Blue Mandarin question

[kmwrestle]

I have a Waterbox 35.2 and i fell in love with the blue mandarin. How many pods do they consume? I was thinking of buying a AlgaeBarn 5280 16oz jar monthly and dumping it in the tank. Would this suffice? too much too little? I doubt they would really be able to take foot in the small tank, but am ok with purchasing them monthly to support the mandarin. thanks

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I have a Waterbox 35.2 and i fell in love with the blue mandarin. How many pods do they consume? I was thinking of buying a AlgaeBarn 5280 16oz jar monthly and dumping it in the tank. Would this suffice? too much too little? I doubt they would really be able to take foot in the small tank, but am ok with purchasing them monthly to support the mandarin. thanks

I think they could consume that many pods in a week. Maybe look into making a pod culture so you can feed them fat fresh pods every other day

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

I just posted in a similar thread so I'll copy/paste my thoughts here as well....Agreed with the post above. Mandarins are in constant search for food and if they are not accustomed to frozen food they will go through the pods you dose VERY quickly! I always recommend to people who want a mandarin to; load their tanks with as much live rock AS POSSIBLE, keep water on the slightly dirty side, and if possible run a refugium or have macro algae in the tank. All of this is to help create a sustainable pod population for the mandarin. I see more people trying to make a mandarin fit in their tank rather than making their tanks fit for a mandarin....

 

[Tchung23]

Buy a captive bred one. Feed them pellets and let them graze on your pods the rest of the time. I’ve had mine for about 4 months and the are growing and eating tdo pellets!! Got them when they were tiny less than an inch. Now about 2 inches.