Idk what to do eith my mandarin

[GHOSTLY]

I can vouch for this!! My girl, captive bred, eats copepods and live brine shrimp but also eats frozen. Having said that she turns her nose up at frozen mysis/brine shrimp but gobbles down blood worms. I don't know if the red colour draws her in. I cut up the bloodworms into smaller pieces using scissors because she's still a baby. I also give her bloodworms soaked in Selcon a couple times a week. My other fish gobble them up as well.

Problem is line isn't captive bred

 

[Anak’s Reef]

Problem is line isn't captive bred

You could still try it, my mandarin is also captive bred but when I got him from petco almost two years ago, he stopped eating frozen and prepared foods. But I recently gave him some bloodworms and he goes crazy for them, will fly up to the top of the tank once he spots some.

if your LFS has some good pod populations you can give it to them to hold if you still want the fish for your 35. Even if your 35 is cycling, once it’s cycled, there won’t be enough pods to sustain a wild caught mandarin that big for a long time so you’d have to supplement pods for a few months to make sure they are reproducing. And honestly, imo, a 35 might not be enough since that mandarin is so big it looks like, but you could try. I recently added my mandarin into my new Red Sea 250 and added him a bit too early (the pods didn’t have enough time to start reproducing a lot) so he ran out of pods in about a week but I added some to my sump before he was added and the next week he wouldn’t stop pecking at the rocks. But I’d give it to your LFS or another reefer to look after for a bit if you still want it, or just sell it to someone or your LFS.

Good luck!!

 

[Karen00]

Problem is line isn't captive bred

You can try it. I think they're attracted to the colour red. I have a couple wild caught fish and they're the same, they go straight for the bloodworms but as mentioned if your mandarin does take to it you will have to add vitamins to it to get full nutrition out of the food. Also, I don't know if you've tried culturing brine shrimp that's good as well. For the life of me I can't culture copepods but I have multiple brine shrimp hatcheries going. Mandarins love those as well.

 

[calvertc425]

feed him frozen bloodworms try em

 

[Arego]

After 5 years ours actually out of absolutely nowhere fought our huge 6 bar wrasse for food. I have never seen him eat frozen anything, ever.

I was astonished as I saw it happening. Little guy darted to upper 3/4 of the tank where he never goes and just grabbed the shrimp then swam down, the 6 bar saw it and grabbed it then they both rolled around and went separate ways. I couldn't believe my eyes.

 

[Karen00]

After 5 years ours actually out of absolutely nowhere fought our huge 6 bar wrasse for food. I have never seen him eat frozen anything, ever.

I was astonished as I saw it happening. Little guy darted to upper 3/4 of the tank where he never goes and just grabbed the shrimp then swam down, the 6 bar saw it and grabbed it then they both rolled around and went separate ways. I couldn't believe my eyes.

Fish are smart. They see what's going on, especially with food. Your guy saw what was going on for 5 yrs with the food and finally thought "I'm getting myself some of that good stuff as well". Haha. Having said that fighting a 6 bar for it is a bit shocking. LOL

I find it amazing how well most wild caught fish adapt to being in a tank. My tank is small so my fish are all small. I target feed with a medicine dropper just to make sure they all get food. A few of my fish are wild caught (no captive breds available yet) and it took less than a week for them to learn "hand in tank is safe and the squirty tube thing dispenses yummy food". Now they come to the medicine dropper. These are wild fish from the ocean that quickly learned the ways of humans. It's amazing!

 

[GHOSTLY]

And I've ran into a new problem. I'm moving out my house in a month AND I'm most likely going to have to restart so it will be delayed again. I really want to keep it 4hough. Should I soak frozen food in selcon or vitamins?

 

[Arego]

Find him a new home temporarily. Surely someone near you could sustain him for a while until you're not as busy. Worth a shot?

 

[Karen00]

And I've ran into a new problem. I'm moving out my house in a month AND I'm most likely going to have to restart so it will be delayed again. I really want to keep it 4hough. Should I soak frozen food in selcon or vitamins?

I was originally just doing selcon (for all of my fish not just my mandarin) but it's mainly just fatty acids and a couple vitamins (B and C). I was concerned selcon isn't a complete solution so I just picked up a bottle of vitachem. I also read some threads of members doing both. I still have to read the usage instructions for vitachem but if I remember from reading about it I think it can be added directly to the water and the fish absorb it through their skin or maybe it's their gills. I believe the food can also be soaked with it. As mentioned I still have to read the instructions. I would probably soak the food given the choice. I also plan to alternate between selcon and vitachem because I don't want there to be too much of any ingredient that overlaps between the two.

 

[3429810]

Problem is line isn't captive bred

I got a wild caught Mandarin back in December. I tried chopped up frozen blood worms but no response. Tried frozen mysis a couple days later and he ate it no problem. He also went after lrs nano frozen food to because the particles are much smaller than the normal one. If you have it in a small tank where you can shut off the flow and spot feed it very slowly at first that is ideal. Now he’s in my main tank and will actually seek out the biggest pieces falling and work away at them for them time the pumps are in feed mode. Even gets right in with all the other fish up high in the water column sometimes it’s pretty cool. I may have gotten lucky tbh but figured I would share what I had success with.

 

[i cant think]

Do you have any chaetomorpha?

 

[Karen00]

I got a wild caught Mandarin back in December. I tried chopped up frozen blood worms but no response. Tried frozen mysis a couple days later and he ate it no problem. He also went after lrs nano frozen food to because the particles are much smaller than the normal one. If you have it in a small tank where you can shut off the flow and spot feed it very slowly at first that is ideal. Now he’s in my main tank and will actually seek out the biggest pieces falling and work away at them for them time the pumps are in feed mode. Even gets right in with all the other fish up high in the water column sometimes it’s pretty cool. I may have gotten lucky tbh but figured I would share what I had success with.

This is a good point. I too shut off all pumps and flow and I also target feed right in front of them. I still target feed all my fish (including my mandarin) but they often find stuff in the water column and on the substrate on their own.

 

[3429810]

Not the best picture but here’s one of him pretty early on grabbing a hunk of lrs right from the baster.

This is a good point. I too shut off all pumps and flow and I also target feed right in front of them. I still target feed all my fish (including my mandarin) but they often find stuff in the water column and on the substrate on their own.

Ya it seemed to be the key difference for me at first. I tried being lazy and just tossing some frozen blood worms and a small piece of lrs nano with the flow on one day each and he didn’t even react to it at all. Mine will sort of swim after stuff if the pumps are on but I feel like he takes so long to decide if he actually gonna take a bite the flow takes it further away then he repeats the process lol. Usually decides the live food on the rocks is easier at that point.

 

[Karen00]

One more thing I wanted to add. You might also want to try frozen krill. I buy them in the cubes. I target feed my fish with this but I find the way it floats and moves in the water column it's like it's alive so I will see my mandarin going after it as it floats around like she's going after live food. Krill is also supposed to be very nutritious so I don't soak it in Selcon or anything. Also I only use Selcon/ vitachem every three or four days because with feeding other foods like krill and live brine shrimp they're still getting a fair bit of daily nutrition.

 

[Karen00]

Not the best picture but here’s one of him pretty early on grabbing a hunk of lrs right from the baster.

Ya it seemed to be the key difference for me at first. I tried being lazy and just tossing some frozen blood worms and a small piece of lrs nano with the flow on one day each and he didn’t even react to it at all. Mine will sort of swim after stuff if the pumps are on but I feel like he takes so long to decide if he actually gonna take a bite the flow takes it further away then he repeats the process lol. Usually decides the live food on the rocks is easier at that point.

That could be a picture out of my tank! LOL All of my fish know "the squirty thing" is the giver of yummies.

 

[GHOSTLY]

Do you have any chaetomorpha?

I have at least 2 gallons worth. I believe in fuges

 

[i cant think]

I have at least 2 gallons worth. I believe in fuges

Could you possibly keep the mandarin in the refugium until the pod population in the main tank is healthy?

 

[GHOSTLY]

Could you possibly keep the mandarin in the refugium until the pod population in the main tank is healthy?

If i sid the mandarin would have 2 by 2 by 2 area of swimming place. It's an aio fuge

 

[i cant think]

If i sid the mandarin would have 2 by 2 by 2 area of swimming place. It's an aio fuge

IMO, if it’s temporary it’s not impossible. Another thing you can possibly do is add macro to the Main Display as a “Playing field” for the pods and mandarin.

 

[GHOSTLY]

IMO, if it’s temporary it’s not impossible. Another thing you can possibly do is add macro to the Main Display as a “Playing field” for the pods and mandarin.

Should I just throw it in? What kind? I got xhaeto but also some dragons breath