Green Mandarin

[Jmck]

Ok, After all this time of looking at mandarins, I have finally picked one up from my LFS

He eats frozen foods and has been in a newly established tank for 3 months at the LFS.

Pic was taken off my phone, which for some reason, is only taking low rez pics atm, but here he is in the bag before I put him in, currently in hiding.

 

[Bluespace]

Mandarins are one of my favorite fish. Good luck with yours Josh.

 

[Jmck]

Thanks :) they are amazing, my brother thinks he looks like a pokemon haha

 

[Jmck]

hehe

 

[reeffreak]

Congrats Josh,they are one fascinating fish.

 

[Jmck]

Thanks reef, I love them, wondering right now if you can make them breed in a tank.. hrmm

 

[dcantucson]

Josh congratulations on your Mandarin. They are one of my favorite fish. It'll give you hours of entertainment as you watch it hunt for pods.

 

[Jmck]

At the moment, im hoping my clowns stop picking on him when ie comes out of the rocks! there so mean lol

but they are amazing fish

 

[little_fish]

ive read that if you can get a pair that is ok with eachother, they will readily breed in the tank, the issue is raising the fry. ORA is trying to do it I believe. If you poke around their site you might be able to find the article.

 

[little_fish]

Oh, and i used to LOVE pokemon, go figure! I kinda wish it was still big, i loved all the critters 'n stuff.

 

[Jmck]

Breeding the Green Mandarin - Microcosm Aquarium Explorer

does not seem hard to raise the fry according to this :)

just need to get a good pair and some breeding tanks :D

 

[little_fish]

Perhaps my information is out of date, but if was easy to do then wouldnt there already be lots of tanked raised mandrins on the market? I do think it is possible, but it isn't going to be an easy journey im sure. But please try, and share your results!

 

[Jmck]

Haha, not easy I agree, but this guy did it on the first and second batch of mandarins.

So cant be completely difficult right? but he also had experience raising lots of fry and breeding many fish. Which I do not. But i will be trying at some point :D

 

[dcantucson]

First you have to get two to get along with each other. That's a job in itself. My luck, I'd end up with a gay :sfish::sfish:pair. :shock:

 

[Gigaah]

The biggest issue is the "wild harvested zooplankton". They have to be small enough. Rotifers will not work for a first food for the mandarin larvae. The eggs are also very fragile.

If you want to breed mandarins or any fish you NEED to talk to the people that hang out here:

Marine Ornamental Fish & Invert Breeders Association • Index page

There is even a moderator on the board that will send you starter cultures for the cost of shipping.But he requires you to join MOFIB which is like 12$ per year. Fair enough.

He has pods and phyto of many variety. Including a species or two of small copepods that can be cultured...with out culturing phyto! It can be fed O. Marina which only requires algae paste to grow. Handy.

I got apocylops pananemisis and Tigriopus califoricus(tiger pods). The tiger pods are easy to feed. They even eat finely crushed flake food.


For what its worth. I managed 2 pair of mandarins out of 3 tries. Be prepared for some hostility at first..even biting. My 2nd pair looked like they were going to kill each other they bit onto each other and held on at the "neck" but after a day they were ok and now they are paired.

 

[Jmck]

Thats some great advice right there, except the problem is, I cant get things from that site because im in Australia. So they cant send me anything.

I guess the hardest thing for me is finding food, but I will somehow :)

Also, i need to find the pair. All part of the challenge though. :D

 

[Jmck]

First you have to get two to get along with each other. That's a job in itself. My luck, I'd end up with a gay :sfish::sfish:pair. :shock:

HAha, you would have some amazingly bad luck if that happened!