New Mandarin Dragonet Not Eating

[djryan2000]

I purchased a captive bred mandarin dragonet from Biota after seeing the video of them eating frozen foods and seeing the company claim they can survive without any pods. Mine came in two days ago on 12/1. I have noticed she doesn't actively hunt pods in my tank, however I do know I have them as I do have a yellow wrasse who hunts them.

I try to squirt food in her direction with a small turkey baster (one of the 1.5 mL ones). Its usually a mix of newly hatched live brine shrimp, BRS frozen copepods, and Can O' Cyclops; the foods Biota has stated they fed the mandarins prior to shipping. It seems a lot of the time she is afraid of the turkey baster squirting the mix at her. I did see her take a couple pecks one of the three times I fed her today, but the other two I received either no response or she just casually hopped away. I do have to be careful to all squirt food in the other sections of the tank to prevent the cleaner shrimp from harassing her.

Should I try to catch her and put her in a acclimation box to shoot food at her? Is there anything else I can do?

 

[LBReefer]

I had the same challenge and never got mine to eat.

 

[Tamberav]

I purchased a captive bred mandarin dragonet from Biota after seeing the video of them eating frozen foods and seeing the company claim they can survive without any pods. Mine came in two days ago on 12/1. I have noticed she doesn't actively hunt pods in my tank, however I do know I have them as I do have a yellow wrasse who hunts them.

I try to squirt food in her direction with a small turkey baster (one of the 1.5 mL ones). Its usually a mix of newly hatched live brine shrimp, BRS frozen copepods, and Can O' Cyclops; the foods Biota has stated they fed the mandarins prior to shipping. It seems a lot of the time she is afraid of the turkey baster squirting the mix at her. I did see her take a couple pecks one of the three times I fed her today, but the other two I received either no response or she just casually hopped away. I do have to be careful to all squirt food in the other sections of the tank to prevent the cleaner shrimp from harassing her.

Should I try to catch her and put her in a acclimation box to shoot food at her? Is there anything else I can do?

they still need pods. .. their digestive tract is short and not efficient so they still need to eat often. I suppose on could keep it alive maybe if you fed it 6 times a day with something like roe and live worms.

Any thing they steals food like shrimp or clowns and such is an issue as you are finding out as a mandarin will often just swim away and give up its food as they are generally slow eaters.

make a live brine shrimp feeder for her for freshly hatched brine shrimp and start dosing pods would be a good start.

I had 6 of them for many years (5 or so?) but got rid of them because it was too much of a time commitment when I started a new job. Yah...

 

[djryan2000]

they still need pods. .. their digestive tract is short and not efficient so they still need to eat often. I suppose on could keep it alive maybe if you fed it 6 times a day with something like roe and live worms.

Any thing they steals food like shrimp or clowns and such is an issue as you are finding out as a mandarin will often just swim away and give up its food as they are generally slow eaters.

make a live brine shrimp feeder for her for freshly hatched brine shrimp and start dosing pods would be a good start.

I had 6 of them for many years (5 or so?) but got rid of them because it was too much of a time commitment when I started a new job. Yah...

Thank you. I do have a constant supply of live baby brine shrimp and will dose pods to keep their populations up. Biota says their dragonets are hatched and grown in an environment without pods which is why they get them on frozen. Is there anything I can do to try to get her to eat? She doesn’t seem to hunt pods on her own.

 

[Tamberav]

Thank you. I do have a constant supply of live baby brine shrimp and will dose pods to keep their populations up. Biota says their dragonets are hatched and grown in an environment without pods which is why they get them on frozen. Is there anything I can do to try to get her to eat? She doesn’t seem to hunt pods on her own.

Yah but that environment isn’t a reef tank and they likely have the time to feed them often and no competitors besides other mandarins. The best way to mimic that environment would be a species tank.

Roe was the most enticing thing for them to eat when I had them. They no longer make nutramar ova (mandarin crack) but this one may be worth a shot: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aq...uid-coral-food-and-fish-food/coral-feast-ova/

 

[Kal93]

Mine never ate frozen. Like you, I purchased cyclops and reared baby brine, but he only was interested in copepods.

If it's large enough, flying fish roe might entice her. I'd move the cleaner shrimp out of the tank/move her into a separate tank for training. If she's scared of the turkey baster, you could let the food drift from the baster to the bottom of the tank without squeezing it.

Good luck!

 

[Andreas' Reef]

They need live. Good luck feeding frozen. It's tricky.

 

[jrill]

They need live. Good luck feeding frozen. It's tricky.

I bought mine from Biota. Eats frozen and pellets all the time.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Assure water parameters are ideal and ample supply of live pods available

 

[attiland]

I bought mine from Biota. Eats frozen and pellets all the time.

Which pallets do you feed?

 

[djryan2000]

I bought mine from Biota. Eats frozen and pellets all the time.

ThTs why I purchased one from them. I read a bunch of replies from people who bought mandarins from them that subsisted off frozen foods. I do see mine is taking some picks when I give her food. I’m just concerned it’s not enough

 

[jrill]

Which pallets do you feed?

"Feeding on TDO B2, PE Calanus, V2O Cyclops"

The above stuff from the biota web site. I always try to start a fish on what the supplier was feeding

 

[afboundguy]

Try creating a spot feeder like the one @Paul B made for the BBS. I use it and my captive bred mandarin is super fat and healthy and she's only in a 25 gallon tank. I also do way more than that to keep her healthy.

You can also try getting a small glass jar (like olive jar) and attach a handle to it and but the BBS and other prepared foods like TDO in the glass container and stick it in the tank. It helps keep other fish out and it can allow your mandarin an opportunity to have less competition for the food. Just get as small as a jar as possible.

I will also suggest trying to get a white worm culture up and going. I give a great deal of credit to the white worms in fattening up my little girl. She is like my wife when she drives by a shoe store having a clearance sale that has free shoes. She goes nuts for the white worms. You could also use the glass jar filled with white worms to get her hooked on them as well!

 

[OrionN]

The problem with Mandanrin is that they feed all days and eat very slowly. I am sure at the breeder, they have no other food competitor to contend with so they can tank all day to eat prepared food. In our tank, especially with a "yellow wrasse" that compete witht hem for the food, the wrasse, the sand fauna got to gorged themselves on the food and the mandarin may only take a bite or two.
If you tank does not have enough natural food for them, the only way you can keep them is in species tank where they can feed in peace or else have specialized Mandarin feeding station like the one created by @Paul B, even if your Mandarin is tank raised and will eat prepared food.

 

[Starlight2017]

Try creating a spot feeder like the one @Paul B made for the BBS. I use it and my captive bred mandarin is super fat and healthy and she's only in a 25 gallon tank. I also do way more than that to keep her healthy.

You can also try getting a small glass jar (like olive jar) and attach a handle to it and but the BBS and other prepared foods like TDO in the glass container and stick it in the tank. It helps keep other fish out and it can allow your mandarin an opportunity to have less competition for the food. Just get as small as a jar as possible.

I will also suggest trying to get a white worm culture up and going. I give a great deal of credit to the white worms in fattening up my little girl. She is like my wife when she drives by a shoe store having a clearance sale that has free shoes. She goes nuts for the white worms. You could also use the glass jar filled with white worms to get her hooked on them as well!

The problem with Mandanrin is that they feed all days and eat very slowly. I am sure at the breeder, they have no other food competitor to contend with so they can tank all day to eat prepared food. In our tank, especially with a "yellow wrasse" that compete witht hem for the food, the wrasse, the sand fauna got to gorged themselves on the food and the mandarin may only take a bite or two.
If you tank does not have enough natural food for them, the only way you can keep them is in species tank where they can feed in peace or else have specialized Mandarin feeding station like the one created by @Paul B, even if your Mandarin is tank raised and will eat prepared food.

Check out my post on the feeder station I did which is a modified version of what they mentioned here. It may give you a place to start from with live copepods and add the frozen food.

 

[Starlight2017]

My post is titled:
Mandarin Dragonet Feeding Station

 

[Starlight2017]

After reading the posts here, I went to my local fish store to buy some frozen food. They recommended frozen blood worms (I bought Hikari brand). I put a little tank water in a shot glass to thaw them out then used a coral feeder syringe and plunged up some worms and placed the syringe slowly down nearby the mandarin. He spotted the worms and cane flying over and went in a buffet! Mine had never eaten frozen food before!!! Try these worms cause the movement in the water makes them look like they are wiggling and he even swam after the ones that got away!

 

[Anak’s Reef]

If you have a psychedelic, it’s a bit harder to feed frozen food. Mine is captive bred and doesn’t eat frozen either, all she eats is pods. For me, I’ve seen her pecking at some mysis from time to time. If you have a “yellow wrasse”, it could be difficult getting the mandarin to eat. You won’t know for sure if you have a good pod population, or maybe you do, but in a couple days or weeks, they’ll be gone because they were decimated by the wrasse. If you have an extra tank or a different tank with no wrasse, I would add the mandarin in there. And remember, for everyone, even if your mandarin is captive bred and said to be eating frozen, they can change their diet whenever they want, so always be prepared and have a good amount of copepods in your tank. I would recommend having another pod eating fish in your tank either. Wrasses are a difficult competitor for the mandarin as mandarins eat slowly and examine their food. My mandarin walks on the back glass and I see a ton of pods moving around but she looks at them and just moved on and pecks a different pod. If your mandarin is still not eating after a while and starts having a slight line going through it’s body, I recommend handing it off to another reefer that has good experience or a local fish store with good experiences with mandarins. You don’t want to give it off to someone who doesn’t know how to properly deal with it, it could just end up killing it. Don’t keep it until there is a very obvious line on it because having a mandarin who doesn’t want to eat and you don’t know what to do, which I don’t blame you for, it will die. It’s not easy to get a mandarin to recover from a very obvious line, some people have success, but I hear from fellow reefers on IG that they cannot help their mandarin and it ends up dying. Here’s a picture of a mandarin I found on the web. Lookjng EXTREMELY skinny.

And here is mine: still not as fat as I want her, but she’s getting there.

 

[Anak’s Reef]

After reading the posts here, I went to my local fish store to buy some frozen food. They recommended frozen blood worms (I bought Hikari brand). I put a little tank water in a shot glass to thaw them out then used a coral feeder syringe and plunged up some worms and placed the syringe slowly down nearby the mandarin. He spotted the worms and cane flying over and went in a buffet! Mine had never eaten frozen food before!!! Try these worms cause the movement in the water makes them look like they are wiggling and he even swam after the ones that got away!

Wow that’s awesome!! I’ve heard that a lot of people have success with bloodworms, glad it worked for you!!

 

[djryan2000]

If you have a psychedelic, it’s a bit harder to feed frozen food. Mine is captive bred and doesn’t eat frozen either, all she eats is pods. For me, I’ve seen her pecking at some mysis from time to time. If you have a “yellow wrasse”, it could be difficult getting the mandarin to eat. You won’t know for sure if you have a good pod population, or maybe you do, but in a couple days or weeks, they’ll be gone because they were decimated by the wrasse. If you have an extra tank or a different tank with no wrasse, I would add the mandarin in there. And remember, for everyone, even if your mandarin is captive bred and said to be eating frozen, they can change their diet whenever they want, so always be prepared and have a good amount of copepods in your tank. I would recommend having another pod eating fish in your tank either. Wrasses are a difficult competitor for the mandarin as mandarins eat slowly and examine their food. My mandarin walks on the back glass and I see a ton of pods moving around but she looks at them and just moved on and pecks a different pod. If your mandarin is still not eating after a while and starts having a slight line going through it’s body, I recommend handing it off to another reefer that has good experience or a local fish store with good experiences with mandarins. You don’t want to give it off to someone who doesn’t know how to properly deal with it, it could just end up killing it. Don’t keep it until there is a very obvious line on it because having a mandarin who doesn’t want to eat and you don’t know what to do, which I don’t blame you for, it will die. It’s not easy to get a mandarin to recover from a very obvious line, some people have success, but I hear from fellow reefers on IG that they cannot help their mandarin and it ends up dying. Here’s a picture of a mandarin I found on the web. Lookjng EXTREMELY skinny.

And here is mine: still not as fat as I want her, but she’s getting there.

Thank you! She’s currently eating the mix of food I add to the tank and then I see her peck at pods periodically. I will be setting up a tank to culture them next week.
I’m having trouble seeing the difference between a fat mandarin and a skinny one via photos. I showed my LFS a photo of her and they said she seemed good and to make sure the head doesn’t seem to get proportionally lager. They also told me that it’s a good sign she flares her fins at me, as they don’t do that in a deficit. It appears her stomach is the widest part of her. If I see any signs of her losing weight
I do plan on giving her away.

here are some pics of her - I’ve had her since December 1. How’s she look? I’ve been told it seems she’s grown since I got her but I can’t tell.