Show off your Mandarin

[OrionN]

They were raised on prepared food so that is what they will eat.
still they are very slow feeder so allowances and preparation is needed so they can eat their fill while not over feed the tank.

 

[Slocke]

do all the biota mandarins eat pellets or not

They are raised on a few foods that include Easy Reefs DKI and TDO B2 pellets. I have heard that some stop eating them and go back to their natural food but mine still do both.

 

[leighton.bingham]

Sorry for the poor picture quality. He is about two weeks in my tank.

 

[Mflores888]

do all the biota mandarins eat pellets or not

Mine accepted it from the start and Monday they made one year with me and they still eat pellets

 

[Steph72]

I would turn off pumps, throw in some big fish food to the side away from the dragonete and then almost basically spot feed the guy. Usually tho I feed enough food where there's enough floating around that some will pass right by the dragonete, plenty to go around. I've been giving him frozen baby brine and tiny hatchery pellets, I also throw pods in just cause I know my tanks is on the small side and I'm paranoid about him starving.

I also feed the big guys on one side. While they’re distracted I toss in some xs pellets for the mandarins

 

[Steph72]

Amazing- you just sprinkle them on the sand bed? There is too much flow in my tank for that to work for me

I feed mine the extra small TDO pellets and I keep the flow going (because I’m lazy! Lol)…I think the pellets flying around on the bottom of the tank may have actually stimulated mine to go after them since they’re used to chasing their food in the wild. That’s just a theory - mine are wild and it shocked me when they started going after pellets! I have a ton of pods and a large tank but they’re always eager for pellets also.

 

[DaJMasta]

I'm a big fan of mandarins and have been working on a little project, so a pic from 2 weeks ago:

 

[Steph72]

check out this fatty!

 

[Steph72]

I'm a big fan of mandarins and have been working on a little project, so a pic from 2 weeks ago:

How cool!

 

[Imrahilwjz]

This mandarin was in my old 90 gallon tank. He would eat frozen foods and I suspect I had a good pod population. Unfortunately he died when the tank crashed during an ice storm.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

I just got this blue male Saturday. He came like this but he’s actively hunting and eating so he should fill out soon. I was pretty hesitant about posting him because of this but he’s dinning on fresh bbs and copepods.

 

[Guzman333]

Mandarins are some of my favorite fish

I tried it with 3 blue in the past and they all died because they didn't eat.

I then got a target mandarin who quickly ate pellets but it died when my tank crashed

Finally over a year ago I got a pair of biota mandarins for $85 and gave it a try. They have survived, grown and gotten some gorgeous colors

Let's see your mandarins, green, blue, red, wild or captive bred!

This is for this whole group. How the hell did you get it to eat frozen/pellets?

 

[Steph72]

This is for this whole group. How the hell did you get it to eat frozen/pellets?

I leave the flow on and the pellets move around pretty rapidly on the bottom of the tank. They like TDO extra small pellets and CanOCyclops as a treat sometimes. When I first got the mandarins I was target feeding them live Tig Pods. It’s also possible that the red color of the TDO pellets resembles the Tig Pods or that they saw the pellets flying around and got interested because of the movement.

 

[Mflores888]

This is for this whole group. How the hell did you get it to eat frozen/pellets?

Captive bred already eat pellets

Mine started to eat frozen after months of getting exposed to small pieces here and there

 

[Tchung23]

Here’s mine with his buddy Botch!

 

[Lavey29]

I love my Mandy but I wish they would swim around more like a fish so I could enjoy their beauty instead of hopping around like a frog and rock creeping all day.

 

[OrionN]

I love my Mandy but I wish they would swim around more like a fish so I could enjoy their beauty instead of hopping around like a frog and rock creeping all day.

I disagree. Healthy Mandarin are out all the time. All the fish leave the Mandarin alone. I got countless pictures of my Mandarin, and always can count on him strutting in the front of the tank courting his lady everyday.

 

[OrionN]

Here is my female. She was so emaciated when I first got her. Her bone was showing and algae growing on the gill exposed bone. It took about 1 year for the body to healed over the exposed bone. In my 50+ years of fish keeping, this fish is the only one that ever have plants growing on her bone and live.
In the picture below, you can see the algae growing on her exposed L gill bone.

 

[Lavey29]

I disagree. Healthy Mandarin are out all the time. All the fish leave the Mandarin alone. I got countless pictures of my Mandarin, and always can count on him strutting in the front of the tank courting his lady everyday.

Mines out a lot but always just seems to be hunting pods. Hops like a frog. Combs the rocks inside out. Just doesn't free swim in the middle of the tank with the other fish. I understand the species has its own traits. Mine is fat and healthy. Loves the Ora fish eggs from RU Salty.

 

[LittlePieceOfTheReef]

Mando. He’s from the wild and eats Mysis and pellets. I love him so much and couldn’t be happier with him!