Green Mandarin - is it worth it?

[Headhunter]

My son twisted my arm to get one for our 150G reef tank from the NJ show last week...now I got this $25 fish that I can barely see that I need $20/month food supply for...

How likely is it to train fish to eat frozen or pellets?

 

[Hitman]

They are beautiful fish. With that said they are very picky eaters and without a big pod supply they usually starve. They will eat more pods then you would believe. I personally have never been able to keep one alive longer then 6 months and that was adding the 5280 pod pack from algae bar ever two weeks.

 

[CoralNerd]

You can dose phytoplankton and you will have lots of pods. I like Easy Reef Phytoplankton it comes in a little package just add one a hour after the lights go out.

 

[Headhunter]

YIKES!

I just ordered 20 oz of Tisbe Biminiensis from PodYourReef for $20...I'm thinking half in sump, half in DT at night...then repeat as needed.

 

[CoralNerd]

Also get rid of filter socks

 

[Weedy Sea Dragon]

It would be easier if you had her in a smaller tank. I had one years ago that ate frozen food but this was before we even had an option to buy live pods. I also feed mine live brine shrimp was is a much less expensive option than going with pods.

I've heard other people stock their refugium with pods so they have a never ending supply on hand. Not sure if that would work for a 150G though.

 

[DoubleDoor]

Have you tried to culture your own pods? We grow ours in our quarantine tank when its not in use, but were looking at upgrading the pod production.

 

[Hitman]

He will eat that 20 oz bottle in a few days. You need to stock your tank heavy with pods so they can reproduce. After stocking my 240 for the 6 months I have mine I stopped buying pods and this was a year ago. If you looked at my tank I have millions of pods because nothing is eating them faster then they can reproduce anymore. The only fish in my tank that eats them now is my tank Wrasse. My local friends love when they get chaeto from me because they are also getting thousand of pods with it lol

 

[Headhunter]

I haven't looked into it yet...my son fell in love with this fish and I don't want to disappoint him...we'll try anything. appreciate everyone's thoughts and suggestions. thank you!

 

[Headhunter]

@Hitman
what was your method to stock them? Multiple 20 oz bottles at once or better spread apart?

 

[Bdrake]

White worms and baby brine shrimp are both easy to culture and are a great supplement for pod-eaters

 

[Weedy Sea Dragon]

Look on Craigslist or OfferUp and you could probably find a smaller tank that you could set up for your son and keep her in there. You can never have too many tanks.

 

[truetricia]

I haven't looked into it yet...my son fell in love with this fish and I don't want to disappoint him...we'll try anything. appreciate everyone's thoughts and suggestions. thank you!

There's something called a POD hotel. I believe it's a trademarked item, but Google it to see the concept. I just saw a new version came out at macna on @melevreef channel. Basically, it provides a safe space for the pods to breed in your tank and can be hidden in the rocks. Dump pods bottles in there, add some phytoplankton via turkey baster, and hopefully that will help jump start your tanks supply. If you put it somewhere you can watch, once your Mandarin is accustomed to going there to eat, you could try adding some frozen food as well. Melevreef also had a good Olive jar idea for feeding mandarins frozen without feeding competition.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Do you have any live rock and macro algae growing in the tank yet? If not this is a method I used to keep a mandarin in a 50 gallon cube for several years with great success. I also had a 150 wall MH light source for the 24" x 24" x 24" cube. Worked great. The macro algae provide food and hiding for the pods and an area for the mandarin to hunt in.

 

[Hitman]

@Hitman
what was your method to stock them? Multiple 20 oz bottles at once or better spread apart?

I did a 2 to 1 ratio the first 2 months. 2 bottles every other week in the tank 1 in the sump with my chaeto. This allowed some to bread in safety other food. As others said remove any filter socks or other media so you don’t filter the lil guys out on accident. Some will take to other food like ROE raw oyster eggs , mysis, or brine shrimp. Mine didn’t. Don’t be discouraged as there people out here that have kept them for years I just was not one of those lucky ones sadly as that’s my wife’s favorite fish.

 

[Jesterrace]

They are beautiful fish. With that said they are very picky eaters and without a big pod supply they usually starve. They will eat more pods then you would believe. I personally have never been able to keep one alive longer then 6 months and that was adding the 5280 pod pack from algae bar ever two weeks.

Agreed. I had one I spent way more than that on pods, it learned to eat frozen foods and it didn't make it 3 months.

 

[DSC reef]

They are beautiful fish but lots of work. IMO, worth it. As the fish matures it will stay out a lot more than it is. After 5+ years ours was always out and about during the day. Our mandarin love reef nutrition roe, mysis feast, tigger pods. LRS reef frenzy for frozen and TDO chroma boost for pellets. These foods were fed multiple times a day and we still had to dose pods monthly. There metabolism is fast so even if you get the mandarin to eat other foods, pods should always be added. I honestly don't think a smaller tank is better. The large tank will have a lot more area for the mandarin to graze at and ultimately have more area for large pod populations. Feeding phyto to feed the pods is an excellent suggestion.

 

[Jesterrace]

They are beautiful fish but lots of work. IMO, worth it. As the fish matures it will stay out a lot more than it is. After 5+ years ours was always out and about during the day. Our mandarin love reef nutrition roe, mysis feast, tigger pods. LRS reef frenzy for frozen and TDO chroma boost for pellets. These foods were fed multiple times a day and we still had to dose pods monthly. There metabolism is fast so even if you get the mandarin to eat other foods, pods should always be added. I honestly don't think a smaller tank is better. The large tank will have a lot more area for the mandarin to graze at and ultimately have more area for large pod populations. Feeding phyto to feed the pods is an excellent suggestion.

I would agree, that the smaller tank isn't better. With mandarins it's not necessarily the tank size, but the amount of rockwork required to maintain a sizeable healthy breeding copepod population that is the issue.

 

[nereefpat]

You have a 150 gallon tank, right, with rock? Does your sump have a place for copepods to reproduce? How long has the tank been running?

If you see copepods crawling on your glass, then you should be fine. You shouldn't have to constantly supply pods, or feed prepared foods.

 

[Apotack]

Check out the Paul B feeder