close enough)? Do your pellets sink or float?
 
My experience with a malnutritioned mandarin is that once you get them eating SOMETHING after awhile try rotating back in all the frozen stuff one at a time that they did not like. I experienced a mandarin that wouldn't eat hardly anything untill I got it to eat one type of food. After a week it started taking other stuff and pecking at rocks again here an there. I think possibly when they get that skinny they are sick and really don't eat or act properly. I'd start with frozen brine or baby brine. Blood worms are popular with one of mine.

I've seen very skinny mandarin live a good while. Once it starts eating it will take a good while for it to look healthy looking. I'm not talking a week or two. You will notice weight gain starting at the pectoral fins. If you see even a smidge of weight gain after a week of them eating then you should be ok.

If your able to buy live brine then I would def mix in frozen. thaw it in a net under warm water before you dump it in. If I was in your situation I'd keep the mandarin in the QT until you get it eating something frozen if you tank cannon support it pod wise. For that matter I have a mandarin that doesn't even eat pods. If your mandarin is pecking at invisible stuff then its eating pods.

If at all possible feed it multiple times a day please. especially with a very malnutritioned mandarin its important to allow it to feed often. They don't typically take more than a bite or two of adult brine. Since you have live brine you are able to buy that is ideal since they can snack as they will.

The problem with mandarins is I can with fair certainty that if a mandarin has no other food source in the tank. Getting fed one time per day will either just barely maintain..or more likely lose weight unless there is uneated ammounts of its perfered frozen food that will sit at the bottom for an hour+ and not get eaten by other fish.

Sorry for the length bits of scattered info. I just wanted to spew out as much as I can for you. I own 3 mandarins and a scooter blenny.

Do you have a good picture of your mandarin?

Here is a link to more info i've blurted out in the past:)
https://www.livingreefs.com/my-experience-mandarins-and-particularly-picky-new-addition-t26373.html
 
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