Keeping my Mandarin Alive!!!

[Greeneyz64]

I just brought this beautiful fish home after being assured by the store that he would eat whatever he found on the aquarium floor. Luckily I have done the research ( I know, I should have done this before the buy) and realize that they mainly eat pods. I will try to purchase some asap but have also read your posts on feeding them brine shrimp etc. If you have any advice on how to train him to eat other foods than the pods, please let me know. I don't want this cutie to starve to death!!

 

[Hypertek99]

It is very hard to get them to eat other stuff. I have tried to train mine with no success. My only advice is to add a refugium. I added a HOB refugium on my 29gal and my mandarin has fatten up. She's been in my tank for 8 months now.

 

[Greeneyz64]

Thank you... could you give me a bit more info on the refugium? My tank is 55 gal. I've had my tank for almost four years now...but appearantly have a lot to learn

 

[AussieLordfan]

4 years?! How much live rock do you have? I assume you should have tons of pods if your tank's been established that long already. Unless you have other pod hunters like wrasses that may have taken out most of the pods?

 

[NapoliNewJersey]

I'm sure you'll be fine. You have a ton of pods after four years.

Tonight after the lights go out, make your room as dark as you can and get a flashlight. Shine the light in the tank and you should see all types of critters running around your tank.... if you don't then like ALF said you have someone else eating them.

 

[Greeneyz64]

4 years?! How much live rock do you have? I assume you should have tons of pods if your tank's been established that long already. Unless you have other pod hunters like wrasses that may have taken out most of the pods?

Thanks! Actually I did have two wrasses in my tank about a year ago. Unfortunately they both died early on.

 

[Hypertek99]

A refugium is a separate tank where pods can grow. And you can put Chaeto in it to soak up your nitrates. Is you tank drilled??? If not you can add a HOB Refugium or use a HOB overflow for the refugium.

 

[J. Montgomery]

I have a 55 gallon tank as well (no sump and no refugium). The first mandarin I bought starved after ~6 months despite the number of different pod cultures and other foods I tried. I later bought a second mandarin (a bad impulse buy) and soon added a hang on refugium (CPR AquaFuge II, same as Hypertek). I put a small sand bed and some chaeto macroalgae in the refugium and my mandarin started to fatten up quickly.

I think some type of refugium, whether its a separate tank or a HOB type, is the true key to keeping them well fed.

 

[greystreet41]

Do you have a pic of the HOB refugium? I'm not opposed to HOB things like some folks and would love to be able to keep a mandarin. Question though---if you have a wrasse or 2 is it still an uphill battle to keep a mandarin due to the pod need?
thx,
casey

 

[J. Montgomery]

Here is a picture of my CPR AquaFuge II with the 36W PC light fixture and light brackets that I added as extras. I bought it as a refurbished unit from the manufacturer (Ameka Aquatics, I think) on eBay for a very reduced price.

I painted the front black in an attempt to block light from entering the main display so I could try a reverse photoperiod over the fuge.

That was a stupid idea, way too much light spilling into the tank. I used the light as a "dawn and dusk" light before and after the halides turned off. I've since removed the 36W light and the fuge is illuminated by the halides over my tank.

The fuge is fed water through this Rio 600 pump that came with it.

Here are the kinds of pods I've been able to grow in it. All of my fish enjoy eating pods.

 

[J. Montgomery]

I have not added a wrasse to my tank for fear of it eating pods, and out competing my mandarin.

 

[Azurel]

I have had great successe with mandrins and plan on getting another one.....One of the things you have to do is keep trying and also do not feed brine shrimp it has no nutrtional value what so ever. Thry and feed artic pods, cyclop-eeze and mysis. I had one for 7 years in my 40g that hs no refuge but I do have HOB power filters which can also help in keeping the pod count high.....I have post where I explain one of the ways I trained my mandarin how to eat frozen. Once you get them on frozen they are great fish with very little worries.....I have found it also to be very helpful toget smaller mandarins as they for me anyway seem to be easier to train on to frozen food....

 

[surfn]

i've had my mandarin for a little over a year. and i got him to eat frozen blood worms. but he's very slow about eating them, and only eats them off the sand bed.

i have a 50g tank, along with a coral banded shrimp and six-line wrasse. i dont think the wrasse does much pod hunting that i've seen, but i know the CBS does.....ALLOT! my pod population is pretty much gone.

and its hard to feed the mandarin frozen blood worms every single day, as i have to pipette them into the tank right where he is.....otherwise the other fish will eat all of them.

i'm certain he's starving......as every now and then he looks kinda pale.

i put him in my sump/fuge about 2 months ago, and he knocked out all the pods in a matter of days.

IMO.....i think they are destined to starve no matter what, it just may take over a year or two to happen. unless they are the only pod hunter in 75g tank or larger. but IMO.....keeping a mandarin for almost 2 years is pretty successful in any tank.

 

[JGoslee]

I've had my mandarin for about a year now in my 58gal. I haven't really had the need to try to feed him any prepared foods. He's pretty much doubled in size since I got him and is as fat as a mandarin can get lol. If your tank is well established you really shouldn't have any problems keeping one. I think my tank size is probably as small as you can go without having to add pods or get a big refugium.

 

[Azurel]

Here is a post I made of how I got and feed my mandarin frozen food without the other fish bugging him......


I had a Mandarin, but this should work for a scooter as well....

I had one for 6 years and 5 1/2 of those years was fed mysis and cyclop-ezee only with no supplementation. I will tell you the trick for tanks that have other fish in them....This is just to make sure that the fish will get enough to eat with other fish around.

Go and by a small capers bottle, they are about an 1 1/2'' round and about 3 inches tall. I don't eat capers so I tossed them away. Once it's cleaned you can then use the jar.

Once the Mandarin/Scooter begins to eat frozen mysis or is showing some interest in it, take some tank water fill the jar up add mysis. Attach a string to the jar so you can lower it into the tank and have it rest on the bottom of the tank. I usually put it by where I seen him hanging out the most. What this does is the mysis that is in the jar cannot be eaten by other fish because the jar is to small for other fish to swim into it.

The Mandarin/scooter will eventually start swimming into the jar to get the food. They become very comfortable with it after a few time of doing it. This allows the Mandarin/scooter to eat as much as he wants for as long as he wants. I usually left it in there for a few hours then pulled the jar up out of the tank and discarded what was left if there was any.

They( My Mandarin) are very shy when it comes to feeding with super active fish around and they are not that fast as well. In the 6 years I had the fish it never once had a skinny stomach and this was in a tank with a tang, clowns, Black cap basslet and a few other goby type fish.....It really worked well for the Mandarin and he always new once the jar was lowered into the tank what that meant......Nothing to tricky but very effective in tanks with other active feeders.

It ended up dying from intestinal blockage from what I could gather by looking at it.....It ended up towards the end getting a super bloated belly for about 3 weeks. the over-sized belly disappeared and a few days later I found him at the bottom of the tank when the lights came on.....He was one of my favorite fish of all time. He would eat mysis from my hand and had no fear of me when I was doing maintenance......I say keep it or add it to you main tank if you think you might want to keep it. They are very cool and rewarding fish to keep, once you get them on frozen food...

 

[JGoslee]

Thats good stuff James.

 

[b0bby1]

great advice man, i was wondering if i could get a mandarin for my 30 gallon finnex which has like a 4 gallon fuge. but i plan on adding a mystery wrasse as my last fish, and we all know wrasses eat pods. i'm not sure about mystery wrasses though, i no they like meatier foods. i would think the mystery would be more interested in frozen mysis rather than pods, who knows. you think i should try adding a mandarin and then adding a mystery a couple weeks later? or is it a waste of money?

i know my LFS has a few spotted mandarins in that are small and i believe eat frozen foods.

 

[J. Montgomery]

i would think the mystery would be more interested in frozen mysis rather than pods, who knows.

Reef fish pretty much look for food all day long, so if pods are running around you can expect the mystery wrasse to go after them.

 

[J. Montgomery]

Al, you should have taken me up on the offer to borrow some LR before I took down the 10 gallon. That thing was literally crawling with pods and mysis. If you'd like, I can put some rock in the fuge and get it cultured for you.

 

[Greeneyz64]

Here is a post I made of how I got and feed my mandarin frozen food without the other fish bugging him......


I had a Mandarin, but this should work for a scooter as well....

I had one for 6 years and 5 1/2 of those years was fed mysis and cyclop-ezee only with no supplementation. I will tell you the trick for tanks that have other fish in them....This is just to make sure that the fish will get enough to eat with other fish around.

Go and by a small capers bottle, they are about an 1 1/2'' round and about 3 inches tall. I don't eat capers so I tossed them away. Once it's cleaned you can then use the jar.

Once the Mandarin/Scooter begins to eat frozen mysis or is showing some interest in it, take some tank water fill the jar up add mysis. Attach a string to the jar so you can lower it into the tank and have it rest on the bottom of the tank. I usually put it by where I seen him hanging out the most. What this does is the mysis that is in the jar cannot be eaten by other fish because the jar is to small for other fish to swim into it.

The Mandarin/scooter will eventually start swimming into the jar to get the food. They become very comfortable with it after a few time of doing it. This allows the Mandarin/scooter to eat as much as he wants for as long as he wants. I usually left it in there for a few hours then pulled the jar up out of the tank and discarded what was left if there was any.

They( My Mandarin) are very shy when it comes to feeding with super active fish around and they are not that fast as well. In the 6 years I had the fish it never once had a skinny stomach and this was in a tank with a tang, clowns, Black cap basslet and a few other goby type fish.....It really worked well for the Mandarin and he always new once the jar was lowered into the tank what that meant......Nothing to tricky but very effective in tanks with other active feeders.

It ended up dying from intestinal blockage from what I could gather by looking at it.....It ended up towards the end getting a super bloated belly for about 3 weeks. the over-sized belly disappeared and a few days later I found him at the bottom of the tank when the lights came on.....He was one of my favorite fish of all time. He would eat mysis from my hand and had no fear of me when I was doing maintenance......I say keep it or add it to you main tank if you think you might want to keep it. They are very cool and rewarding fish to keep, once you get them on frozen food...

Thanks so much!!! It just happens that I do have a jar of capers in my fridge!!LOL. I will give it a shot and let you know how I'm doing in about a week or so...