Mandarin question

[old 5k0ol]

Will a green mandarin eat any pod or does it need a specific one. My refugium has flatworms, amphipods and one that I'm not sure of, my best guess is isopod.

 

[little_fish]

They should eat any type of pods, but dont underestimate how fast one can devastate the population. Also, if you have other pod eaters like wrasses, clowns, chromis, etc it will be much harder to keep a mandarine that only eats pods.

 

[old 5k0ol]

I have a 10 gallon refugium to help. Will that keep up with my mandarin?

 

[wontonflip]

It should help. I had an above tank fuge teeming w/ pods at one point. but my stupid clownfish figured out that free food comes out of the pipe, and he hangs around it all day catching incoming pods lol

 

[little_fish]

It will help, but i dont think that it alone can keep your mandarine going. Its better just to wait until you have an established population in both your main tank and refuge. Also, treating for flatworms is going to probably kill off a good portion of your pods. All of my inverts took a hit when i treated, even with the water changes and sucking out as many as i could.

 

[Patzig]

I would just make sure you buy an ora raised mandarin if you haven't bought it already, and then immediately start training it to eat frozen foods. From what I've heard it's best if you can have a stable pod population AND get them to eat frozen foods. Mine has gotten skinnier since I got him 3-4 months ago, and I just now am getting him to eat frozen foods. Once they finally get it though, they catch on quickly...mine has even started to "compete" for frozen foods when i feed now.

 

[old 5k0ol]

how can i get him to eat the frozen food?

 

[Patzig]

train them - i use a shot glass, put frozen brine/mysis shrimp in it and put it on the sand bed. if you do it right, the food will stay in the glass and give the mandarin the time and chance to get over to it, inspect it and finally eat it. It takes alot of time and patience. for the first week, my mandarin would find his way into the shot glass, look at all the food and still not eat any of it. He finally started eating out of it, now he'll even swim around and snatch food floating around in the tank.

 

[Patzig]

Here's a video - not mine, but close to what I do

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEVMnjLgQNk]YouTube - ‪Mandarin Goby Feeding Time‬‏[/ame]

 

[Northstar24]

I'd love to train mine, but there is no way the tangs and the angels would let that fly....
The food would be gone. Plus my mandarin only seems to come out at night

 

[Sir Alex]

The most ORA mandarins eat frozen?

 

[Patzig]

I think that's right. But i read somewhere that the ORA "already trained to eat" mandarins forget how to eat frozen foods when they get transported to LFS or elsewhere. So you have to "re-train" them in the new environment.

 

[little_fish]

Ya, the stress of shipment often makes them revert back to only eating live so you have to retrain them.

 

[Sir Alex]

Ya, the stress of shipment often makes them revert back to only eating live so you have to retrain them.

Completely? :shock:

 

[little_fish]

no, you can retrain them . . . .

 

[Sir Alex]

no, you can retrain them . . . .

I meant, is it as bad as training a wild mandarin?

 

[little_fish]

I dont know the answer to that question. But i would suggest getting an ORA mandarine just because then you arent taking a fish from the wild.