Raising Spotted Mandarins ♡

[itselenababe]

Making this thread to keep track of our new journey of raising mandarins!

Our pair laid their first eggs last night, is there a way to tell if they’re fertile or not?

Right now the eggs are in a specimen box hanging inside the tank with an air stone and a bit of sand to help with any ammonia but i didn’t put much incase that’s a bad idea. Our tank tech is coming by later today for maintenance so will get his opinion as well!

I ordered a few bottles of s-type/L-type rotifers blend last Tuesday but they haven’t shipped yet (even though it’s supposed to be 1-2day express shipping) so hopefully they arrive before the 48hr mark.

its hard to find much information on raising them once you have the eggs. Any tips appreciated!!

 

[moulton1853]

Following. Would love to see you succeed. There isn’t much info out there because it’s incredibly rare except by professionals.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Here's a couple of link that are pretty detailed with information on how to raise these guys:

Spotted Mandarin Synchiropus picturatus

Spotted Mandarin or Synchiropus picturatus is a very common aquarium fish which will spawn in the aquarium with very little effort. They are native to the western pacific along with many of our marine aquarium species. Their natural diet is copepods and other small crustations found in live rock...

www.reef2reef.com

BREEDING AND RAISING MANDARIN FISH SYNCHIROPUS PICTURATUS

I was surprised when I saw my first Mandarin fish, probably thanks to its showy colors, but also because of its particular anatomic shape. In fact, the evolution selected a perfect inhabitant of th…

naturacaptiva.wordpress.com

Basically, you want S-Strain Rotifers (Brachionus rotundiformis) and Parvo pods (Parvocalanus crassirostris) - though Ape pods [Apocyclops panamensis] apparently work too - for the first foods (which they should start eating after ~48 hours). Then around day 7-14 (when the fish start to settle at the bottom of the tank), introduce Tisbe pods (Tisbe biminiensis) and/or L-Strain Rotifers (Brachionus pilcatilis). Around day 25 or so, they'll be able to start taking Baby Brine Shrimp (Artemia spp. - typically Artemia salina - nauplii), and they'll be ready to transfer from the rearing tank into a grow-out tank until they're large enough for a normal tank.

If you have the right food, the main things to keep in mind are that you need to feed these guys super frequently, and that you need to keep the water quality good as you do so. So, you'll probably need to clean the tank frequently.

Hopes this helps, and good luck!