i was at the lfs and was asking about mandarin fish, knowing they are hard to keep cause they usually have eating problems... so i wanted to see what they would see and they confirmed the eating problems but then they showed me "aquacultered" mandarins.. they said they are not the 'psychadelic' ones... (they look more green) and they told me that they do not have the eating problems.. anyone know anything about those?
mandarin question
- Thread starter greg1186
- Start date
wontonflip
I failed Kobayashi Maru
Well, anyone claiming their mandarins eat frozen would have to prove it to me. Because even ORA mandarains claim to be eating frozen, but some here have said theirs did not eat frozen. So it's really up to you to watch the mandarin eat frozen before buying. They can use the excuse "Oh, he won't eat it cuz he just ate" would not be ok for me because I don't have the money to risk paying extra for a frozen-food eating fish :)
most the people who work at any lfs are just trying to sell you something, so they are either feeding you a line of bs or dont actually know. most mandarins dont accept frozen foods but mine, like a few others on this site, actually do. i cant give great proof of my mandarin eating brineshrimp and a few formula 1 pellets but i have pictures from a few months back of the same fish.
what fish do you already have in your tank? because a 14 is pretty small and if you havent had it setup long the pod population wont be high enough, or if you have another fish that eats pods your just going to starve the mandarin.
id say the pod supplement your useing is just that a supplement, the pods need to be in the tank and growing in order to be a real food source
what fish do you already have in your tank? because a 14 is pretty small and if you havent had it setup long the pod population wont be high enough, or if you have another fish that eats pods your just going to starve the mandarin.
id say the pod supplement your useing is just that a supplement, the pods need to be in the tank and growing in order to be a real food source
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Pwny
Reefing newb
if you want to get a manderin the best thing you can do is hook up a fuge with lr rubble and chaeto buy a bunch of pods for it and let them do there thing for about 3 months and boom your tank will have a endless food supply for a manderin. but yes they can be tricky to get to eat and keep eating
i only have 1 ocellaris clown.. the tank has been up since dec. 4 2010 and im not exactly sure how big my pod populatin is... but i do see little white "bugs" scurrying all over my live rock, maybe i see like 3 at a time maybe 5 times a day lol and little teeny tiny white bugs on the glass
Bifferwine
I am a girl
I wouldn't put a mandarin in a 14 gallon tank if you already have a clown in there... I think it would starve. :(
well i dont think the clown will really effect the population much at all but mandarins are a bit like humming birds allways trying to eat something, if you have a refugium fill the sucker up with life rrock rubble and chaeto like pwny said but since you just starting out with a cube you most likely dont have a refugium
what you can do is make an area that has lots of crevics like a pile of live rock rubble in the back and pour 1 of those bottles of copapods in the tank. the pile will give them somewhere safe to live add some chaeto to and than wait about a month and add like half a bottle. wait about 3 more months and you might have a population big enough to keep a mandarin
i quarantee that a mandarin could decimate the few pods you have right now in about a day, mabey longer if you keep the mandarin fat and happy with the frozen foods but thats a big mabey. mine has taken to sitting in his jar and kinda bounceing back and forth when hes not hungry they are some of the oddest fish
what you can do is make an area that has lots of crevics like a pile of live rock rubble in the back and pour 1 of those bottles of copapods in the tank. the pile will give them somewhere safe to live add some chaeto to and than wait about a month and add like half a bottle. wait about 3 more months and you might have a population big enough to keep a mandarin
i quarantee that a mandarin could decimate the few pods you have right now in about a day, mabey longer if you keep the mandarin fat and happy with the frozen foods but thats a big mabey. mine has taken to sitting in his jar and kinda bounceing back and forth when hes not hungry they are some of the oddest fish
wontonflip
I failed Kobayashi Maru
The point of the fuge is to give the pods a safe place to multiply. I have no visible pods in my display tank, but my above tank fuge is teeming w/ nice fat pods. They make their way into the dt one way or another. once they do go in, they get eaten (I've seen my clownfish hanging around my fuge's return pipe, catching stuff, so I think he's learned it's a good food source supplier hehehehe)
no one really makes fuges for the cubes, because cybes are the simplest plug play and forget systems them make, except for that hdi or whatever oceanic is makeing, but yes copapods are simple creatures so they will just keep repopulateing until food is gone, start simple friend stick with the cube until you have the whole saltwater everything down than start upgradeing. my uncle always told me never look further than your willing to jump, and when i turned 18 i finally understood, he was a drunk and probably ment something like never look further than your willing to travel.
markymark
Reefing newb
If you add live Copepods weekly it will live and also add cyclops dead ones he may get confused and over time will not be able to know the difference between the live and the dead thus solving your problem may take many times, but in time it shall work
Mark
Mark
little_fish
Moderator
I personally wouldnt do it. You are going to struggle to feed him because the clown is going to compete for the same food and the clown is going to win. Plus you are going to need a huge fuge attached to your tank to produce enough food for him.
There is a member on here who has one that is eating frozen in a 29 gal and he doesnt recommend anyone else do it. It is much too hard to keep him fat and healthy.
Moral of the story: Upgrade!!!! if you want a mandrine
There is a member on here who has one that is eating frozen in a 29 gal and he doesnt recommend anyone else do it. It is much too hard to keep him fat and healthy.
Moral of the story: Upgrade!!!! if you want a mandrine
ErinCahir
Sausage Wrangler
+1 little_fish... it would be a lot of work.
adding live copapods weekly would get expensive, but yea as little_fish said said just dont youll kill to many and hopeing that the fish will accept cyclops is hit or miss. so yea just wait, another pretty good choice is is a scooter blenny try and find one of the red ones, or just shop around for something else awesome.
sorry if it has sounded like im shooting down all attempts but mandarins dont do well in most tanks, the lfss i work at gets about 3-6 a month and most of them either die in shipping or starve and the lfs has been there for 10 years its got a huge pod population, mandarins are just finiky fish.
sorry if it has sounded like im shooting down all attempts but mandarins dont do well in most tanks, the lfss i work at gets about 3-6 a month and most of them either die in shipping or starve and the lfs has been there for 10 years its got a huge pod population, mandarins are just finiky fish.
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sen5241b
Reef enthusiast
People have put Mandarins in small tanks before and they survived but only because they were certain the Mandarin was eating frozen or pellet foods.
I have a fat mandarin in my 29 and he eats Orange Sushi Roe, blood worms and pellets. I've had two mandarins and they both have gobbled up the roe and "Ocean Nutrition Marine Formula One small pellets".
I have a fat mandarin in my 29 and he eats Orange Sushi Roe, blood worms and pellets. I've had two mandarins and they both have gobbled up the roe and "Ocean Nutrition Marine Formula One small pellets".
guarda
Reefing newb
+1 Mine was very skinny at the lfs but I got lucky and got him eating frozen food. A lot of my friends have been unsuccessful keeping theirs alive but if you must get one, ask the lfs to drop live brine in the tank and pick the one that goes after it. That's a good sign for trainability imo.
For the life of me I can't get mine to look at a pellet. Each has their own personality I guess.
For the life of me I can't get mine to look at a pellet. Each has their own personality I guess.
sen5241b
Reef enthusiast
Mandarins are shy at first. I had to move slowly, turn off the flow and drop the pellets right in front of the Mandarin. I over-fed with the pellets a little. After a month or so of this, he was more bold in coming out for the pellets and I can feed him without turning the flow off.
Aquatic
Reefing newb
If I were you, i'd try to upgrade to a bigger sized tank if you can. You should have an established tank that has a good population of copepods for it to survive.
