Got a mandarin
- Thread starter peterthegamer
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10galclowns
Active Member
You can try feeding frozen brine but id buy a bottle of copepods and put it in your tank
that novice guy
Well-Known Member
U feed mine nuva or nuvos i can't remember the name or refrigerated pods butt its sometimes hard to get them to eat that but what is you tank size now and hire long has it been set up
Connie
Valuable Member
You can buy big bags of copepods on line to get a good population started. I buy a couple of thousand every 3 - 6 months. Put half in your sump and the other half in your tank after lights out. It's a lot cheaper than the bottles. Mine will eat the small NewLife Pellets, but I don't think that is normal...lol
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OP
OP
peterthegamer
Active Member
Well I got a 14 gallon bio cube. It doesnt got a sump that the deal here. I'm thinking of just buying a bunch of cheato from petco and putting it in the tank. Then putting a lot of copepods or artic pods what ever seems better. Ill try some live brine shrimp for a couple days see how he does.
that novice guy
Well-Known Member
You sould be fine with that i have mine in an 10 gallon for over 2 months and she's got fater lol but she eats prepared but i she was trained eat prepared so i was lucky
Hyprviperx
Well-Known Member
while copepods is the ideal food for them (i have them over the years and one currently) I have been able to wean mine off using a # of foods, the one they seem to take the easiest is the hikari mysis... they seem smaller than most mysis like PE or Sally's plus theyre enriched. if they are tiny mandarins that may still be too large. i like to feed cyclopeeze and also reef caviar and maybe the baby brine if theyre tiny. that being said i do still populate my take with copepods every couple months and i alternate between tiggerpods and reef pods and also theres some other pods at my LFS a local farms.
SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
I would stay away from the tigger copepods. They are a temperate water species (like cooler water) and do not last too long in the typical reef tank. I have a mandarin in my seahorse tank. I stock the tank every couple of months with pods and have trained it to eat frozen. It devours the Hikari mysis that I feed the seahorses.
.AcroKiller.
2500 Club Member
Try frozen prawn roe you can find it at the LFS
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that novice guy
Well-Known Member
Yes they will
data_loss
Community Member
In a tank that small you will want to train your mandarin to eat prepared foods. Matt Pedersen wrote a geat article on how to train them in a breeders net in CORAL magazine's Nov/Dec 2011 issue. I think you can purchase it online.
I've never used the breeders net Matt mentions but I've been working with a mandarin diner to train mine. Start with foods that are easy to get them to eat like live copepods, live brine shrimp, and nutramar ova. Add other new foods to the diner mixing them in with the foods they know to eat. Eventually Hikari Mysis would be a good place to end up. Pellets would be even better.
I've never used the breeders net Matt mentions but I've been working with a mandarin diner to train mine. Start with foods that are easy to get them to eat like live copepods, live brine shrimp, and nutramar ova. Add other new foods to the diner mixing them in with the foods they know to eat. Eventually Hikari Mysis would be a good place to end up. Pellets would be even better.
Hyprviperx
Well-Known Member
^this is a misnomer
"MYTH: Tigger-Pods are a cold water copepod species and will quickly die in a reef system
On the contrary, Tigger-Pods (Tigriopus californicus) LOVE warm water and will thrive in your reef tank. They are native to the west coast of North America. They range from the cold waters of Washington state to the very warm waters of Mexico.
They can live semi-dormant for many weeks when stored in a refrigerator. Warmer water speeds up their metabolism and reproductive rate. Tigger-Pods will reproduce very well in your sump or refugium, especially if they are fed with products that contain large amounts of brown algae. They can also feed a bit on green algae, but it is much harder for them to digest. Phyto-Feast is primarily brown algae and is an excellent feed for all types of copepods. It will typically take 20-35 days to see a significant population spike because of their slow life cycle (laying eggs, hatching, growing to a noticeable size). More information is available in the Tigger-Pod FAQ below."
http://reefnutrition.com/tigger_pods.html
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