Mandarin Pod Consumption

[wsboyette]

I recently added a healthy green mandarin dragonet to my 45g FOWLR, having (I thought) stocked it well with pods (Tisbe sp.) during the previous month (knowing that mandarins normally do not do well in smaller tanks). I am new to the use of pods, as in a previous setup years ago I kept the mandarin I had thriving on white worms that lived and propagated in the substrate. I also added a bottle of the "tigger" (Tigris) pods by Reef Nutrition when I put the mandarin in the tank. The tank already contained a blue damsel, coral beauty, and maroon clown. Until yesterday, the mandarin appeared to be feeding well, grazing over the LR and was very active. Then since the night before last, after a water change and light vacuuming of the sand surface, he seems lethargic, just sitting around on the bottom and not cruising for pods. Water parameters tested all ideal, with nitrates under 15 and near-zero ammonia, PH around 8.2 and SG at 1.024. This worries me, as I am wondering whether I disturbed the pod population and disrupted its availability to the mandarin, or maybe the other fish were also eating pods and simply depleted the supply prematurely ? Or could he have just been shocked by my water change ?

 

[little_fish]

Is your mandarin looking skinny? Does he eat frozen at all?

Without out a place for the pods to reproduce, the mandarin would just wipe out all the pods you have in there. They eat hundreds a day, and all the other fish you have listed will also eat pods.

 

[wsboyette]

No, he doesn't look malnourished yet, and there is over 40 lbs of LR, a sand bed, and 2 large pieces of dead pipe organ coral - I should think the pipe organ would provide the ideal place for pod reproduction as it is comprised of hundreds of tiny little hollow tubes with a little space in between them. But those other fish are ravenous eaters, and that was worrying me..... I don't believe he will eat frozen food w/o some training.

Here is the fish:

Here is the pipe organ coral:

 

[AmberSunrise]

This is why as much as I want one I have been reluctant to get one. It might be helpful to dose with pods weekly to ensure he is eating enough

 

[sen5241b]

There is NO way a mandarin can feed on pods alone in a 45G especially with a damsel in there. Damsels will decimate your pod population. You need to start feeding that mandarin any of the following three:

Go to an Asian super-market (or sushi restaurant) and get some orange (or red) sushi roe. I am convinced this any fish's favorite food. Turn off the flow and drop a lot of eggs right in front of the mandarin. I've had 2 mandarins and they both ate the eggs like crazy. After a time you can do it with the flow on.

Get "Ocean Nutrition's Marine Formula One - Small pellets" and feed the same way.

Drop some frozen blood worms in front of the mandarin. I had to play with the flow and make the worms wiggle before he would eat them and it took weeks of training him with the worms.

Both my mandarins got fat on this feeding method.

BTW, mandarins are more sensitive to nitrates than other fish. I noticed, more than once, my mandarins got sickly when nitrates got up to 20ppm.

 

[wsboyette]

That's it then; the damsel & possibly others are probably helping deplete the pods. The mandarin, as Little Fish put it, is a very voracious eater of them. I just had no idea how quickly the fish would deplete them. At $20 per culture, it would bankrupt an aquarist to try to replenish the pods weekly.... Much cheaper to give the mandarin away ! So I either need to train him to eat frozen food, or get another white worm population established like I had in my previous setup, or give him to an aquarist with a huge tank - and I am loathe to part with him. I tried to obtain sushi roe from the local Japanese restaurant; the girl there had no idea what I was talking about and offered me sushi (which was delicious for me but useless for the mandarin). Is there anywhere online from which I may obtain plain orange sushi roe ? I could not find anything except the salted caviar type when I searched.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Do you have an asian market near you? Or an Asian neighborhood? You would probably be able to find it there.

 

[wsboyette]

Do you have an asian market near you? Or an Asian neighborhood? You would probably be able to find it there.

No, I am in the boondocks of eastern NC here. Kinda marooned like Ford Prefect ;-)
The nearest one is 60 miles away in Raleigh, but the nearest seller of pods is nearly that far away. Still, I will have to go there to replenish the pods, as the reef shop that is supposed to be getting me the white worm cultures is dragging its feet....

 

[wsboyette]

This is why as much as I want one I have been reluctant to get one. It might be helpful to dose with pods weekly to ensure he is eating enough

As I stated in a previous post, the cost of replenishing the pods at $20 a week would be prohibitive. I am in the process of obtaining cultures of those miniscule white worms that are often found in reef tanks, I was very successful with them in a setup of this same tank I ran in the early 1990s. I wish that I had not had been forced to take that setup down by lack of space. If I am successful with the worms as I was back then, I will post my success on this forum so that others may benefit from it. I will try to remember you and let you know how it goes as well !

 

[bjohanson1234]

You could also culture the pods.

 

[wsboyette]

You could also culture the pods.

So true; but I would prefer to do the worms again or else train him to eat other foods.

 

[sen5241b]

Find somebody at that sushi restaurant who speaks English!