New mandarin

[Jesterrace]

So I made a routine trip to my lfs today and ended up walking out with a mandarin that eats mysis. I couldnt believe they had one that just eats it without being trained, I had them feed it and I watched it happen. So I couldn't resist. I also picked up a little pod hotel that is already cultured, and a bottle of Tigger pods. I'll probably pick up a few more hotels or make my own and begin culturing them in a 10 gallon so I can keep replenishing the tank since I don't have a sump. I have a 47 gallon bow with a yellow and exquisite wrasse so I'm gonna need a ton. I would not under any circumstances have brought him home if I didn't have proof he was eating prepared foods. After acclimation he found a rock, and is just sitting there with all his fins sticking out as rigid as possible, been that way for 2 hours so far. I'm not sure how they act during stress, which I'm sure he is, so I'm wondering if he's ok. Anyone have any experience with this? Normal or not normal? I also turned the lights off so he can just chill without other fish checking him out and bothering him. So any comments, advice, or suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks!

My phone double posted this, feel free to delete the duplicate *sheepishly looks at forum moderator*

One word of caution, even if a Mandarin adapts to mysis, it will still need 3-4 feedings per day and the other fish will beat it to the food easily. I liken the Mandy to an underwater hummingbird trapped in slow motion. I had a Green Mandy that adapted to frozen mysis and reef frenzy and even with target feeding (ie dropping food an inch from it's face with a turkey baster) other fish would still beat it to the food as it takes multiple steps for a mandarin to lock onto food and gobble it up. I ended up losing my mandy after just over 3 months despite my best efforts, although I didn't know about the pod hotel/feeding station options until after it was gone.

 

[James M]

The reason I asked the question (specifically to James, who is relatively new to the hobby) is because the vast majority of the time I see any advice about mandarins it is from people who have never owned one and are just "parroting" advice (not always a bad thing). The problem with that is you end up having a handful of people with certain experiences and that information gets spread to the point where it seems like there are hundreds of people with the same experience when in reality, it is just the same info being recirculated. Again, not always a bad thing, but can be misleading at times.

I have never heard that mandarins cannot survive on prepared foods if fed often enough so I was just curious where that information was coming from. To be fair, I have never research that specifically.

If that’s the case then we could all keep trained mandarins alive and healthy with frozen foods.
It’s a opinion anyways

 

[davocean]

I have never heard that mandarins cannot survive on prepared foods if fed often enough so I was just curious where that information was coming from. To be fair, I have never research that specifically.

I understand.
This just happens to be one of those posts typically posted on this subject matter that I have seen countless times over the years on other sites besides this one.
I think a lot of other experienced reefers have just stopped even reading these, or at least commenting, because it's kind of frustrating to see the same thing happening over and over, and constantly argued.

I don't post normally to discourage people, but rather to help others succeed, and I try to promote responsible reef keeping to help sustain our hobby.

If you understood a mandarin's metabolism, very similar to a hummingbird that feeds constantly, you might realize what many people are doing is just providing a slow death to the animal.

They eat about 1-3 pods per minute, nonstop, so unless you can provide that or replicate that somehow, it's most likely going to slowly starve out, it just may take some time, and during this time people post thinking it's working out and basically promoting others to do the same.

Then we usually see the typical follow up post, what's wrong w/ my mandarin, or people just fade off and never post that it actually did not work out.

 

[falc]

are copepods better then brine shrimp? healthier?

I'm no Dragonet nutrition expert (if there is such a thing) but I have been hatching and feeding brine shrimp to fish for many years. I would think that a varied diet would be best. The larvae rely on their yolk sac for nutrition and are nutrient dense and high in lipids and unsaturated fatty acids. As you cultivate your copepod population or between restocking the population baby brine shrimp should provide a good nutritional option.

 

[Biophage]

Unfortunately the mandarin died yesterday. I dosed pods once every 3 days from my cultures, and had a timer set for every hour on my phone to Target feed him mysis. I had also replaced my 2 wrasses with 3 firefish. 2 of which areaSostill active in the tank, one of which is either hiding or has died. He was hiding under a rock on and off every day, today he is not there. Hopefully he is hiding somewhere else, it was cool to see all three swimming together. As far as the mandarin I really don't know what happened. I saw him picking at rocks all day and saw pods on the glass and on rocks every night. I may try again once I get a sump and a few more cultures going. Sad day

 

[falc]

Sorry to hear that you lost him, I think many things can go wrong but don't give up! We learn from setbacks and we improve our techniques and become better fishkeepers!

 

[James M]

Sorry to hear that

 

[cracker]

The poor fish was most likely doomed before You even brought it home .
I'm with PDR on this . Mandy's require a special diet all the time. . I won't keep one .

 

[DSC reef]

Sorry about the loss. My two cents, I believe a mandarin can survive on prepared foods if the demand can be met. While I'm an advocate for adding pods when keeping a mandarin there were times over the last 5-6 years that pods were not added for over 7 months and we had no refugium. Now I will say our mandarin was fed over 8 times a day and that can wreak havoc with a bioload. He had a feeding corner behind 2 large rocks which made it easy as no other fish could get back there. My wife meticulously put specific foods ranging from frozen, refrigerated and pellets and would wait until he would stop feeding. Most people are not able to keep up with such a committed routine as the mandarin has a serious metabolism. While we made it work I would not recommend this to anyone especially new to reefing. I believe a big mistake is when a mandarin is sold as eating prepared foods that it promotes a false sense of security and assumption that eating once or twice is enough like the other fish.

 

[dochou]

Sorry about the loss. My two cents, I believe a mandarin can survive on prepared foods if the demand can be met. While I'm an advocate for adding pods when keeping a mandarin there were times over the last 5-6 years that pods were not added for over 7 months and we had no refugium. Now I will say our mandarin was fed over 8 times a day and that can wreak havoc with a bioload. He had a feeding corner behind 2 large rocks which made it easy as no other fish could get back there. My wife meticulously put specific foods ranging from frozen, refrigerated and pellets and would wait until he would stop feeding. Most people are not able to keep up with such a committed routine as the mandarin has a serious metabolism. While we made it work I would not recommend this to anyone especially new to reefing. I believe a big mistake is when a mandarin is sold as eating prepared foods that it promotes a false sense of security and assumption that eating once or twice is enough like the other fish.

So what about captive bred mandarins? They are raised on prep'd foods. How often are the aquacultured ones fed? Seems to me they are successfully raised thru adulthood and beyond.

 

[Luno]

I've successfully had a mandarin in a 15g tank for roughly 1 year. He eats what he gets feed and what pods do exist because it's run as a LNS-ULNS.

I've had mandarins before and never had an issue with them eating. No coaching to eat or anything eventually they get hungry enough if there is no pods and eat what's on offer, Be it mysis or any other frozen cube food or even pellets. Hell I've even not fed my fish (not on purpose) for a week at a time.

What we forget is animals in the wild may miss a meal or two or 3 because the food isn't there or predators may be around and it's too risky to go out in search for food. And honestly what I attribute mostly to a fish not eating is not that it's favourite meal isn't abundant, but the environment makes it that uncomfortable that it cannot eat.

 

[DSC reef]

So what about captive bred mandarins? They are raised on prep'd foods. How often are the aquacultured ones fed? Seems to me they are successfully raised thru adulthood and beyond.

They still eat pods. Captive bred is great as they are eating prepared foods but pods will always be necessary IMO. Captive bred doesn't mean its make up is different, they still have to eat multiple times a day to satisfy their metabolism.