Captive Breed Mandarin not eating

[Wes888]

I got a pair of Mandarin from ORA and they were captive breed and supposedly eating non-live food. But I can't get them to eat frozen mysis or pellets. They are currently in a small 10g QT with 1/3 of the tank fill with LR. I put some copepods into the tank and hopefully keeping them alive for now. I only have them a couple of days. How long they could last if they refuse to eat? Any other idea?

 

[reeftanker84]

stress can cause them to go off their feed,just give them a few days,most do fine but by putting live food in you may be causing more problems then not because then they want to eat live food not the food you want them to eat

 

[little_fish]

The stress of shipping and rehoming has been causing theses guys to go off their frozen food. You are probably going to have to retrain them.

Also are you sure you have a male/female pair? If not they are probably fighting which wont help the feeding issue

 

[Wes888]

ORA sales them as single or pair, so I'm sure they are pair. They seems to be just idling and hiding, not fighting at all.

How long usually they would starve to death if I hold off on the live food? Since they are a pair, I paid a hefty premium for them. Other than the death of the animal, which is very sad, it would hurt my wallet a lot as well. lol

 

[little_fish]

i think they would be fine not eating for a week, but i would start offering them frozen foods to tempt them into eating. I would start with cyclopese (sp?) and sushi roe

 

[Wes888]

Something like this? I can only find them in cube form.

Frozen Fish Food for Aquarium Fish: Ocean Nutrition Cyclops Frozen Food

 

[little_fish]

ya, my lfs has this stuff in a jug but i think they are the same thing

 

[wontonflip]

And try turning the powerheads on and off to simulate movement. I thenk sen had good luck with that.

 

[Northstar24]

Nutrimar Ova is supposed to work well for Mandarins as well

 

[Wes888]

She's finally swimming around eating the pods today. I've been putting in new pods every other day. The tank itself is almost like a pod culturing tank. lol.

 

[Wes888]

The male is actively eating now. In front of the all-you-can-eat buffet, looks like he has trouble deciding what to eat first.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MFhQSKSPGQ&hd=1]Mandarin fish eating pods - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Wes888]

Close up view:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vaxzi0FmPeU]Mandarin Fish Eating Pods Close Up - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Wes888]

The female still not eating though. At least not that I can see.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3d8cYCyxRM&hd=1]Mandarin Fish not eating - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Sir Alex]

They're so pretty! Are those the ORA blue ones caus that's what I'm getting.

 

[Wes888]

Yes, they are the ORA blue. Let me know what they eat when you get them. I'm about to give up on feeding them non-live food now.

 

[Sir Alex]

Yes, they are the ORA blue. Let me know what they eat when you get them. I'm about to give up on feeding them non-live food now.

If you have a good pod population (it looks like you do), she should be fine eating those until you can get her on frozen.

 

[Wes888]

I have plenty of phytoplankton and can culture as much pods as I need. Just that if they could eat pellets, it would be the easiest. Pretty much no work, you know.

 

[swiftwind]

I'm still really new to this and am rather confused by all this. We have a mandarin dragonet (looks just like yours) and its active and appears healthy enough. But I was under the impression they ate algea and stuff off the rocks which is why they need to be in established tanks. I know copopods can be bought as live food and added to the tank but we haven't done that and I've never seen the dragonet show interest in the frozen/flake food we put in for the others. I guess my question is: is my dragonet finding copopods that are already in the tank and thats what its eating off the rocks? or is it eating something else?

 

[Sir Alex]

I'm still really new to this and am rather confused by all this. We have a mandarin dragonet (looks just like yours) and its active and appears healthy enough. But I was under the impression they ate algea and stuff off the rocks which is why they need to be in established tanks. I know copopods can be bought as live food and added to the tank but we haven't done that and I've never seen the dragonet show interest in the frozen/flake food we put in for the others. I guess my question is: is my dragonet finding copopods that are already in the tank and thats what its eating off the rocks? or is it eating something else?

Mandarins pretty much only eat pods. So if you have lots of pods in your tank he should be okay on that. If you don't then I suggest you get him on frozen food as soon as possible.

 

[swiftwind]

I've never seen pods in the tank, certainly not on the glass like wes' video, but I've never looked for them before. We do put frozen food in the tank every few days- would it not be smart enough to start eating that if it couldn't find pods? (Its actually my dad's tank, we bought it off someone who had it running for four years.)