I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on if the ora mandarin are easier then wild mandarin, might be a dumb question :( but was wondering if anyone had any experiences with them. I am going to be adding one in around 4 months once my pods increase with putting tiger pod supplement's in. I am thinking of doing a bottle a month to stock it up in case it doesn't eat frozen any advice on preparations i should take would be much appreciated.
Mandarin Dragonet
- Thread starter Jaredf
- Start date
little_fish
Moderator
The ORA are suppose to come eating frozen foods, however the stress of shipping and being in so many different tanks has caused many of them to revert back to only eating frozen. However, they might be easier to train to eat frozen because they did it before. They are much hardier because they are already adapted to tank life. I wouldnt put a mandarine who doesnt eat frozen into your tank, with such a small tank a mandarine would wipe out a pod population in just a few months.
chuck78
The Reefanatic
+1 fish. ORA is well worth the extra bucks. My cousins' ORA mandarin only eats brine so he soaks the omega enriched brine in liquid vitamins over night. I got mine wild caught from LiveAquaria.com. I took me about 7 months to get mine to eat frozen brine & mysis.
nething
Reefing newb
+1 on the ORA. I had a one that wasnt and I couldnt get the little guy to eat worth anything. However a LFS I frequent has an ORA Mandarin that is super chubby and eats constantly. Im building my pod population up as well for a second try in my 10G. Adding a 7G hob fuge with chaeto and relocating my mangroves to it as well. Best of luck!
chuck78
The Reefanatic
You could stock that 10 gallon with pods for the next 2 years & I guarantee that mardarin will eat them ALL in a month maybe two if you're lucky. I would'nt get anything but an ORA if I was you, but then again...I'd be too scared to put a mandarin in a 10 gallon in the first place b/c I think the minimum tank size is either 30 or 40 gallons.
little_fish
Moderator
+1 Chuck
nething
Reefing newb
Thats why I was +1ing the ORA. From what I understand regardless of tank size its hard to keep ones that dont eat frozen because they will eat the pods at a rate that they just cant reproduce fast enough.
As for the tank size a 10G is fine as a juvenile (as long as dosing pods and feeding frozen) esp since the system will be a total of about 19G with fuge and fluval. Anticipation is to have in 10 for about a year and move to the 125G I dont have setup yet...
As for the tank size a 10G is fine as a juvenile (as long as dosing pods and feeding frozen) esp since the system will be a total of about 19G with fuge and fluval. Anticipation is to have in 10 for about a year and move to the 125G I dont have setup yet...
nething
Reefing newb
Also as for dragonet feeding and training there is a great thread on nano-reef about them. I will see if I can dig it up. It explained a number of methods to train them and keep them trained to eat frozen.
chuck78
The Reefanatic
Please post that link when you get a chance b/c I just upgraded to a 220 & would like to have my old green mandy with a spotted since there's sooo much more real estate now
nething
Reefing newb
Im still looking for the one thread over there however I stumbled upon this one which has quite a bit of training information as well.
Mandarin Dragonet - Nano-Reef.com Forums
Mandarin Dragonet - Nano-Reef.com Forums
