Alternative foods for Mandarins

fishmonger2

fishmonger2

New member
So when the summer rolls around I will have had my mandarin fish for almost two years. When I got him I had a 55gallon with 30 gallon refugium and live rock i've had for many years. However I recently had to downgrade to a 37 for several reasons. I still have the really old live rock, but I worry there won't be rough pods to sustain him. My question is has anybody ever found alternative food sources for their mandarin. Id hate to lose the little guy.
 
Do you still have the refugium? My mandarin does eat mysis but that would not be enough to sustain him.
 
When I had a mandarin in a 55, i could get him to get frozen foods, as long as could squirt them just in front of his face. He would never come to the food. I got him to eat brine shrimp, bloodworms and very tiny mysis, using a turkey baster.
 
johnnyroastbeef said:
When I had a mandarin in a 55, i could get him to get frozen foods, as long as could squirt them just in front of his face. He would never come to the food. I got him to eat brine shrimp, bloodworms and very tiny mysis, using a turkey baster.
Click to expand...

And where is he now? How long have you kept him?
 
snorvich said:
Do you still have the refugium? My mandarin does eat mysis but that would not be enough to sustain him.
Click to expand...

I feed mysis a lot, but he never goes after it. He will eat live brine, but it is a pain for me to get live brine consistently and they aren't nutrious anyway. Question though, why wouldn't mysis be enough to support a mandarin? I thought it was a good fatty food for fish.
 
Mandarins have a very high metabolism and need to eat almost constantly. That is why you see them picking at the rocks almost constantly. A few pieces of Mysid shrimp a few times a day would be like you eating 4-5 chicken nuggets per day. It food, but not enough and you will not stay healthy long. If you have placed the same amount of rock and the refugium I would think you would be ok, but if you cut back on the rock and downsized its definitely border line. For this reason ORA breeding mandarins is not the saving grace everyone thinks they are. Yes ORA's will eat frozen foods, but frozen foods are not enough to sustain them alone.
 
^^ Yep, agree w/ that.
As for mysis, it is enough to sustain them, IF they ate it, and IF you can replicate their feeding pattern, which is like 1-3 pods per minute.
As for LIVE brine, that is fairly nutritious, frozen brine is about as nutritious as popcorn for us, but again, that would need to be an almost constant supply needed for long term success.
 
davocean said:
^^ Yep, agree w/ that.
As for mysis, it is enough to sustain them, IF they ate it, and IF you can replicate their feeding pattern, which is like 1-3 pods per minute.
As for LIVE brine, that is fairly nutritious, frozen brine is about as nutritious as popcorn for us, but again, that would need to be an almost constant supply needed for long term success.
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Well I'm not looking to replace his diet of pods completely, but instead find a supplement I can give him alongside the pods. My number one goal is to rebuild the pod population. Speaking of which, do any of you know a good place to order copepods from? Also have you tried any of the frozen artipods like reef nutrion sells?
 
I saw at the LFS they have a hang on back live brine feeder. You fill it with your salt water, and purchase eggs to fill it with. It has an attachment for an air stone. turn it on, and when the eggs hatch the air stone causes the live brine to shoot out into the aquarium water. It's meant to be a constant source for live food eaters.

I would guess the drawback is you have to buy live brine eggs, and I'm not sure what happens to the brine if it's not eaten? Does it just die off.. could be a pollutant... May be a good alternative supplement though if they'll go after live brine.
 
Myself and others have had luck with bloodworms. Something about them the mandarins seem to take to them pretty readily. Oceanpods.com has live pods. Also, see if any local reefers are trimming down their chaeto. There's typically lots of pods in chaeto.
 
mscarpena said:
Mandarins have a very high metabolism and need to eat almost constantly. That is why you see them picking at the rocks almost constantly. A few pieces of Mysid shrimp a few times a day would be like you eating 4-5 chicken nuggets per day. It food, but not enough and you will not stay healthy long. If you have placed the same amount of rock and the refugium I would think you would be ok, but if you cut back on the rock and downsized its definitely border line. For this reason ORA breeding mandarins is not the saving grace everyone thinks they are. Yes ORA's will eat frozen foods, but frozen foods are not enough to sustain them alone.
Click to expand...

Very true. People also overlook the fact that mandarins are unable to compete with other fish for food. You may feed but they may or may not be able to eat. And even if they do, it is difficult to replicate the constant feeding that a mandarin does to satisfy its unique metabolism.
 
You could try culturing Tiger Pods. I have a 10g culture tank going now--my first time, so it's still experimental but it's been going 1 month and the pods are plentiful.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=281264
I bought 2 strainers from Aquaculture Nursery Farms ~$12, pods from Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods. You should be able to harvest every 2 weeks, unless you get multiple cultures going and you could harvest every few days.
 
I would like to thank all of you for your responses. You have given me a few ideas that I will have to try. Also if you have anymore suggestions, let me know.
 
I will have to try bloodworms and live black worms. Mike/Nicole, do you have an issue with blackworms being a dirty food?
 
You can buy trigger copepods from you LFS and dump them into your tank. He probably won't eat them all right away so they will multiply giving him a lot of food. That's what I've done for mine!
 
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